Chapter Three: The Next Day

Ethan recovered from the shock of seeing his father on the scoreboard long enough to stagger out of the mansion. He bumped into several others on his way out and as soon as he got outside and shut the door behind him, he fell to his knees. Ethan was breathing heavily and fast, am I hyperventilating? Ethan thought to himself. Waves of heavy sadness and anger kept washing over Ethan’s heart as he tried to regain himself.

Eventually Ethan found the strength to stand up again. He wiped his tears from his face and walked away from the mansion trying to think how this could be happening. “How was my father here in this same situation as me?” Ethan said aloud to himself. “Shouldn’t he be in hell for his sins or something? Was this just a coincidence, or is this where all dead people ended up?”

He looked back at the mansion and staring at it with more suspicion than when he first saw it. He stared at the mansion with frustration and suspicion until a bright quick flash of blinding light flickered in his left eye. Ethan turned around to see that there was a metal object that kept glaring the sun in Ethan’s eye. For the first time since he got outside the mansion, Ethan noticed he was standing in the middle of a road with the sunrise just over the horizon and the glare was coming from a parked car.

“Wait sunrise?” Ethan said aloud. “I was fighting in that weird portal dimension all night?” Ethan stood in the street staring at the sunrise until he grew bored. He looked around him and noticed that the street was incredibly familiar to him but he couldn’t exactly place why. Ethan walked in a wide circle around the road trying to figure out why he knew it so well. When he looked down another street and saw a series of small nice houses that he knew so well. He lived on this street only seven houses down and this road he was on… it's where he was run over.

Ethan thought about the accident again when an image of his mother popped into his head. Mom! Ethan cried aloud to himself. Then he took off running down the road. Ethan ran as fast as he could until he got to his house; he jumped the small white fence and ran up to the porch.

When Ethan got to his door he reached for the doorknob but his hand just passed right through it. Ethan tried once more for the doorknob but the same thing happened and he became frustrated again. Then a new thought occurred to Ethan and he carefully walked right through the door. There was an extremely light tingly sensation all over his body as he stepped through the door but otherwise he felt nothing.

Ethan’s home was dark and silent which didn’t surprise him his mom shouldn’t be awake for at least another hour. Ethan ran up the stairs and down the hall to his mom’s room. This time he didn’t even try the doorknob he just walked right through the door and found his mom sleeping peacefully in her bed. Tears of sadness and joy streamed down Ethan’s face when he saw his mom and he called out, “Mom!”

His mom stirred in the bed a little but otherwise she didn’t wake up or respond. Ethan shouted a little louder this time, “Mom, I’m home.” But still there was no answer. As Ethan reached his hand out to touch her when the caretaker’s voice resounded in his head, “You are free to come and go from here as you please, but it is ill advised that you attempt to interfere or make contact with the living.”

Ethan ignored the voice and continued reaching his hand out to touch his mom on the shoulder when his hand passed right through her and she didn’t even stir a little. The sudden loud buzzing sound made Ethan jump and his mom rolled in her bed and reached out to her desk beside her bed and turned off her little buzzing alarm clock. She slowly sat up in bed and yawned then threw her blanket off her and swung her legs around the side of her bed.

She glanced around her room then stood up and walked right through Ethan and left her room. Ethan just stood there in shock as his mom went right through him like he wasn’t there. So what did you think would happen; you would come say hi to your mom and she would hug you and then you two could go on living together like you hadn’t died? Ethan said to himself. Well think again idiot your dead, and you can’t even contact your dear mother, she can’t even see you.

Ethan couldn’t stop the tears that were streaming down his face; not for his death but for the thought of not being able to comfort his mom. After everything she had been through she didn’t deserve to lose him like this. Ethan soon found it hard to breathe and he left his house and just started walking, not paying any attention to where he was going.

While trying to clear his head on his walk, Ethan failed to realize he had been walking for hours and he was now in the busier part of his town. The streets were filled with people but not overly crowded; not that it mattered to Ethan everyone just passed right through him and he didn’t even feel it. Ethan turned around and not too far in the distance was the mansion just sitting in the middle of the road as if it had always been there.

It was incredibly weird and didn’t fit in; where the road and sidewalk ended is where the mansions small dark yard began. Ethan turned away from the mansion and started jogging directly east. He went through cars, buildings, and people like they were nothing more than air, which to him that’s what they were.

As the sun was starting to set Ethan found himself at the end of town, tired from jogging and walking all day. Ethan spotted one of the few 20 floor hotels in the whole town and headed towards it. He walked right through the doors and few people in the lounge and headed for the staircase. It was tiresome climbing all the steps but when Ethan made it to the roof of the hotel he found his efforts worth it.

The sky had a beautiful red hue as the sun set over the horizon and slowly fell behind the mountains. Ethan was sitting on the edge of the roof with his feet hanging over the side just enjoying the sunset. For the brief time that it was there he just ignored all his problems and let them dissolve in the darkening sky.

Several minutes after the sun had set, Ethan still sat on the edge of the roof staring at the sky. A cold breeze blew by him and he put his hands in his jacket pocket to warm them when he felt something cold and metallic in his right pocket. He pulled out a small old fashioned long key with a small tag attached to it.

Ethan couldn’t make out what was written on the tag so he turned to go to the door to the roof where there was a light when he saw behind him the ghost mansion; sitting in the sky the steps to its porch just touching where the other edge of the hotel roof. Ethan let out a long and sad sigh; he could travel the world and see anything he wanted in it but no matter where he went that mansion would always be behind every time he turned around. Ethan looked back down at the key and walked to the only light on the roof so he could read the tag.

On the one side of the key tag was engraved: Floor 1

Ethan flipped the tag over and it read: Room 30,425

“Swell” Ethan said sarcastically. Then he put the key back into his pocket and walked up to the mansion.