Chapter One: I' Dead? No Way!
Dead! You can't be serious. How can I be dead? Wait, but if I'm dead how come I'm still thinking? Surely dead people couldn't think because then they wouldn't be dead, right? Man when did my life turned upside down? I mean only the other day I was dealing with your average teenage life, hanging with friends, thinking of ways to get out of doing my homework. But just this evening I was being pulled out of a coffin by a cocoa skin women called Zaphrina who told me that I was the technically dead. How could you be technically dead? Either your dead or alive. She wasn't very talkative about what had happened and what was happening for a mater of fact.
But she had assured me that everything would be explained when we reached this place called The Cytadell. What in the world is The Cytadell and who the hell where these people who had come along and dug me out of my grave? And another thing, how did they know that I was just 'technically dead' and not completely dead? Hopefully somebody will explain this to me soon or I think I'm going to lose my mind.So here I am now, sitting in the back of a big Mercedes-Benz which to honest was travelling way faster than the speed limit. We must be going at least seventy, maybe even eighty miles an hour in a built up area. I guess this is what it must feel like to be on the Knight bus from Harry Potter, only I'm in a car, not a bus and there is definitely nothing magical about it.
Or at least I don't think there is, as at the moment I'm not too sure about anything as apparently I'm supposed to be dead. So I'm currently bewildered as I sit here being whizzed around though town not knowing really where I am going except that the placed we are headed for is called The Cytadell. Peering out the window everything is a blur, rushing past me without a second look. It's like nobody could see the car storming down the street, as if we aren't even here, like we don't even exist. It is a if we're ghost, nobodies, just passing by invisible to the human eye.
OK let's just start a the beginning. How exactly did I die? The last thing I remember, I was walking home with my friends Duke and Chase. We were passing though the park and decided to stop in the play area. So me and Chase sat on the round-a-bout while Duke decided to take the unconventional route up the side of the play tower. And Duke being Duke got stuck on the top. It's hard to believe a sixteen yea old teen could get stuck on a children's play tower, but that's beside the point. So I went over to help him and climbed the side of the tower myself. And that's when it happened. Just before I got to the top my foot slipped and I fell. But I don't remember hitting the ground, I just blacked out while falling.
Then the next thing I remember is opening my eyes and looking up into the violet ones of Zaphrina as she called my name. It was twilight when they pulled me out of my grave and there was a thick layer of fog in the graveyard. Which I found strange since we are in the middle of June. Along with Zaphrina there was also a man, the same man who is driving the car now. He spoke even less then Zaphrina only saying."We must hurry if we don't the humans to notice the fog."The way he said it was like he wasn't even human. Mind you, his eyes where pure white until we got into the car then he gained stormy grey irises and a set of pupils. That admittingly did freak me out, so I would believe him if he told me he wasn't exactly human.
This is just all to much for me now, I just got to sit back, relax and calm down. Zaphrina said it would all be explained when we got to this Cytadell place. So I was just going to have to wait."So Stark how are you feeling." Zaphrina's sudden question took me by surprise as so far we had travelled in silence. But clearing my mind I managed to give her an answer straight away.
"Oh err... I guess I feel O.K, just a little confused about what's happening." I heard a chuckle from the front of the car, but it was way too deep to belong to Zaphrina so it must have been the driver with the freaky eyes. But what was he laughing about? I hadn't said anything funny, had I?
"Smog, be quite!" Zaphrina said sharply and the driver ceased his chuckling. "Don't worry about the confusion that's normal for a new Nobody, it will all ..."
"Be explained when we get to this Cytadell, I know, I know... wait what do you mean by Nobody?" At this the driver apparently called Smog burst out laughing. Either I was really funny in a was I can't see or this guy is seriously deranged.
"Smog! What did I was about laughing at the young ones, it's hardly fair. Now concentrate on driving." Zaphrina snapped at him before she turned to face me. Her eyes are unlike anything I've ever seen before. A deep penetrating violet which feel like they can look straight though my body and down into the deepest depths of my soul. That is if I still have one.
And the strangest thing is that everything else about her is perfectly normal looking. Her silky black hair pulled back tightly into a high pony tail, her smooth cocoa brown skin. It was just her eyes that let me know that she was different. But in what way I don't know. "Well Damien a Nobody is what you. I Smog here and everybody at the Cytadell is." She must have felt my confusion double as she continued to explain. "A Nobody s created when a young man or woman is taken away from the living before their time though dying. After they have died a new part of the brain is formed which shadows Nobodies from the humans, meaning we can't be seen by them. Also this same part of the brain give up a signal that only I and one other Nobody can pick up because of are powers."
"Powers! So do all Nobodies have powers then?" I only asked this as I remember running around in the playground in junior school with my friends. Each of use would be are favourite superhero. I always was the Green Arrow since Oliver Queen was my favourite child hood hero as the man reminded me of Robin Hood, which was my favourite bedtime story when I was little.
"Yes each and everybody has a unique power. No two Nobodies powers are ever identical. Some maybe similar to an others, but they are never exactly the same."
Now things where starting where starting to look up. I mean how could having a power be bad, as every kid always dreams of having a super power whether it be flying, super strength or speed.
"So how do I find out my power? Is there a test or Something?"
"Well yes and no. There is a test but it requires you to do absolutely nothing, I will be able to dictate what your power is when we reach are destination. But for know just relax Damien, your in safe hands now." Then she turned to face the front and for the first time after dying, I saw myself in he mirror.
My hair is still it's normal dark chocolaty brown almost black and my skin was pale, but that is just my usual completion. But my eyes, there are as blue as the crystal clear oceans of the Bahamas. Like really blue. Not sapphire blue, but more of a lighter aqua blue.
"Err... my eyes, are they supposed to..."
"Don't worry Damien, it's all part of being a Nobody. And trust me, your pretty normal looking compared to Nobodies at The Cytadell. Prophet had quite a shock the first time he saw his reflection."
"Why what happened to him?"
"Prophet well he used to have an appearance not too far off your own, but now his chocolate brown hair is a raven black, his blue eyes violet like my own. And his skin... well instead off being smoothly tanned is it now a pale lavender colour. So trust me your eyes really aren't that bad." Man that sounded bad. To find out that your not dead and then discover that your appearance has completely changed. Poor fella, that must have been real thought of him to find that out. And to think I was freaking out over my eyes. But at least I understand somethings now. Like why we can get away with going double the speed limit without anyone knowing. And also that get some sort of power, which is kinda cool for a dead guy.
Dead. I guess I'm just going to have to face that fact and learn to live with it. But there was just one more question that I need to be answered. The rest can wait till we reach this Cytadell, but this one I got to know now.
"Zaphrina I don't suppose you could tell me exactly how I... err..."
"Died." She said as she once again turned around to face me only this time her eyes didn't seem like they where looking deep into my soul. Just normal as if they aren't even purple at all.
"Well I suppose you would find out sooner or later. Do you remember climbing up the tower to help your friend?"
"Yeah, Duke had gotten stuck but just as I was about to reach the top my foot slipped and I..."
"You fell and on your way down your head hit a fireman's pole..."
"... that's when I blacked out..."
"Yes, hitting it cracked you skull. You also hit one of the protruding gateways which broke quite a few of your ribs, one of them punctured a lung. And the impact with the ground just made it worse. By the time help arrived, you had already gone."
Down my cheek I could feel the first tear tumble over my skin. I'd died out of carelessness. If I had only gone up the normal way like everyone else, not including Duke, I could be sat in the comfort of my own home with my family. My family! Oh how much pain it must have caused them to go though all this. Especially with me being their only son. Man I'm such and idiot. I can feel a sharp pain shooting though my right arm as I pound my fist into the car door."Damien please it's not your fault, things happen for a reason, you was destined to die that day, nothing you could have done would have changed it. Trust me I've been though this many times, with many people. They all learned to accept it and so should you."
Zaphrina's words some how soothed me enough so that I wasn't doubled over leaning against the car door anymore, but sat back against the seat starring out of the window. I no longer saw a blur of houses rushing by, but instead the green grassiness of the hills and mountains which where glimmering in the silvery gaze of the moonlight. The car rounded twist and bends at impossible speeds before turning off onto a dirt track, leading though a thick forest surrounding us with trees. We emerged into a thick fog so thick I wonder how Smog can see though it. But then all of a sudden the fog cleared and the car stopped. We had arrived.
