I woke up thinking I would just have another boring Tuesday. I took a shower, ate breakfast and brushed my teeth. I was off to school in my new car. As a newly licensed sixteen-year-old girl, I’ve been excited to drive around just for fun. Taking short cuts and driving really fast made me feel free and independent. I mean how could you not love that? So of course, on my way to school I took a short cut where I knew I could speed. Living in a smaller town with only a few main roads, it is easy to get away with driving fifty miles an hour in a twenty-five zone; and it was so much fun. On the street that I first turn on, I cut it a little sharp. Just as I turned, I saw a young girl on a bicycle in the middle of the street. I tried to swerve, but I was going way too fast. I hit her head on. I immediately stopped and got out. As I raced around the car several times, there was no body, no mark, nothing to be found. But I know I just had seen a girl. I had felt the impact. I thought maybe she was under the car, but there was no sign of anything. So I, concerned and confused, took off and drove to school, this time driving more careful. I arrived to school, and began walking to class. But my mind was still focused on the ride here. How in the world did that happen? Was I hallucinating?
Not paying much attention to anything else, I strolled through the quad. The bell rang when I suddenly noticed the girl I thought I hit on the way to school. I ran up to her, but got lost through the crowd. She disappeared once again.

“Did I take any medicine this morning?” I thought to myself. This is so unusual and made me feel extremely anxious.
“But why was she here?” I thought. The second bell rang and I went off to class.
I concluded that the day had just started off on the wrong foot. I got through school just thinking about the accident, and how strange it was when the girl disappeared. I couldn’t keep it off of my mind.
After school I was hanging out with my friends on the front lawn. A day of guilt had passed, and I tried my best to forget about it. Just then, I saw the girl I had hit once again, walking across the street towards downtown. At this point I felt it was necessary to try to talk to this girl and make sure she was ok, so I ran towards her. She turned a corner and once again, disappeared. Frustrated than ever I sat down on a park bench and began to cry. The thought of hitting someone in a car is alarming itself, but I know what happened really did happened. Right then I felt a soft tap on my shoulder. I turned to my shoulder when I saw through the windows of the bakery, a girl. It was the same girl I hit, but looked slightly older. I looked down on my shoulder and there was a leaf lying on it. I looked back towards the window and the little girl was gone. But right in front of me stood a bloody, scratched up girl, looking about ten years old.

“Are you ok?!” I exclaimed.

“You did this to me,” her voice shook in terror. At the blink of an eye she was gone. I have always loved horror movies, but the thought of being one made me sick to my stomach. And now, I swear I was in one. I quickly made it back to my car and drove home as carefully as I could. I started crying my eyes out once again, still trying to comprehend everything that happened. My mind was swirling in circles and I swear I was going insane. I had never seen this girl before, what did she want from me? Restless and anxious, I tried going to bed early that night even though I barely got any sleep.

The next day I got up for school again, trying to ignore what had happened the day before. I went about my day and nothing seemed to be abnormal. When I got home from school my mom was waiting for me at the kitchen table. She had a box of pictures sitting in front of her and she was filing through them.

“How was your day, honey?” she asked me.

“It was good, nothing out of the ordinary,” I replied. I wasn’t sure if I should tell her what had happened the day before, so I decided not to. Just then my mom told me to sit down. Her face was solemn.

“Desiree, your grandmother passed away last night,” she uttered. I looked at her horrified at what was just said and we both began to ball. Although she was old and this was expected to come soon, I was still heartbroken. I had the fondest memories of her.
I put my head against my mother’s shoulder and closed my eyes. I slowly opened them and looked around. Outside the window stood a bloody teenage girl.

“OH MY GOD!” I screamed. My mom looks at me and holds me tight, only thinking that I was screaming because of the news. I just shut my eyes closed and didn’t look up. After about five minutes I looked up to see nothing in the yard. This girl was haunting me and I didn’t understand why.

After the news I eventually went to my room. I plopped on my bed and opened my computer.
“I’m going to find out who this girl is right here, right now,” I told myself. I typed “local teen deaths” into my computer to see what I could find. After about an hour of looking at pictures and reading stories of all these young deaths, I came across a familiar face. She had blonde hair, brown eyes, and pale skin. Her name titled: Madelyn Lynch. I studied the picture long and hard.

“This is her,” I stated. I began to read her story when I discovered she was killed in a car crash at sixteen years old. She was walking in the middle of the street at night and a car came around the corner and didn’t see her. Her friend Marie was nearby and witnessed the accident. The friend Marie didn’t have a last name and the story dated back to 1956. Disturbed and horrified, I shut my computer and went to bed. As I was lying there I was thinking of the name Marie. That was my grandmother’s name. Marie. I had always thought it was so beautiful. She was such a lovely lady and could always put a smile on my face.

Just then I shot straight up and jumped out of my bed sheets.

“MARIE!” I screamed. I grabbed my computer and opened it once again. I read the story several times, focusing and trying to comprehend it. Madelyn was my grandmother’s best friend. It was all coming together. But why is she after me? I decided to get up and look at the pictures my mom had been going through earlier, so I darted to the kitchen where they were and began shuffling through the pictures. I finally came across a photo album titled: “Marie’s teenage years.” I took the album and sat down on a nearby couch. I nervously opened it. The first image was of my grandmother. She looked about fourteen. She was gorgeous, olive skin, dark brown hair, and green eyes. My mom once told me she had a lot of boyfriend’s in her day. I began to flip through the pages. There were a lot of Marie and her friends, but one reoccurring face was Madelyn. They looked so happy and cheerful, and had innocently sweet faces. There were probably fifty photos of just them two, and from what I could tell they were inseparable.
Just as I was admiring these pictures, I heard a small banging sound outside. It was dark out but I could see an outlining of a girl hunched over in a chair with her head down. I opened the door.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. There was no reply. I slowly walked towards her and sat right next to her. I looked at her and she finally looked up. It was Madelyn. There were tears running down her face, she just looked like the saddest girl I had ever seen. She glanced at me then looked away slowly.

“What are you doing here?” I asked once again. “What do you want from me?” She looked at me with her deep brown eyes, and began explaining herself.

“I was sixteen and Marie and I were the best of friends. We were always having the best time, being rebellious and such. We did some stupid things, but I don’t regret any of it because we had the best memories. That year on New Years Eve, we were at a party and Marie had a little too much to drink. She was acting stupid, but I thought it was funny. That was until she began kissing my boyfriend. I stared at them for a few seconds when I decided to just get up and leave. I didn’t want to see that nor deal with a couple of drunken fools. She saw me walk out and ran after me. Even though she was drunk, part of her brain was functioning enough to realize what she had just done. I began crying and walked into the middle of the street. She ran after me and grabbed my arm to stop me. Who knows what we even said, but it didn’t matter. I somehow got over it and we made amends right there. We both thought it was a good idea to leave, so she went back inside to grab her purse while I just waited in the street. Right as she landed on the sidewalk, a car came out of nowhere and hit me head on. I was knocked out and got taken to the hospital. It was obvious I wasn’t going to make it. As everyone said their goodbyes to me, Marie’s was the one I remember the most. She always knew what to say even at the hardest times. Her last words to me were a promise. She said when she dies, she will find me and we will go up to heaven together. She told me it wasn’t my time to go, and I didn’t deserve this. With that said I told her I would look after her for the rest of her life. I died while she was holding my hand and that’s when I knew that our friendship was the only thing that mattered.”

I was in shock of what she had just told me and didn’t really understand how to comprehend it.

“Well why are you still here? You didn’t meet up with her to walk into heaven?” I questioned.

“That is why I am here. She just went straight to heaven without me. Maybe she forgot, but I spent my time by her side since the night I died. I couldn’t feel betrayed by her, but I was just confused. So I took it out on you. The little girl you saw was I, and so were the other girls you saw. I visited every place that Marie and I used to hang out. You would think that life after death would be more peaceful, and it was. I watched Marie until the day she died. But she didn’t even look around to see if I was still here.”

“Why don’t you just meet her up there?” I asked. All of this made me wonder about my friendships and what will happen to us all when we get old and die.

“I know. I will. But I’ve been here for so long. I don’t think I could go without her support. We made a promise and that means something to me regardless if she is gone or not.”

“Look, I know my grandmother and she never wanted to hurt anybody. She was just the sweetest lady you could imagine.”

“Exactly. That’s why I need her help. But she is gone.”

“Why don’t I help you?” I offered.

“Why would you do that for me? I terrified you. Shouldn’t you think I’m evil?”

“A friend of my grandmother’s is a friend of mine. I know you don’t mean any harm to me,” I said. “No one is evil for having feelings, so don’t you think that you were ever depraved.” With that I took her hand and sat her on a bench. I wiped away her tears, and she had already appeared to have a glow to her. I smiled at her and tucked her hair behind her ear.

“It’s your time to go, okay? It has been way too long and you deserve to live in a wonderful place.” I told her. She nodded and looked ahead of me. I turned around and couldn’t see anything but her entire face lit up.

“I see her!” she exclaimed. She looked at me with a thankful expression and smiled. She then ran and disappeared into the air. With that she was gone. I sat down on the bench and looked around for a little bit. I couldn’t help but smile. I got up and went back inside. I felt refreshed knowing that everyone was at peace. I got ready for bed and fell asleep right away. Now I knew for a fact that two souls were looking after me.

Waking up the next morning I had realized that helping people is one thing, but to allow a person to find peace is another. I have learned that there are so many more important things to life than what I thought before. I now know to cherish every moment of my life because it truly could be taken away at any second. With that in mind, I got ready for school and drove off. Carefully.