Sarah wasn�t sure where she was, or, for that matter, how she was still on Earth. Sarah never really formed an opinion on what happens after you die, but she knew with a certainty that you didn�t come back as the same person. That was just ludicrous. But, here she was, walking around her hometown, with her hands and her feet, her pants and her shirt and her shoes, walking around with her body. But she was certain she died. She felt herself leave her body. That was it, she knew. She wasn�t really alive. She was a ghost, a spirit. She had heard once that if you die suddenly at a young age that you don�t go to Heaven right away. That�s probably what happened.
     She decided she�d prove herself right. A car was heading towards her. She went into the middle of the street and stood. She heard the heavy bass of the car approaching. The car approached her rapidly, and at the last minute she closed her eyes. She kept them closed until she heard the bass music fade off in the distance, only to open them to find that she was still here, in the same place, not even scratched.
     �So, I guess it�s true, then, huh?� she asked herself. She turned around and noticed somebody walking along the side of the week. She casually strolled up to the person, as if she was just walking by. When they passed, she spontaneously jumped around, screaming and shouting like a maniac. The person walking by paid no attention. �Either he�s deaf and blind or I�m a ghost,� Sarah said allowed. The guy didn�t turn. �Yep. I�m a ghost.�
     She walked along the street, not having the slightest idea where she was, where to go, what to do. �I wish I was at home, with my parents,� she said aloud. Instantaneously, she found herself no long on the street but at her house, in her home. �Oh my God. I guess, since, I�m not really physical anymore, time-and probably space-doesn�t matter anymore. Wow.� Sarah always was very smart. �Wow. This could actually be cool.� She looked up at her computer. �Oh, I left it on. I�m an idiot!� She laughed at herself. She walked over to the screen and immediately lost her good mood. Justin was on, waiting for her. He was getting mad that she had the Net on but wasn�t there. �Oh, if he only knew,� she said. �If he only-� She was interrupted by the sound of the garage door opening. She went to stand in her doorway and saw her family--her mother, father, and sister--walk into the house, and her sister run into Sarah�s room--going through Sarah--falling on the bed and crying. Her mother and father followed Sarah�s sister through Sarah and into her room.
     �Jennifer, I know it�s sad. It hurts. I can�t believe it..myself,� Sarah�s mother got out with a cry.
     �It�s going to be hard for all of us, Jennifer. It�s going to take time. But we�ve got to be strong. For your grandma. This is gonna kill her.�
     Sarah didn�t want to hear this. She thought frantically for a place to go, when the answer came to her: a noise sounding like a dog barking echoed through her room, emanating from her computer speakers-a message from Justin. �Las Vegas,� she said. And then she was gone.

     She looked around the room. It was nice. The room was filled with sports trophies, academic certificates, CDs, books, posters, and magazines. The walls were painted a very light blue. Both of two windows were open, and the sound of birds chirping drifted into the window. A slight breeze blew through the window, causing Sarah�s long blond hair to wave. Obviously, she was still affected by natural forces.
     The door opened, and a tall young man walked in, shouting to his mom �Check the boxes in the basement, Mom. I don�t know WHERE you put them.� and eating an apple. He shut his door, and walked to his computer, saying �Come on Sarah, be there.� He sat down, looked at the screen. �Damn. Where is she?�
     �I�m right here, Justin. Can you hear me? Justin?� Nothing. �He can�t hear me,� she thought aloud. �He won�t be able to see me, either. How am I going to be able to talk to him?� she asked herself, not expecting an answer. But she found one.
     Unknowingly, she rested her hand on his dresser. She knew that she should have gone right through it. But she didn�t. She figured out that if she concentrated, she could touch physical things. She ran to the keyboard and began to type.
     �Justin, it�s me, Sarah. Something�s happened.�
     Justin freaked out when the keys on his keyboard started pressing themselves. Once he got the message on the screen, though, he typed �What? How are you doing that? Making the keys go down, too?�
     She replied in type �I�m not. Justin, I�m here with you. You don�t have to type. I can hear you. I was murdered today, Justin. I�m dead. My spirit�s still here on Earth, I guess. I dunno why. I told you we�d be together. And we will be. Not even death can keep us apart, I guess.�
     Justin said �OK. This joke is not funny. I don�t like it. Whoever�s doing this, stop it now.�
     �It�s NOT a joke, Justinsy! I�m serious! Watch! Turn around.�
     He turned around and saw books rearranging themselves, trophies lifting off their stands. His CD player tray popping out, a CD being lifted from a case and placed in the tray. And a song playing. His song. His and Sarah�s song.
     �Oh, Sarah. Why?� Justin began to cry.
     �Don�t cry, Justin. Don�t you see? This is God�s way of showing us that we are meant to be together. I�m on earth waiting for you, Justin. When you die, we�ll meet for eternity. We�ll go to Heaven together. We�ll never be apart again, Justin.�
     �Wait, then.� And Justin got up and ran out of the room.
     �Justin? Justin? Where are you going?�
     After five minutes or so, Justin returned.
     �Sarah, wherever you are, I�m coming for you. I wrote a note explaining everything. Wait for me! Here I come!�
     �Justin! NO!!!!�
     Sarah was too late. Justin took the knife he had brought in with him and slit each wrist. Finally, as if to top it all off, he stabbed himself through the chest.
     �I�m coming...unh....Sarah.� And he fell to the floor.
     �Justin...you didn�t have to...do that,� Sarah said between sobs.
     �Yes I did, Sarah.� Sarah turned around and found Justin standing behind her. �You�re even more beautiful than I thought, Sarah. I�m so glad I did this. This one glance was worth killing myself. Sarah, I love you.�
     �Justin, my God, I love you too! More than you know! To think..we�ll be able to hug now for the first time. We�ve waited so long for this.�
     �I know. Come here, Sarah.�
     And they both started walking toward each other, each crying, a stream of tears falling down each cheek.
     �Sarah, I love you.�
     �And I you, Justin. And I you.�
     Within arms� reach, each prepared themselves for the first physical touch of their love. Just as they opened their arms, though, each of their lives fell apart...again.
     Dark shadows arose out of nothing, and began to call for Justin. Immediately, Sarah remembered her Catholic education and knew what had happened.
     �Justin! NO!!! You died in sin! You killed yourself! That�s a sin! Don�t you know!? I mean this in the nicest way, Justin. You�re going to Hell! And we won�t be together! NO!!�
     �Sarah! No! Sarah!�
     They grasped for each other, their hands coming within inches of each other before the dark minions grasped for Justin. They grabbed his feet and hands, his stomach and head, and dragged him down, down to the Hell that he condemned himself to.
     �NOOOOOOO!!!!!� they both screamed, together!
     �I love you, Sarah! Never forget that!� were Justin�s last words before he was dragged off to eternal Damnation.
     �I...what am I going to do NOW?�
     And Sarah didn�t know. Or, in actuality, Sarah did know, and she wouldn�t accept it. She also had the way death works. Once you die, you are given a choice: stay on the Earth to wait for someone or something, like an event of, in Sarah�s case, a person; or go to Heaven immediately. She chose to wait for someone--Justin--to go to Heaven with. And now, since Justin was taken to Hell and she wasn�t meant to go to Hell, she was forced to roam the Earth, endlessly, for all eternity, until Armageddon and the end of time.

     Sarah lived at the top of Blackwater Cliffs. Her house was situated very near to the edge, which was a steep plummet directly down into the Blue Rhine River and the Blackwater Falls a little further down the river. As she walked up her driveway, she saw Tara, her supposed best friend, sitting on the porch, looking worried.
     �What do you want?� Sarah spat venomously. �More secrets to tell everyone?�
     �No, Sarah. Listen. I didn�t tell anyone that you liked Eric. I swear to God! Someone must have picked up on it and told everyone, but I swear I didn�t tell anyone.�
     �Tara, drop it! You�re the only person I told! No one else could have picked up on it! I�ve only said a maximum of twenty words to the boy in my life! How would they know I like him? Come on! Get real! And get off of my property!�
     �Sarah, come on!! Don�t ruin a friendship of six years over this. Believe me!�
     �Go away, Tara. And don�t come back.� And with that Sarah walked past Tara and went into her house.
     Tara turned. �Sarah, listen to me!� Her only reply was the door; Sarah slammed it in her face.

     Sarah knew she had over-reacted. She didn�t care. She was mad, and she had to vent on someone. Tara was the only person that knew. But couldn�t someone have picked it up by the way that she practically drooled every class she had with Eric? No, it had to be Tara. Didn�t it?
     Sarah didn�t know, and she didn�t care. She was furious still, and didn�t have anything to do, so she pulled out her history homework and began to get to work.
     Mr. Snyder, her history teacher, was teaching them about folklore and legends from all around the world, and today they had worked on the story of the Lorelei. Supposedly, a beautiful woman stood atop cliffs on the Rhine river and sung sailors and ships to their deaths with the most melodic and amazing voice ever. It was said that the sailors saw only the beauty of the Lorelei and heard only the song she sung, thereby, failing to see the rocks and reefs that would soon be the death of the sailors.
     Personally, Sarah couldn�t care less about the Lorelei and the other myths they were learning about, but she had to do good this quarter, or her parents would be fuming, so she had actually paid attention in class. However, the material was extremely boring, and the assignment worse, and she soon drifted off into sleep.

     She woke up within the hour, sleep still heavy in her system, her vision blurry and her mind cloudy. She hated that feeling and decided that a quick walk outside would help her.
     So, Sarah headed outside and stood on her porch for a few moments, breathing in the crisp, cool air. That was one advantage of living on the cliffs: the most pure air in all of Blackwood could be found on the cliffs.
     As Sarah was enjoying her stroll around her porch, she began to hear someone singing, very faintly. She couldn�t make out the words, and the voice was too faint to be able to tell if the singer was male or female, or singing well, for that matter. It sounded as if it were coming from behind her house, near the cliff, so she walked along the sidewalk to see what was singing so beautifully.
     The closer she got to the back of her house, the clearer the voice got. Obviously, now, it was a woman, and she was singing expertly. Her voice sounded as if she was the lead singer backed by bells and birds. Her voice carried gently through the air, and stirred feelings in Sarah that she never felt before. It was as if she was compelled to come now, whether she wanted to or not.
     Turning the side of her house, she saw a woman standing at the guard rail on the cliffs, looking over the cliff and singing. Long blond hair glistened in the sunlight and waved in the breeze. Dressed in a plain, white dress that brought out the woman�s beautiful figure, she seemed too perfect to be real, too beautiful.
     Sarah, no longer compelled to run and now able to think about more than just the beauty of the song, immediately wondered who this woman was and why was she singing and looking over the cliff. Looking for answers, Sarah ran to the side of the cliff and looked over. As she glanced over the cliff, her heart flip-flopped as she saw the worst possible scenario unfold before her eyes. Eric Gingham, the boy she liked, hung on for dear life over the cliff with a dazed expression on his face.
     Immediately, everything clicked for Sarah. The woman was the Lorelei, and for some reason, she was haunting Sarah�s cliffs, and she was trying to kill Sarah�s love. Did this day get any worse?
     Sarah had no clue how to stop the Lorelei. Mr. Snyder never talked about that. Maybe if Sarah could get her to stop singing.....
     Sarah charged the beautiful woman who was no more than 15 feet away. At the start of Sarah�s running, however, Sarah heard a new song intertwined with the prior one and stopped dead in her tracks. She didn�t stop of her own will, of course; the song prohibited her from moving. She knew, then, that everything was hopeless, and that the Lorelei had claimed a new victim. She knew that she had failed, and that Eric would surely die. She began to cry at that thought, knowing that nothing would ever be the same. Sarcastically, she thought, that Mr. Snyder would have to stop calling the Lorelei a legend and start calling her reality.
     Sarah watched as the Lorelei continued to sing, continued to wait for the sign that Eric had plummeted to the water so far below. Time passed as Sarah waited for what seemed like hours but was actually only minutes.
     Suddenly, however, the Lorelei bent farther over the cliff and lowered a hand. The song that Sarah first heard abruptly stopped, and the Lorelei pulled herself away from the cliff, hand in hand with none other than Eric Gingham.
     Once he stepped onto the solid ground, the Lorelei stopped singing, and Sarah found again she could move. She ran to Eric, and began to ask what happened.
     Eric, after taking a few deep breaths, began to explain. All the while, the Lorelei simply stood behind him near the cliff, dress and hair blowing in the breeze. However, she was different now. She didn�t look as...real. She looked slightly transparent, like you could see through her, but not really.
     �Sarah, oh, God! I came up here to tell you what happened back down the street. I asked you if you liked me cause, well, I like you, too. And I was gonna tell you that, but you flipped out and left before I could. And as I was walking home, I met up with Tara, who said you flipped at her too because you thought she started it. Well, I know for a fact it wasn�t her that started it. It was Robert. He knew I liked you, and he said he thought you may like me, and he thought that if he started a rumor that you did, maybe you�d tell me. Sorry. And, well, I didn�t wanna say anything while you were fuming, so I decided I�d come up later once you�d�ve cooled down. Well, I came up, and no one answered the door.�
     �I was sleeping,� she said, still amazed at the fact that he said he liked her and feeling extremely bad that she blew up at Tara. She had a major apology coming along soon. Maybe now she wouldn�t always believe gossip.
     �Yeah, OK. Well, I walked around back. I saw some pretty flowers, and thought I�d pick them for you.� He motioned over his back, and she saw extremely pretty purple and blue and red flowers positioned a little bit behind the guard rail. �And, well, I went to pick them, but I guess I lost my balance or something, cause I slipped.�
     �That thing back there probably pushed you,� Sarah said, giving the Lorelei a dirty look.
     �No, let me finish. Well, luckily, I landed on some little outcrop thing down there. The only problem, I was in, like shock or something. I couldn�t move. Not a problem of itself. I mean, I�d�ve gotten over it, and have been able to climb up. However, the little outcrop thing was weak, and slowly it began to break away, and there I was, sitting on it like an idiot. No doubt the thing was gonna break away, and I was gonna plummet to a painful death. I knew I should start climbing, get away from the outcrop. But I couldn�t move. I just couldn�t. I was scared if I did, I�d make the outcrop break away faster. So, I sat there, as I felt the outcrop slowly break away.
     Then, I heard...something. A song, but not really, since there was no music and I couldn�t understand the words. I listened to the song, and it was so beautiful. Next thing I knew, I was off the outcrop, which, coincidentally, was no longer there when I looked for it, and I was climbing up! The song was doing it! The song made me climb! I didn�t even feel like I was climbing, but there I was, moving up the cliff like a professional!! It wasn�t me moving my hands; the song was! I...without the Lorelei there, I�d�ve died. For sure.� He turned to look at the Lorelei. �Thank you, Lorelei. I owe you my life.�
     And Sarah looked at the Lorelei too, then, which had slowly moved away from the cliff. She now floated in the air over the cliff. She definitely was not purely physical. She smiled at Sarah and Eric as they hugged and kissed, holding hands once they were finished.
     �Let�s go, Eric. I wanna make sure you�re all right,� Sarah said, leading the way back down the path.
     As they were walking back, they heard the song again, the beautiful song that they couldn�t really quite understand. They turned around to look at the Lorelei, and saw her standing in the same place over the cliff, with a flower in each hand, singing and smiling and watching them. She nodded, opening her hands. The flowers drifted slowly through the air, and came to rest in the hands of Eric and Sarah, one flower for each.
     They glanced at the Lorelei and smiled. �Thank you,� they both said together.
     She simply nodded, and faded into nothingness. And with her disappearance, the song that saved two lives that day--Eric�s, for he surely wouldn�t have been able to climb out by himself; and Sarah�s, for she�d have just died if Eric had died--faded also into the air.
     And that was the last and only time that Sarah and Eric had heard or seen the Lorelei. However, they would never forget her. For she left them two gifts: their love for each other forever and the two flowers she had given them, which, through all the years, had never seemed to die and still are fresh as ever to this day.