A boy sat in his room, to be more specific under his bed, thinking, pondering life. He had no tears left, no sadness. It seemed as if all his emotions had abandoned him except three. Anger. Confusion. Numbness.

Anger: Life, what was life without her? What is life at all? It doesn't matter, life sucks. Life abandon her, death took her.

Confusion: Why ? She was perfect! Where did she go? When will I see her again. Soon. I think? Why was he alive instead of her? Are all those memories fake? The days in the woods, by the campfire. In the dark telling stories that made the room a little lighter.. When did I become so alone?

Numbness:I don't care. It doesn't matter she's gone. She's not coming back. She's gone..

And then the sadness hit him again. It was like a train, coming towards him at 100 miles per hour., He looked at the pictures on the wall. He came out from under his bed. There was one picture labeled. Lily and Jake. Lily was smiling her usual goofy smile. It seemed to light up the cabin they were in. Her eyes sparkled like silver. He cried, not caring about anything. N=ot understanding anything. He was so confused... He hurt so much.

Jake took a deep breath no longer crying.I am going to go see Lily. He thought fiercely. He got from the floor and walked out of his room. Something he hadn't done in weeks.

  "Jake!" A woman with raven black hair cried as Jake reached the bottom of the stairs.

"I-I- You're here! I mean you're down stairs!" His mother said, clearly struggling not to say the wrong thing.

Jake walked over to his mother. Doing so he caught a glimpse of himself in his reflection. It took all his will not to gasp at his appearance; his usual ruffled hair was now even more ruffled. He had dark circles around his raw red eyes. Instead he kept walking towards His mother.

From the look on his mother's pale face, he bet she knew what he was about to say.

"Mom I want to go to the Cloud.... I need to see Lily." Jake said trying hard not to cry.

The cloud was a mountain, the only place where you could see the dead, even more, raise it. A soul for a soul. The only thing about it was the people who tried to visit there never came back. There were rumors that if you go up there and see the dead, you go blind and can't find your way back. But Jake didn't care. If he could see her just one more time he wouldn't care what would be the consequences.

His mom looked like she was going to cry. "Jake... No I can't lose you too." Her voice was so pleading. Jake didn't have time to talk about her sister.

" Mom, I don't care if you want me to or ot. If you don't let me go I'll find a way up there by myself." Jake said to her looking intently in her dark blue eyes.

A single tear dripped down her cheek. She nodded as if unable to speak. Jake took this as permission. So without getting packed or even grabbing his coat he ran outside. The last thing he heard was his mother's silent sobbing.

Fortunately they lived close to the Cloud. Infact they lived less than a mile away from the Cloud.  All he had to get to the large mountain was to call a taxi. Unfortunately he had no money so he had to run away from a very angry taxi driver. As the big mountain came into view his mind wandered over to Lily.

Would Lily do this for me? He wondered. It doesn't matter I'll die for her. She'll be able to live once again.

And then his eyes saw what he wished weren't there. A lake. The mountain was surrounded by a lake. Why had he ever heard of this?! He prayed to god that there was a boat somewhere near. And then to his delight he saw a wooden boat. He laughed at his luck. It sounded weird to laugh. He hadn't done it in such a long time.

He sailed on the tiny rowboat all the way to the mountain on the water.

Once he arrived at the mountain's bottom. He realized that he would have to climb up the mountain to reach the Cloud.

He tied his boat to a nearby stick, and started to climb the mountain. He knew no one had come back. He knew he would certainly die. Yet he climbed, He climbed for everything that he was. And everything Lily was. The only thing that kept him going was the memory of his sister. His amazing,funny,beautiful sister. He laughed at the memory of when Lily made him laugh so hard milk squirted out of his nose.

He climbed with no rope, just bare hands. And for some amazing weird reason he survived long enough to almost reach the cloud. And for some reason he still had a buttload of energy left. He started to climb faster and faster. His left hand grabbed the ledge. Then he pulled his right hand up to the ledge. And with every ounce of strength he had, he pulled himself up into a cloud.

It was wetter than he expected. In only a few seconds water was seeping through his long sleeved shirt. He was up on a mountain. And not just any mountain. The mountain that could help him raise his sister.

A faint word was whispered behind him. So quiet he could hardly hear it. "Jake."

Jake spun around and spun around to see his sister floating in the air. Her short red hair flowing around her even though there was no wind. Her eyes were completely white. It glowed almost as much as her smile.She smiled. But not as happy as usual. It was almost sad.

Jake forgot about everything. His mother, the angry taxi driver, the strange boat that happened to be at the lake. Her eyes, her round face. Took away everything. He wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to tell her he was sorry for every time he was mean to her.

But her smile stopped him. She wasn't smiling anymore. She was actually frowning.

"What? What's wrong?" Jake said. He could feel his own smile slowly fading.

Lily turned toward him, her eyes glowing even brighter than before.

" You weren't supposed to come." She said her voice like a willow's branches in the wind.

What did she mean. Isn't she glad I came? Should I hadn't come? All these thoughts were circling his mind, clouding his judgement that he didn't respond. So Lily went on.

" You want to stay. You want to stay with the dead, like all the others." Jake looked around for the first time realizing there were more people, staring at floating white figures talking with tears in their eyes and smiles on their faces.

" But you can't you have to go back for mom." She said her voice pleaded like their mother.

Jake looked around once again at the people sitting and standing, watching the figures.

"Do all the other Dead warn the people who visit?" Jake asked his gaze remaining on the ghosts.

Lily nodded. "And they all stay."Lily nodded again.

"Then why do you think that I will be different? I might stay here with you. So why bother."Jake asked still not looking at Lily.

He heard her giggle.It seemed to make Jake a little lighter.

"Because you're you." Lily said. Jake finally looked at her. He could feel cold tears roll down his cheeks. "You're the loyal,trustworthy,funny, brother. You always loved me, and I know that you are different from all these people ."

"And why am I different" Jake asked his voice shaky.

"Because you came here with more determination than anyone ever has. You came here to give your life up so I would live once more. And you know that you can't stay here. The one thing that defines you from everything else is wisdom." She said smiling a big smile as familiar as her herself.

Jake realized she was right. He knew from the beginning she wouldn't take his life. He knew that he wouldn't be able to leave his mother and stay here for eternity like the other people here. And now he knew he would have to leave Lily once again. Except now it was by choice.

Tears were flowing faster down his face. But he turned once more to look at Lily. Lily laughed and twirled up into the cloud disappearing.

Jake climbed down to the white beach. He looked up at the mountain once more. He gasped, the cloud wasn't on the mountain anymore, it was floating away. In the white fluffy cloud Jake thought that he could see Lily smiling down at him causing him to break into a smile himself.He walked over to the boat and rowed back over to land. All the while smiling.