Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Our Heaven ❯ Seeing Things ( Chapter 2 )

People wearing black clothes wandered helplessly into the house, some holding flowers, some bringing gifts, but all, were crying.

 

It didn't seem right to anyone; why would God take away such a wonderful life such as hers? She was beyond perfect; no one would or could ever compare to her. And Duke wasn't the only one sharing the thoughts.

 

The house was decorated with paintings and photos of the no longer living girl. In all of the photos, she was smiling and happy. But everyone who looked at them couldn't help but begin to cry. It wasn't right.

 

Neither was the house, covered in people in black and crying. Pagan wouldn't have ever liked this; she'd probably try to lighten the mood, maybe even put whoopee cushion on people's chairs.

 

One boy stood in front of the house that Pagan used to live in and he had to choke back his tears. Pagan would have laughed at him for crying right now. In fact, he could almost hear her laughter.

 

Duke stood in a simple dark blue tux, with the front coat unbuttoned, his left hand in the pocket of the pants and his right holding simple blue forget-me-nots; Pagan's favorite flower.

 

He stared helplessly at the house, then Arce, then back at the house. His bright green eyes were dulled and outlined in red while his messy black hair was combed to perfection. Pagan had always thought he looked `professional' when he had his hair like that. She was the only one he'd ever do his hair like this for.

 

He chewed on his bottom lip once more; something he had been doing a lot lately. He watched as people who barely knew Pagan walk into her house and act like they really cared about her.

 

Bullshit.

 

They didn't deserve to know her, or ever see her smile. They were all stupid and only wanted to be put on the TV for knowing the dead. Everyone knew about Pagan's death in the small town they lived in, news like this spread fast, especially since the murderer had yet to be caught. News reporters came to talk about the loss of the town and it had been on ten o'clock news for the past week.

 

Duke's hand clenched softly again the stems of the flowers for Pagan and he stiffened slightly as Thane walked up to him and placed his hand on Duke's shoulder.

 

“Hey, man, how you holdin' up?” Thane asked in a small voice, a soft smile playing on his lips.

 

“Peachy,” Duke snapped, his eyes narrowing in a glare. Even though Pagan would have wanted it that way, no one should be smiling on her funeral day.

 

She'd only been gone a week; everyone seemed to be slowly recovering except Duke. No way only a week could heal a whole life's worth of memories and heart breaks of Pagan. She was his other half and they just expected him to move on just like that?

 

What, was the whole world on crack now?

 

Duke growled softly, moving his shoulder so Thane's hand fell off of his shoulder.

 

“What the hell type of flowers are those?”

 

“Pagan's favorite. Forget-me-nots,” Duke replied curtly, moving his head so he could look at Arce and not Thane.

 

“Oh, gee, Paggie liked those? I got her white roses,” Thane said softly, his left pointer finger running over said flower. “I hope she doesn't mind,”

 

“Doesn't matter,” Duke whispered, closing his eyes against the burn of the tears. He began to wonder how in the world he kept on getting tears. Hadn't he dried them all out by now?

 

“Man, I know this is hard on you…but it's hard on us, too. We all loved her, Duke,” Thane said in a serious, strong voice. Duke wasn't the only one who had feelings that weren't just friendly towards Pagan.

 

“I loved her, too, man,”

 

“Shut up, you don't know her the way I do!” Duke snapped back, “And you keep on saying `loved', damn it! How I feel about her isn't in the past tense!”

 

“Dude, man, I'm sorry,” Thane said, holding his hands up in defense. “Mine feelings aren't in past tense either, but dude, we need to start moving on. She'd probably smack us both for acting as if she's still alive.”

 

“I know she's not fucking alive, but I'm not going to move on from her, ever.”

 

“Look, we need to get inside. Paggie probably wouldn't like it if we were late to her own wake funeral thing.”

 

“Ha, you kidding? She'd probably praise us for being late.” Duke smiled lightly for a moment before it fell off of his face. “Yeah, let's get going…”

 

Duke and Thane walked slowly up towards the steps of the house, clutching their flowers tightly in their hands. Hesitantly, they opened the door and took a small step inside. Pagan's house looked so…so…like her but much, much, much more sadder. It looked wrong.

 

It only took a few seconds after Duke walked in before he was swarmed with people saying their sorrys and telling him about Pagan as if he didn't know her. Duke quietly nodding to each of them, trying to get them to go away. After a few unbearable moments, Duke excused himself before slipping into the living room where the closed casket was.

 

Pagan had been cut up; Duke knew that. He had seen what she looked like after the bastards had gotten finished with her. He was grateful that no one else besides him and her mother had seen her that way. Pagan would have been embarrassed.

 

He clenched and unclenched his free fist as he stared helplessly at the casket, the eternal sleeping bed for Pagan. He wouldn't ever get woken up by her snoring again or see her bed head. He wouldn't hear her stupid laughter or see her stick her tongue out at him. He would see her pout horribly, even though he had always found it adorable.

 

Duke wouldn't see Pagan ever again, in fact.

 

He slammed his eyes shut, blocking all thoughts of his best friends. There was no way he was going to cry again. He'd done enough for everyone in the house. He felt like such a pansy.

 

Duke took in a sharp inhale of shaking breath of air when a small, hesitant hand landed on his lower back. Looking behind him, he frowned slightly to see Heather stand there with red eyes and tear-stained cheeks, her always-perfect shoulder-length black hair in a complete mess. Heather had always cared about her hair before, why did she stop now?

 

“Duke, how have you been? You haven't been to school in a couple of days,” Her usually loud, cheerful voice was softer, shaking ever few moments like she was seconds away from bursting into tears. And by how red her eyes were she was fighting off the tears at the very moment.

 

“Okay,” He croaked out, not wanting to share the same harshness with her as he had done to Thane. “What about you?” He asked in a soft voice, turning to face her fully, looking at the floor rather than at her.

 

“Fine as I could be,” Heather tucked a piece of her hair behind an ear before sighing, “It's weird without her here. I even miss her calling me at Midnight ever Monday to say that she was going to see me in seven hours.” She let out a dry laugh, though it never made it to her eyes.

 

Duke gave a short nod, understanding how she felt.

 

“Thane says that instead of dealing with your emotions, you're just snapping at everyone,” Heather spoke once more. Duke winced slightly, knowing what she said it was true but also because of the tone she used. It was like she was scolding a child. It was like Pagan.

 

“Does it seem like that to you?” He mumbled absently, raising his eyes to meet her brown ones.

 

“Not really, but you always did like me more than Thane,” The girl joked softly, resting her hand on Duke's upper arm. Duke let out a soft chuckle and nodded in agreement.

 

“We should go give her those flowers, don't you think so too, Duke?” Heather spoke softly, eyeing the flowers in his hand. He stared helplessly at the flowers as if they would bring back the girl they were about to be given to.

 

“Yeah,” He spoke softly before looking at her, lowering his brows. “Did you give her some earlier?”

 

Heather smiled and laughed softly. “Oh no, I brought her something different.” She reached into her bag that Duke just barely noticed was hanging off of her left shoulder. She pulled out a box of regular tampons.

 

“You brought her tampons!?” Duke shouted, pointing a finger into her face, jumping a foot back. The room filled with silence as everyone stared at the two. Duke's face heated up in a dark blush but continued to stare at Heather as if she'd just lost her mind. But Heather simply nodded and smiled.

 

“She asked me too.” Her reply was simple and calm.

 

“Huh?” Duke looked at her like she grew a second head. “How in the world did she tell you if she's …no longer here?” He couldn't get himself to say that she was dead, yet. The room slowly began to fill with soft noise once more, people talking about Pagan as the two looked at each other.

 

Heather chuckled softly. “No no, a couple months back, Pagan and I were talking about if one of us…died,” She mumbled the last word before pausing and recomposing herself, “and I asked her what she would want for me to bring her at her wake.”

 

“And she said a box of tampons?” Duke blinked a few times. Sure that sounded like Pagan a lot but Heather actually did it? Now that was a little weird.

 

“Yup,”

 

“Uh, this is going to sound stupid but why?”

 

“Glad you asked. She said she wanted you to hear this,” Heather smiled brightly for the first time in a week. “She said she wanted to know if people still got their periods in Heaven or Hell and to bring her some just in case,”

 

“Idiot. Of course you aren't going to have your period up in Heaven,” Duke snorted, a soft pink color on his cheeks. He couldn't believe he was having this conversation.

 

“Wow,” Heather whistled low, causing Duke to raise a brow.

 

“What?” He snapped lightly.

 

“She knew what you would say, word for word,” Heather smiled softly and Duke blushed.

 

“Well, at least Pagan knows whether or not. Let's give it to her now,” She smiled softly and took Duke's hand in her own and squeezed it, showing that it was only for comfort for the both of them.

 

 

 

A couple days later, Pagan's mother finally convinced Duke to finally get off of his lazy ass and get back in school. “What would Pagan think of you slacking off? She'd kick your behind to Hell and back!”

 

Grumbling, Duke slipped out of his car and walked into the school. A few people walked up to him and said hello and others said that they would miss Pagan. He shot glares at most of them, though. It was like the funeral all over again.

 

Thane walked up and threw an arm around Duke's shoulder only to get a glare sent his way. Chuckling a bit, Thane removed his arm and shook his head. “Man, calm down. You were the closest to her, of course everyone would try to pay their respects to you,”

 

“Whatever, I don't like it. Not like any of them even cared about her,” He snapped, shoving both of his fists into his jean pockets.

 

“Sure, but some of them care about you,” Thane winked at him before sliding into his classroom, leaving a bewildered Duke.

 

“Huh?” What could have Thane meant by that? And what about caring about him has to do anything about caring about Pagan? Thane really was a weird guy sometimes.

 

Shrugging softly, he walked to his own classroom, sitting next to his partner, Sani. Sani was Native American with tan brown skin and dark piercing brown eyes. His hair was black and went down to his shoulders, though he usually had it pulled back in a low ponytail that hug at the base of his neck, like today.

 

“Hey, see you are finally back. Thought you'd died on me, too,” Sani joked casually but Duke just grunted and glared at him.

 

The day passed in a haze, many people coming up to him and saying how bad they felt because they weren't closer to Pagan. Some even tried to comfort him. One boy made the mistake for saying that `he'd miss that fine piece of ass' and Duke was kind enough to punch him, giving him a black eye.

 

Yeah, it was a splendid day.

 

When the day finally ended, Duke nearly jumped for joy. He rushed to his car, only stopping to say a few words to Heather and Thane. He couldn't wait to finally get home and just sleep. He had been doing that a lot lately. And everyone knew the reason why.

 

He'd be able to see her in his dreams.

 

He pulled his car into his driveway and walked into his apartment, throwing his keys on the table and his backpack on the floor. He walked into his small bedroom that was slowly beginning to lose Pagan's smell.

 

He quickly pulled off his shirt before he fell on top of his bed and closed his eyes. Within moments, he fell into a deep slumber, shivering slightly from the cold wind that slowly began to swirl in his bedroom.

 

 

 

Duke found himself standing in a never-ending black, fog circling around his feet. `It's just like a bad movie,' He thought to himself as he scanned the area. `Great it is one of the dreams where I know I'm sleeping. Just fucking peachy,'

 

He took a step forward before he stopped, trying to catch his breath. How could he be out of breath when he only took one step? He looked down at his hand and gasped. That couldn't be his hand! It was hold and wrinkly. Not his hand, or at least it wasn't when he went to bed.

 

“You promised to move on, Duke,” A voice cut through the black causing a shot of blue to rush around him. Duke jumped around and stared with wide eyes, trying to find the speaker of the familiar voice.

 

“Save me, Duke. I can't do it by myself,” Once again, the voice sliced the blackness, only instead of blue, red shot out around him.

 

“What's going on? Whose there?” Duke asked, twisting around to see all around him at once but failing to do so.

 

“I've missed you,” The voice was a whisper in his ear, causing the hair on the back of his neck to stand at its end. Purple began dancing around Duke. He stopped twisting around himself, and stood wide eye at the figure of gray before him.

 

“Who are you?” He asked, trying to take a step towards the person only to find that he couldn't move without being winded. Why did he feel so old all of a sudden?

 

“You finally ready for…?” It whispered to him, sending green out to him, causing him to wince at the brightness at him. He couldn't remember why he knew the voice. He didn't like this dream at all. He liked his dreams better when he could just remember the memories with Pagan.

 

“What the hell is up with the colors!” Duke yelled, clenching his fists by his sides and slamming his eyes shut. He growled softly under his breath, hoping to hear that voice once more so he could yell at it some more.

 

But when he didn't hear anything for a few moments, he opened his eyes slowly only to have them shoot fully open.

 

“Duke, hunny, I want you to meet…” White exploded around him, blinding him and before he awoke, he was able to see the gray figure before him.

 

“Pagan?”

 

 

 

Duke's eyes opened instantly as his whole upper body flung forward into the sitting position. His body was covered with his own sweat and he was breathing heavily. He ran his over his hand over his bare chest and let it rest on his faded jeans. What was up with that dream?

 

Sighing once more, Duke placed his elbows on his knees, sitting Indian style, and placed his face into his palms. His shoulders sagged slightly as he took in deep breaths, trying to calm his nerves. He shivered slightly, another bust of cold air running through the room.

 

“Geesh, Duke, you look like you just had sex and found out that she was beyond ugly!” That same voice giggled at him, the bed dipping with the added weight.

 

Duke's head shot up and his mouth hung open slightly. His whole body froze except his eyes that slowly grew in size. When he spoke, his voice was raspy and low in a whisper, as if he spoke to loud, everything would disappear.

 

“Pagan?”

 

A/N: Hello everyone!

Back again!

This story is going to be about ten chapters, give or take.

And I thank you, Jai, my first commentor!<3