I woke with a shock to find myself in Edith’s living room. It was dark, too dark for my usual ‘death-vision’ to register my surroundings. A shaft of light illuminating Edith’s vacant armchair was the only clue as to where I was; Lying on the floor, the carpet was soaking wet. I pressed my hands into the fading threads of the flooring to feel freezing water rise between my fingers. The cold reached to my bones and stung through my milky flesh.
What the hell was going on?
Standing up and grappling my way along the inked walls, there wasn’t a sound except for my slippers squelch into the sodden carpeting. A rippling groan of thunder throbbed through the house and startled my hearts rhythm into an accelerated tempo.
Something wasn’t right here; I felt terrified, more so than anyone who is already dead should feel. The thunder grumbled again, sounding much closer; like it was inside of the house. A jagged streak of blue lightening lit up the room and made my insides clench with panic.
Reaching the front door I wrestled for the door handle, only to find it locked and moved to the light switch; scrabbling for light in frenzied distress. The switch flicked on and filled the space with balmy light, but rain started pouring into the room the second its performance could be properly seen. The swirled aertex ceiling of the living room had been replaced with dark, fuming clouds and torrential rain was hammering down.
Fear took hold of me completely and I tried to flick the light switch off again and make this nightmare cease, but water began rushing through the letter box and the fireplace as well, bringing the iced swells to my knees. Wading across the living room my legs were beginning to feel anesthetized from the cold, what little furniture was in the room consumed by waves of vigorous sea water and streaks of lightening glared across the drenched walls with distorted glimmers.
I saw a light coming from upstairs, the higher ground disappearing into the clouds and fought to the foot of the stair case to begin climbing up the steps. Struggling against unsympathetic winds that ripped through my saturated clothing, I made it up the first few steps. Water was pouring through the brickwork, the top of the stairs began to crumble and fall away like an eroding cliff being consumed by the elements. The hunks of stair-shaped rock plummeted into the colliding waves below and although only a few steps up, the room had dispersed into the storm leaving me perched precariously on tiny ledge with the frothed, carnal waves reaching out to me below.
“JASMINE? JASMINE WHERE ARE YOU?!”
Nick’s voice carried over the thunder and I clung to the bannisters of what I had left for support “NICK! I’M HERE! HELP!” he emerged from the clouds and dropped to his knees on the top step “YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO JUMP! I CAN’T REACH YOU!” Nodding in agreement and began to haul myself up to the last remaining step, the tearing wind spitting sea water into my face. Nick outstretched a hand and locked his eyes to mine “TRUST ME” My legs were shaking but I pulled every ounce of strength I had to leap across the gap and land on the edge; legs dangling into the abyss below, hand firmly sealed in Nick’s.
The rock beneath me began to crumble further, until I was hanging into the eye of the storm with just Nick’s arm as my safety rope “DON’T LET GO!” I begged and spluttered “PLEASE!”, but his eyes were filled with anguish “JASMINE, I CAN’T HELP YOU… YOU’RE ALREADY DEAD” and with that a bolt of neon lightning struck me, scorching my flesh. The electricity dispersed through my body and my hand slipped out of Nick’s like he was alive again, unable to interact with me and unable to save me. I tumbled through the air towards the feral waves that lay below, turning to see a boulder of stairs directly below me.
A horrified scream packed my lungs, I covered my eyes bracing for impact and SMACK!
I was in the park.
The furious winds were now my breathing, the thunder slamming the walls of my heart and lightning grazing my eyes as I brawled to figure out where I was. The winter wonderland of the park had melted into frost ridden sludge, and rain was thrashing down from the skies. Nick was asleep next to me and I shook him awake to which he sprang up, flailing his arms around and shouting “GET AWAY FROM ME!” He was breathless and blinking in surprise “WHAT!? Oh God… Where am I? What happened?!” “Dead…Park…Rain,” I had to push the words out of my mouth, jaw jittering to its own beat “w-were you d-dreaming t-too?” Nick’s hair was slicked back to his head and his shirt clung to the goose-pimpled flesh of his biceps “why the hell am I cold and wet and having nightmares?!” I wish I knew; we doze off in blissful sleep amongst the glittering snow and wake up panicked and freezing “N-N-No Id-d-dea” add shivering and pissed off to the list, all that talk of wanting to feel like crap just to feel? I take it back when I’m covered in sleet and having nightmares of falling “T-This iss-sn’t mm-meant t-to hap-p-ppen”
Nick looked to the sky with squinted eyes “this isn’t going to stop any time soon, we better walk back” He stood up and hopped about to stir his legs into motion and reached a hand out to help me up. The memory of slipping from his grasp and falling to the rocks rose in my mind, but I pressed it back with ‘wait till you get home, you can figure it out then’. I tried to move my legs under me to stand but I felt so weak they refused to operate, Nicks brow creased with concern “what’s wrong?” “Give me a sec, my legs won’t work… I think I’m too cold!?” He grabbed my arms, heaving me up and planted an arm firmly round my waist “May I escort the lady home?!” I felt ridiculous needing him as a crutch, even if his fingers pressing into my hip sent a flourish of excitement across my flesh.
We began the trudge home, but the rain was unrelenting! Water ran down my spine and filled my slippers, shivering ached deep in my ribs and as we turned the corner into our street, I had never been so relieved to see the line of tiny cottages with ours nestled in the middle. Brick work bathed in the night, our warm and cosy sanctuary. I felt dizzy with fatigue and nauseous from the cold, barely keeping my eyes open but my legs just kept on walking.
We hobbled through the front door after Nick clumsily used his foot to push it open just as my legs decided to give into the chill and buckle at the knees. I locked my hands onto the side board just in time and Nick’s grip of my waist grew asphyxiating in a sudden effort to keep my upright. Edith called through from the living room “what’s that racket?!” having being woken from her chair bound doze “something’s wrong,” Nick called back “I think Jas is ill or… something!” Edith pottered into the kitchen “unless she’s a zombie that’s highly unlikely!” but when her eyes saw me insipid, winded and barely standing her expression fell “you look like shit! What have you two been doing!?” Nick’s voice raised a notch of anxiety when he saw Edith’s expression “we fell asleep in the snow, but then we both had dreams… or nightmares and woke up feeling… and freezing!”
Edith helped us into the living room “you look okay Nick, why aren’t you like this?!” I collapsed into my usual chair and could practically feel the timbre of my chattering teeth reverberating through the floorboards. “I don’t know! I mean I’m bloody cold but not like her! She won’t stop shivering!” My dream of falling in this room kept grating in my skull, fanning the flames of recollected fear I was trying to supress. I couldn’t have hypothermia, I was dead! What was going to happen? Was this some sort of payback for getting too close to Nick?!
“We’ll get to how the bloody hell your both feeling anything later; we need to warm her up and quick. I’m not banking on it just blowing over, even if she is already dead” “…right, a blanket or something!” Nick confirmed, running a lap of the house in pursuit of a coat, duvet, table cloth; anything. But the house had been inhabited by the dead for too long, there was nothing practical or that we could even pick up “there’s nothing here!” Nick called as her charged down the stairs “…take your shirt off” Edith ordered; any excuse this woman “it soaking!” Nick replied “it won’t help at all!” the old woman rolled her eyes “not the shirt you silly boy- YOU! If you’re both cold then you can both warm up! You need to conserve body heat!” oh god this was ridiculous “I’mmm f-fin-ne” I murmured from my chair and was met with a stern look and pointed finger from Nick “Jasmine… your lips are blue, shut up and let us help” He began unbuttoning the drenched shirt and Edith came over to tear my sopping jumper off of me. I tried to fight it but I had nothing left, I felt like my racing mind had used up all of my energy and left my limbs heavy and lifeless.
“Don’t worry dear! I won’t take off anything essential!” Edith assured as I was left in sodden jeans and a bra mumbling in protest “N-No! Do-n’t Do T-That! I Need T-that! S-St-op!” a draft whistling through the house, which I had never felt before created a new layer of goose bumps across my skin but before I could further complain a shirtless Nick appeared. Kneeling in front of me and I was silenced mid protest. Edith seemed muzzled at the sight as well, Nick noticed and flushed with embarrassment “Edith, could you make some tea please?” he asked trying to pull the attention from himself “Oh… yes!” she replied slipping out of her day dream and rushing into the kitchen.
Now that we were alone Nick turned his attention to me “N-Nick I’m-mm Fi-n-ne” the words were far from convincing, my chest was agonised from trying to control the shaking “Stop being so bloody stubborn and get your arse over here Jas” I lethargically sat up and he pulled me closer until I was perched on the edge of the seat with his arms wrapped round me. Skin plastered to skin like we were glued together.
As soon as our torsos touched Nick expelled a sharp breath “hhaaaa… you’re fucking freezing!”
Oooohhh he was warm. All previous objections withdrawn; I’ll stay here thank you.
My eyelids were lined with lead and screaming to be stitched shut with slumber “N-Nick I thin-nk I n-need to slee-p” My words were trailing off but he gave me a sharp shake to keep me awake “Nope. You have to stay awake. I’m going on first aid for the living here but you don’t have to sleep, so you’re not going to… tell me about that dream you had” He was making idle conversation to stop me drifting off, I knew this, he knew that I knew this, but we both played along.
However of all the possible topics of conversation possible that was one I did not wish to enter into. There was a danger of reading between the lines and taking its meaning too literally; I was in trouble and Nick couldn’t save me “There was water everywhere, and I fell,” vague enough to not raise alarm “what was yours about?” “I think it was about how I died… I was stabbed in the back… I couldn’t see who did it though, it was so dark”
My shivering had stopped; I think I was warming up, however Nick’s fingertip was tracing down my spine and drawing circles on the small of my back and that could defrost anyone. If I hadn’t felt so fragile I doubt the will to maintain this proximity for purely first aid would have existed. Resting my chin on Nick’s shoulder I felt my muscles easing from their rigid chill and melting into his frame. If the keepers burst in right now to take me away, I wouldn’t care. For five years this moment, right here, was all I had ever wanted but now it was here I wanted more. I yearned to nestle my fingers into the dimples on his back a pull him even nearer, my lips were dying to graze the neck only inches in front of me and taste the heat his body was lending mine.
But still groaning at the back of my mind was the fact that I wouldn’t risk the keepers dragging Nick off instead of me. I didn’t even know where to; it could be a heavenly slap on the wrist but none the less, I couldn’t risk Nick’s eternity. His happily-forever-after-life was far too valuable. However although I had to keep my actions in check, my thoughts could do what they liked…
“You alright?” Nick asked, pulling away momentarily to examine his patient “your heart beats going mental” well that’s awkward, I was trying to come up with a believable excuse but he seemed to clock the reason before my mind gave up. His eyebrows fleetingly peaked and a flush rose across his skin before he awkwardly returned to his position of medical embrace.
I had thought me and him were on the same page here. It would appear not.
Nick squeezed his arms tightly around me with a deep sigh before loosening his grip enough to move his head from my shoulder, leaving a path of hot breath along my neck at a painfully leisurely pace. Our arms remained intertwined but the tip of his nose traced along my jaw, up across my lips to rest beside mine.
Eye to eye. Nose to nose. Searing breath intermingling in the trivial gap between us.
It’s going to happen! No keepers, no electric shocks, no booze, just…
“BOLLOCKS! THE KETTLES BROKEN!”
