It took me a while to realize I was dead. The realm of the dead and the living look so much alike. It wasn�t until I saw Alex standing in the doorway to my hospital room that I knew something was wrong. I looked down at the bed in front of me. My lifeless body lay there, monitors attached to me chest with thin wires made loud continuous screeching sounds saying that they could no longer ready my pulse. A nurse stood at the side of the bed, slowly pulled a white sheet over my pale, life stricken face. Mum stood at the foot of the bed, crying into Patrick�s arms, tears ram down his face. For some reason, it didn�t surprise me to see James sitting in a seat against the far wall, looking so bored that he might fall asleep. What did surprise me however, was Lucy, standing next to his chair, looking up and crying. She looked over where I was standing, an expression as if she could see me. She ran out of the room, but James didn�t look after her as she suddenly left.

I walked over to mum and Patrick and hugged them both. They never looked up, never moved as I put my skin against theirs. Tears ran down my face, I looked up at Alex who held her hand out to me. I stood up strait, wiped away my tears and walked over to her. I put my hand in hers and she curled her fingers around mine. I looked at her, confused but she just stared at me blankly and started walking out of the room.

We stood outside, out the front of the hospital. The surroundings looked the same, but different. There were so many more people.

�Welcome to our world,� Alex said in a quiet whisper. I looked at her, confused and then back at the people. I saw what differed some people from others. They all looked human, alive, but others were paler, sort of translucent. I remembered Alex looked sort of the same back in my hospital room.

�Are they dead?� I asked, not looking at Alex. I couldn�t take my eyes off the sight before me.

�Yes,� she said, leaving me a moment to gather my thoughts. She grabbed me around the shoulders and turned me to face her. �Sarah, I would be lying if I said I didn�t miss my life, but I don�t blame you for what happened.� I looked at her and started to cry.

�But I killed you. How can you not blame me?�

�I know it wasn�t the real you. I�ve forgiven you, it�s time to forgive yourself.�

�Oh god! I killed Jeff! What have I done. I can�t forgive myself. I killed Jeff. I loved him and I killed him. I killed you, my best friend and I nearly killed my brother.

�Jeff has forgiven you. He still loves you. And you will see him soon.� I collapsed to my knees, crying into my hand. Alex bent down beside me and put her hand on my back, her other hand around my arms. I grabbed her, hugging her and cried into her arms.

There is no god, no heaven. There is no hell. Well, not as it is portrayed anyway. If there was, I would be there. Instead, we simply remain on the earth in what I call, �the realm of the dead.� We, spirits I mean, we live within and apart from the realm of the living.

Have you ever had the feeling of a presence near you? Or have things ever been moved or misplaced? That�s us. It gets sort of boring in the realm of the dead. We don�t have jobs and we don�t go to school. We simply just wander, so, sometimes we play jokes on the living.

I remember when I was younger, people used to tell me ghost stories or stories of their personal encounters with spirits. I�d scoff and say, �Yeah, right, like that could ever happen.� But now I believe, that at last some of the stories were true.

Don�t believe every single ghost story you�re told, but believe that some are true.