Beyond Gods 8 The Letter

Johan sat quietly on a chair in the corner of the police officer's office.

"He definitely is lucky in that regards," said the officer, "if the murderers of his parents didn't turn themselves in, and there weren't eye witnesses to the guy harassing the girl earlier, we would have thought it was the kid. He witnessed two separate murder incidents in one day. Two of the people killed were his parents."

"That is unfortunate," said the doctor, "but that is life. I am gonna to go home and sleep, I've earned my keep for today. Beer ... a movie ... and some take out ... the perfect end to a hard day of work."

The officer sighed.

"Your a doctor, I'd think you'd care more about the people you treated," said the officer.

"Well, there is the image of the profession and there is the reality," said the doctor grabbing his bags. "You can't get too involved with other people's lives when you gotta take care of your own."

The doctor left the police man's office.

The officer nodded his head and muttered to himself, "No one seems to care about anything but money these days."

"It doesn't matter," said Johan.

"You can hear?," said the officer surprised.

"Yeah," said Johan, "my hearing came back during the ride here, its just that the doctor never bothered to ask me."

"So you heard everything I said just now," said the officer feeling bad. "and the doctor couldn't even figure it out with all his fancy tests."

"Yeah," said Johan, "at least the murderers turned themselves in. If anything, I am a bit relieved, I wasn't sure how I was going to explain all this or if my written testimonial would be believed."

Johan had left out of the testimonial that he'd seen a monster and the beautiful blond woman had appeared out of what seemed like thin air. He assumed those were hallucinations from his concussion.

"Don't worry," said the cop. "We will handle everything. For now, the higher ups gave me clearance to rent you out a hotel to spend the night. I can't take you home yet since it is now a crime scene. You can go to school tomorrow if you'd like, or take a week off as emotional time. No one will question your decision. The police will cover everything, we have arrangements with hotels for people in your situation"

"I'm feeling tired now, can I go somewhere to sleep?" asked Johan.

"Sure kid," said the cop. "I'll take you to your hotel now."

"Thanks officer," said Johan.

"You don't have to call me officer, just call me Jim son," said the cop, "Think of me as your temporary guardian angel."

-- Ø --

Officer Jim dropped off Johan in front of the motel, he'd accidentally mislabelled a hotel, handed Johan a key card, told him his room number, gave him his personal officer contact card and abruptly took off. The lot seemed empty except for a run-down car. Most of the lights in the complex were off. Johan walked up to his room. Room 203. Used the key card and opened the door to his room. To his surprise sitting on his bed was Jade looking depressed.

"Jade?," gasped Johan.

Jade looked up surprised.

"Johan!?," she gasped. "You can see me?"

"I thought you were dead!," exclaimed Johan.

"I think I might be," said Jade whimpering. "I can't seem to leave this room and the people who clean the room, or rented it before were not able to see me, yet I can touch everything. Even the bed indents when I sit on it."

[Who is the girl,] said Johan's father's voice in the back of his head. [My boy. Is she your girlfriend?]

Johan let out a sigh. He wasn't sure what was going on, however, his father's voice had been periodically making comments to him.

"Hallucinations," muttered Johan.

Jade stood up and walked towards Johan and touched his face. Her hand felt warm against his face.

"Do you feel this?," asked Jade.

"Yes," said Johan startled.

It seemed strange that he was in a room with a girl he barely knew. A girl who moments ago he'd seen dead. A girl who he had a crushed on.

Jade squealed in delight hugging Johan.

Johan stiffened up surprised. Especially, affection from a girl he'd seen lying lifeless hours earlier.

Jade backed off surprised, "Sorry Johan, its just, I've been stuck in this room for over two months, during that time, no one has been able to see me."

"So you don't know what's going on either, right?" muttered Johan.

"No idea," said Jade, "but I'm glad that I finally have someone to talk to. But that monster and the lady. It was all so eerie."

"The doctor said I might have had a minor concussion," said Johan, "you might be a hallucination of mine."

"I doubt that Johan," said Jade. "Trust me, I'd know if I was a figment of your imagination or not."

Johan was too tired to be afraid or speculate.

"I'm tired," said Johan. "Do you sleep?"

"Of course," said Jade. "Which is weird right? I can feel things, I get hungry, I get tired, yet, I can't interact with anyone but you."

"What do you eat?," asked Johan.

"I haven't," said Jade. "I've been drinking tap water. I'm famished, you should order some food. But even though I haven't eaten, I don't seem to be getting weaker."

A knock at the front door startled Johan and Jade.

"Food delivery," yelled a voice outside the hotel. "Prepaid for by the police station. They figured you'd probably get hungry."

Jade let out a laugh. "Wow," said Jade, "I guess today is my lucky day. What a coincidence …"

"A lot of conicidences lately," muttered Johan scratching his head.

Johan went to the door and opened it, no pizza delivery boy was in sight. Looking down, Johan saw two boxes of pizza stacked on top of each other. On top of it was an envelope addressed to 'Johan and Jade'.

Johan stood there in shock, as his stomach growled.

A letter? To Johan and Jade? What was in this letter? Didn't they say at the police station that Jade was dead? Where did this letter come from? Questions flooded his head.

A cold breeze blew by, messing up Johan's hair, yet the letter stayed in place, as if it was held down by an invisible weight.

"What is taking you so long?," said Jade. "Bring the food. Let's chow down, I'm famished!"

Johan picked up the pizza boxes with the note on top of it. Something felt strange about it. He felt that if he opened the letter, his life would be changed forever.

"Jade," said Johan, "there is a letter here for us."

Johan took the boxes of pizza to the bed, and put it down.

"Well, read the letter out loud," said Jade eagerly throwing the letter off the pizza boxes, and grabbing some pizza and chopping down.

Johan ignored the food and opened the envelope to take out a large black card that smugly fit in the envelope.

The black card said in neat golden cursive writing:

---------------------------------------------------------

I know you have questions

Go for a walk. Follow the sign.

I have answers. The monster in the alley, the murders, Jade.

I can explain everything.

The signs will take you to me.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Johan read it out loud and Jade stopped chewing half way.

"What do you think?," said Johan.

"I think we should go," said Jade. "or just you, if I can't leave this room."

Johan nodded, he did want to know what had happened. There was an unsettling confusion as to what had been happening. But the letter was strange as well, it didn't say who it was from, it didn't give an address, it just said cryptically, follow the signs.

"For now," said Jade, "don't think about it. Just eat, the pizza is REALLY REALLY good."

Jade can't be a ghost, thought Johan. She is eating the pizza. Johan joined her in eating the pizza. It was delicious.

Just then, Johan heard a phone ring he looked around and saw a telephone next to the bed. He walked to it and picked it up.

"Hello?," said Johan uncertainly.

"Hey Johan," said a familiar voice. It was officer Jim. "Its me Jim"

"Hey Jim," said Johan.

"I ordered you a pizza, realized I was a bit abrupt leaving and you'd probably be hungry. Pizza place just said they delivered it. Wanted to make sure you liked it. Its all pepperoni."

"Yeah," said Johan, "its great, thanks so much Jim."

"No problem," said Jim. "If you have any questions, just ask and call me, you know my number."

Johan paused a moment and then said, "Jim, does anyone but you know where I am staying?"

"Other than the pizza guy?," said Jim, "naw, I haven't even given the station the info for your room yet, everyone is asleep."

"I see," said Johan.

He knew he hadn't told anyone about the monsters, yet it was written on the card in golden ink.

"Is everything okay?," asked Jim curiously.

"Everything is fine," said Johan. "I am a bit tired, I'll stop by the station tomorrow."

"That's great," said Jim, "Good night Johan. I'll let you sleep."

"Night," said Johan hanging up the phone.

Johan looked at Jade and said.

"I have a feeling everything is going to change tomorrow," said Johan.

"Just eat and think about the problems as they come," said Jade. "there is nothing you can do now. I've gotten used to the weirdness of my situation. You will too."

Jade had already finished a box by herself.

Johan picked up a slice and decided to surrender to the food and night.

Whatever was happening, he could find out what was up tomorrow ...

Chapter end