I was enjoying a nice dinner with friends when I received the note.

“Get out now, while you can?” I read out loud to my table.

My table ignored me as I read it, as they had been the entire time. They continued chatting and eating, as paranoia grew inside me. I glanced around the restaurant. Everyone else was acting as though everything was fine. I searched for the person who had left me the note but found no one. My heart started racing. I stood up and went into the bathroom. I locked the door and began splashing water on my face. I grabbed a towel and started drying my face.

When I lifted my head to look in the mirror, I noticed a presence behind me. Fear crept up my spine. I whirled around, but there wasn’t anyone there. I could feel my heart pounding as thoughts raced through my head. Why get out? Why me? What was happening to me? I leaned up against the door and tried to calm my breathing. But all I could hear from outside was shouting and screaming. I opened the door slowly and saw that everything was as it was. But the shouting was still present. Was it all in my head?

I went back to sit with my friends. As before, they acted as though I was not there. I reached out to touch the person next to me. But my hand went straight through their arm. I jerked my hand back. I called out to the people around me. They didn’t hear me. I stood up and tried to shake one of them, but I couldn’t touch them. I slumped back in my chair. I became aware of the note on the table. I picked it up again. The same writing was on it, but there was writing on the back as well. “It’s too late, You’re stuck.”

Stuck where? In the restaurant? Being invisible? I stood up and ran out of the restaurant. The street was crowded. But people walked right through me. I wasn’t invisible, I was barely there. I looked around for a place to get my thoughts together. There was an alleyway across the street. I ran across. Cars went through me but I wasn’t hurt. I slouched against the wall.

I could still see my hands. My body wasn’t see through. But no one could see me. And I couldn’t call for help. I wasn’t cold even though I knew I should have been. I wasn’t hungry or thirsty. I hadn’t been since this morning. Which is strange for me. I always want to eat, but today I had nothing. Was I dead?

“You are dead. And you are stuck to wander here.”

I turned around to find a woman behind me. She was beautiful. But she didn’t look real. I had the urge to reach out to her. So I did. She took my hand when I reached out. She was really there. She could see me.

“How did I die?” I say gripping her hand.

She shakes her head and pulls me into her arms. Tears begin to stream down my face. We stood there for ages. Until she pulls back and turns me around. Pointing across the road at my friends. They’re leaving the restaurant. A couple of them are crying. The others are comforting the ones crying.
“They received a call from the one who found you. You had been found in your kitchen with a blunt trauma to your temple. The police believe your head was bashed in. Your neighbor Mark came over to invite you out on a date,” she said smoothing my hair.

I looked up at the ground as I thought back to the night before. I had been out with Mark to see a movie. When I came back, my ex Jon was there. He was drunk and furious. I told Mark to go home and then I went into my house through my garage. But he broke in. And we argued.

“It was my ex. He broke into my house. We argued and-” the tears came faster.

“And he killed you because you moved on.”

I took her hand and pulled her through the roads to my house. We found my friends and Mark outside. The police were moving my body. I must have just been found. My best friend Rose was on the phone. She was telling my mother I was dead. Mark was standing alone and away from everyone. The woman led me to him.

“You are dead. That will not change. But you may choose now to either wander or you can watch over him,” she said letting my hand go.

“I want to watch over him. But who are you? Why do you know all this?” I said leaning towards him.

“My name is Seraphine. I have wandered the earth for many years. So many I have been given the power to make people guardians of others. And now you are his guardian. You will watch over him and make sure that he chooses to live and move on. You will be allowed to visit your family and your grave but he is your top priority.”

I nod. “And when he dies? Will I be sent to wander? And what about you, will I see you again Seraphine?”

She nods. “Of course. I will always watch over you. And when he died you may move on with him, or you can stay here to watch over someone else or to wander.”

I walk away from Mark to go to her. I take her hand in mine. She grasps it tightly.

“I look forward to meeting you again Sera.”

“Sera?”

“It’s a nickname. Get used to it.”

She nods. “I will. I shall see you again.”

With that she lets go of my hand and walks away. I go back to Mark and place my hand on his shoulder. He shudders. The touch of the dead being that will watch over him.

So years passed. I spent everyday watching over him. When his time came, I left him the note Sera had left me.

“Get out now while you can?” he read out loud in his house.

His wife had passed away years before, his kids grown. And now it was his turn to move on. Seraphine appeared and asked if I had made a decision to stay or move on. To answer, I simply took her hand and walked away from Mark as he moved on. I was going to continue to wander, but together with her.