I was Molly Gray

The end of the day came and Det. Brighton showed up at his apartment. Molly let him in and he made sure to lock the door behind him.

"Are you o.k.?" he asked.

"Yeah I'm fine," she responded.

"I brought us some takeout."

"I'm still not hungry."

"You have to eat something," Det. Brighton said.

"I don't have any appetite."

"Did you at least eat something before?"

"Just a few cups of coffee," Molly answered.

"You haven't had anything to eat all day?"

"No."

"You need to eat something," he said.

"I'm not hungry. There is far much more on my mind to think about than food."

"You still need to eat something. Come on sit, I'll serve you a plate."

"Detective."

"Not much just a little something for you to nibble on."

"O.k.," she said and they sat down on the long couch as Det. Brighton took his coat off and threw it to the single couch and got into dishing out the Chinese food he had brought.

He served them both and they started eating.

"Can we talk some more about what we were talking about earlier today?" he asked.

"Sure," she said.

"You said some . . . You said a lot of things."

"And you don't believe me. You probably think I'm crazy."

"I didn't say that," Det. Brighton said.

"You don't have to, you have that look in your eye."

"I'm just trying to make some sense out of it, that doesn't mean I think you're crazy. It's just a lot to take in. It's not everyday you hear someone tell you they keep dying and coming back to life, and not as themselves but as other people. I must say it is the strangest thing I have ever heard."

"It does sound strange. If I wasn't the one going through it I probably would have thought me crazy as well," Molly said.

"What happens?"

"When I die?"

"Yeah," he went.

"I feel my life drain out of my body and my whole world goes black. And then the next moment, I wake up and I'm somewhere else. And it happens so fast it's like blinking. I'm in one place and then in the next second I'm not only somewhere else but . . . Someone else. I don't know why, I don't know how, all I know is that it is freaking me out. There's clearly something after me that wants to kill me and I am so so scared."

Molly put her box of food on the table and held herself, beginning to cry again.

"Hey hey it's o.k. don't cry," Det. Brighton said putting his box of food onto the table too and moved closer to her. "You're going to be o.k."

"How am I going to be o.k.? I don't even know what's happening to me," Molly said. "What is happening to me? Why is this happening to me?"

"I don't know either but we're going to figure it out."

"Oh my gosh." She threw her head down and went on crying as Det. Brighton moved even closer to her and put his arm over her. "My life was normal and it was perfect and now it's such a mess it makes no sense at all. What is happening to me? There's something out there and it keeps killing me and I keep coming back. Why is it after me? Why does it want to hurt me? And why do I keep coming back? What's wrong with me?" she raised her head and said with her face drenched in tears.

"We're going to figure it out."

"It is after me and it just wants to hurt me, why?"

"What is it? This thing that is after you," Det. Brighton asked.

"I don't know. I haven't seen it but it is not a person . . . And it is big. It is very very big. The first time it got me, I felt it behind me. I sensed it and with how cold my blood ran I just knew that whatever it was was big and that it was going to kill me. It wrapped this thin wire around my neck and started to strangle me with it. And then it placed its hand over my face, its huge hand and it began to suck the life out of me. I could feel my life leave my body. I couldn't feel my feet and my hands. And then my legs and then my arms and then I couldn't feel anything. Everything went black and quiet and I couldn't feel anything. And then in the blink of an eye I woke up. I woke up and I was me but I wasn't me. It was me inside but outside I was someone else. Outside I was a person I had never seen before, a complete stranger and I thought I was dreaming but I wasn't. I wasn't dreaming, it was real. I had been killed by some thing and woke up the next day as someone else. And then the thing showed up and killed me . . . Again. It showed up and killed me again. I heard it in the trees and I sensed it, just like I did in the house. I wanted to run like before but it was too late, it grabbed me and held me so tight in its arms and when it placed its hand on my face, it took my life from me. Right out of me like it was nothing. And again I didn't stay dead but I came back. As me but as another stranger, as another face I don't know. I don't know who this is. This is a stranger it is not me. I am not Molly Anderson nor was I Molly Shane, I was Molly Gray, that was who I was. But then I died and the Molly Gray I was was gone. The Molly Gray I had lived my whole life as was gone and I will never be her again." She cried on. "My family, my friends, Richard, the perfect life I had is gone and it is never going to be mine ever again."

"But how is this possible? When people die they die, how do you keep coming back? How do you keep coming back?"

"I don't know."

"And this has never happened before? Maybe when you were younger?" he asked.

"No. I only remember one life because that was the only one I had. As Molly Gray. I was born in Crenshaw in 1986. My parents and I lived there until I was 10 and then we moved to Humbert. I was at Crenshaw Primary School but after we moved I started going to Hillsprings where I graduated top of my class. I went to the prom with my boyfriend at the time Alex and I had myself one of the best times of my life. I went off to Ullman University and studied law and because our schools were so far apart Alex and I had to break up. Five years later I graduated and met Richard and after we dated for 6 years he asked me to marry him and I said yes. That was early this year, we planned to have our wedding next year in March but then." She tried to keep herself from not crying some more but she failed; the tears just came pouring out like a waterfall. "But then that thing came and killed me."

"Goodness Molly I am so sorry."

"I was Molly Gray, that was who I was Molly Gray and now . . . Now I have no idea who I am," Molly said and threw her head down to cry some more as Det. Brighton moved even closer to her and hugged her. She was clearly going through a lot and whether he didn't believe her or not, he had to be supportive, it was real enough for her and that was all that mattered, but what she was saying was something else. Dying multiple times and coming back as different people, he had never heard anything like it and so he had no idea what to do with it. His job was to catch bad people, and though there was a bad person in her story, it wasn't really a bad person, according to her it was more of a something and that just made things even more complicated. Not only did she keep waking up after dying but there was something out there after her and killing her, and Det. Brighton needed to find out what it was and why it was after her?

The following day Det. Brighton went to work and left Molly at his apartment. He told her not to go anywhere but after showering and looking through his closet for something to wear and only finding sports t shirts, track bottoms and work clothes, she decided to leave to go to her house to get some clothes.

Molly walked out in the clothes she had on the previous day, a work shirt and a pencil skirt, and drove her car to her place. She had no idea where she was going but at the same time she knew exactly where she was going.

She reached an upper middle class neighborhood and pulled her car up in front of an apartment building. She got out of her car and started making her way to the entrance when suddenly a woman walked up to her and held her back by her forearm. Molly stopped and looked at her; who was this strange woman and what did she want?

"Molly," she said and Molly threw her head a little back; she just called her by her name.

"Excuse me," Molly said.

"Your name is Molly."

"Yes it is. How did you know that?"

"Oh my dear you are in grave danger," the woman said. Her name was Vera and she was a slightly chubby woman with big curly hair and was wearing dark glasses over her eyes.

"What?"

"Your life is in grave grave danger. You will try to run but it will catch you." Molly's eyes widened as a cold shiver ran down her spine. "It will always catch you."

Just then another woman walked up to Vera; a younger one who looked a lot like her.

"Mom what are you doing? I told you to wait in the car," she said. "I'm so sorry I hope she wasn't bothering you."

"No," Molly responded with a weakness in her voice as the woman then walked away with Vera and left her just standing there with a blank look on her face; why would this woman just walk up to her and say such dark words to her? And it wasn't just the words she said but it was how she said them? Shaken like leaves in the wind and heavy like stones sinking to the bottom of a lake. And not just that but the way she held onto her hand was like for dear life, such that when she looked down at her arm there was a print of where Vera had grabbed her which showed that she didn't just grab her but she grabbed her tight. Why? It was like she was afraid of something but what was it? What was Vera so afraid of? And what did it have to do with Molly?