Chapter 1: Let Me Explain
My name is Jason Watson. On the outside I look like your average senior in high school. I have good grades. I’m in the top ten of my class actually. I play sports and all that good stuff. But I’m different from others. Okay let me explain a bit since you’re new to this. You see this time on my forearm? No? Well everyone in this dimension has a timer. There are only a few of us that can see the timer. It’s a count down to the end of your life. Usually if someone’s timer is about to run out they will become extremely ill and usually end up dying within a week or two of falling ill. This usually happens to us going into adult hood so usually around twenty years old this happens.
Thing is though that’s where my family comes in. We can see peoples clocks and how much time they have left so our goal is to find the part of the persons spirit that they are missing and bring them together before it’s too late. No I’m not talking about finding them their true love I mean there is literally a part of our spirit that is missing. We usually end up losing a piece of our spirit when something tragic happens when we are young. Thing is it’s not always the emotion that we feel at that point in time that we lose. Some people get lucky and that never happens to them my older sister was able to miss out on this.
I’m getting off topic sorry. But if you can be reunited with your spirit that you lost the timer will disappear and you can live out the rest of your life as you see fit. Now for us we can’t choose if we like the person or not it’s our job to make sure that the person with the timer doesn’t die before they are reunited with the part of them that they lost. Harsh right? That’s how this world works though. Most people here don’t realize that they have a piece to them missing. What piece am I missing since I have a timer? Actually I’m missing the emotion sadness. I can’t get sad about anything or cry over a death that really affected me. How did it happen? Well when I was five…
“Jason who are you talking to? Don’t tell me it’s another spirit.” That’s my best friend. His name is Darren. He’s about 6 foot 5 inches and he has short brunet hair and blue eyes. With how thin he is you wouldn’t think that he was 160 pounds of mostly muscle.
“Yea sorry, I’m coming.” I said rubbing the back of my head.
“Well hurry up or coach is going to make you run another perimeter.” He said then continued running.
“I have to go your morn then welcome to come and watch us practice though.” I waved then ran to catch up with Darren.
“Who were you talking to this time?” Darren asked.
“I don’t know who it was. I haven’t seen them before. At least not around school; it could be someone’s spirit from town.” I answered.
“You really should stop that. People are going to think that you’re even crazier then you already are if they catch you talking to things that they can’t see.” Darren mentioned.
“Awe is someone jealous that they can’t see spirits?” I smirked.
He snorted, “Pfft why would I be jealous?” He laughed and took a few long strides to pull a head of me.
“Hey come on now that’s not fair. You and your long legs.” I said picking up the pace to catch up with him.
“Not my fault you’re just slow.” He smirked at me as we got back to the field.
“Darren and Jason go and work on your goal keeper exercises and everyone else is going to work on foot handling.” Our coach said after the team grabbed a quick swig of water.
Practice went like it usually did Darren and I switching in and out of goal then being split up for the scrimmage at the end of practice.
“Let me see you arm.” I said as Darren and I walked out into the parking lot after coming out of the locker room.
“Seriously I’m sure it hasn’t changed.” He sighed and held out his right arm for me to see his forearm.
“It’s constantly counting down Darren. I have to find your spirit before it runs out.” I stated looking at his timer. Two years, four months and five days that’s what was left on his timer. “I still have time.” I sighed in relief.
“How much time is left?” He asked.
“You still have over two years.” I answered as we got to his truck.
“So there’s nothing to worry about then.” He said unlocking his truck so we could throw our bags in the back and then head home.
“There is if I can’t find it.” I answered leaning back in the passenger seat after buckling in.
“How much time is left for you?” Darren questioned starting his truck.
I looked at my arm. One year and two days. “I still have time.” I answered.
“How much time?” He persisted as we left the school parking lot.
“I have a little more then a year.” I replied looking out the passenger side window at the passing trees.
“I think that you should worry about yourself more then your friends.” He mentioned.
“I can’t do that. It’s my job to help others. I don’t care what happens to me. What’s the point of having sadness for an emotion anyways? It just seems troublesome.” I said.
“You know no one can live without all of their emotions. Isn’t that what your parents have always said.” Darren asked.
“I know.” I sighed, “I just think that it might be an emotion that really isn’t wanted to be honest. But I always get frustrated when I want to be sad or it’s a sad moment and I can’t do anything about it. I feel nothing.”
“How can you tell when you’ve found someone’s spirit?” I looked over at Darren for a minuet and blinked. He had a serious expression on his face as he focused on the road.
“Usually the spirit looks like the person. The interesting thing with the spirit is they actually look for the rest of themselves. Some of them unfortunately don’t make it back to their bodies in time and when the person dies the spirit fades away.” I explained as I looked back out the window and gripped my shorts, “I won’t let that happen again.” I muttered.
“What’s up?” Darren asked as we pulled into the driveway to his house.
I looked over at him and smiled, “It’s nothing important.” I said.
“That’s bull shit but I won’t push it.” He sighed as he unbuckled and got out of the truck.
“I know you care about what happens, and I know that you can’t feel it. I promise that I’ll find your spirit so you can love again.” I said to myself as I unbuckled and got out of the truck and grabbed my bag from the back.
“Do you want to come in for a bit?” Darren asked.
“Sorry man, I have to head home. I’ll shoot you a text if I need help with my math.” I waved and ran towards my house that was down the road.
Hua? Why didn’t I stay with my friend? Well that’s because I promised that I would find his spirit. He’s told me that he doesn’t care if he dies he doesn’t want to love again but I know that’s a lie. I should know, I have to lie a lot because of my family history and why I can’t cry from sadness. I know…I know I should take care of myself first because I have less time…but to be honest I never really wanted anyone to know, but I couldn’t hide it from my best friend. I already did and it cost me a friend. But in the end she never wanted to know her time.
Who was she? That’s a long story and we should probably wait till tonight when I’m in my room for me to tell you that story. I’ll tell you this much though, her name was Lilly. For now why don’t you go wait in my bedroom it’s on the second floor. It’s that window right there. Why can’t you walk through the house with me? I don’t want my parents to see you. I-I’m not blushing just, shut up I’m not blushing. I’m going in my house just wait in my room like I told you to. Seriously you can’t get up there ugh alright fine follow me but just keep quiet.
No this is not how I treat everyone alright. Most people think I’m crazy so it doesn’t really matter to begin with now shush. Are you always this pushy, dang how did someone lose you from their self?
“I’m home.” I shouted as I walked into the house and shut the door behind me.
“Welcome home Jason, how was school?” My mom asked from the living room.
“Wasn’t that bad, I didn’t see any spirits today asking for help so that helped a bit.” I answered walking into the living room.
“You know you can’t ignore them Jay.” Mom stated.
I sighed, “I know, it’s just difficult the be able to help them but with no one else being able to see them it just makes it difficult for me to help them. Everyone thinks I’m crazy because I talk to things that they can’t see. But half of the student body who has lost a part of their spirit doesn’t even know that it was me who helped them.” I mentioned.
“That’s how it has to be Jay you know that. Paranormal things are something that most people don’t want to believe exist.” Mom said.
“Have there been any spirits that have come by today?” I asked changing the subject.
“There were a few. A girl stopped by as well. She seemed sad. Maybe…” Mom started.
“Mom you know that a majority of the time a spirit that is lost looks like the person they split from.” I interrupted.
“I know, but your running out of time Jay.” She said and I hid my right arm behind my back.
“I’ll be fine mom, finding Darren’s spirit is more important to me right now.” I answered.
“I’m sure he has longer time then you do dear, the only way you can help him is if you can help yourself. Your father and I have told you that the spirits can come in different forms. Try to keep an open mind.” She said.
“Right. I’ll try. It’s just hard why is it just our family that has to keep doing this. There has to be another way for people to be able to get their spirits back.” I stated.
“You know that in this dimension that’s not possible. Why can’t we be in the third dimension then where they go through depression or a bad break up and don’t lose a part of their spirit and only have a limited amount of time to be joined with it again or else they die.” I complained.
“Well you know we can’t dimension travel so you’re going to have to get use to it. You should know this by now. ” Mom sighed closing her book.
“I’m going to go up to my room and do some homework.” I said and wandered out of the living room.
I know that I look at things differently from others and everything but I can dream right? There’s a girl hiding in the doorway looking at me. She was small she looked to be about sixteen with blonde hair pulled back into a high ponytail and bangs framing her face. Her eyes were grey and dual looking as if there was nothing in the world that could make her happy.
“Hey…are you alright?” I asked her and she instantly ducked away from me. She didn’t say a word. “I’m going to be up in my room then if you want to talk.” I said then grabbed my bag and went up to my room.
“What a strange girl.” I said to myself getting out my homework.
You want to know about Lilly now? And who that girl down stairs was? Well I can tell you this much I have no idea who that girl is. I’ve never seen her before in my life. She may be a middle schooler from my school or something. I’m not too sure really. But do you think you can wait till I get my homework done, I kind of need to focus on that right now. Like I said before I don’t think that you are from this dimension but at the same time I can’t tell which dimension your from so I’m going to have to explain things a bit more to you to.
Hey now don’t get mad at me every dimension is different and you can’t go wandering off on your own with out me around. You’ll get lost and who knows you may actually end up being from someone’s spirit and you were able to find me so that I could bring you back to yourself…but I doubt that very much. Just sit on my bed and I’ll try to get my homework done as fast as I can alright?
