Thane wakes up the next day just like any other. He hauls his dead legs into his wheelchair. He rolls himself to his dresser puts on a pair of khaki pants, and slips into a navy blue shirt. Thane rolls himself to the kitchen, makes himself a lunch, and then heads for the door. “Bye Mom, I’ll see you at around 5. As Thane makes his way to school thoughts of Marissa and spending time with his one and only friend. Thane feels like today will be a good day. The sun was shining just enough so it wasn’t too hot, and the spring cherry blossoms were blooming, and the wind was giving a nice chill.

Thane could not have been prepared for what he would see. He came into the building to see Marissa. There was a look of pure sadness written on her face. The anguish in her eyes felt so real to Thane. Marissa’s unwavering spirit had been shattered. Her eyes were dead shells of what they used to be. Her hair once a radiant flame, now looked like dead grass framing that dead face. The unstoppable will was gone. What Thane was seeing now felt like a husk an empty shell of what used to be Marissa. Marissa sat in a wheelchair staring at her feet. Thane didn't know what had happened, but he knew she had been destroyed completely. The fact that her legs were forcibly taken from her, and there had been nothing that she could do about it. Thane rolls over to her and said the obvious, “I guess we’re both broken now huh?” Thane is trying desperately to cheer Marissa up, but the tears in her eyes, tell him there is nothing he can do. She has sunk deeper than he had ever gone before. He felt the pain she was feeling and wished he could do anything.

“ Not now Thane, I’m sorry,” The red in her eyes pierces through Thane like a dagger. Marissa was always his rock, somebody he could rely on, and now he felt like a part of her had been ripped away from her so forcibly. Thane rolls away from her and continues on through his day. Sometime later Thane tried to talk Marissa, but she just gives him a look. It was filled with pain and a desire just to wallow in her misery and cry. Marissa continued to ignore Thane, the redness in her eyes never fading if anything gets worse. Then one day, Thane came to school and Marissa wasn’t there. As he entered the school it was alive with noise. As he passed by people he heard her name, Marissa. His first thought is if something happened to Marissa. Then he heard, “I can’t believe she’s dead.” Everything stopped in that moment. He felt as Marissa had a few days ago. Something had been forcibly ripped from him, and he felt the tears fall down his face in volume. Thane now knew what she had felt like a few days ago. Everything was gone, and he had nothing left to give. Who was he going to rely on now? How would he get through the day?

Thane now sits in his silver wheelchair, donning a sour expression upon his face. The teenager’s eyebrows point upwards, and his gray colored eyes were dim and full of sorrow.  His smile bent under itself in a mournful expression. He sat in his wheelchair wearing his pajamas. His bottoms had little Mario’s dancing all over a sky blue field. He wore an orange Orioles shirt with gray writing.  The teen’s skin tone compared to that of a glass of milk, yet his light brown hair fits well with his skin. Freckles were widely apparent due to his pale skin. He now sat on his blue-grey bed thinking. Was this the right thing to do? Yes, he had thought this through about a million times, but now was the time to make the decision. Should he continue on past the point of no return or turn back now? He had justified his reasons again, and again, and again, but still, he felt a nagging sensation in his gut. Thane felt as though he was missing something, that he had not forgotten something, but forgotten to do something, and that fact gnawed away at him like a hungry beast. It couldn’t be that hard to put the pills in his mouth and just die. Thane went over all the things he had done earlier that night. He had, in fact, burned his journal, which contained all his ideas and notes. Nobody was going to live off his ideas, he remembered thinking. Thane’s mind, though, began to wander, and think about all the sorrow that had led up to this point.

“HEY THANE, need some help going down the stairs, friend?” Thane was struggling with his new wheelchair. A bigger boy, the one who yelled at Thane, wearing a red letter jacket and blue jeans, walked over to Thane and pushed him down the stairs. Thane went tumbling down the steps and landed sprawled on the floor. He cried and cried and cried, letting the emotions overtake him. It was only going to get worse, he thought. Up on the top of the steps, the bully was laughing along with a group of people. Thane wanted them just to go away so he could be alone. A red high top sneaker entered his view, causing Thane to groan in anticipation. It was probably the Dirk coming back to kick him some more.

“Go ahead, kick me some more.” Thane thought as he saw the high top move out of view. “Here it comes,” Thane thought to himself, but instead he heard a scraping sound and looked to his right. What Thane saw made him gasp. A red headed girl was picking up his wheelchair from where it had fallen and brought it over to where Thane lay. She wore a dark red shirt with a blue smiley face on it, and along with this, she was wearing a pair of jeans.

“Are you ok?” The girl asked. She had proceeded to help Thane up and placed him in his chair.

“OH, look at that! The needy geek is helping the broken nerd. Aww isn’t that so cute.” An athlete shouted further adding fuel to the ever-growing inferno that was already such a big mess.

“Shut up, you overgrown baboon! Leave the kid alone and was that really necessary?!” The red headed girl shouted. Thane saw this as a direct violation of rule number 1. Never ever EVER talk back to the bullies. If you do so they will beat the crap out of you. He had learned that rule the hard way.

“YOU LITTLE BITCH!” retorted the football player. He slowly started walking up the stairs towards the girl.”I should break every bone you have in your body right now.” He cocked back his fist and slammed into her face. She stumbled back from the force of the punch, but it didn’t stop there. The football player continued his advance and sent another punch directly into her gut. Some of the other people at the top of the steps saw this as their cue to come down the steps and gather round and watch as this two nerd got the crap beaten out of them. Thane did what he always did and curled into a ball and just hoped the beatings would stop. When the jock had finally left Thane looked the worst, especially with his broken nose and almost entirely blue face. The girl though had somehow blocked most of the punches that would’ve hit her face with her arms. She didn’t look that bad, though she still had a broken nose.

“Sorry, about-AAAHHH!!!”Thane tried to apologize to the girl, but the pain in his face was excruciating.

“Don’t speak. It will only make things worse. I’ll get a teacher. Stay right here. Actually, I think you better come along. Name’s Marissa”She limped over to where Thane lay on his side, and started to try and pick him up and put him in the wheelchair. Fortunately, though, a teacher had finally arrived and saw what had happened.

“You pushed Thane down the steps Marissa? How could you do that to a cripple? He’s weak and helpless! This is unbelievable! Go to my office now.” The teacher said this as he quickly came down the steps to see what the entire ruckus was about. He didn’t seem to notice Marissa’s bloody nose, also the fact that Dirk perverted the story so Marissa was the bad guy didn’t help at all.

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That memory had never left Thane. It was a gruesome memory that was filled with pain, yet it held some hope, but he really didn’t see it that way. The one happy friendship, which he had had a chance of having that day, had been destroyed by that teacher. Thane quickly recalled memories of him and Marissa always getting in trouble, especially Marissa. For some reason, whenever he was in a bloody heap at the bottom of the stairs, Marissa was the one to blame. Teachers hadn’t shown any kindness to the duo. They had been merciless when it came to grading assignments. Marissa at times, Thane recalled, had suspected several teachers of rigging the tests and assignments so that Thane and Marissa would fail. Then it happened last year, on exactly this day. Marissa died. She overdosed on some sleeping meds that her mom had been on. It hadn’t been an accident. The doctors confirmed that after trying to save her. Thane remembered rolling into school one day hearing the news and then just breaking down. He could remember everything in full detail. He had rolled into math class, and she wasn’t there. He thought she might be sick, and continued to work. It was at first assembly when they announced it. He remembered sitting for a moment in complete shock. He could still hear the words ringing through his head and his response. No. No possible way. No. No. Never. This could not be real. He had rolled out of the auditorium before he knew it. No one had really noticed since he had been in the very back. Thane remembered feeling the deep ache in his chest as he sped toward somewhere. Anywhere really. It didn’t matter, just that he escape. Finally when his arms gave out. Thane cracked. He felt the warm tears pouring down his face. The tears were so full of warmth and love, but it did nothing. He kept crying. He remembered all of this. As these thoughts rushed to the forefront of his mind Thane broke down on the bed and began to cry. The tears ran down his face like rain on a windowsill, just like they had back then. They were still warm, and still useless. That was it. That was the breaking point. He moved in his wheelchair and started to utterly trash his room. He threw all the books he could get his hands on towards the door. When he had finished all that was left was an empty bookshelf and a heap of books by the door. He couldn’t help it. Thane hated the world and wanted it burned to the ground with nothing left. His rage slowly subsided as he threw one thing after the other towards the door to his room. Thane finally lets out a sigh in defeat as he stopped chucking things towards the door, and wheeled himself towards his dresser. Thane grabbed a hold of the pill bottle and emptied it all into his hand. “This was the end.” He thought as he put each pill in his mouth. “Goodbye, world.” Thane laid his head onto the pillow and he felt himself slip into oblivion.

XxXxXxXxX

Thane opened his eyes to a blinding, golden white light. He was in heaven, or so he thought. The light finally became bearable to his adjusting eyes to see a woman before him. She was dressed in a simple green shirt with a simple yellow pleated skirt. She had one of the most beautiful smiles Thane had ever seen. The rage that once surrounded his heart had now melted away into nothing. All that was left now was a joy. She had short, dirty blonde hair that had a sort of weird wave to it. She was a tall woman, and this was apparent even though she was seated on a white bench. Thane looked around and saw the area looking very much like a park, but it thrived to more than the normal park. He saw trees of every size and shape, but none of them really showed color. One thing he did notice as he looked around was that there was not any black anywhere. He turned his attention back to the woman in front of him and just noticed the enormous wings, which sprouted from her back. They were composed of the colors of a sunrise. It was a beautiful sight.

“It is not your time, Thane, so why have you come to heaven?” The woman said with a grimace

“Huh?” Thane said in bewilderment. The way she talked made it hard to understand. She spoke in a very rushed tone

“Oh,” She gave off a laugh that sounded very much like a songbird’s melody. “I guess you don’t know. I’m your guardian angel, and according to my date book, you shouldn’t have died yet. You should’ve died...” As the angel said this a desk and a filing cabinet appeared in front of and beside the angel. The angel opened the filing cabinet and pulled out a folder. “Let’s see.” The angel was currently looking through the file searching for something, which Thane had no clue about. “Ah, here we go. You were officially supposed to die eighty-four years from now living happily with your wife. Oh, and about earlier. I know how you died; you committed suicide. Now, normally, as your guardian angel, I would just send you right back, but unfortunately, other mistakes occurred as well. According to your file, you were never supposed to become a paraplegic. Since this is the case, I am going to have to send you back to ninth grade. Understand everything?” After the angel’s huge proclamation, Thane was open mouthed. Was he going to get a second chance? No fucking way. He could not believe his luck. Things could not have been better, what was the catch though. There was always a catch

“Um, ok, this sounds fantastic. What do I have to do and if I wasn’t supposed to lose my legs then why didn’t you intervene then?” Thane shifted uncomfortably in the white chair he was sitting. He took

“Well, time is funny. Things change from the projected timeline, and sometimes we can’t stop that. We also know that you use humans are very adaptable. So this results in us only intervening when someone dies when they aren’t supposed to.” Thane was starting to have the feeling that this person had a tendency to ramble on and on. A little bit annoying, though in a life where no one told you anything, definitely a blessing.

“Well all you have to do is fill out this form.” As the angel said this she brought out a paper from her file. “This form simply states, that you will not reveal the existence of heaven at any time, you will in no way reveal the fact that you have been given a second chance, and that you have agreed to this process and consent to all spells cast upon you. Now, you remember how I said that wasn’t technically true. As of the last few hundred years, we haven’t been able to fix mistakes that occur. Now, however, God feels that something big is about to happen and is willing to let you come back, but you would have to agree to be the representative of all demonkind. It’s not as bad as it sounds though. You’ll get abilities along with this contract with them along the way, but those will appear later. Anyway I need to hurry you out of here because I can already tell that God is mad at me for keeping you here this long. So, how about it.” Thane could not believe it. He was going to actually be able to restart, he didn’t know what to think about his contract and representation for demonkind, but it couldn’t be that bad right?”

“Quick question, I’m not signing over my soul or anything am I?” Amy looked at him with a very serious look. Thane felt like she wanted to tell him something, but he couldn’t understand. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what she was going to say.

“Sending you back to the world of the living isn’t going to be free. Most of the time we would send you back, without a second thought, especially since you will affect this world, however, times are changing and we can’t always correct the mistakes that are made. They will own your soul, but you will most likely get it back. They won’t abuse you as a person or keep your soul after you have paid them their due. There other things that will happen, but I can’t tell you. Demons aren’t as evil as everyone thinks they are. They perform a vital role just like the rest of us.”

“Ok, fine let’s do this then.”

“Good. If you need any help just give me a shout.” As Amy started to speak Thane felt a slight pull on his navel and he felt himself being slowly serenely pulled out from this oblivion. It felt a lot like waking up from a very pleasant dream, and with that, he found himself back at home in his bed. If this was a dream Thane never wanted to wake up.

“Thane, time to get ready for school!” shouted a familiar voice from the kitchen. Thane looked around. He found himself in his old house.