I thought between him and I, it would be nothing but smiles, laughter, and pure bliss. At least that’s how it was for me. I woke up every day so happy just being next to him.
I still get butterflies when I remember our first date. We were only eighteen. He took me to the fair and I made him go on all the rides with me. Even though he had an exam the next day, he still dragged his tired feet behind me as I hopped around like an energetic bunny.
Fast forward ten years later and here we are. Married for three happy years. Well, that was until we took that stupid camping trip that turned our lives upside down.
The alarm woke me up. Oh, how I hate mornings. But he always made them better, so I reached over to his side of the bed while whispering good morning. I felt nothing but cold sheets.
I sat up, opened my eyes, and slowly scanned the room, but he was nowhere to be found. “Axel!” I shouted, and my voice echoed through the empty walls of our home, yet he didn’t respond.
I swiftly jumped out of bed and frantically searched the house. Something seemed very off today, and I can’t quite put my finger on it.
“Axel!” It was way too early for him to have gone to work already, plus we just got back from our camping trip so why wouldn’t he be home? I sat on the couch and tried to calm myself down. It must be the pregnancy hormones driving me crazy.
I took some calming breaths and my thoughts slowly started clearing up. “Maybe you should just call him stupid,” I got up and searched around for my phone but couldn’t find it anywhere. “Why now?” I whispered to myself while still searching for the stupid device.
Moments from our camping trip of when my phone had fallen into the lake suddenly flashed through my mind. “I’ll just have to wait then,” with a deep sigh, I collapsed on the couch. Another boring day in the house. Who knew being on maternity leave would be so bland?
I spent the day doing the same things as usual, cleaning, watching Netflix, vomiting, looking at baby stuff for the nursery, and writhing in pain. Nothing unusual.
I had tried texting Axel on Facebook, but he seemed to have deleted his account. When did he do that? It’s currently four in the afternoon so Axel should be home soon.
Deciding I needed some fresh air, I got up, and took a walk through our neighbourhood. It was a fairly nice and quiet neighbourhood. The neighbours never really interacted with us, so it wasn’t too odd when I walked past the neighbours, and they paid me no mind.
I continued walking in the direction of a nearby park when an inconsiderate driver nearly ran me over. I tumbled on the pedestrian crossing and the driver didn’t even bother to stop to check on me.
I struggled to get up clutching my belly praying that my baby boy was okay. The neighbours never spared me a glance so helping was out of the question. “I don’t like any of you anyway,” I dusted off my clothes and continued my journey to the park.
After spending a few hours in the park, I headed home knowing that Axel was most likely already there and wondering where I was.
To my surprise, I returned to an empty house yet again. Where could Axel be? Why hasn’t he come home yet? I started panicking again. Not having seen him for so long and not having any means of contacting him was really turning me insane.
I tried calming myself down by cooking a meal. What good would it do to panic on an empty stomach? While preparing a meal, I jogged my memory to try remembering if he had mentioned anything to me about what he would be up to.
Maybe he had a business trip and I forgot? But he would normally leave a note on the nightstand before leaving. Maybe his mom fell sick again? Still, he would have found some way to notify me.
All this thinking was exhausting me, so I crawled into bed and called it a night. “Daddy will be home soon baby. Don’t you worry,” I whispered to my unborn child while caressing my belly.
Three days. It’s been three days since I last saw Axel and I have been losing it. Everybody around has been bluntly ignoring me and it’s really starting to get on my nerves.
I have a doctor’s appointment today and the hospital is not that far from home. So, I figured I could just walk, get some fresh air and clear my mind. Axel not returning home has really been bothering me. Could something have happened to him?
Upon entering the hospital, I walked over to the receptionist desk and told her I had an appointment with Dr. Rockwell just to be ignored yet again. “Excuse me,” still no response.
“Hi, my name is Sandra Alexander. I’m here to see my mom Alaine Alexander,” the receptionist immediately gave the woman besides me the information she wanted and completely bypassed me.
Am I invisible now? I tried to get the attention of other doctors and nurses, but everyone went on completely ignoring my existence. What is wrong with these people?
Since everyone decided it was “ignore Ava” day I just walked in the direction I knew Dr. Rockwell’s office was. As I neared the office, I felt my body go limp. Like all the life had been sucked out of me.
There he was. In a room seated next to a woman’s bed, holding her hand. Although I couldn’t see her face clearly, the woman looked to be unconscious, and Axel looked like he hadn’t slept in days. He looked like he had been doing nothing but crying.
I felt my heart clench in my chest. Is she the reason he hadn’t been home these past few days? I felt a pang in my chest as I neared the door, it couldn’t be, could it? Axel would never do that to me.
The remaining fragments of hope I had diminished as I watched Axel bring her hand to his lips, kiss it, and start sobbing. A crippling feeling of heartbreak and jealousy enveloped my body, and I did what any woman in my position would do.
“Axel what is going on!” I exclaimed. “You haven’t been home in three days! You haven’t even tried to contact me. And you deleted your Facebook account? What’s that about? I came here for a doctor’s appointment, that you obviously forgot about, and you’re here with another woman? Don’t just stare at me like that and start explaining yourself.”
By the time I was done ranting, I was out of breath and Axel just stared at me as if he had seen a ghost. “I must be hallucinating,” he whispered to himself as he stared between the woman laying on the bed and me.
“What are you ta-,” that’s when I noticed the woman’s features. Dark skin, curly afro, slim built. All this made no sense.
I felt a sense of panic wash over me. “This can’t be real. Is this a prank?” But from the look on Axel’s face I could tell that it wasn’t. I looked over to the body on the bed and my breath became laboured. I tried to calm myself down but then I began hyperventilating.
“Avalon,” Axel’s soft voice floated on my ear as I stared at the woman possessing my face. “You’re in a coma. You have been for two weeks.”
“How is that possible? I’m right here. You can see me; you can hear me. What do you mean I’m in a coma? What are you talking about?”
None of this made sense. I obviously wasn’t in a coma, so why do I see myself laying on a hospital bed? “Yes, I can see you, which is why I think I’m hallucinating. On our camping trip two weeks ago, a horrible storm occurred while were on the paddle boat. The boat overturned and we both fell into the water. You ended up hitting your head on a rock, so I got you out of the water and rushed you to the hospital. You haven’t woken up since.”
I just stared at Axel unable to process a word he was saying. “So, I’m a ghost? That’s not possible cause I’m still alive. So, what is happening?” So many questions were circulating in my head.
“I’m guessing you’re in between. Like you’re alive but not quite. I didn’t even know this kind of thing was possible. I feel like I’m in a movie.”
Axel kept rambling and I was lost in thought. “Hold on, I’ll be back. I’m going to test something,” I walked out the room with Axel tailing behind me shouting my name.
I went to the reception desk and started talking but the receptionist still paid me no mind. So, I slapped her, and she held her cheek screaming in pain.
“What’s wrong Cora,” a nurse rushed next to her. “I felt like someone just slapped me. My cheek hurts so bad,” so they can feel me but can’t see me? I guess I am a ghost.
“You didn’t have to slap her Ava,” Axel scolded me as we walked back to the room hosting my body. “I was just testing a theory,” I shrugged him off.
I moved over towards my bed and just stared at my lifeless body. I felt Axel hug me from behind and rested his head in the crook of my neck.
“This must be so scary for you right now. I can’t imagine how you feel right now but I’m going to be right next to you. Always.” I let his words sink in enjoying the warmth of his body.
“So how come you can hear and see me and nobody else can?” I felt his eyebrows furrow against my skin. “I guess maybe cause I’m the only one who really knew you? Maybe our connection gave me the ability?”
Life really has a sense of humour. Why is this happening to me? Why is this even possible?
I reached out to touch my baby bump, but my hands never contacted it. My hand went right through, and I could feel my son inside me. What in the world?
The BPM machine started going crazy and a doctor rushed into the room. “Mr. Eveland, what happened?” Having no explanation for what just happened, Axel simply stared at the doctor struggling to form a sentence.
The doctor performed his checks and gave Axel some updates then left. I couldn’t focus on anything he had said because I was still unable to understand what had just happened. I felt my son? I really felt my son inside me.
“How come you can’t touch your body?” Still in disbelief, the words fell out of my mouth, “I felt our son.”
“What?” Axel turned me to face him. “What do you mean you felt our son?” “I mean I felt him, Axel. Like my hand went through my body, into my womb, and touched his feet.”
Saying that out loud felt so unreal. “Are you sure?” Bewilderment plastered on his face. “How can you feel the kid and not yourself?” I really couldn't understand this ghost, half-dead-but-not-quite-dead thing. It was getting really confusing.
“Maybe it disrupts the system? You know, the line between dead and alive? Maybe us intertwining would cause some crazy thing to happen? You saw how my heart rate changed?”
“Yeah, you might be right. So, what are we supposed to do now?” Axel looked over to me and I honestly had no clue.
We sat in the room in complete silence just staring at each other and my body on the bed until Axel broke it with a question, “How come you didn’t realize you were a ghost? Were you home the entire time?”
“Well for the most part, yes. I went for a walk outside once and the neighbours completely ignored me but that’s nothing new for those snobby people. And I almost got ran over too and the driver never even stopped. Well, I guess now it makes sense why. But other than that, I hadn’t interacted with other people.”
Axel sat quietly in deep thought, “So what about objects? Can you hold stuff as normal?” “Yes. I can hold everything. I showered and felt the water, I ate as usual, and did my chores. Everything was normal.” Axel hurriedly grabbed my arm and rushed out of the room.
We reached the reception desk again and the receptionist was busy writing something down. “When she puts the pen down take it and hold it in front of her,” Axel said to me.
Confused by his request, I patiently waited for the receptionist to put her pen down. As soon as she did, I went over to her desk and took it. I watched as she profusely searched for the pen I was holding right in front of her. After watching her search for a few minutes, I placed the pen back where she had left it.
“Was this pen here the whole time,” I heard her whisper to herself as I walked back towards Axel. He just hummed and pulled my arm again, taking me to another part of the hospital.
We had reached the cafeteria and he had again instructed me to grab a bowl off someone’s lunch tray and hold it u in front of them. I did as I was instructed and watched as the man frantically searched for his bowl of soup that he was certain he placed on his tray. When he bent under the table, I placed the bowl back on his tray.
“What are your findings, detective Axel?" He seemed to be piecing information together in his head. “One more test and I will tell you.” And with that he took off pulling me to a room on the pediatric ward.
He instructed me to lift different objects around the room and gauge the kid’s reaction. So, I pushed the kid’s door open and entered the room.
“Did my door just open by itself?” A bewildered bed ridden kid stared at her self-opening door. I walked over to her bed and lifted her IV off the floor. “Now my IV is floating? Did a ghost just enter my room?” I lifted her tray of food off the bedside table.
“My food just disappeared! Mom! There’s a ghost in my room!” I placed her tray back on the bedside table and rushed out of the room.
On our way back to my room I told Axel all what had happened. “So, things you touch seemed to vanish before a normal person,” he spoke as he tried to piece together the mystery that was me.
“But that little girl still saw the IV when you lifted it. Why do you think that is?” I genuinely had no clue, so I just shrugged at him. “And the door too didn’t disappear.”
I just watched as Axel did all the brain work and waited until his brilliant brain came up with something.
“I think I figured it out Ava! So, my theory is, things that you can hold and are totally immersed in the air disappears, like we saw with the soup and the pen.”
“So, they can’t see things I’m touching? That explains why I’m not just a pile of floating clothes.” Axel nodded at my observation.
“However, things that are still attached to something you’re not touching just seem to be floating or move on its own.” Axel explained with a wide grin on his face as if he had found the cure for cancer.
“You might be right Axel. How’d you figure that out?” Axel shook his head and laughed at me, “It’s called making a scientific hypothesis and experimenting to prove it true or false.” “So, how are you going to prove that?” Axel just raised his eyebrows at me and smiled, and for the millionth time today, he grabbed my arm and ran.
For the rest of the day, Axel had me messing around with the people at the hospital in the name of proving his theory, but by the way he was laughing, I think it was just a means of curing his boredom.
Later that day, for the first time in two weeks, Axel left the hospital and went home.
Even after proving his theory, something still didn’t settle right with me. If I had been in a coma for two weeks now, why had my ghost only awakened three days ago?
Every time we figure something out, more questions arise. Pushing the burning questions aside in my mind, I basked in the current peace of being cuddled up within my loving husband’s arms.
My eyes fluttered shut as I felt Axel’s hands on my belly, and he kissed my temple. “Good night my love. Good night my little Axelon.” “We are not naming him that Axel.”
I giggled at the stupid name he had been wanting to give our son. “Come on, Ava. It’s the perfect name. Axel and Avalon make Axelon. The name couldn’t be more perfect.”
I laughed even louder as he used the same explanation he always uses to try to convince me. “Axelon sounds like a mythical creature,” I responded to him. “But it’s a great name, Ava!” “No and good night, Axel.” “Whatever,” he grumbled under his breath.
Another two weeks had passed, and I was still in a comatose state. Axel had returned to work, and I visited myself at the hospital, trying to figure out a way to get myself to wake up.
I knew I couldn’t touch my body, because I had tried multiple times, and all it did was cause my heart rate to pick up and worry the doctors.
So, I googled and found a method called astral projection, which is a way in which your soul can leave your body. Since my soul is already out, I figured maybe using this method I could probably enter my body again. I sat in the guest chair in my room and tried to focus on feeling my body.
“What are you doing,” Axel’s voice interrupted my concentration. “I was trying to astral project Axel, and you disturbed my concentration,” I glared at him as he entered the room.
“Isn’t astral projection a method for your soul to leave your body?” I nodded at his question. “So, what good would that do if you’re already out?”
There goes Mr. Logic once again, with his brainiac thinking. “I don’t know Axel. The internet only explained how to get out not how to return. I’m just tired of being a ghost.” Axel hugged me and kissed the top of my head.
“Hey. How about I try the astral projection and see if ghost me can help ghost you?” I thought about his idea for a while. “But wouldn’t you be stuck as a ghost like I am?” I questioned his plan.
“Maybe, but possibly not. Your ghost was forced out of you cause you’re in a coma. Maybe, if my ghost comes out voluntarily it would be easier to go back. My body has no physical complications like yours does. Maybe that’s why it’s so difficult for you to return.” I just stared at Axel unable to form any fault in his explanation.
“It really baffles me how your brain works. Sometimes I wonder with your kind of intelligence, how are we not filthy rich.” Axel just shook his head and laughed at me. “So, do you want to try it?” I nodded to his question. “But don’t go all ghost detective mode just yet. We need to make sure you are able to return before you try anything.”
So here I was, reading the instructions from google on “How to Astral Project” while my husband tried to become a ghost. I watched as Axel sat in a form of total concentration, amazed at how well he was doing.
Moments later, I felt a shift in his energy and soon there were two Axels. One focused Axel laying on the bed next to my body, and another Axel staring at me with a huge grin on his face. “I did it!” His excitement easily transferred to me as I returned his smile.
Then I noticed there was a chain connecting his soulmate to mine. “We’re soulmates,” he stated as he too looked at the chain in our chests.
I glanced at another chain connected to his soul and that chain led to his body. I looked at my body and noticed I didn’t have a chain. How was that possible?
“Hey, one of the links in your chain is broken. Maybe that’s why you can’t return?” Shocked and confused I questioned, “I have a chain? How comes I can’t see it?”
Axel shrugged, “Do I have one? Cause I can’t see mine either.” I contemplated this. “Well maybe we just can’t see our own soul chains?” “Yeah, probably.” He nodded. “Well before you try to figure out how to fix my broken soul chain, let’s ensure you can return to your body first.” So, he did just that.
Watching him have absolute and total control of his soul like that was really dumbfounding. Soon, his soul faded, and his eyes opened as he sat up in the bed.
“You never cease to amaze me Axel Eveland,” I smiled at the man in front of me. “Well, what can I say?” He shrugged like it was nothing.
Over the next couple of days, Axel and I were trying to figure out ways in which we could fix my broken chain. So far, we had gotten nowhere. We didn’t have the slightest clue how we could mend the chain.
To make things worse, Axel said that my ghost form was starting to fade. I would have taken that as a good sign if my chain was somehow mending itself, but according to Axel, it is still very broken.
“Should we even be interfering with this kind of stuff? What if we do something we’re not supposed to do and one of us gets hurt?” For some reason, seeing Axel move in and out of his body was raising my anxiety levels.
“I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to do any of this, however, you also aren’t supposed to be a ghost. So, I guess as long as we don’t meddle with anybody else, I assume we should be fine.” Although the situation still made me uneasy, I nodded my head in response.
Axel was back in ghost form, trying to mend the broken link on my chain. He has been trying to close the gap with his bare ghost hands. The hole has been gradually closing up and I’m fading too so, maybe this is a good sign? I still couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling off, so I asked Axel to continue the next day and we headed home.
Axel looked like the day had gotten the best of him. He has been looking more and more tired, but that can be expected juggling work and worrying about your pregnant, comatose wife who also happens to be a ghost.
As I fell asleep in Axel’s arms that night, I had a really thought troubling dream.
My heart was palpitating in my chest and when I opened my eyes, I saw many doctors surrounding me. What was going on?
The cry of a baby suddenly broke through the noise in the chaotic room. “He’s a healthy baby, weighs 7 pounds,” Baby? “We need to hurry. Her vitals are dropping and she’s losing too much blood. She might not make it if we don’t hurry.” My heart suddenly felt like it wasn’t beating.
I shot up in the bed and reached over to Axel. The empty feeling in my belly didn’t help the situation. “Axel, wake up, please. Axel, something’s wrong. They removed the baby. We have to go to the hospital right now.”
Axel abruptly woke up and was searching around the room frantically. “Ava where are you?” “What do you mean? I’m right next to you.” His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “Like, on the bed?”
He felt the bed and looked around in pure confusion. “You mean you can’t see me?” He shook his head no, and my anxiety rose. “We need to move fast.”
Moments later, we arrived at the hospital, and we quickly moved towards my hospital room. “Mr. Eveland, I was just about to call you. We had to perform an immediate c-section on your wife. Her vitals we really low. The baby is okay, and your wife is recovering. No need to worry, you can have a seat in the waiting room.”
Although Doctor Rockwell’s words were comforting, something still didn’t feel right. “Babe, wherever you are right now, I promise I’m going to save you. I’m going to go sit in the waiting room, and I’ll astral project and use everything in me to mend that chain, okay?” Everything about this current moment didn’t seem right, but I never vocalized those thoughts to Axel.
I just nodded in response. With that, Axel left his body in the waiting room and proceeded to my hospital room.
Upon arriving there, what we saw was absolute chaos. Doctors and nurses were frantically moving around the room and yelling to one another.
“How much blood has she loss?” “Too much and her oxygen level is low. We need to get her on the tank right now.” So much for “she’s recovering”.
“Babe don’t worry, I’m going to save you. Everything will be alright,” Axel’s ghost held the hands of my fading ghost.
I was fading so much that my body was starting to lose form. I felt like nothing but a mist in the air.
Axel went over to my body on the bed, and grabbed what I assumed was my chain, since I couldn’t see it, and looked to be emitting all his energy into fixing that broken link.
He exerted so much energy, a light had kindled around him. The light shone so bright that it was becoming blinding, and I could actually see the chain he was mending.
Suddenly, a voice rang through my ears, “Stop him immediately!” I had no clue where the voice was coming from, but I was propelled towards Axel and I tried to get him to stop, however, he was determined to save me.
A strange sensation took over my body and I shut my eyes trying to shake off the weird feeling.
When I opened my eyes, I was face to face with a smiling Axel. “You saved me,” I smiled at him.
“Well, I didn’t really save you. You seemed to have been fighting along with us. I think you saved yourself, Mrs. Eveland. But you still need to rest yourself. You aren’t fully recovered. I’ll be back to check on you later,” Axel and I just laughed at the nurse’s response.
I still cannot believe that I had been an actual ghost and Axel saved me. This entire experience just seems so unreal.
“Well, you’re finally saved. I’m gonna go back to my body,” Axel placed a kiss on my cheek and walked out the door.
I laid my head back and shut my eyes just thinking about this whole escapade. I never even knew these things happened in real life. It felt like something straight out of a fairy tale.
“Um, we have a slight problem,” Axel returned to my room, and he seemed very fidgety. “I can’t return to my body,” he looked at me awaiting my response, but I just stared at him blankly.
“What do you mean? How can you not return to your body? You’ve done it multiples before, why can’t you do it now?”
Axel just shrugged at me, “I guess I used too much energy to save you. I’ll just try again later when my energy is replenished.” He stated like it was no big deal at all.
I just stared at him dumbfounded. “This doesn’t bother you?” he just shrugged again.
A couple of hours later, Axel went back to try returning to his body and the nurse returned to check on me with a special little guest. “Is that my baby boy?” She nodded and placed my son in my arms.
“Hello my little peanut. I’m so happy to see you. I’m so glad you’re okay. Daddy is here too. He’ll come see you in a while,” just as the words fell out of my mouth, the nurse walked into the room.
“Mrs. Eveland? I don’t what happened, but your husband doesn’t seem to be okay. I thought he was just sleeping but I tried waking him up and he wouldn’t budge. He’s also not breathing and has no heartbeat,” she looked at me with sympathy written on her face, yet I couldn’t comprehend a word she was saying.
“Nurse what does that mean?” “He’s-,” she hesitated to complete her sentence and I was hoping she never would. It was then I noticed Axel’s ghost slumped in the corner, “Dead.” They said in unison, and I could do nothing at the moment.
I felt like my entire world was crumbling before my eyes. “Do you need me to stay?” the nurse asked barely above a whisper. I shook my head as I held tightly onto the baby in my arms as if in fear that I would lose him too.
Axel dragged his feet over to my bed and sat at the edge. “Axel, what does she mean you’re dead?”
He looked at me but didn’t meet my eyes, then his head dropped down to our son in my arms. “I wasn’t breathing, and my heart had no beat. I guess I had projected too many times before that it was affecting my physical body.”
“Unlike the other times I’ve projected, this time felt different. I just thought it was because this time it was more important. Because this time, I was actually going to save you. I just didn’t realise,” he let out a huge sigh before continuing. “I didn’t realise I had to give up my life to do so.”
My eyes immediately welled up as I tried to choke back the tears. “This is all my fault. I can’t believe I killed you, Axel. This is my fault,” I don’t know how I would even live with myself knowing the love of my life died trying to save me.
“Hey, hey, listen.” He grabbed my head and looked into my eyes, “It’s not your fault okay. It was my decision to save you. I don’t care that I sacrificed my life if it meant that you and the baby would live and be safe, okay? It was my choice, and I would do it again if I had to.”
Though I was glad to still see him and hear his voice, it broke my heart knowing that this was just his ghost. “So, where’s your body?” “They took it to the morgue.”
He raised his head to look me in the eyes, “Take care of yourself Ava,” he caressed my cheeks. “And baby Axelon,” he laughed but his eyes showed pure sadness.
“Please remember that I will always love you, no matter what form I take on next, every inch of my heart and soul belongs to you and our son.”
He placed his index finger in Axelon’s hand. “Thank you for giving me the best moments of my life. And I’m happy I got to see our little peanut.”
I never thought I would ever see a ghost cry, but as I watched the tears stream down Axel’s cheeks, I felt the last string holding me together severed and my heart broke even more than it already had. “Goodbye Ava,” and with that Axel disappeared with a piece of my soul.