Fallen Souls Read Online Free

wake up, or she’d be gone forever. He began praying,
then, for her to open her eyes to twitch her hand. Anything to show
she was still in there, fighting.
     

     
    Grace couldn’t believe
what she was hearing. She’d been pacing
around this stupid hospital room for days now, though her body was
lying in bed, unmoving. She had no idea what had happened – or how
she was able to walk around without her body – but everyone kept
talking about a car crash. She wanted desperately to wake up and
comfort her family, but she hadn’t been able to get back into her
body, no matter how hard she’d tried. She’d done everything she
could think of, to no avail, and it was driving her nuts. She
wanted to throw things, but her hand passed right through anything
she touched. She wanted to shout that she was still alive, she
wanted to hug her mother and promise everything would be okay. She
wanted to comfort Ash, who was wearing the look of a lost and very
frightened little boy. She couldn’t, though; she was stuck in the
air, or another dimension, or something else as completely
useless.
    She glanced around the room in
frustration. Her parents were talking to the doctor while Ash
stared blankly at a wall. She sighed and turned her attention back
to them. They were the ones discussing her future, and she didn’t
like the things they were considering.
    The doctor talked for another moment,
then put a hand on her mom’s back in what appeared to be an awkward
attempt at comfort. Grace looked back at Ash, wondering what was
going on. They’d barely looked at him, let alone spoken to him.
They were concerned only with each other, choosing to grieve as a
couple instead of a family. They’d abandoned him, and she could see
how much it hurt. She moved over to him, trying to lay a hand on
his shoulder like the doctor had done with her mom. But her hand
passed right through, just like it had the last time she tried to
touch him.
    “ I’m here Ash,” she
whispered in defeat. He looked terrible. The skin under his eyes
was an ugly shade of purple, and he spent most of his time staring
at nothing. She could only imagine the guilt he was feeling right
now, and wished he could hear her. “It’s okay, little brother. I
don’t blame you. It wasn’t your fault.”
     

     
    Something brushed against
Ash’s mind , and he straightened up. He
couldn’t stand sitting there any longer. He couldn’t accept that
she wouldn’t wake up. When he stormed out the door, his parents
didn’t raise a hand to stop him or ask him where he was going. Not
that he knew. He just had to get out and get fresh air. He burst
out the doors and kept going, wanting to put as much distance as
possible between himself and that awful place.
    He walked until his feet
hurt, past all the main streets and then down a dirt road that led
to a forested area at the edge of town. He was taking the long way
home. It might not be the smartest thing to do right now, but he
needed time to think. He couldn’t sit anymore. It wasn’t that he
didn’t want to be by his sister’s side, it was more that he needed
to do something
for her. He just had no idea what that something was.
    He growled in frustration, finally
coming to a stop, and watched the sky as it turned angry shades of
green and gray. A storm was coming, and it mirrored how he felt on
the inside perfectly. The sun faded, and a cold wind rushed through
the trees, making goose bumps stand up on his arms. He closed his
eyes, willing the tears to come, and thought back to the night of
the party. The night that changed everything. Suddenly he
remembered the man. He’d been at the party, and then at the crash
scene, though Ash couldn’t remember anything else. Why’d he been
there? Who was he?
    Death , Ash’s mind whispered. He shivered. Where had that thought
come from? Was the man truly Death? Did that even make sense? And
if he was … could he change what was happening to Grace? The
thought was crazy, but it stuck.