Are You There?

As a kid, I was never the type to believe in the supernatural. My parents always told me stories, but I just listened and didn't pay much attention. I am the only child my parents have. My parents are the type to believe in any ghost stories and in the supernatural. Probably because they grew up in the countryside so most folks there told stories and almost everybody knew everybody. It was a small town. My parents moved to the city a few months after they had me. Growing up my parents would always tell me how there were things you could see but didn't want to see. How there are unexplainable things that will always happen. Sometimes, mostly during the holidays, my family goes to visit my grandparents back in the small town. It's a place where you have your own land and can grow crops. The scenery there looks breathtaking. Everything is green like I could stay out and sit on my grandparents front porch when it’s raining and just admire the nature there. I happen to enjoy the stories my parents and grandparents tell whenever we visit. I think of them like something to pass time with. I'm grown up now, just hit 20. I still look like a freshman and my facial hair still hasn't grown so when people see me they think i'm skipping school. I’m not that tall, im 5’10. I’m fit for my age. I just graduated high school a couple years ago and got a nice job at the printing store on the corner of my place. There's a creek nearby also. It's a nice place where you could see the sunset if you were to look outside the windows of the store. The sunset makes me sad because to me it’s like the sky is crying. The creek has a little bridge and sometimes I visit quite often just to pass by or just to sit down and look while the sun sets. I get off work around when the sun starts setting, so I enjoy my walk home even though it's not a far walk. As I'm walking down the creek, I notice that there's this little girl sitting alone at the bench near the creek, who looks to be around 15 or 16 years old. With her long black hair covering her eyes, you wouldn't be able to tell that she is crying. She looks hurt. She is crying while looking at the sunset. I think to myself, "Should I go and help her or should I not?" I notice there's some people around. People that might step in and help her. Why are they acting strange like they don't see her crying or notice her? I'm usually not the type to go up to strangers whether they are hurt or facing some problems, but this little girl has no one with her so I'm worried. I gathered myself and went next to her. I asked her, "What's wrong?" She looks up at me and says, "I died here". The second she said that, my body froze. "What did she just say? That she died here?", I think to myself. I look at the little girl and then around. Suddenly it hit me. The people around weren't ignoring her. They couldn't see her. If they couldn't see her, then how am I able to see this little girl? She tells me that it happened a year ago. When she was with her parents admiring the sunset by the creek. She was having fun by the creek playing by herself as her parents stood by the grass behind her. As she turned around to look at her parents, a truck hit both her parents causing instant death for them. The girl was devastated. She cried for days and people would steer clear of her saying she was the reason that her parents died. She didn't have no one and no friends to support her. This went on for weeks until the girl decided she was going to take her own life. She went to the small bridge by the creek where she saw her parents for the last time as they died in front of her eyes that day. The sunset reminds her of them. She looks up at it and raises a small knife she had. Instantly, without hesitation, sliced her throat. She fell in the creek and was never to be seen again. After her death, no one bothered to look. Not even the police. Ever since then, she would sit down at the bench and look at the sunset remembering the days she was alive with her parents. I was stunned. My mind couldn't even process it. In front of my eyes was a little girl no one else could see. I asked her why was I the only one that could see her? She looks up at me again and says, "What do you see when you look at the sunset? The sunset comes and goes everyday. I've seen you here many times as you looked at the sunset. For a while, I didn't know why, but you and I share a connection towards the sunset. How are you able to see me? Maybe because of that connection". I asked her, "How are you here?" "Am I really here? The people here don't see me or hear me. The question you should be asking yourself is, are YOU there? You can see and talk to me, but what of the other people? Are you really there in the world of the living where those people can actually see you right now? To them, they see someone talking to a bench. This is another dimension. The land of the dead. And you are in both the living and dead. That is how you can see me. Since you now see me and can talk to me, I advise you to be careful as there are more like me who aren't willing to talk. Be prepared because starting today, your life may be in danger”.