Love Conquers

My name is Olivia James and this is the tale of my afterlife, or at least so I thought. It all started on a Monday afternoon in the middle of November, I woke up that day to see the beautiful pristine snow, silently falling to the ground. It was such an amazing sight to see, the sun’s rays were beaming off the freshly fallen snow, and it gave me joy. I was so excited to see the snow I hurriedly got out of bed and put on my winter coat. As I stepped out of my house onto the porch I could immediately feel the crisp winter air, just the thought of it made my cheeks flush. 

I haven’t been out of the house in what feels like weeks, so I decide to take a walk down to the park. About a block away from my house I see my lifelong friend Rafael l sitting on his porch, he looks sad depressed even. I decide to go up to him ask him what is wrong, but when I try to talk to him he just ignores me! It almost feels like he is staring right through me. I say his name once more and he still doesn’t respond or even acknowledge me, so I walk off. I tried to clear my head of what just happened and keep on my walk to the park.

I was filled with so many emotions, like why would Rafael ignore me like that? He has never ever been like that to me. I felt so lonely that I sat down on a bench and looked at the ground. I almost fainted at the sight when I saw that I had no footprints! My first instinct is that I’m dreaming, so I reach down and pinch my arm,” Ouchie,” I yell. "So I’m not dreaming," I think. Then the horror of my messed up reality starts to set in I run all the way home. When I get to my house I run-up to my room and collapse on the floor and cry, I start to think of all the possible scenarios of Why I Didn’t have any footprints. I’m dead! It explains why, and all. It all starts to come together in my head. Why Raefel was ignoring me, and why he looked so grief-stricken. I’m so lost and confused I can’t breathe I feel like everything I ever knew was wrong, it just doesn’t make any sense!

Wait. If I’m dead why am I still here on Earth? And how do I even know I’m on Earth? No, I’m on Earth I can feel it. But shouldn’t I be wherever dead people go? I start to think. In every ghost movie that I have seen the main conflict is that they had unfinished business! Yes, that’s it! I have some sort of unfinished business. What could it be though that is holding me back from the afterlife that I deserve? Then like a miracle it came to me how sad Rafael was when I saw him the other day. That must be my mission? I need to get Rafael to move on and live his life to the fullest. I devise a plan to help him move on. I go to my desk and pull up a piece of paper and pen, and start to write a letter telling him that she is in a better place and that she is happy now. When I finish writing the letter I slip it into his mailbox and wait…

I check up on him every day to see if it is any better, but I feel as if he is only getting worse. The letter I wrote to him has made him so mad and confused. He cries so much, sometimes he throws things and screams for me to come back, it breaks my soul little by little every time I see him like this. I want to tell him that I’m here for him, but he can’t hear me. My soul just breaks like glass hitting stone every time I think about how bad he is, and it is all my fault. I have gotten into a deep stage of grief, not because of my death, but what I have caused Rafael I can’t believe I caused him this pain. It tears me apart to think that someone like me could cause this type of pain to someone who never would deserve this.

I know that the longer I don’t do anything to help Rafael the harder it is going to be to help him. But I don’t know what to do to help him. What I know is that I am his main source of grief, so maybe to fix the problem I need to find him a new best friend. I spend all of the next two days searching for someone that I know will treat him right, and when I just was about to give up I saw her, Nova Hughes, she was perfect for him. I had been watching her for a while because I wasn’t so sure but now I am, she is smart, pretty, funny, and kind. All I had to now was to get the two of them together. I wrote two letters that night saying how they have heard a lot about each other and were wondering if they wanted to meet up sometime soon, all I had to do was mail them.

*One Week Later*

When I go over to check up on Raefel I am instantly filled with delight to see him Nova laughing and talking to each other. They are talking about everything from their childhood to their first kiss. Then the topic changes to who you have fallen in love with, and then he said my name. I started to feel a warm tingle across my skin and my heart started to race I smiled for the first time in a long time. He told Nova that I was his friend but he wanted to be so much more than that he was going to propose to me but then I died that day from a fatal car crash, my airbag didn’t go off and I went comatose and never came back. 

This is the first time I actually feel sad about my death, I could have had a life with him and now its all gone, down the drain, forever. But I know I have done what I was supposed to do, so I walk back home and l go to sleep with nothing but success going through my head.

I wake up, but not in my bedroom. Where am I? All I see around me is white, there is no indication that I am in a building but I am definitely outside, I don’t know where I am. Wait, am I in heaven? Before I can finish my thought a lady about my age elegantly appears, she is wearing all white.

“Hi, my name is Eleanor, you have finished your task and now can live here in the afterlife.” I smiled at her and grabbed her outstretched hand and we walked into the breathtaking blanket of light.

I have been here for a little over a week, and it is everything I have ever imagined plus soo much more. Everyone here is so amazingly nice. I never want to leave this place ever, besides the fact that I have these dreams. Rafael is always in them, and he is pleading for help. He says that I need to snap out of it and come back to him because he needs me. I feel like for a split second that I don’t need to help him but deep down I know I do.

I wake up the next day filled with determination to leave this place because I know that I’m not ready to be here, and I will do whatever it takes. I went to the council and told them everything, but they denied my approval for life on earth again and said that there was nothing that I could do. But I won’t take no for an answer I can hear his cries getting louder and more intense, it’s practically all I can hear. I search all day and all night for aa way to leave this place cause as long as Rafael is unhappy this place will never feel like a safe haven. I found my ticket back to Earth The chalice of love. If you drink from it you will be brought to the person you love the most and stay with them till the end of your days. I know this is what I have to do I take a sip from the golden chalice. The last thing I saw was Rafael.

My head is soo foggy and I can’t remember anything besides Rafael. I sit there trying to remember and then it all pooled into my brain. Rafael! I look around me and I see him glowing, he is sitting right by me and holding my hand, and crying silently with his head down.

“Hey don’t cry on me now,” I whisper.

“Yo-your awake!” he says as he looks up in disbelief.

I nod my head and smile. He jumps up and hugs me tight like he will never let me go. He tells me how I was in a coma and that the doctors said I most likely would pull through and so he came to see me every day. He would sit there and tell me how much he needed me. I start to cry because in my dream his voice was real. He brought me back, and that I need him as much as he needs me. I smile and say,” Love will conquer,”

“Yes, love will,” he whispers

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For saving me.”