FAR AWAY

By E.J Macklin

Chapter 1: The Event

Mary Perkins sat in her period one Social Studies class, feeling oddly sad. She had
just broken up with her first boyfriend Tim Martin the night before. She really did
like him. But, there was a reason she had to brake up with him, that she just didn’t
have the guts to tell him. She swore it was nothing he did, but he didn’t believe
her. She also felt scared because SHE broke up with him. When she had told him
she didn’t want to go out anymore, he had yelled “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU MARY
PERKINS!” It’s not that he was obsessed with her or anything. He had a very ruff
home life. His father left him and his mother right after he was born, and his
mother drank her self to death. And because both of his grandparents were dead,
he was left to a foster home. The people were nice but they never paid attention to
him. Unless the father was hitting him. So long story short she was the first person
who had ever really given a crap about him, and he thought she was abandoning
him like everyone else in his life.

Still, she didn’t believe him. No one ever meant it when they said “I’M GOING TO
KILL YOU!”... Did they?

“Mary Perkins?” The teacher Mr. Ramirez asked. She looked up at the teacher and
replied “Here” lifting her pale hand up slightly. He nodded and continued to go with
his attdence. Mary sighed and looked out the window. Mary was a 15-year-old
sophomore in Ludlow High School in Fairfield Connecticut. It was October 13th; she
was turning 16 on November 11th. She sighed peacefully as she looked at there
colorful leafs dancing around the brick building. She let out a quite huff and turned
around. She looked down at her desk and mindlessly began twirling a strand of her
long thick curly dark brown hair. She wasn’t fully aware of what the lesson was on.
Her head was somewhere else in the clouds. Besides, she had studied American
History in 8th grade and had past with flying colors.

“Alright. Now here is where the first shot of the war is fired. It’s known as the shot
heard round the world.” Mr. Ramirez said after he had finished taking role. Then
during a pause, as if on cue there was the distant sound of gunshots. Everyone
screamed and ducked down. Mary staid quite and got under her desk. There was
screaming outside, loud and fearful. The screaming was cut off by the sound of two
more gunshots. Then, there was silence. Dead silence, you couldn’t even hear the
sound of someone breathing. The air felt heavy; as if you could feel the prence of
death it’s self. Mary bit her lip, because she was crying. Tears were streaming
down her face. She had this gut wrenching feeling that this might be all her fault. If
that was Tim out there, she would never be aloud to live with her self.

Everyone slowly watched as Mr. Ramirez slowly got on all fours “Stay down and get
to the corner.” He ordered in a hushed whisper. The students did as they were told,
and crawled towards the corner at the far end of the room. Mary was squished
between two people who hated her. As if this day couldn’t get any worse.

As the minuets grew longer, people began to relax, thinking the shooting was over.
Mr. Ramirez slowly began making his way to the door on all fours. “Stay down!.” He
ordered in a hushed whisper. When he got to the door, he stood up and looked out
the window... witch he should have taped over with a piece of paper.

Standing out side was a tall, menacing figure. The person was dressed in black
from head to toe. The only thing showing was a pair of harsh unforgiving, dead
blue-green eyes. His hand was gripping a handgun like you see cops with on T.V.
He slowly turned towards the door. His eyes were locked on Mr. Ramirez. He had
found a target. He slowly lifted his hand, and pointed the gun at him. Before Mr.
Ramirez had the chance to duck, the figure pulled the trigger. The bullet crashed
through the glass and hit Mr. Ramirez directly in the head. In an instant he fell
down to the tile floor with a thud. Everybody screamed and watched helplessly as a
pool of blood began to form around Mr. Ramirez’s head. Nobody could move a
muscle.

Then, just if things couldn’t get more frightening, the door swung opened.
Everyone screamed as the dark figure walked into the room. The person stood in
the center of the room. The person raised his or her arm, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet flew up and crashed into one of the lights. Everyone screamed as the
shattered remains of the light bulbs fell to the ground. “MARY PERKINS!” The figure
demeaned. Mary recognized the voice right away. It was Tim.

The room was still and silent, as Mary was pushed up front, everyone was to
concerned about saving them selves. “Selfish jerks.” She thought bitterly. “STAND
UP BITCH!” Tim yelled. Mary obeyed and stood. Her whole body was vibrating with
fear. “Tim.... please. Think about what you’re doing. I really do care about you
dearly. But my Nana’s sick and there’s no one else to take care of her. She lives in
California and we have to go. Please, you can come with us. My parents won’t
mind. Please, just put the gun down. Don’t do this. ”She whispered, her voice
pleading for forgiveness. He looked down for a minuet, as if he was deliberating
what she had said. Then, he looked up. She could tell by his eyes, he thought it was
a bunch of bullshit. With out one word he pointed the gun at her heart and pulled
the trigger.

CHAPTER 2: The Boats

Mary had seen nothing but black, had heard nothing, felt nothing. Then, all of a
sudden she saw a strange warm light. It seamed to be pulling her in. Mary tried to
fight it, but she couldn’t. The light sucked her in, growing brighter and brighter
until it was so bright she couldn’t see. Then, she felt oddly comfterbale, it was
almost an unforic kind’ of feeling. Then, she didn’t feel anything anymore.

After a while, she could begin to feel her body; it felt heavy to her. It felt like she
hadn’t moved in ages. She could begin to hear things around her. She thought she
could hear the faint sound of snoring. Her eyes began to sting, like it almost time to
wake up. Mary slowly opened her eyes. She was lying in a very comfy bed. It
looked very old fashioned. She slowly sat up and looked around. The whole room
looked old fashioned. On top of that, it looked oddly familiar. Like, she had seen it
somewhere before. Then, she looked down. Her jeans and white eyelet Henley was
replaced with a long flowing dress. A dress that looked EXACTLY like the one Kate
Winslet wore in her favorite movie “TITANIC” when the ship was sinking. Her heart
skipped a beat. Wait a minuet? Her heart? She put her hand to her chest, and felt a
cold hard stone. She looked down and saw what looked to be “The Heart Of The
Ocean”. These were things that made her happy. This dress was her dream dress,
her mom was going to make it for her. This necklace... what could she say? It was
so beautiful. She dreamt of wearing it to prom or on her wedding day. What the
heck was going on?

Mary stood up to try and find someone. Maybe the person who was snoring might
help. She looked over to see a girl, about a year or two younger then her sleeping.
She had short blonde hair and a sun kissed glow to her skin. In fact, she looked
oddly familiar. She gently tapped the girl. She shot up with a snort, looking right
into Mary’s eyes. At that moment, Mary knew who she was. It was Gloria, her best’s
friend’s Janie’s younger sister. The poor thing was at the wrong place at the wrong
time.

“Gloria?” Mary asked breathlessly. “Mary?” She whispered. “Yes.” Gloria stood up.
She was also wearing an old fashion type dress. Where the heck were they and
why were they dressed like this? “Mary, where are we?” She asked in all of her 13
year old innocence. “I don’t know.” Mary answered. Gloria stood up, tripping on
her dress. “What’s with the dress? I feel like we’re on the “TITANIC”.” She
muttered. Then, it struck Mary. The dress, the necklace, the old fashioned room.
They were on the TITANIC. The only other question was... what did that mean? She
could be dreaming. She’s had that dream before. Mary couldn’t remember
anything before waking up. She tried to think hard as she stared at Gloria
unintentionally. She tried to think about what happened before everything went
black. She was sitting in Mr. Ramirez’s period 1 Social Studies Class. He was talking
about Concord and Lexington. Then, there was gun shots. “OH MY GOD!” Mary
shuttered.

“What? Mary what’s wrong?” Gloria asked. “We’re dead.” Mary said, her voice
barley there. “What?” Gloria asked, sounding shocked. “WE’RE DEAD GLORIA! D-E-
A-D DEAD!” Mary shouted. Gloria began shaking. Her thin pink lips trembling as
tears began to stream down her face. “I heard you there first time.” Mary began
trembling with anger. She couldn’t believe what Tim had done. She took Gloria’s
hand and charged out of the room. “Where are we going?” She asked. “To get
some answers that’s what.” Mary stood in the middle of the hall. There was swarm
of people there. Some of them looked really old, as most people are when they die.
However, some of them didn’t look as old. In fact, she saw Heath Ledger walk right
past her, followed by Michael Jackson and then Britney Murphy. They were all
dressed in old-fashioned cloths. However, they weren’t in the stuffy first class suits.
They looked more like they were from third class, while Britney Murphy wore an
elegant dress. If that wasn’t proof enough she was dead, she was going totally
crazy.

“Hey, move it!” A familiar voice yelled. Mary’s eyes grew wide as she looked at the
man. “Mr. Ramirez?” She asked. Mr. Ramirez stopped and stared at her in shock.
“Mary? Oh god... not you to.” She nodded, trying to fight back her anger. “Sir, do
you know what’s going on or where we are?” Gloria asked. Mr. Ramirez pushed
them along down the hall. It seamed the whole rush of people were heading
somewhere. “I’ll explain when we get to the dining room.” He whispered. Then,
they were silent for a few minuets while the walked down a long hallway. They
finally came to two glass doors. “Good evening.” A man said as he opened them.
They walked into the grandest room in the whole ship. It looked as if it was covered
in gold. The clock had little naked babies craved into it. And when you looked up,
you saw a giant gold dome with a giant golden shandiler handing. Mary was awed
by the all to familiar sight. She had seen this room many times both in the movie
“TITANIC” and in her dreams every now and then. However, she didn’t feel happy
like she did in her dreams. She felt scared, angry, confused and helpless all at
once. She didn’t like it, not one signal bit.

Mr. Ramirez took them two empty table and sat the two girls down. “Hello, may I
start you all off with some water?” A waiter asked. “Yes.” Mr. Ramirez said sharply.
The waiter nodded and walked away, coming back only a second later with there
water. “Thank you.” Mr. Ramirez said. The waiter nodded and walked away,
probably sensing that something was off. “Alright, here’s what I know. We are
dead. And when you die, you end up a ship, a ship that has sunken at sea. No
matter what ship you’re on you are dressed in these cloths, I don’t know why.
These ships are our homes until they reach the dropping point. The dropping point
is where you go back to earth. You go to the edge of the ship and jump, and you
are re-born on earth again as a human.” Mary and Gloria stared at him with wide
eyes. Alright, so they were dead. But they would someday go back to earth. The
question was how LONG would they have to stay on the god-forsaken ship? “How
long dose it takes to get to the dropping point?” Gloria asked. Mr. Ramirez sighed,
and by the look in his eyes this wasn’t going to be the answer they had been
hoping for. “I don’t know. It could take mouths, years, decades, centuries maybe
even longer. But we wont get any older. The really old people will at least improve
physicaly and begin to look younger, but only to probably middle age. We will stay
the same age because we’re young.” Mary began to get angrier. They could be on
this ship for CENTURIES! She wasn’t going to put up with this. “So you’re saying
that we might be here for centuries?” Mary asked. Mr. Ramirez shook his head.
“No... probably not.” Mary nodded, and both her and Gloria began crying.