…
http://cx.aos.ask.com/question/aq/1400px-788px/people-put-flowers-graves_17413cefbbf774cb.jpg
She buried a girl she didn't even know...
"This isn't real... This isn't you.." I said backing away from the person, "It's just a dream.." I slapped myself slightly, an attempt to wake myself up from my slumber but I realised this was real life. "Crystal... I understand this is strange, in fact very strange but please..." I still didn't believe this, it had to be some sick joke set up from somebody, surely. They were dead. Long gone. Nobody can awake from the dead. "Who's SICK joke is this?" I screamed, "Get out my house and LEAVE!" I sobbed.
"Please, this is me. Your sister..." She began to cry, "This is Megan, I never died.." She smiled at me, wiping away her tears from her eyes and indicated for me to approach her. "That night, I left the town – the girl who died was never me. I never knew that someone died and I never knew that you all thought it was me. I only found when I was out of the country and I couldn't contact you, I had nothing to do so." I sat down on the sofa in disbelief, this couldn't be real.
"Mum doesn't know, I would ask her to come round here and we can... address this to the best we can." Megan said, taking my hand as I picked up the phone trying my hardest not to break on the line. How was my mother going to cope when she finds out that she cried for a random girl, who we all believed was Megan and who we buried six feet under, thinking she was our flesh and blood? My heart was still racing from this all, something wasn't right.
Mum raced round quickly, I told her it was pretty urgent and she came rushing into the house, searching for me and calling my name. She took one step into the front room and screamed, falling onto the floor and backing off, similarly to what I did when I saw my 'dead' sister in the doorway. "Mum... please-" I tried to say to her, she cut me off "It can't be... Megan?" She cried.
"Yes, it's Megan." I said, tears forming in my eyes as Megan looked into mum's eyes as they both weeped.
"But.. You died?" She stuttered out. From there the whole story was told to both of us in full. Megan told us that on the night 'she died' she only left the house to leave from 'him' as she described and didn't want to tell any of us in fear that we may get upset. Little did she know that her ex boyfriend was plotting to kill her and mistakenly killed a homeless girl from a village nearby, in which everyone believed was her. She got on the plane and met numerous people who took her around the world and kept her safe, as there was no other way. With no way of contact, there was nothing she could do.
All the years we mourned for Megan, the girl we all loved to find out that instead, we mourned for a homeless girl who we had never met up until her death. The two were so alike, although a lot of her face seemed to be ripped off in some kind of fashion, nobody could explain that. The police were informed, the death certificates were changed and discarded and progressively more family turned up to the house to be made aware of the news.
The reactions to seeing my sister were all the same; complete and utter shock. There was no other way to describe the atmosphere when people arrived than pin drop silence until the screams and sobs made. I'm surprised neighbours didn't worry or phone the police themselves, it was that bad – the story was told over and over again on repeat as everyone reacted and soon the whole community seemed to welcome back 'the dead girl.'
My mother was shaken from it all, she was one of the people who carried her coffin to the front of the church before she was buried. She buried a girl she didn't even know, who was of no family and had nobody in life, the positive were that she got a good send off, even if it was from people who didn't even know her. After a while we began to adjust to some sense of normality, the room was filled by my parents, Paddy, who was texted the news during a training session, imagine having to explain that one... my grandparents, my auntie's and my uncle's as well as now close friends.
Time went by so slowly as we all sat there trying to adjust to what was going on. "So, why come home now?" I said, in an attempt to ask a question it seemed many were too scared to ask.
"Because I was ready to, you know I love you all so much and to leave you was the hardest thing I will ever do In my life. To think... that you all thought I had gone in that way... I won't ever be able to forgive myself for that and I know this is going to be hard for us all but I want to go back to the way things were previously." She said. With that, everyone crowded into the center of the room and hugged, a whole family reunion. The dead girl was back home...