The Awakening of a Soul Reaper

Chapter 4. The Accident

After the last bell of the day, every student tries to escape as quickly as possible from the hell that is known as school.  The students that drive themselves make it over to the student parking lot, the ones that drive with the bus go to the bus stop, and the rest of the students make their way through the main gate of the school.

Clarise makes her way to the main gate as she walks alongside the path, she can see that some time ago someone tried to raise a garden but failed, there are patches of lawn trying to survive in the cold city air, the flowers in the flower beds all look whelped and dried out, the schoolyard just feels like emptiness and death, or at least that is how Clarise feels when she looks at it.  “Clarise!  Wait for me!” she hears behind her, when she turns around, she sees James coming running towards her. 

“So, and where are you off too,” he asks

“I’m on my way to my aunt’s bakery I promised her I will go and help her today", she replied.

"Are you talking about Aunt Belle?” he asks surprised.

“Yep, why do you know her?” she asks, interested.

“I think almost everyone in this district knows her or knows her delicious baked goodies,” he said licking his lips, “If it’s okay with you? I will walk you, just to make sure you don't get run over, “James asked with a nervous smile on his face.  

“Yes, you may,” she replies with a smile.

A couple of blocks from the bakery, Clarise feel a sudden energetic sensation coming over her, it feels like when she was small and she had too much of her mom’s extra sweet chocolate donuts.  Then out of the blue underneath the overhead train rails that run parallel with the road, out of a dark corner of the street she sees a dark figure moving through traffic it almost looks like a dark smoke figure, a smell of rotten eggs fills the air. The dark figure moves rapidly crisscross between the traffic, sometimes through them, then suddenly it passes into a blue sedan, it stays in the car for a couple of seconds, the car starts to swerve it loses control and slams the side of another car-ramming both of them up against one of the supporting pillars, keeping the overhead train rails up, then its chaos another car crashes into that one, and another car four, five cars in the pileup.  Pieces of metal, plastic and glass lay scattered over all four lanes.  Traffic in all lanes comes to a complete halt.

Clarise's heart feels like its pounding outside of her body, her eyes opened wide, she turns to James, she stutters trying to get the words out "What the hell was that? Did you see that?"

"Yes, what a crash! I wish I could have recorded it on my phone" he replies excitedly searching for his phone in his school uniform jacket to take a couple photos.

"No, no the thing that moved between the cars in the road, the black smoke!" Clarise says frustrated making her hands fists feeling frustrated.

"No, what thing I did not see anything and also didn't see any black smoke?" James putting a frown on his face as he looks over to accident scene.

He didn't see it! Clarise stares over the c*****e of the accident, she doesn't see any sign of the black figure.  In the distance she can hear the sirens of ambulances, fire trucks, and police vehicles on their way.  People start to swarm around the accident scene, pushing Clarise and James more to the back.  Shortly thereafter everyone is asked to move back by the police officers taping off the area with yellow tape and taking statements of people standing at the barrier.

One of the constables looks over to James and Clarise.  "Should we give our statements as well?  James asks looking over to Clarise. 

"I..., I don't think I'm going to, I'm already late" she replies. 

She leaves James at the scene and hurries her way towards the bakery feeling anxious and a bit scared, keeping on looking over her shoulder to the accident scene behind her.

Am I going mad seeing ghosts and smoke monsters?

Do I need to tell someone what I have seen?

If I tell someone, are they going to believe me?

Maybe I’m just stressed out, with everything that has been happening to me over the past couple of days she thinks.

Then she starts to calm down as Tyler starts forcing his way into her thoughts, thinking about his piercing blue eyes, just thinking about him makes her feel calm and safe, the only other person that had that effect on her was her mom.

Arriving at the bakery she apologizes for being late, telling her aunt about the accident, but leaving out the part of what she saw and what she thought caused the accident.  After she have rested for a while eating a sandwich her aunt has prepared for her and, she puts on some more comfortable clothes, she goes to the back of the kitchen where she helps her aunt to prepare pastries.  She likes working in the kitchen, just like back home in her mom's bakery, lucky it seems baking runs in the family she thinks for herself else I would have been a complete outsider here as well.  The kitchen is nice and warm compared to the cold air of the city; she feels at ease here.

While her mind dwindles on what happened earlier that day, she mistakenly picks up an empty hot baking tray with her bare hands, it burns right into her skin, "s**t, Ouchy!!" she yells and drops the warm pan on the floor. Her aunt comes rushing in, putting her hand under some cold running water "are you okay?" her aunt asks, "yes it doesn't hurt that much anymore" Clarise replies, looking down at her hand there is barely a red mark now, but how can this be? She thinks for herself that tray was very hot when it burned me, I saw how it burned through my skin and now there is not even a mark. "Okay missy, I think that is it, for you, for the day." aunt Belle says while putting a cold can cool drink in her hand, "keep that on the burn until it's either finished or your hand feels better." Aunt Belle orders playfully.  "I think today must have been very stressful for you?" her aunt asks her, thinking that it must have been the first accident that she has noticed, and worried about Clarise's thinking that something like this might set her back, because she is definitely not over her mom's death.

"Yea it was a bit!" Clarise replies.  The bakery is empty, most people are still at the scene looking how people are being rescued.

"Aunt Belle?" she asks, playing with her fingers, "do you belief in such things..." she takes a pause looking at her aunt's facial expression trying to read it " as ghosts".

Her aunt goes and sits next to her, "why do you ask?" thinking it might have something to do with her mom's passing.

"No, I'm just curious" she says trying to keep the conversation in a general sense.

"Well, to be honest" her aunt puts her elbow on the table with her chin resting in her palm, "I think when someone dies, their spirit does lives on in some way, and whenever we feel we need someone that they are there looking over us, trying to guide us, by being in our thoughts.  With other words, as long as we don't forget someone, they will always be with us!" she says trying to comfort Clarise in some way.

"What do you think?" she asks Clarise.

Not really sure because her aunt didn't give her the answer, she is looking for replies "I guess!  But do you think that we can see them?"

"Why did you see something?" her aunt asks looking at her concerned.

"No, no I haven't seen anything, I was just wondering." She replies looking at her aunt and nodding her head side to side.

"Well, I think you should maybe go home and go and rest for a bit!" her aunt says.

Clarise nods her head, "Okay!"