*Dear reader,
I fully understand how many mistakes this one has...And I am currantly working on fixing them and having this make more sense...So please comment the corrections that you noticed right off the bat...
Thank you...

Derrick Kuebler...*



“Simply Silhouettes”, By, Derrick Kuebler.

With white snow falling he walked through a small court yard that was filled with deep winter’s leafless trees. Dark red brick walls surround three sides of the court yard. The snow crunched under his heavy black boots as he walked forward towards the side that didn’t have a brick wall blocking it from the outside world. Through the snow he could see a black silhouette of a girl standing to the right of one of the leafless trees. Keeping quiet as he walked up behind the girl who stood in front of him looking up to the snow flakes that were sporadically falling down to the ground, he tried to figure out who she was.
“Hello Salem,” she said, looking down into the snow.
“Who are you?” Salem asked. Her voice was so familiar, so was her height.
“Do you not recognize an old friend?” She said and turned around. His heart nearly stopped as he starred into in to her green eyes.
“Ash?” he asked, more in a statement than a question.
“So you do remember,” she said with a sigh.
“Of course….I was visiting your grave when I got jumped today after school…” He said. She looked down with a disappointed look on her face.
“I’m sorry….”Ash said. Everything was cold around them and even though the snow around them was white Salem still got the feeling that everything was dark.
“I miss you,” he said and then held her close for as long as he could. A quiet tapping as if something gently rapping on the window behind him that was built high in to the brick wall that served as a protector from the world around the building it was on. He let go of her and turned to see what was tapping on the window. As he looked up into the heavily tinted window a lonely feeling came over, a feeling that told him he was alone. The same feeling he got when she died. Something different and strange on the window... It was a creature unlike anything he had ever seen before. It looked like a spider had grown gigantic. It was spinning a web and moved closer to the ground. All of its eyes blinked, and then opened them and they were all an eerie black again. He turned back around, and then realized that Ash was no longer there with him. Quickly his eyes searched the fresh snow on the ground for any footprints that he’d be able to follow to find her. None…..None of her boots imprints were found. Nervously he turned back to where the giant spider was.
“I can help you,” A voice echoed through the court yard. The spider wasn’t up on the wall crawling down, nor was it on the ground in front of him. He looked around trying to find where the voice was coming from.
“I’ll be seeing you shortly….”The female voice said and then Salem collapsed to his knees onto the snow. Black haze filled his dizzy vision…

Alarm clock screaming, Salem jumped up, heart racing out of breath and sweating. He reached from the couch to the coffee table and slammed down on the off button. Though the entire time he was showering and getting his hair ready for school, his mind was obsessing over Ash. As he slipped the tight thermal shirt over his body he wondered what the spider meant when it said that it could help him. He stepped out from the private driveway of his house onto the cement sidewalk. The light rain fell to the ground and hit anything that stood in its way. He walked until he reached a small building that stood on the same lot as the Mortuary that was off to the left of the graveyard. A bell on the door jingled as the light wooden and glass door was opened outward. The jingle was accompanied by the usual formal greeting that the old lady always said in her sweet crackling voice.
“I’m pretty good, and how about yourself?” He lied answering to her polite, “how are you,” greeting.
“I’m doing well,” she answered. The old woman was a widow, her husband died sixteen years ago, buried in the cemetery next to her flower shop.
“Can I get my usual?” he asked.
“Three white roses and one black?” The lady asked while she was turning to retrieve the roses that he asked for.
“Yes please,” he answered and pulled his wallet out from his back pocket.
“I still don’t understand why it’s always three white ones and a single black,” she said as she wrapped the green stems in plastic.
“I knew her for three years……and on the fourth she left this world,” he explained as simply as possible.
“Well I’m sure she’s looking down from Heaven smiling upon you,” the lady comforted him.
“I’d like to think that,” he said and pulled out a twenty dollar bill from his wallet. She punched a few buttons into her cash register.
“That’s five dollars,” she read off.
“Here keep the change,” he said as he handed her the money.
“Every day you make me keep and extra fifteen dollars,” she pointed out putting the money into the register, and shook her head from left to right and then from right to left.
“Yep, and there’s no use trying to get me to take the change, because you already know I’m stubborn,” he said with a smile on his face as he picked the roses up off of the counter.
“You have a good day, okay Mrs. Helena?” he said.
“Same to you,” she said as he opened the door to the rainy and foggy outside world. The bell jingled one last time then the door closed. Walking through the large black gates that were unlocked, he walked on the stone path that led across the entire cemetery. The light water drops grew heavier as each step he took brought him closer to Ash’s grave. An old dead oak tree marked the spot where he turned to get to her grave. His heavy boots walked across the wet green and yellowish grass. Slowly he stepped in front of a statue of an angel hunched over it’s knees, wings pressed against the body in stone. He knelt down and placed the roses in front of the angel on the ground. Everyday he put the roses there, and everyday he found that the ones he place there the day before had died and were wilting and decaying. He stayed down on one knee.
“I saw you in my dream last night,” he said down to the grave.
“I know it’s impossible, but I’m trying to find a way to save you,” he said into the fog. He knew talking to a dead person didn’t do anything (or change anything), but he still did it.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t help you….”he whispered.

He could remember it as clear as glass. There was no answer when he knocked upon her front door, so he went around to her back yard where he found her sliding glass door half way open. Calling her, her name echoed throughout her house as he walked inside. Stumbling down the carpeted stairs that led into her basement he continued to call her name. She didn’t go to school that day and he wondered if she was sick or anything of that bleak sort. and since they were best friends he decided to check it out just to be sure. When he got to her white bedroom door he began to gently knock, wondering if she was asleep.
“Hey Ash, you in there?” He called bringing his head close to the door. No answer. He wasn’t even worried, that something bad was going on, he had no reason to be worried anyway. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his cell phone and quickly dialed her number, almost instinctively. For a few moments he waited as the phone connection went through to the other line which was Ashes phone. Then on his phone he could hear as the dialing began to ring. He was still an inch close to the door, and faintly inside her room he could hear her ring tone going off in the ring that she had set for when he called and only him.
“Ash?!” he called into her room through the door quite loudly. She never left her cell phone in a place that wasn’t in the same room as her. Now he could sense that something quite peculiar was going on and although he didn’t know what was going on yet he could feel that he didn’t like it. Taking a step back he raised his left leg, lifting the heavy black boot that he wore off of the ground. Pushing forward he pushed his foot into the part of the door that was right next to the brass door knob. With a loud splintering noise his foot broke the door into two pieces, one of which still hung on the greased hinges, and the other smaller piece that was exactly next to the handle fell back onto the finely polished wooden floor that made up Ash’s floor. It smashed and made another noise that wasn’t as loud as the splintering noise from the door breaking, but still echoed throughout her big nearly empty bedroom.
“Oh my God Ash…” he said as he neared her side, reaching his arm out so that he could lift her arm with the slit opened wrists off from dangling over the side of her bed. Inspecting the deep incisions that had been sliced within her wrists he dialed nine-eleven into his cell phone.
“I need an ambulance!” He said frightened and then gave the operator her address. He hung up as the operator was telling him to calm down and that help would be there shortly. He lifted her back off of her bed and stood there hugging her as tightly as possible.
“Ash…If you don’t make it…” He said as tears began to roll down his face, “I want you to know that I love you…” The tears were smearing his black eyeliner.
“I love you too,” she let out with a deep heavy gasp. He held onto everything that he loved until the paramedics got there; through the entire ride from her house to the hospital he held her cold soft hand. Although he knew that the only thing that he could do at the hospital was sit back and watch as the doctors struggled to pump blood throughout her body to keep her alive. They all knew that failure was their only option, but still they were persistent and only gave up once the E.K.G. monitor had grown a flat line.
She was pronounced dead at six twenty four p.m.
“Ash, I miss you…” he said to the grave. He then stood up and walked off to the gate again. He walked out through the gate and then passed the mortuary and kept on walking. Opened his house door and walked inside. Inside his room he turned the lights off and lay down on his bed. He swallowed a Trazadone sleeping pill before he lay down. Again, no one else was home. It was Tuesday morning his father should be at work and Salem himself should have been at school. But on his way back home he thought and an idea came to his mind. Maybe if he was asleep then he’d dream and maybe just maybe he’ll see either the spider or Ash. That’s what he wanted was to be with his only friend. He tried to sleep, but for an hour he could only lay in the darkness trying to sleep. Finally he dozed off.
When his mind reached a state where he was in deep sleep he finally began to dream again. The blackness turned to the whiteness of falling snow and the dark redness of the brick walls that merely sealed off the courtyard. Unable to sense any living aura he walked through the snow towards the opposite side of the courtyard where there was no brick wall. The leafless trees were so low that he had to duck underneath their outstretched branches to make it so they hardly pulled at his hair and clothes. Spider webs tickled his face as he stood up in a small clearing between the trees that had the winter effect. The winter effect is just a simple term to describe all the changes that any living thing can undergo as autumn turns to winter. Snow crunched as he walked to the next tree, ducking under its black claw like branches. He stepped out from the trees and stood up fully, a wooden framed structure stood in front of him about twenty feet away. Even though the structure wasn’t very far from him, he was still unable to make out what it was due to all the snow that was falling in front of him between him and the thing. It became clearer to him that the structure was in a fact a gallows, as he approached it. Hanging from it was a man in a business suit, face pale greenish in color. His cheeks cut right open exposing his bottom gums and teeth.
“So, you’ve come back to take me up on my offer I see,’’ the same female voice from the last dream.
“I have….” He said looking around to find where the voice was coming from.
“Do you recognize not recognize the face?” the voice asked out.
“What face?” he asked still searching for her.
“Why the face of the corpse in front of you, of course,” The female voice said.
He looked hard at the face of the man on the gallows that was hanging from a fraying yellow rope.
“He was the head of a very successful business in New York, but one night he dreamt himself here. In his dream he dreamt that he was hanged, he woke up the next morning and was shot in a drive by. Then died later that day in the hospital,” she explained.
“Why is he still here then?” Salem asked dumbly.
“He died in his dream, he’s here forever,” she explained. “I know why you’re here…..you’re trying to save her…before you start I must warn you that the same will happen to you if you die here,” she explained. He stood still thinking about what he was about to get himself into.
“Is there a chance I can save her?” he asked to the courtyard.
“If you can find her then yes, it is very well possible to save her,” the voice called out, the sound waves didn’t echo they just stayed flat and monotone.
“I’m going to do it, despite the risk,” he said. There was a pause in speech and the entire courtyard became silent. Something behind him moved and he turned around to see what was there. At the end of his turn he saw as the spider finished changing into a transparent lady. The lady’s head was bowed as if in sorrow.
“May I ask where this place is?” Salem asked.
“It’s impossible to tell you where this place is…..but I can tell you what this place is,” she replied.
“Then what is this place?” Salem asked looking into her black and white powdered hair.
“A graveyard…..Death’s playground,” she said. “You’ll need to go and find the spot where she died in this dream world,” the ghost figure said.
“Is there anywhere specific that I would be able to find her at or near?” Salem asked.
“You knew her better than anyone else….you’ll have to figure that out on your own…”the lady said.
“Do you have a name?” Salem asked.
“When I was alive they called me Kelley,” she said, “But here I’m known as Lady Angel,” Kelley said.
“Lady Angel…” he quietly repeated out loud.
“I’m going to leave for now….but as a warning before I go, I must tell you that anything you change here that isn’t already dead will be changed forever..” she explained, and then disappeared into the slight hollow wind. Again, he was alone, and he could sense that he was alone because he felt no living aura near him. The snow crunched under his feet as her turned and walked past the gallows. He walked through the side of the courtyard that wasn’t sealed off. The opening led out into a brick sidewalk. The snow was still falling and staying snow on the dark reddish black brick. The darkness brought with it a strange feeling. Street lamp candles were lit. They provided little light for the dark streets. Horse hooves pounding against the black brick streets could be heard off in the distance. Salem looked both ways down the road and sidewalk, wondering which way he was going to go. The hoof beats came from the side that was to his right, and as he looked he noticed that the way that he could hear the horses from led into a forest of dead black oak trees. Not far after the tree line did everything suddenly fade off into the night’s darkness. Begging to walk the opposite was of the woods, he thought of how big this place could be.
“How the hell am I going to find her?” he asked himself. The beating horse hooves came to a slow stop and then stopped as the forest turned into brick streets and sidewalk. Salem turned to see what was there. There were four black horses all strapped together with black leather straps. They were all pulling a large black coach that had a headless man sitting in a bench that was behind the horses in front of the carriage. The neck of the man was covered and it exposed the cut bone of its spinal cord and also blood veins.
“What are you doing out here?” the head that sat next to the decapitated body asked.
“I’m looking for someone,” Salem replied looking from the head to the horses eyes.
“You know, you’re not aloud to be out at the border to the forbidden forest,” the head said, glaring at him.
“I’m sorry?” he asked the coach driver.
“Come on I’ll take you back into town,” the driver said.
“Thank you,” Salem thanked and then walked over to the black carriage that waited in front of him. As he approached the door on the side of the carriage it smoothly opened.
“Guten tag,” a lady that was inside the carriage said in German.
“Guten tag,” Salem said back using some of the little German he could speak and understand.
“Der Sprechen Deautch?” the lady asked meaning in English, “Do you speak German?”
“Hardly…” he replied and then shut the door behind him. The interior of the carriage was red and black. The seats were red velvet cushioning. A candle was lit behind glass walling of a lamp.
“So what are you doing out here?” the lady asked.
“I’m looking for someone,” he answered.
“Oh…..who are you looking for?” the lady asked in her German accent. He thought for a minuet, did Ash have a different name that she went by here? He wondered.
“Her name is Ash,” he said. It was a bumpy ride as the horses pulling the carriage picked up some speed.
“Hmmm, I don’t think I know her,” the lady mumbled.
“She might go by a little different name here, but where we’re from that’s what she’s known as,” Salem explained. She gave him a puzzled look.
“Where are you from?” the lady asked, pronouncing the where as vere. Not knowing how to reply he sat in contemplation.
“The land of the living,” he replied.
“Sind sie tod?” she asked in German.
“Pardon?” he asked politely not understanding what she asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I asked are you dead?” the lady translated.
“No, I’m not, but Ash is,” he explained.
“I’m sorry….it’s not easy coming here to visit the lost,” she said.
“Wait, Lady Angel gave you permission to come here?” the German lady asked in amazement.
“Yeah she did….why is it so special?” Salem asked.
“Why is it so special?” she repeated in a hush whisper.
“Yes why is it so special?” Salem asked again.
“Young boy, you are the first one here in over three long decades that’s come here alive and been allowed to stay,” the lady said.
“So Lady Angel hasn’t allowed anyone back in since three centuries ago,” the German lady continued.
“Is Lady Angel the only one who can allow people in?” Salem asked. The carriage came to a turn, it was a tight turn.
“Lady Angel is the only one who has both the power and the authority to let anyone pass through the Land of the Dead to the Land of the Living and vise versa,” she said.
“I thought that was Deaths job,” Salem said.
“Here we are, boy,” the carriage driver called from outside.
“Thank you, young sir, for the chat,” the lady said in envy.
“No, thank you,” Salem thanked and reached forward pulling the metal door handle back towards him opening the carriage door.
“Good luck and don’t fail…..for the sake of all of us, don’t fail,” the German woman said.
“Auf wiederson,” Salem said and stepped out onto the sidewalk.
“Auf wiederson,” the lady said and shut the carriage door.
“Thank you sir, for the ride,” Salem said to the headless man.
“I would nod my head in a gentlemen like manner, but it’s a bit difficult in my situation,” the headless man said down to him.
“Hiyah,” the driver yelled and then sent a whip crashing down on the backs of the horses. They leaped forward, and then he was alone, not physically but alone mentally. All though there was only one person that he was sure of that was there, he still felt, in a weird odd way, like he fit in. There were a few shadows of people sitting in silence off to the side of the tavern door step. Salem walked up to the door and pulled on the black metal door handle. The door was heavy but opened smoothly. The tavern was crowded and loud filling the street with its conversations and laughter. Lanterns hung from splintering wooden support beams that held the ceiling up. Many people where in the room, making it very difficult for Salem to get across to the other side. But still he pushed forward and squeezed through gaps between drunken strangers that he had never even thought to have existed.
“Barkeep?” Salem asked calling over to the young brown haired bartender.
“What can I get you?” The bartender asked.
“It’s not what you can get me, but it’s what you can help me with,” Salem replied.
“Okay then what can I help you with?” The young bartender asked.
“I was wondering if you’ve seen a girl around here, she’s about 5’2” and she has long black hair,” Salem asked.
“Hmm I don’t think I have”, He replied.
“Her name’s Ash and I’d greatly appreciate it if you see her that you can tell her that Salem is here and he is looking for her,” Salem asked.
“Sure if I find her I’ll tell her”, the bartender answered.
“Well thanks anyway, I guess,” Salem said and then squeezed through the people and began to make his way back outside of the tavern. Opening the door he slipped back out into the much calmer, quieter, and colder outside. As he stepped out onto the door step to the tavern he noticed that the silhouettes where still lurking off to the side of the cement door step that was underneath the wooden overhang that served as a door cover. One of the shadows was male and the other two were girls probably around the age of fifteen.
“You look lost….are you new around here?” one of the girls asked him from down on the side of the door step.
“I am…although I don’t know if I’m here permanently, or just visiting,” Salem replied.
“Oh…are you looking for something in particular?” the same girl asked from down by the door step. In the darkness he couldn’t make out any of the details and characteristics of her face, so the only thing he could make out about her was that she was a she, around fifteen and her voice sounded vaguely familiar.
“I’m looking for a girl by the name of Ash,” Salem said
“Sorry Salem, I don’t think I can help you there,” the girl said.
There was a rustling noise that broke the silence in which all of them found themselves in thought. Finally Salem realized something.
“I didn’t tell you my name,” Salem said, struggling to see into the shadows of darkness that covered her face. It was impossible to see through the darkness of the dim glow of the flame of the lantern.
“Ash…?” Salem whispered down into the darkness. The shadow from down below the door step arose and began to run away from the tavern. Her footsteps crunched into the untouched white snow that covered the brick street. Salem took off after her running quickly through the snow covered street.
“Wait, Ash!” Salem yelled as he ran after her.
He looked up at the red numbers on his alarm clock that read nine twenty p.m.
“I need something, a clue, anything, “he whispered aloud and then flipped his light switch on. He walked past the small door in the end of his bed space that led into his gigantic closet.
Flipping the light switch he walked into the room with the couch. He sat on the couch and reached forward to the table picking up his cigarettes and lighter. He lit the cigarette at his lips and began to puff at his cigarette loosing himself in thought trying to figure out how he could save her.
“Would she have written it down, how I saved her in a dream?” Salem wondered. Took another drag of his cigarette and then thought, “if she did write it down, where would she have wrote it?” The answer wasn’t clear and it didn’t come to him right away. He finished smoking his cigarette and pushed the filter out into his glass ash tray. He reached underneath his couch, pulling out his black photo album that was hidden underneath. Opening the photo album he looked at the picture of him and her holding each other with big smiles across their faces. Slowly he flipped each page looking through each picture at Ash. All the memories that were hidden deep within his interior brain were brought to the surface. Deep memories came to his attention. The picture of him and her laughing at Ash who had a cake covered face brought a slight smile to his mouth. Next page was a picture of him and her on Halloween; she was dressed up as a dark fairy, with black demon wings. It was depressing for him to see through a picture the only time that he ever truly one hundred percent fit in. As the old saying goes, ‘One picture is worth one thousand words’; in this case it was true.
Halloween morning Salem woke up sitting against the edge of his couch, with Ash’s sleeping head on his lap. Gently he moved her head from off of his lap and placed it on to the couch. Quietly he crept out of his room, so quietly that he wouldn’t awaken Ash. In the bathroom he showered and fixed his hair so that it was dry and hung almost perfectly straight down from his head. After he applied his black eyeliner and decided that it was looking well enough for the long day that was ahead of him he went out of the bathroom and flipped the lights off.
“Good morning Ash”, he could remember himself saying after he went inside of his room only wearing black boxers and holding the rest of his clothes in his arms.
“And a morning of goodness I wish to you”, She said in a nerdish voice that she could manage to pull from her vocal cords. Salem was on the other side of his room putting on a fresh clean pair of clothes when Ash said,
“I don’t even remember anything that happened last night”.
“Well that’s a good thing for me I guess, at least this way I can’t be reported for sexual harassment”, Salem joked with her.
“Well it wouldn’t be sexual harassment if I was willing, now would it?” Ash played along. The slight grin on Salem’s face disappeared as he slid a tight black thermal shirt on over his white body. And over the thermal shirt he put on another black shirt this one considerably looser then the one that he had just put on.
“Well either way, happy Halloween”, Salem said.
“Yeah you to… Hey are you going to come with me over to my house so that I can show you my costume?” Ash asked.
“Of course”, Salem replied.
“Well then we should start heading out soon”, Ash pointed out as Salem was finishing putting on a pair of comfortable black socks.
“Alright then just let me get my shoes on and we’ll be off”, Salem replied as he began to tie his boots onto his feet.
"Let’s go?" Salem asked after he was finished tying his shoes.
"Okay," Ash said and grabbed Salem’s outstretched hand, which helped her up off of the couch. His grip was strong on her soft hand. Salem followed her down the narrow stair way, flipping the lights off as he continued through the attic. Outside of the house rain was falling, not quickly but heavily and cold. She didn’t live very far in fact it was only three blocks. It only took then minutes of walking down the cold desolate streets before they were standing in front of her door waiting as she unlocked the door. As he waited for her to open the door he turned and looked at the houses in the vicinity. Shielded from the rain, they walked through the screened porch that led into her house. Salem followed her down the stairs that led into her basement.
He had been over to her house plenty of times before, but her mom was rarely at home with her. Pushed her key into the brass door knob and turned the key which unlocked the white wooden door. Then she turned on the light and opened her dresser. Salem sat down on her bed and watched as she pulled her costume out.
“You can’t really see it unless I’m wearing it”, she said.
“Oh, that’s okay”, Salem said.
“But I want you to see it!” she complained.
“Then put it on and show me”, Salem suggested.
“Okay then”, she agreed and then unbuckled her belt. Her skirt fell off and the studs from her belt clanked against her polished wooden floor. She had paper white legs that were shaved and visibly smooth. With one hand out she took off her black and dark pink socks and with the other she brought her fish nets down to her feet. One foot at a time she put her fish net stockings on and then pulled it up to her waist, covering her black thong that she wore underneath. She then put the studded black belt back around her skirts belt loops, and then lifted her tight black shirt over her head and off her body. Then replaced it with another tight black shirt covering her black laced bra. The shirt was tight enough to make her breasts push it out and make them look bigger than what they really were. The sleeves of the shirt were longer then her wrists and went to where her fingers started.
“Wow….wait can you tell me the difference between this costume and what you normally wear?” Salem asked.
“Shh…I’m not finished yet”, Ash said as she pulled out a pair of dark black demonic like angel wings that she put on around her back. Struggling, she put her arms through the elastic straps that went under her arm pits.
“There”, she said and gave a sweet little smile.
“Wow…you look way pretty”, Salem complimented.
“Thank you "she said with a small jokingly bow.
“You’re going to stay here while I shower okay?” Ash asked.
“Okay…?” Salem asked a bit surprised.
“Alright, then I’ll be out in a little bit, oh and you know my mom’s rules, no smoking in the house. So if you need to then jut go outside,” Ash reminded, and then casually walked out of her bedroom door. Salem watched as her fish netted feet carried her step by step out of the room, silent footsteps against the finely polished floor. He sat and thought of how much he loved and wanted her, not only wanted but needed her. He laid back onto her bed and looked up at her ceiling. From down the hall he could here the shower, he decided to get up. Sitting up he stood off the bed, having no idea that this would be the exact place where he would hold Ash as she bled to death in his arms, walked over to he dresser looking at the picture that had been taken of him and Ash on her birthday. The sight of this picture brought a smile to his mouth. He went back outside of her room and then climbed her stairs going outside so he could catch a smoke before Ash got out of the shower.
She didn’t like him smoking but she didn’t let him know and she didn’t complain about it. Once he closed the glass door he pulled the pack of cigarettes and Zippo lighter out of his pocket. Leaning against the wooden wall of her house, he lit his cigarette and looked off the porch to the outside world that was still raining cold, heavy drops now, windless so that each drop fell straight to the ground. He relaxed against her house and smoked his cigarette into smoke and ash, got down to the butt, and then flicked it out off the porch and into the wet cement ground. He didn’t go inside immediately, instead he stayed leaning against the whit wall, after waiting outside for a little bit he decided that it was time for him to go back inside. Hearing the hair dryer in her bathroom on, he walked on past the bathrooms door and then walked into her room. Only seconds after he got into her room he checked the time. Breathing on the back of his neck sent chills down his back and spine. Turning around he closed his cell phone and looked into the grey eyes of Ash who was standing behind him in her costumed and fresh black eyeliner and fresh dark black lipstick.
“Boo!” she said in monotone.
The memory of his last Halloween faded as the furnace turned on.
“The last dream she was in she stayed in forever,” Salem whispered to himself as a light bulb clicked on inside his head. The man who was in his last dream was there forever at the gallows. So maybe if he could figure out where Ash’s last dream was at, then maybe he would be able to find her and save her. Suddenly he became extremely exhausted, so he lay back onto the couch. Not bothering to turn off the lights, he closed his eyes and drifted off immediately into deep sleep.
The snow on the ground became a lot softer and there wasn’t as much as there had been, Salem noticed that he was now in a dream and no longer in the reality of his real life. With each step that Salem found himself taking he realized that the snow that was under his feet began to grow softer and smaller in amount. Soon the snow that he was walking on disappeared and revealed brick ground that had turned grey from dirt. Walking forward he could see the shapes of a few buildings that had been masked by the fog and darkness. Against one of the brick walls a man stood smoking a cigarette and covering his face from the dim light of an old fashioned street lamp with his hood that was a little to long.
“So you’re Salem?” The Things deep monotone voice asked from behind his hood. It was a wonder how he could even see anyone walking in front of him.
“To some that is my name…Who are you?” Salem asked almost gagging on the putrid stench of one thousand corpses that seemed to be coming from this thing.
“I am the essence of what used to be Evan…” The thing said creepily.
“And how does this essence of Evan know who I am,” Salem asked dully.
“A certain Lady Angel told me that you would be here…She was ordered me to come and escort you to her,” the essence of Evan explained.
“Well then where is she?” Salem asked looking slightly around.
“Come with me…” the thing said, his breath smelled of dead animals and the slight aroma of liquor. Unaware of what lurked in the darkness Salem followed the thing into the abyss that waited ahead. Unknowingly Salem followed the smell of dead flesh that’s point of origin came from ahead of him in the utter darkness.
“It shouldn’t be to much further,” the things voice was so flat and original that it sort of had its own style to it despite the fact that it was the style that any living dead creature would infamously have. That probably doesn’t make much sense, because in reality dead things don’t have voices at all and the only sound that would come out of them would be that of the maggots eating the decaying corpse. Salem could barely hear the thing say this, but how much further ahead could this thing be? It most certainly couldn’t be to far, seeing as how Salem was walking pretty fast compared to normal just to keep up with the pungent smell of the essence of Evan. Salem kept walking to keep up with the thing, and it seemed like ten minutes had gone by in a heartbeat. And ten minutes had gone by and passed but Salem didn’t know this little fact.
“How much further is it now?” Salem asked impatiently thinking of how he could be out there trying to find Ash.
“You can’t see the doorway that lies just ahead?” The essence of Evan asked.
“No…I can see nothing but darkness,” Salem replied with attitude in his voice.
“Welcome Salem…Evan you are excused to leave,” a female voice said from up ahead. Faint footsteps where heard walking back towards the way that Salem and the essence of Evan had came in, but not only did the essence of Evan leave but also the putrid odor that came off of Evan left with him.
“Well Salem, I took up the task of trying to help you uncover the mystery of the vanishing Ash…” The female voice said from somewhere up ahead. The female voice that Salem was hearing was not coming from his imagination but coming from the cold icy lips of Lady Angel.
“I went to the only other person who in the past succeeded in doing what you, Salem, are attempting to do. Which is to bring the dead to life again,” Lady Angel said.
“He told me that he found the answer in a book that the person he saved had wrote…So if there’s anything that Ash wrote I would advise you to read it and try to uncover any clues or messages that she has hidden inside the writing,” Lady Angel said.
“You will wake up now…Go and do what you must to recover Ash, who has been lost for so long…” Lady Angel said and then all the darkness that was there turned darker and the aroma of Lady Angel vanished like a ghost in the fog.

What seemed like an eternity later Salem awoke on his bedroom floor. The hard wooden flooring was cold against his clothing shielded body, he was clutching the photo album as if he where a toddler hugging his teddy bear hoping that it would save him from the beasts and monsters that lurked in the darkness of the closet or underneath his bed waiting to attack.
He knew what he was supposed to do so he stood up and grabbed a black hoody jacket and pulled it over his head as he climbed the stairs leading to the main part of his house. He gently closed the front door and began to walk down the pathway that led out of his yard. The rain had been halted, but still heavy grey clouds hung overhead. Without a doubt the rain would continue in a few minutes but for now it just rested while the remains of water from half an hour ago streamed down the gutters and into the storm drains.
Ash’s house had stayed the same since the last time he had been there. The rain seemed to stop for just enough time for him to get there but now it had began to drizzle slightly. Pushing in the door bell button he looked up into the dark sky and waited for Mrs. Nightly to answer the door. Soft footsteps where loud and distinct enough for him to hear some one approaching the door from inside the house. Salem looked through the screened patio and watched as the door opened and a woman in a light grey tank top stepped out and looked strangely at Salem.
“Salem?” Ash’s mom asked in confused shock.
“Hello Mrs. Nightly… By the looks of it it’s evening so good evening,” Salem said with a faint smile as he honestly looked up into the sky to see what time in the day it truly was..
“Oh my god Salem it’s been too long, wont you come in?” She asked and opened the screened patio door. The green paint that had colored the doorway of the patio had long been peeled and the wood that was there beneath the paint was splintering in an old fashioned and abandoned manor. A sign of depression and lack of motivation.
“Thanks,” Salem thanked as Mrs. Nightly led the way into her house.
“Why are you up so late?” Mrs. Nightly asked oddly as she glanced down at her wrist watch.
“I just woke up with the sudden urge to come here…” Salem said and it was clear that he was keeping something back from Mrs. Nightly and she knew that he had come here for something in particular, but what that thing was she was not sure of.
“Well is there anything in particular I can assist you with?” She asked boldly.
“Actually there is,” Salem confessed, “Would you have happened to have kept Ash’s diary?”
“Diary…Hmm I don’t think I even came across a diary that belonged to her,” Mrs. Nightly said.
“Well she did manage to find the perfect hiding spot for it,” Salem said.
“Well if there is, I have no problem with letting you get it, ” Mrs. Nightly offered.
“Thank you…” Salem thanked and almost began to walk off. He stopped as she breathed in slightly about to start a new sentence.
“Would you like me to bring you a cup of hot coffee?” Mrs. Nightly asked politely.
“That would be just fine,” Salem said and then walked down the hall towards the stairs. More and more memories kept hitting him hard in the head like a deer in the cross path of a big rig pulling ninety on an old freeway that was seldom used. Realizing that the last time he had been here I her room it was her funeral he stopped and took a second to pay his respects to Ash. The moment for temporary respect had passed and he began to walk down the thirteen steps that led into her basement. Her door was the one at the corner of the basement, and that was one thing he would never forget. Gently he closed the white wooden door of her room and went to the corner of her room where the closet was. But before he reached the closet he flipped the lights on and made it so that he could see anything that was in front of him. Her room was clean as it always had been, but still there was an empty feeling, the same feeling that you have when you know that you’re unloved.
Her bedroom floors wood was unpolished, but still the boards were in good condition. In her closet the floorboards looked exactly the same but there was one that was invisibly loose. Salem bent down and pulled the piece of wood that was loose out from the rest of the boards. It was her secret hiding spot that only she and Salem knew about. She only stored two things in there, her diary, the same picture that Salem had of him and her on Halloween.
Figuring that the last thing she would have written in her diary would be the best place to start Salem flipped to the last page in the old dusty notebook. The date that was written in the page was November third, the day that she took her own life away and left Salem for the sorrow and misery to consume of.
“Why I am writing this I don’t even know… It’s about seven thirty in the morning and Salem won’t answer my phone calls… I’m worried. Last night I had a horrible nightmare… The last time I had a dream like this dad died the next morning… I was only six then but I can still remember waking up screaming knowing that something terrible had happened… I can’t even remember all the details but I know that I had been chained to a wall and forced to watch as this demon ripped the soul from Salem right in front of my own eyes… The thing pulled his hair and breathed heavily into Salem’s nose, and even though I was half way across the room I could smell the stench of death that this thing had in his mouth… Salem looked down at me and into my eyes…I could see his pain…I knew that he knew that I could see his pain and he began to let the tears roll down his face…He wasn’t crying from the pain but because he didn’t want me to go through the pain that he was going through…He was crying his last tears for me…”
Reading these words Salem could picture himself standing over Ash’s shoulder reading every freshly written word in the black, but he could also imagine her not knowing that he was there with her.
Somehow she could sense his aura there with her as she was writing these words of despair. “I can feel his spirit watching over me as I write this…That’s how I know that he is in fact dead…Through the reality of this surreal dream I could feel the chains that tied me down to the floor digging into my flesh and tearing what was near perfect skin… This wasn’t that empty pain that you’d get from a normal nightmare, this pain was really real…It was so real that there was no thought in even thinking about ignoring it…The demon of death that was holding Salem by his black hair began to laugh a low monotonous laugh that dully echoed throughout this dungeon like room…In the middle of his deep laugh the thing grabbed Salem by the neck and picked him up so that his feet where no longer touching the ground…A few feet away from Salem and the thing that was holding him off the cold cement was a chair that had what look like rusted nails stabbing through every piece of it…Salem’s didn’t change colors even though he obviously couldn’t breath…For a second I wondered if this was even the Salem that I knew and not just some dead puppet that belonged to Death that was being used to torture my innocent soul…But then again Salem looked into my eyes…And I knew that it was him…Only he could give me that look that was worth a thousand silent words…The thing noticed me and Salem looking into each others eyes and then threw Salem over onto the chair that was filled with the piercing scars of rusted nails…They stabbed into Salem and some possibly struck bone and major internal organs.
“We’re going to have a bit of fun, shall we?” The thing said over towards me. On the side of the chair, the side that I couldn’t see, the thing bent over and picked up a large mechanical object. Pulling on a chord the mechanical object roared to life and over half of it began to rotate and revolve violently. I realized in that one moment that this was the last thing Salem would ever be…What the thing was holding was a chainsaw… He lifted it up over his head and the saw blade roared even louder then it already had been. Moving diagonally downwards the rusted blade tore through the flesh of Salem and cut downwards moving to the bottom of his stomach. Black blood gushed out of the new open wound and sprayed all over the thing that was wearing a white chef’s apron.
“Blood is the essence of sorrow,” The thing in the blotched red butchers apron said in awe.’
Salem stopped reading from her diary and began to understand why she had killed herself.
“She thought that I was dead the next morning…” Salem hushed in a whisper, remembering that he was in the shower when she tried to call him to see if he was okay. It became clearer now as if a haze of blackness had been blown away by the fluttering of a ravens wing. Essence, the stench of one thousand corpses, and putridity. This could only be one thing: The essence of Evan. The decaying demon that served Lady Angel was responsible for the death of Ash. Standing up Salem held the leathered faced diary, which once belonged to Ash, close to him as if to keep the remaining aura in him, and then he walked off out of Ash’s room. As soon as he closed her bedroom door he turned around and almost ran face first into Ash’s mom, who was standing there with two cups of coffee in her hands.
“Are you leaving already?” Mrs. Nightly asked calmly.
“Well I found what I came here for…But I suppose if I am welcomed to stay it wouldn’t hurt to sit down with you and have a nice conversation over a cup of hot coffee…” Salem said.
“Salem you of all people should know that you’re always welcomed to stay here and have another cup over a conversation about nothingness in itself,” Mrs. Nightly said with a grin.
“Well then…Shall we?” Salem asked and reopened the white door that led into Ash’s clean room. Mrs. Nightly took up the offer and went first into her deceased daughters’ room. Salem followed her and sat down on Ash’s bed next to her mom who was sitting there sipping coffee patiently.
“So how have you been since I saw you last?” Salem asked.
“I guess I’ve been okay… I mean I couldn’t have been too great or anything so okay would describe it pretty accurately…” Mrs. Nightly explained.
“Yeh I think I know how you feel…” Salem sympathized. It wasn’t an everyday notion where you’d go and sit down and have a long talk about nothing over a cup of nice hot coffee with your old best friends’ mom, even if your old best friends mom was a widow who had recently bared the death of a daughter.
“Does your old rule stand?” Salem asked as he pulled his pack of smokes out of his pocket.
“I guess we can let it slide, now can’t we?” She said, “Actually can I bum one of those off of you?”
" Since when did you start smoking?” Salem asked.
“A while ago…But I stopped for a little bit… This’ll be my first one since Ash’s funeral…” Mrs. Nightly said. And it was true; she hadn’t had a cigarette since the day Ash had been buried in the ground for the rest of time. Salem handed her one anyway. She was after all close enough to be considered family.
“So…What have you been up to lately?” Salem asked as he took a drag from his cigarette.
“I’ve just been working, same as usual. Nothing interesting has been going on,” She said.
“What about you?” Mrs. Nightly asked.
“Some weird shit’s been happening lately… Shit that I can’t even begin to attempt on explaining,” Salem summarized.
“Well elaborate so I can get the feel on what you’re meaning,” Mrs. Nightly said politely.
“I’ve been having the eeriest visions of Ash… Like trying to find a way to save her… I know it probably sounds bizarre but still it’s like part of my brain is Hell-bent on finding a way to bring her back to life and save her…” Salem said sounding like a complete lunatic.
“Salem you out of all people should know that it is impossible to bring some one back to life,” Mrs. Nightly said.
“Is it impossible? Or is it just too bizarre to believe?” Salem asked. Okay it was official, Salem had lost it, or at least that’s what Mrs. Nightly was thinking at this point.
“Salem, it’s not natural for one to be thinking these kinds of ideas…The psychologist in me is telling me that you are having a simple form of schizophrenia,” Mrs. Nightly said.
“I know. It even sounds crazy to me…But it’s not like I can stop it…It’s in my dreams…Every time I fall asleep dreams based on these ideas keep coming to my head. I can’t help it,” Salem said.
“Well I heard your insomnia came back shortly after Ash’s passing away… it is a sign of severe trauma, you know,” Mrs. Nightly said.
“I know…And that is true, the insomnia did come back…They put me on Trazadone for it,” Salem said.
“Have you told anyone else of these dreams that you’ve been having?” Mrs. Nightly asked.
“No…You’re the only person who knows about it…” Salem said.
“Maybe you should see a psychologist?” Mrs. Nightly suggested.
‘I am…” Salem said.
“You just told me that you weren’t seeing anyone for it,” Mrs. Nightly said confused.
“And you just told me that you’re a psychologist,” Salem said smartly.
“Erm Yes but that’s not what I meant…I meant as in seeing someone who could give you legal mental advice,” Mrs. Nightly said.
“I think I’ll pass on that…You’re the only psychologist that I feel comfortable with talking to about any of my problems and thoughts…In fact you’re the only living actual human that I feel comfortable in talking to about almost anything personal to me...That is since she passed to the other side...” Salem said.
“I think I know that you mean Salem,” Mrs. Nightly said.
“Well I have some business to attend to back at my house, oh yeah would I be able to borrow this?” Salem Asked holding up Ash’s diary.
“I didn’t even know that she kept a diary, so you can keep it,” She replied honestly. Although they both knew that she wanted to read it herself, to resurrect the spirit of Ash, she still tried to act like she didn’t.
“Are you sure?” Salem asked modestly. He wanted it more than anything. That is anything except Ash herself.
“Yeah, she would’ve wanted you to have it more then anyone else,” Mrs. Nightly explained shortly.
“Thank you…” Salem said standing up and placing his half empty cup of coffee on Ash’s bed. Mrs. Nightly stood up to.
“I guess I’ll be seeing you in a little while,” Salem said.
“Don’t be a stranger, you know you’re always welcome over here,” Mrs. Nightly said. Mrs. Nightly wrapped her arms around Salem and hugged him tighter then she had ever hugged him before. Salem hugged her back, and in a weird way it was as if he was hugging Ash herself, and it was for both. She even felt as is she where hugging her long dead daughter.. When they where done hugging Salem made his way to the front door, leaving Ash’s bedroom door open and holding her diary in both hands in front of him.
“Goodbye…” He whispered quietly with a tear drop falling from his eye.
When Salem was at his house he went straight to his bedroom and closed the door behind himself. Black lights lit up the room around him with a dark sensation of awkward glowing light. He was lying down on his couch that was used as a bed in some cases when he fell asleep and drifted off into the labyrinth like abyss that was sleep.
The abyss of darkness seemed like it was there for an eternity, although Salem was senseless of time and all things that his conscious mind was thinking of. His vision came into focus and he noticed that he was sitting in a stagecoach looking out the side window that showed the spectacular view of the ice wonderland that was the outside terrain. There was a teenaged gril sitting next to him in the seat that looked out the window on the opposite side. All of the dead teenaged girls here must have been beautiful because all that he'd met so far where.
“Excuse me?” Salem said looking over to her. She turned her head and looked at Salem with eyes that pierced his soul in a paralyzing trance like way.
“What?” She said, her voice was angry and wasn’t that of only one person. It was more of three voices put into one body, her voice I mean. Which was creepy since it reminded Salem of something that would be off of a game dealing with demons. Her voice was a normal teenaged girls voiced mixed with a small girls voice and the voice of a ferocious demonic being.
“I don’t mean to disturb you, but I was wondering where this coach is going?” Salem asked, in a way he was cowering to the back of his seat pressing his back more firmly against the window then he may have realized. In any case a nervous boy trying to find his best friend, and his lover, would cower away as not to set himself on more than he needed to to be considered friendly.
“Lady Angel,” The girl answered as simple as possible. Although there was nothing special or terrible about these words in a way they stung Salem like salt on a freshly opened wound. The girl turned back to the window, her hair black with a few white streaks. But only a few breaths later did her clothes and everything about her turn transparent like when ghost hunters finally see a premonition after investigating an old haunted asylum. She turned into a premonition, and vanished into the velvet covering for the wooden seat that she and Salem both sat on.
The pressure on the window was to much for the beautiful glass, and slowly but unnoticeable the glass cracked. Turning back towards the window Salem noticed the crack and away from the glass that he was now breaking. Although he now moved away from the breaking window the quick change in pressure was to unbearable for the weak old eighteenth century glass to handle. Millions of tiny little razor sharp glass shards is what the window had now turned into. Which was the biggest change that it could’ve encountered, since before it broke it was one big sheet of smooth glass that was used to help people more then hurt.
Cold air blew into the stagecoach and made Salem’s breath visible. His face became cold as the air was at the stage that brought water into a stage of freezing. Snow blew inside and highlighted parts of Salem’s hair white with precipitated water.
As Salem was drifting off into the darkness of the whiteness of the snow the stagecoach came to a halt. The door on the opposite side opened up, revealing the castle like building that was being hidden by a sleeve of fresh snow. Hesitantly, Salem slid to the side of the stagecoach that was opened and stepped down slowly, his boots crunching the snow that was below him. There was an unusual fog that had a violet tint to it that covered up his legs from his knee and lower.
All around, Salem was surrounded by either tall walls made of ice or the steep cliff that he was gazing out to when he arrived here. There was an opening in the ice that was cut out barely six feet tall, which was tall enough for the average sized being to fit through without a problem. Salem had a good inch to go before his head was scraping the ice ceiling of the entrance to the citadel of Lady Angel. What lied on the other side of the gate was beauty in its’ finest darkness, ice sculptures of gargoyles where laying around everywhere totally untouched by snow it seemed, as if somehow the snow was falling everywhere except on the sculptures made of ice. All the gargoyles where different, in almost all the ways possible that kept them inside the category of being gargoyles.
“You’ve come back…I suppose that you haven’t found Ash yet?” Lady Angel’s voice could be heard loudly but echoless. Salem couldn’t see her in front of him but he wasn’t going to bother turning around to find her though, so he replied with his back facing her, a sign of high disrespect.
“I have a very good idea on who knows where she’s at though…” Salem said calmly. He was pissed off obviously and there was a great chance of his adrenaline pumping, but still he spoke calmly as if nothing where wrong.
“And how might now the answer to that?” Lady Angel asked.
“The essence of Evan…The last thing that she wrote about was the essence of Evan… How he tortured me…And made her watch the entire atrocious act,” Salem said, his back still facing Lady Angel.
“The essence of Evan I summon you to my presence,” Lady Angel’s voice blared out with a sinister accent to it. Heavy corpselike footsteps came from behind Lady Angel a few cold speechless moments later and Salem finally turned to see that the essence of Evan was already there.
“Lady Angel, I am here at thy service, in which manner may I assist you with?” The essence of Evan asked obediently. He was doglike, damned dead. Which was exactly what he was, a member of the dead that was damned for eternity.
“It seems that we have ourselves a dilemma on our hands…”Lady Angel spoke harshly and the essence of Evan glared up at Salem who stood fearlessly in rage and hate in front of Lady Angel.
“And what is this dilemma?” Evan asked his voice was free of any fear or comfort; in fact it was completely clear of any emotion whatsoever. As it always had been.
“Where is Ash?!” Salem demanded. Lady Angel was now on Salem’s side instead of the side of her trusty reaper dog the essence of what used to be Evan.
“Wouldn’t you like to know that?” Evan said a smile growing from the corner of his dried withering lips.
“Tell me where she is!” Lady Angel ordered. She was a lady of respect and she couldn’t allow childish games.
“Where is Ash?” Evan repeated the question. With a sarcastic notion he tilted his head upward and scratched his chin as if he where trying to remember where he had placed Ash’s soul. He reached into the pocket of his hooded jacket and pulled out a small notepad and a Zippo lighter. With the eerie metal clanking noise that came with it being lit the flame sparked up, but it was only a black flame on top of the white flame.
“Where is Ash?” He repeated and held the lighter to the notepad.
“I’ll show you where your precious Ash is!” The essence of Evan said as the lighter quickly lit up in blue and orange flames that engulfed the notepad and turned it into ashes.
“Here’s your damned Ash!” The essence of Evan said and threw the notepad that was already almost out of flames and nothing more than a lump of black debris of ash and ink toward Salem. The barely smoldering ashes landed a foot or two away from Salem. Lady Angel grabbed the essence of Evans skull and brought him down onto his knees. The hood that covered his head fell back and revealed that his face was just a mask covering the decayed and rotted skin of his dead body. Evans eyes rolled back inside his head turning his eyes pure white.
“WHERE IS ASH?” Lady Angel said with a powerful sting to her voice.
“She’s in the place where she was born…But he can’t just find that place in his dreams…He has to fall asleep there and dream of her…That is how he will find her,” a different voice came from behind the mask that Evan was wearing. Lady Angel let go of his head and he fell face first to the ground.
“You now know what must be done to save her, so go now and do what you must, just please don’t die on me...Even worse, don't die on her,” Lady Angel said.
“Thank you…Kelley…” Salem said which was the first time that he would call Lady Angel by her name from the land of the living. Lady Angel was pulling a dagger out from inside one of the pockets that was on her pants.
“Go now and save her before the time runs out…” She said as she kneeled down holding the knife up from the back of Evans throat to the front.
Salem’s room was dimly lit by the black lights that where inside his lamps.
“Salem, you awake?” Salem’s dad’s voice called form the bottom of the stairs.
“Yeah dad come on up,” Salem replied trying to act nonchalant.
“What’s up, dad?” Salem asked trying to see if his dad would be able to smell the cigarette smoke that was most likely there.
“What’s up with you? I got a call form your school today and they told me that you haven’t been going lately,” His dad confessed.
“Is there something wrong that I should know about?” Salem’s dad asked.
“Not that I know of… Hey I’m going to go over to the Nightly’s house okay?” Salem asked. His dad didn’t reply. He just sat there staring at Salem doubtfully.
“I’ll take that as an okay and be home by midnight,” Salem said and made his way down the stares. He jogged the few blocks to Ash’s old house, and made it there in as little time as possible. He didn’t notice (nor did he care) that he was drenched from the rain that was drizzling down form the dark sky as he rang the doorbell.
“Salem?” Mrs. Nightly’s voice asked softly.
“I need a really big favor…” Salem said.
“Sure, Salem, anything,” Mrs. Nightly replied.
“Can you take me to the hospital where Ash was born?” Salem asked and noticed the drastic change in her body language.
“St. Mary’s?” Mrs. Nightly asked her eyes growing noticeably wider as she was hit again with the reality that her daughter was now gone from her forever with no positive way of being saved.
“Yeah, if that wouldn’t be too much trouble,” Salem said.
“Why do you need to go there? Are you hurt? You know I can get you to a different hospital fast-,” Mrs. Nightly stopped, being interrupted.
“No I’m fine…I just really need to go there,” Salem explained slightly.
“Okay…?” Mrs. Nightly said. She reached around the corner of the wall and pulled out her set of car keys that started up the ignition inside the Volvo after they had gotten seated and closed their doors. Their heavy breathing created fog that covered the windows in heat. They where out of the driveway and already on the main street that lead throughout the city, and the heater had already been working effectively before Salem slouched back in the seat and closed his eyes.
“Please don’t fall asleep…I need you…” Ash’s voice said over the hum of the rubber tires on the asphalt.
Salem sat back up almost immediately and looked out the window. There was a sign that had St. Mary’s on it and a blue H underneath it. Which meant that they where almost there already. The red Volvo accelerated as it rolled smoothly up a slight hill that hid the hospital from the main street. When they reached the summit of the hill they looked out at what should have been the beautiful early nineteenth century architecture of what also should have been St. Mary’s hospital that once saved over three thousand lives.
But instead of the hospital standing tall and strong what they saw was devastating. St. Mary’s, like San Francisco in 1906, had been burned down to the ground. But unlike San Francisco St. Mary’s had been a victim of arson and they crime had been committed recently. It was obvious that the fires hadn’t been started to long ago because some parts of it was slowly smoldering and burning.
“Oh my…” Mrs. Nightly’s voice trailed off into inaudible words of shock. They both stared off into the burning building that was now just remains of what used to be a place of high healing. Amidst the burning building only one main thing caught Salem’s eyes. Salem quickly unbuckled his seat belt and opened up the door. As he ran towards the smoldering ashes Mrs. Nightly could only stare of with oblivious eyes at Salem as he ran towards a girl who was sitting hunched over and was,what appeared to be crying.
From behind her Salem gave her a hug that comforted both of them.
“Are you alright?” Salem said, holding her as tightly as he could.
“I thought you’d never come…” The girl whispered. The girl was Ash.
“I’ve been waiting here for so long…” Ash said softly. Her voice was like the sound of butterflies’ wings fluttering.
“How are you here?” Salem asked confused.
“This is probably going to be the hardest thing I can ever tell you…It’s not that I’m alive…” She stopped and gave him a second to understand what she was talking about.
“It’s that….That I’m dead….” Salem whispered.

THE END

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