ivybgreenflower | Sometimes I give in to demands.

(I decided to use one of Jessica's name suggestions. Thanks <3 <3 <3)

Elena walked down the street. It was well kept, considering it was a city street. Elena always considered the city to be "industrial chic"; although the streets were lined with impossibly tall buildings, something about it was beautiful, almost inspiring. It was a bright, sunny day and this particular street was popular for its old-fashioned brick buildings and the many trees that lined the walkways. She almost wanted to sit down on one of the benches and stay here all day, watching the people walk by. But she couldn't: today it was her boyfriend's birthday, and he'd be expecting her home soon. She smiled to herself, thinking of their plans. Neither of them had enough money for a fancy restaurant, so it would just be Chinese food and grocery store cupcakes today. Still, they liked being together, and that would make up for the rather dull dinner.
Elena walked up to the crosswalk that would take her a few blocks closer to home. Just one more street to cross and a few more buildings to pass and she'd finally be back in her own apartment after a long day of boring classes at the community college.
Just as she stepped into the street from the sidewalk, a bus came barreling down the street. She was paralyzed by fear and felt herself move out of the way without really thinking about it. She stepped forward, waited, and then walked forward as the bus slowed down. But as she was looking ahead, the bus suddenly swerved, sped up, and slammed into her.

Elena got up and shook her hair out of her eyes. Why was her bed so hard? And why was her hair wet? She looked around and realized she was lying in the street; that bus had hit her and she was bleeding from having hit the pavement. How on Earth was she still alive? She got up shakily and realized she was surrounded by very concerned looking people. An ambulance had pulled up. She walked over to it, intent on telling the people with the stretchers that they weren't necessary. But as she approached them, they ignored her, and no matter how much she screamed, they didn't seem to want to listen. Confused, she walked over to some of the people watching and tried to speak to them, but they seemed to shocked to speak. Starting to get frustrated, she walked off the street onto the sidewalk. As she did so, a pretty woman in a crisp, flowing white dress and long reddish-blonde hair and a man, also dressed in white, with shoulder-length, sun-streaked blonde hair, a bronzed tan, and arms gently bulging with muscles walked towards her, looking serenely unconcerned with the scene in front of them. The girl spoke to Elena. "Oh, have you just died too?" she asked kindly. Elena thought that was a weird way of asking her if she was alright. "She must have," her companion said. "She's all bloody but she's not in pain at all. Are you?" Elena was startled. "No," she answered, wondering why it took her so long to realize that after being smacked head on by a bus she should have at least a headache. A sudden, horrible realization occured to her: she was dead. "But I can't have died!" she wailed. The woman looked at her sympathetically. "But you did."
"But I don't want to be dead! I have a million things left to do! And I finished my paper early and I wanted to hand it in for extra credit-" Here the man snorted. "Honestly, you'd think you'd be glad that you wouldn't have anymore homework to do. Are you some kind of... nerd?" Elena took offense. First of all, there was nothing wrong with being a nerd, and second of all, what would be wrong with that? The woman extended her hand. "I'm Ginger," she said. "I died in the eighties." Elena took her hand and shook it, still feeling more confused than she had ever felt in her whole life- if life was the way to describe it now. The man took her hand. "Ryan," he said. "I died a little while before you. And let me tell you, I'm not disappointed at all to be dead." Elena stared at them. Ginger put her hand gently on Elena's shoulder and turned her around. Elena looked back to where the bus was, and saw that they were taking her body away. The crowd around the scene of the accident was slowly walking away, shaking their heads. Elena simply stared at all of it. Ryan put his arm gently around her. "It'll be okay, you'll get used to being dead. It's not so bad, I promise." He gave her a warm smile that made Elena feel like she'd just took a big gulp of hot chocolate. She relaxed a little, and smiled at her new friends. But her smile quickly faded when she remembered what today was. "But it's my boyfriend's birthday today! I can't die on his birthday! I've got to give him his birthday present!"
"He'll be alright, don't worry about him," Ginger said soothingly. But Ryan said, "Why are all the good ones always taken?" Ginger shook her head at him. Suddenly, a figure came swooping overhead, a girl dressed in a white dress much like the one Ginger was wearing. The girl sped off down the street, and Elena watched her curiously. "Dead people can fly?" she asked. "Sure," Ginger replied. "Give it a try." Elena, feeling stupid, lifted her arms up and gave them a sort of flap. To her great surprise, her feet rose about a foot off the ground. Delighted, she forced herself back to the ground and grinned at Ryan and Ginger. "See? You are dead," Ginger said, laughing. "Come on," Ryan said, taking her hand. "We'll go for a spin." Before she could say no, she felt herself lift off the ground once more as Ryan pulled her up into the air. They flew leisurely down the street, Ginger close behind them. Ryan let her hand slip out of his. Elena, scared to death she was going to fall, reached out to grab his arm. But he laughed and said, "You won't fall unless you want to. And anyway, it won't hurt. Nothing can hurt you, you're dead!" Elena looked away from him to the horizon, where the sun was beginning to set and was turning the sky a pinky gold. That was an amazing pronouncement: "Nothing can hurt you." It was what her parents said to her when she was afraid of the monsters in the closet, except now it was the truth. She was momentarily exhilarated... but then they passed by the back of her apartment building, and she could see in the window of the top floor. She flew closer to it, and looked in.
Her boyfriend was sitting cross-legged on his bed, a guitar in his lap. His pale face was wet with tears and his dark brown eyes were red and puffy. He had dark, messy hair that fell to somewhere around his eyebrows, a small nose, high cheekbones, and perfectly shaped lips. Elena's heart ached; apparently, he already knew she was dead. She wanted to reach through the window and comfort him. She stretched her arm out to the glass and found that it was not at all solid; she slipped in through the window and sat next to him. He couldn't see her begin to cry, and he couldn't feel her wrap her arms around him. Ryan and Ginger watched sadly from the window as Elena and her boyfriend both sobbed.

Simon ran down the halls of Heaven, trying to find a solution. Everywhere he looked, people were panicking. None of the people who had died that weren't supposed to had arrived; all of them were stuck on Earth. Not that the dead never visited Earth; when he first died, he had spent quite a lot of time there. But in addition to the newly-dead remaining on Earth, some of the people who had been dead for ages had been returned to Earth and almost seemed to be "locked out" of heaven. Then, of course, was the fact that the people who weren't supposed to be dead would receive no counselling. This worried Simon most of all: how would these people deal with suddenly dropping dead out of nowhere? And with no God to offer them comfort? Simon had never felt so nervous in his life, not when he was alive and certainly not in Heaven. He went back to his computer screen and watched the girl he had tried to save before as she cried. He tried to comfort her, but found that instead of reaching through the screen and patting her on the back, all he was doing was smacking his hand into very solid glass. He could go down to Earth, but what if he got trapped there? He was better off staying here. Some of the people who had been locked out would be able to function as makeshift counsellors. The girl he was watching had already met two people who seemed to be very kind. No, for the time being he couldn't worry about their feelings, he had to concentrate on finding away to put everything right again... which was a lot harder than it sounded.

:)

-3:05 AM