Daniel Returns

by G W Mullins

  1 Remnants of the Light

  The night before Jen had been devastated. She had already lost so much in life. The abandonment of her parents was more than she should have had to experience at her age. Then to get the experience of visiting her deceased grandmother one more time, only to have to lose her to the light, was more than she could take. It was like her family was taken away one by one, and then there was Daniel. Perhaps he was the greatest burden to bear. She fought for him and even offered up her own life to save his. If it wasn't for her grandmother, she herself would also be dead now.

  Jen felt the lump in her throat as she tried to hold back her tears. The pain was too much to take. She had felt lonely before while still living with her parents, but now she felt truly alone. She had become used to turning to Daniel when she felt confused or alone and she couldn't do that now. Alone in the big house in the cemetery, she found herself curled up in a ball on the floor. Her heart felt as if it were being ripped from her chest. She screamed out for Daniel, something inside her was reaching out for him. Even though he was gone, she couldn't help herself. She just needed to feel his arms around her again, but there was nothing. He was gone and she had to accept it. All the tears in the world would not bring him back to her. The Shadows had done their job. She wondered if they had taken Daniel and her Grandma over to the other side. As a child she had always heard it was supposed to be a better place, a place where there was joy and family. The idea did not comfort her much.

  The night was long and hard for her, she didn't sleep. Every time she would try to close her eyes, he was there, reaching back to her. She pulled herself together enough to go into the bathroom and clean her face. 'I need air,' she thought as she gathered herself together and headed deep into the cemetery. As she walked, she felt the grip of uncertainty and fear surrounding her. She was no longer invisible to the security guards or anyone else who may be about.

  Jen wished she could still see the ghosts. Even though they scared her, the company would have helped. Even the ones that had just ignored her before might give her a bit of solace. She looked at all the familiar places and knew the ghosts must be there but the veil between life and death was just too thick for her to get through alone.

  She passed the place where Hershal had sat for so many years. She called out his name into the black landscape, not expecting an answer. "Hello young one," Hershal responded from the darkness. Jen smiled, he could hear her, but how? She needed to talk to him. He had seemed to be the only one who offered information that had helped them before.

  "What's wrong young girl?" He asked. "It’s the boy; they came for him, didn't they?"

  "Yes, and he fought. He tried so hard to stay. I think there were just too many of them."

  "My dear, sometimes things happen for a reason. But you must never give up hope."

  "What hope?" She asked. "He's gone; the light took him. I've got nothing left. It's over." She sighed.

  "I told you before; we have things here in life that we have to accomplish. And if we don't finish them...Well let's say we have to finish. There is a higher power and they make sure we finish."

  "Do you know something I don't?" She asked Hershal.

  "It's not for me to say. Let's just say, your story is not over. Just don't make yourself suffer. Live your life, Daniel would want you to be happy, no matter where he is. He fought to stay long enough to make it happen. He would not have left you unless he thought you were going to be safe."

  "I guess I see your point. Thank-you for everything you have done." She smiled. “Hershal, how did you talk to me just now? I wasn’t in the ghost realm.”

  “Halloween is coming. It’ll be here in a few days and there is a blue moon tonight. During Halloween the veil is thinner and you can get through to the dead. Besides a blue moon is a powerful one. You never know what magic can be worked during this time.” Hershal laughed as Jen walked away. She was more confused than ever. Jen looked up at the huge moon as she walked back to the old house. She hoped that if it really was a time of magic, maybe some would come her way.

  Jen packed up her stuff and the next day went to see Larry. She approached the guard house with a bit of fear and excitement rolled all up inside her. She greeted him trying to smile, but her pain showed through. Larry asked what was wrong but Jen didn't have the words to tell him everything. How could he believe her if she did tell him? It was all too crazy.

  "Let's just say that life is sometimes hard and lately, it has been kicking my ass."

  "Aww sweetheart, it's going to be OK,” Larry replied as he pulled her into a hug.

  "Thank you for caring for a total stranger."

  They talked about the situation and agreed it was best to call her brother and sister and let them know what she was doing and where she would be. Larry called the police and explained that Jen was safe and that she had chosen to go with him and his wife. Jen's greatest fear had been avoided. She wouldn't have to be in a foster home. Maybe the magic was working for her.

  Jen met Larry's wife and she was welcomed with opened arms. It might not have come in the most conventional way, but from the beginning, they seemed like a family. Jen liked the idea, since she hadn't had family to care for her like that since her grandmother died. Still nothing could fill the void left by Daniel, but she felt safe and loved, and that was a starting place for her to mend.

  Everything seemed perfect at Larry’s house and she settled into her own room. She had never had her own room at home. She had always shared with someone. It didn't take much time that first night before she was out. Jen felt she could finally rest, or maybe it was the exhaustion, whatever it was, she slept. Her dreams were filled with Daniel, the shadow figures and the light. The images were so vivid; it was like she was living it all over again. She was being forced to relive the whole event just as it happened.

  At first the dreams were what she remembered, and she felt the pain ripping through her heart as Daniel disappeared. Then, something changed. Daniel was fighting the shadows, but how could this be. Jen never saw this part. She had been blinded by the light. Now, she could see what was happening inside the light.

  The dark figures came for Daniel one after another. They reached out for him to pull him back. There were seven of them in all. In her dream Daniel was still fighting them. It didn't seem like a dream anymore, it was as if it was happening now. 'He didn't give in.' she thought. The shadowy hands reached for Daniel. The more he fought to get loose, the more the hands grabbed him. As they touched his skin, imprints of their hands appeared. It was as if they were burning him with their touch, marking his skin.

  Daniel tore loose of the seventh and final Shadow, and ran from the light just as Jen woke up in a panic. The ring began to glow as brightly as Daniel did. Jen jumped up in the bed. What did it all mean? How could she have known that he broken free, she wasn't able to see it? She sat on the bedside in a confused state. The ring was glowing, much like Daniel emitted when he materialized from the ghost world. As she looked at the glow, she knew this was a sign from Daniel. He would be coming back.

  Inside the light, time travelled forward at a different pace than in the human realm. Days had passed with Jen, while for Daniel it had only been hours. After Daniel broke free from the last shadow figure, he began searching for a way out. He passed through door after door into different time periods and lifetimes. He could make no sense of how the light worked. He was tired and frustrated as he sat down on the floor of the final room her entered. The room was completely white with no windows, just the door he had come through.

  “You don’t remember me, do you?” A ghostly figure spoke as she walked up behind him.

  “No, have we met?” Daniel asked staring into the girl’s face.

  “I am Abigail. We met in the cemetery a long time ago. I helped you when you first showed up after you died. That was before the back-lighter came and you battled him. You tried to save the ghosts from him, but he was powerful. He tried to kill you, but I got in the way
of his dark arrow. And then, I came here. I have wondered how you have been for a long time. I saw you in the hall, I just had to see you again, even though it is forbidden.”

  “Why don’t I remember any of this?” Daniel asked.

  “Probably because they wiped your memory of it all happening. I wish I could talk to you more, but they know you are here. I should go before I get you into trouble, well more trouble than you are in already.” Abigail said smiling at him. “I am really am glad I got to see you again. I have to go, I can sense one of them approaching. Be careful!”

  ~~~~

  Daniel shook his head, none of this made sense. He looked up as to expect a sign, and then he spoke. “Look, I know I am breaking all the rules here. I just want to go back and live the life I deserve. Jen needs me and let’s face it; I was really screwed the first time around. Please just let me go back.”

  “Sometimes all you have to do is ask.” A woman’s voice came from in front of him.

  “Who are you? Please, if you know how to get out of here, tell me.” Daniel pleaded.

  “You could go at any time. It is in your power to leave. Just know they are not done. There is a greater plan in the works for you. A second chance at life will require a payment. Nothing comes for free.”

  “What kind of payment? I don’t understand.”

  “All will be clear in time. I will be here to guide you. When you need me, I will be there.”

  “But I don’t even know your name. Who and what are you?”

  “I am Elizabeth. You could say I am kind of like a guardian, a protector of souls. I have watched over you your whole life... and death for that matter. I will help you now even though I am not supposed to. Just focus in the place you want to go and you will be taken there.”

  Elizabeth’s voice faded as Daniel focused on the mausoleum. His familiar orbing light surrounded him and he transported back to the only place he knew as home. In the coldness of the night he looked for Jen only to find she was gone.

  2 The Return

  Jen went back to the cemetery and to the familiar mausoleum. If Daniel were coming back, it would be there she thought. As she entered the room, there was darkness and nothing more. She breathed out a loud sigh. She didn’t understand what was happening.

  As Jen turned to go back out the door, the room began to glow behind her. She knew that familiar orb light. As she turned, Daniel began to take form. Jen smiled, she thought the light was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen. As she watched, she knew something was different this time. Before Daniel emitted a blue glow, but now it was changing, just as he was changing.

  Jen stared at Daniel. He was appeared different, not the wispy transparent way he used to. He looked completely human and solid. Jen couldn't see through him anymore.

  As he began to walk out of the light, Daniel was thrown against a wall of the mausoleum. It was as if he had been shoved. Daniel bounced off the wall and was thrown across the room. At first Jen thought he was still fighting his battle with the Shadows.

  Daniel turned to look back, and one of the shadow figures was standing just behind his light. They had found him. The Shadows had followed him in his escape. Daniel sat up and threw his hands towards the figure. As he did, two beams of light blasted from within him and the shadow disappeared. Daniel fell back as the last of his energy had been used up. Jen threw herself down behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  "Miss me?" He said grinning at her as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

  "More than you will ever know. Where have you been?"

  "Short version, first I ascended to a form of light, then battled shadow people, and that took a few hours." He laughed.

  "Daniel, you've been gone for days."

  "What? That can't be." He shook his head in disbelief.

  Their love had been strong enough to save him. It gave him the energy to fight. This should have been the ending they wanted, but in real life sometimes there aren't always happy endings. Daniel felt as if he was different now. He was more solid in form and though he still had unusual abilities he was not as strong as he had been. He was becoming something they thought impossible, human.

  In his fight with the shadow figures, Daniel had been marked. The places where the shadows had touch were sore and bruised. The darkness on his skin, looked like handprints that burned him. Ghosts did not bruise of feel pain for that matter. Daniel wondered if he had really become human. Maybe he had done the impossible. He felt really alive, and in pain. His powers were weak and almost nonexistent. What was he to do now?

  He showed the hand prints to Jen. There were seven total starting on the front of his arm and continuing over his shoulder and down his back. Jen ran her fingers over the places and felt the surface of his skin. It didn’t feel different, just discolored like scars. Jen didn’t know what to make of them.

  "You know, something about this feels wrong,” Daniel said with a confused look on his face.

  "What do you mean? Is it wrong that we are back together?" Jen glared at him.

  "No, not us, these marks and the shadows. Just doesn't feel finished. When I was in the light, I was warned that I would pay a price for my life."

  "Wait, so you are psychic now too? You know there is something wrong. And how can you put a price on life." She became frustrated.

  "Don’t know...but I am scared."

  "Why? You survived and we are back and together again"

  "I feel like they aren't done with me. We need help. We need answers"

  "From where? Who would know about this?" Jen asked.

  "We have to go back to the ghost realm." Danial insisted.

  "But your powers are almost gone. Can you still do that?"

  "I don’t know."

  "I might know a way." She smiled. "Hershal spoke to me while you were gone, he might just do it again. We have to go to him."

  And when Daniel and Jen sought information in the ghost world, they got more than they bargained for. They went back to talk to the oldest spirit they had encountered. He had told them that Daniel would have to face the light at some point, and that he might survive it.

  As Daniel approached, Hershal recoiled in fear. “They’ve touched you.” He knew the mark of the Shadows. “They will come for you. Not like before.” he told them, “But in a much more violent attempt to reclaim what they lost.”

  He told them that when shadows come to reclaim a spirit, they take the form of humans about to die and use them to do their bidding. They attack as dead walkers a form of Shadow possessed zombie. Hershal asked how many Daniel had seen. And they realized, just like the number of hand prints, there would be seven coming to reclaim Daniel.

  Now that Daniel was in human form, he could leave the cemetery. He was not tied to the ghost realm or bound by their rules. He had the advantage of being human, but the disadvantage of losing most of his power. He and Jen knew they could not just sit still and wait for the shadows. They had to run and get to a place of safety. But what place was safe from the walking dead?

  3 Evil at the Doorstep

  Daniel emerged from the shower. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt water run over his skin. He didn’t remember the last time he felt his skin for that matter. He walked over to the sink and looked up into the mirror that hung above. He was almost startled by his own reflection. Being human again was going to take some getting used to.

  He looked hard at his face. He had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. Still he smiled at himself, and thought ‘How many guys could look this good coming back from the dead?’ He had almost toweled himself off when he looked down at his arm and saw that hand prints. Then turning his back to the mirror, he saw how they trailed down to the center of his spine. He took a deep breath and blew it out. He knew this would not end easily.

  Jen knocked at the door. “Are you decent in there?”

  “It’s a bathroom Jen, what do you think?” He said laughing at her. “Come in anyway.”

 
; “I don’t want to bother you. I wondering what was taking you so long. Whoa...you are totally naked!” She replied.

  Daniel wrapped the towel around his waist. Turning around so she could see him better, he pointed at the line of hand prints that ran form his arm over his shoulder and down his back. Each looked like a bruise of sorts and all unique to the shadow that left it. Jen’s face tightened and she became seized by fear. She was at a loss for words. “Seeing them in the light is a little breathtaking, don’t you think?” He asked her. Dealing with quiet ghosts that didn’t bother you much was one thing, but ones that reach out and touch you is another thing all together.

  “What can we do about this?” Jen had no ideas.

  “I can run and hope they follow me and leave you alone.” Daniel knew what was about to happen before the words left his lips.

  “Not a chance in hell! We came into this together, if need be, we will go out together.”

  “I thought that might be your reaction. Jen I just want you to be safe.”

  “Look, we don’t know what is about to happen but maybe together we can fight to save each other. I can’t be here, knowing you are out there, in danger and maybe doing a U-turn back to the cemetery. I won’t hear of it. I’ve been through too much already to let you go again.”

  Daniel looked into her eyes. He knew she meant business. He also knew he had never seen this much love directed at him before. Whatever lay ahead of them, he had to be strong and ready for the fight.

  Daniel’s exhaustion had gotten the better of him. He could barely keep his eyes open. He needed rest. The power that had sustained him before was drained to almost being nonexistent. He had realized his dream of being human again, but in the end, he was feeling powerless. Jen made up a bed for him and got him settled in. She turned on the TV and curled up in a blanket beside him. Jen felt lucky, before she spent that eventful time in the cemetery, she was pretty much alone. Now she had a new family and a boyfriend. She didn’t have to be alone anymore.