Part 6 – Contract With God 1
“Sunny? Sunny, girl is that you?” He began skipping up the steps of the Hall of Records. He grabbed me with both arms and embraced me. Besides my soul mate, he was probably my favorite spirit. He must have been either in deep prayer or dream to be here like this. I hadn’t talked to him since his journey into life. But I had watched him closely, both myself and Mala, and now here he was, when I needed him most, rescuing me the way he had always done, at Home and during life.
I began weeping when I entered his arms. “Malachi,” I said between sobs, “Malachi, I’m failing him.”
“I heard you screaming, Sunny, and I came as quick as I could.” I looked into his blue eyes, so blue and blazing that they paralyzed me for a moment. He had carried those eyes into his current life, as Brian Littrell.
“You heard me…” My brain said it so quietly, Malachi could hardly hear it. “And he didn’t… How did I lose him?”
Malachi looked up at the moving clouds of Home. He had visited these steps so many times in this life, visited everywhere at Home and he was glad to be here. “He’ll listen eventually, Sunny. If anyone can get to him, its you.” I shook my head.
“Its different this time, Malachi. So different. He’s going to break contract. I can just feel it. I’ve never felt dread like this before. We’re never going to see him again.” My stomach heaved. I was frantic. I was to meet with Him in only a few moments. I would beg him to let me intervene and appear to Nick even though he didn’t wish to see me. And although He was a loving and just God, I was still extremely intimidated. He was, afterall..God…
Malachi’s attention was grabbed instantly and his face turned in extreme concern. “Break contract?” The words were taboo amongst everyone at Home. The ultimate wrong-doing on earth was to break the contract that every spirit makes with the Father God upon their journey to earth. It was unspeakable, and punishable by denial into the Other Side, sentencing souls to eternal life on earth, over and over again, until they had redeemed themselves in the eyes of the Father. Breaking contract was an act of utter selfishness and defiance against the Mother and Father.
Determined, he held my arms tightly. “I’ll talk to him.” My eyes were pleading with his own as he swallowed hard. “If anyone can reach him back there, its me.” He was right. The three of us were the closest souls could possibly be. “And you still go to Him. Ask to intervene. Then, we can do it together.” I nodded. Malachi gave me hope and the little bit of courage I needed to approach the Father. Mal turned to head off and then he grabbed my chin. “We can do this, Sunny. Have faith.” I touched his wrist and then turned, squared my shoulders and raised my head, journeying to the Creator.
*****
God granted me the time to intervene. It would be right before Nickolas made his choice. I would be his last rope to the Other Side. I prayed that Brian would succeed. I prayed that I wouldn’t have to be there at that moment.
*****
The first three times the phone rang, Nick didn’t answer it. He lie face down on his large King Sized bed, praying that the pounding head ache would subside enough for him to get a few hours of desperately needed sleep. When he could not stand the constant ringing another second, he grabbed his cell off the nightstand and flipped it open.
“What?” He moaned hoarsely into the phone.
“Nick?” Brian drawled on the other end. He had woken up restless and had an odd feeling of fear for his band mate. The two of them had been so close for so long. Lately they had seemed to be drifting apart, especially since his own wedding. But Brian cared for Nick and wanted to know he was alright. And this nagging feeling was with him since he had arisen, thus calling Nick as soon as he saw it as an appropriate time of the day. It was 10:30 am, a warm sunny day in Atlanta. He imagined the weather was very similar in Tampa. He was sure Nick would be up, getting ready to take out his boat or something of that nature.
“Sleeping.” Nickolas mumbled as if his mouth was covered with something.
Brian disregarded what his friend said and went on. “Wake up, man. It’s a beautiful day.”
“Shut up.” He responded with very little emotion.
“Leighanne and I wanted you to come up for a visit, man. Spend some time with us. Take a vacation from everything there.” Brian wasn’t even sure what Nick needed to take a vacation from, yet somehow he had a feeling that Nick needed it, more than anything in the world.
Nick pushed himself up in bed and sat Indian style, looking at the bare white walls of his bedroom. “What?” He asked the person he had always looked up to, emulated, and then suddenly lost when Brian had fallen in love. Nick was bitter about it, bitter that somehow a woman had taken precedence over friendship so quickly.
“Me and Leigh want you to come to Hotlanta for a visit. We haven’t seen you since the wedding and…”
Nick cut him off. “Go to hell, Brian.” With that, he hung up the phone.
Nick lie back down on his huge soft bed. The phone began ringing again, but he put his head under the pillow. When, once again, he could stand it no longer, he pulled himself up wearily and walked downstairs, grabbing a tank top from the stairwell that was hanging there. He saw himself in a hall mirror as he passed and wondered who he was. He hadn’t shaved in days and his eyes were swollen and bloodshot, from lack of sleep and too much to drink and too many pills.
He had no idea why he felt such despair. He had no idea and that was what made him even more depressed. A tiny tear escaped from Nick Carter’s eye as he looked in the mirror. He never cried.
He wiped the tear away.
Nickolas’s heart jumped as he saw a spark in the mirror. It was a tiny flash of light. At first he thought it was a camera and he got pissed. But then he realized that it wasn’t. It had been like someone had struck a match. He turned around to look for it, but it was gone. It had to have been the hang over.
Nick walked into his bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. His eyes scanned the contents. There it was. Tylenol #3. It was the shit that he was given when he hurt his knee earlier that summer playing basketball. Had knocked him out, sent him floating. This was exactly what he needed. He pocketed it into his large basketball shorts and then scanned the cupboard one more time. His decision was quick as he grabbed a bottle of Robitussin PE. He’d need something to wash the pills down with.
As he closed the cabinet, he saw the flash again. He had been wrong before. It wasn’t like a match being struck. It was more like a spark; a spark like metal on concrete. Nick’s neck ached and he watched where it had come from closely through the mirror. It seemed as if everything was moving through a wave, slowly, warped and twisted.
This was what Nick wanted to do and no one would stop him. He felt no remorse. The people he was leaving didn’t care about him any more than he cared for himself.
Nickolas walked to the kitchen table, grabbed the keys to his boat and left his house, forgetting to shut the door. Two tiny pugs trailed behind him as he walked across his front lawn, across the street, past a dozen or so neighbors houses to the community pier. He walked along the massive wooden dock, not responding to Al McMahon who called out a greeting to him, and opened the gate to his boat, boarding himself and his dogs. He still held the bottle of Robitussin in his left hand.
Nick started the boat and made his way out to sea. He stopped when he got to the center of the Bay, Tampa in one direction, St. Pete in the other. He had always loved the ocean. It seemed only right that he would die on it.
He would leave no letter and no explanation. There really wasn’t any. Nickolas was just tired of living and wanted all the pain he felt in his heart to go away. He knew that he had had it no worse than any other person. It was just that he could stand it less than others, and a person who was so weak, in his opinion, didn’t deserve to live.
He shut down the motor and walked to the window where he could see the ocean as he consumed the pills.
He could hear the wind blowing outside and he closed his eyes as his hands reached into the pockets of his shorts. It seemed to be whispering his name, “Nickolas…Nickolas…” It seemed so sad.
“Don’t worry.” He told the wind. “You don’t have to worry anymore. It will be better this way.”
He jolted a little when he heard the voice, plain and human, from behind him entering the cabin. He turned and a woman stood there, wearing a captains uniform. She must have been a member of the coast guard. He needed to get rid of her.
“It could never be better this way.” Her voice. He knew her voice. Did he know her?
Nick furrowed his brow and looked at her, trying to back up as she came closer. His breathing became heavier. He hadn’t been scared before. Not scared at all. “Who are you?” He asked.
“I’m you.” I answered in a whisper, my form becoming transparent and then becoming a wave.
Nick sucked in a mouth full of air as if he was drowning. The captain had disappeared.
Something tickled his barefoot and he looked down, imagining it to be Nicky or Willy. But it wasn’t. It was white chiffon and he touched it without looking up, rubbing it between two fingers. It was so white, so brilliant. It reminded him of sunlight. It reminded him of the sun rising, waking the day with beauty and the blessings to start anew. He shook his head.
He could never start again. Not after where he was now.
Nickolas looked up at me. I was sitting right next to him. His lips formed as if to say “Who are you?” yet I didn’t let him ask the question. I put my finger to his lips.
The woman Nickolas looked at was sunlight. Dressed all in white chiffon, her dark hair pulled away from her flawless pale face and dark brown eyes. He found it hard to believe that she could be the angel of death, but that must be who she was. The angel of death was coming to take him Home.
Home.
His eyes darted around the cabin. He felt her finger on his lips. “I’m no angel, Nickolas. And I certainly have nothing to do with death.” I shook my head.
Nick stuttered in response, dumbfounded that he had spoken hardly a word to me, yet I was responding to his thoughts. “Wha…wha…wha…” I put my hand on top of his trembling one. I smiled at him.
“Think hard, Nick. Close your eyes and remember me. I’ve always been right there. Always. Just for a few moments, remember.”
He gulped and the words hit his lips without him even knowing. “Sunshine.” He said, barely audible.
I raised his hands and kissed his fingertips and Nick suddenly felt as if his skin would peel off it tingled so much. He was really scared now, more frightened than ever in his life. He pulled back.
“Go away, Aurora.” He was angry now. Angry that somehow he knew my name. Angry that I had joined him there on the boat. “I don’t know you. I did too much ecstasy last night and this is just a bad trip.”
I wanted to slap him. But I didn’t. “I need to show you something.” I said. I didn’t wait for his response. I just took him.
Part 7
Spirit Guide
NinasFiction
NinasFeet
