Alive 

By: Eilaf Shah, 22

When she wrapped her arms around him, the sweet staleness of tobacco enveloped her, and he was shivering. He couldn't possibly be feeling cold under the thick fabric of his overcoat unless he really had caught a cold. Was that why he had been smoking? Confused, she moved back to read his face carefully.

It was paler than when she had seen him earlier in the morning. Sweat beads trickled down slowly from his forehead towards his brows. His eyes were enlarged as if he had encountered a ghost. He fisted and relaxed his hands several times. Gulping a lump in his throat, he wiped his forehead with his sleeve. He ran his hand through his unruly hair as he took a seat on the dusty brown leather couch.

Nothing made sense. He had been perfectly normal when he left for work.

"Jack, honey. What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"I can't believe this," he finally said, his voice breaking at the end. His breaths got heavier, his chest heaving. The more he tried to breathe deeply, the more his chest constricted under pressure. The normal task of breathing involuntarily now felt laborous. "He's here... and he's alive." he told her, grabbing her by her shoulders.

"Who? What... What are you talking about Jack?" she asked horrified by her husband's sudden panic. Her heart thudded inside her chest as panic took over her too.

She made him sit on the couch as she rubbed his trembling hands. His face turned blue as he began hyperventilating. She ran to the kitchen to get a paper bag. Immediately handing him the bag, she asked him to take deep breaths into it. During the ten minutes that took him to relax, several questions about this 'alive' man ran through Julia's mind. Whose life threatened the peace of her husband?

"Now, tell me who is this person you're afraid of? You don't need to be scared of anyone, Jack. We can file a report against him and the police will look to it"

"No law can save me now. He's alive. I can't believe this. He was buried deep into the ground right before my eyes. How could he..." Julia understood little to none of what her husband was trying to say.

"I don't understand. Who is it?” she probed further.

"I don't understand it either. A person who was dead yesterday, now stands before me and shakes my hand. How can this even be possible? How can the dead be brought back to life?” Jack was losing his senses. Nothing in the world made sense to him at the moment. Was he really having supernatural experiences now?

"For God's sake Jack, tell me who it is.” Julia's panic now turned into frustration.

"Mr. Walkers. 31 Greens Road. The farmhouse case." Jack finally said. Julia couldn't believe her ears. A chill ran down her spine as the memory of a old, wrinkled man played in her mind. She covered her mouth, shock evident in her widened eyes. Mr. Walkers died in a fire in his farmhouse two years ago.

Julia's head turned towards the door when she heard a knock. She rose up slowly from the couch. Jack grabbed her wrist not letting her move any further.

"Julia, don't." his voice trembled with fear.

"I won't let anyone hurt you Jack." she said as she pulled her hand away.

She took steady steps towards the dimly lit hallway that lead to the door. A storage case was kept along the left wall in the hallway, a few feet away from the door. She pressed her hand against the glass door of the storage case. It slid open with a single push. She reached for a thick book with red leather cover. She flipped the book and pulled on the ribbon that hung out from a narrow slit. It opened revealing an empty case. Suddenly, she heard a metallic click behind her. The book dropped from her hands upon recognizing that familiar sound.

"You're so easily distracted." Jack said, standing tall behind her.

Julia's blood turned cold as goosebumps chased to the tips of her fingers. Her hands began trembling. She could feel him standing behind her with his arms stretched away from his body, her gun in his hands pointing towards her head. She turned around and found him pointing the gun at her face.

"Won't you ask me, honey, what Mr. Walkers said to me when he came back from the dead?" he spoke in a low guttural voice. It sounded nothing like him. "He told me what you were doing that night at his farmhouse, how you planned to murder him"

Julia gulped a dry lump in her throat, "But... he's-"

"Alive." Jack said, smiling, as his finger curled on the trigger.