heaven, purgatory, hell.

Chapter 6

"How does the trade work?" I asked

"Why does God do this, I thought he was the saint, like me." Jonah said trying to lighten the heavy air.

"God doesn't do it. Abdar does it. He's basically the devil. Yes, the devil and God have a name. Well, even though he is the devil he doesn't take over people's lives or posess them like a lot of religious people claim. He can't make you shoot a person, he can't take control of our lives. So the people who are claiming the devil brought misery and all that other jazz into their lives, that's just the way things happened. Nobody made your their life go down the drain it just - happened. Anyway he's in control of hell and purgatory and he's in charge of who gets sent where if they get the boot off cloud 9. God on the other hand, Derov, isn't in the picture. The dreams have nothing to do with him, but with the demons in purgatory. When he kicks them into Abdar's hands he does it so that they can spend jail time in a way. Being in purgatory is like doing community service for a long time. You either work for a long time until your debt is up or you find a soul to trade. A soul for soul kind of thing. I guess you can see where this is going Zella."

Jonah looked at me confused, "No, I can't, really." I said sounding lost.

"I guess this is the time where I tell you the story." she said in fragments not really wanting to say it. I looked up at Jonah and he said, "Well, if this is going to get personal I could leave if you want, Helena."

"No! Don't go Jonah! I want you here!" I said with pleading eyes.

"No, you're already apart of this and we do in fact need you. If you want to still be apart of this that is. It's just that I don't want you be excluded in the grand finale of why it's possibly happening to her. After I already told you what I know. The first story is the whole reason why it's happening in a way. You know it's like watching the middle of a movie and questioning what happened in the beginning. Plus she wants you to stay." she said while giving me a smile.

I looked up at Jonah.

"Yes. Yes. I wanna be apart of it. Oh my God. This is crazy. I just can't not know what's going on and watch over Zella with only knowing the middle part of the movie." he said clapping his hands together and laughing.

"I'm so glad you want to. Are you a believer as well? I know I kinda threw it on you without a good reason in the beginning."

"I do believe. Now. Not fully but I believe more than I used to. I kinda believed before but not so much. I wad tilting on the line of believing and not believing. I wanted to believe what you told me but I was really skeptical about it. I believe to some extent. Some times I try to come up with logical explanations for why something is happening, because I some times doubt it. But I do keep an open mind. It's just that I like to see things with my own eyes and hear things with my own ears."

I don't know why, but I'm being really calm about this. Considering the fact that before she even started the story I was going off like a car alarm. Also considering that demons want my soul, I'm really not scared even though I should be. I want to be scared but I can't. "Finish the first part of the story."

"This part explains everything that can be explained, like why my sister and why Zella are chosen. You may not be very happen hearing these things."

"Ok." I said unsteady.

"Basically when your father died he was sent to purgatory." she said letting the words sink in. My ears started ringing, I heard my heart thumping in them and I could feel fire in my throat. I was so shocked and confused, I couldnt speak. Jonah's mouth was opening and closing, but no words came out.

"He was sent because there was a curse put on my family a long time ago. My anscestors were witches and they got in trouble because witches and worlocks would cast spells as jokes on each other for fun. This was most common amoung kids and teens. One day one of my great aunts thought it would be funny to cast a spell on a group of girls that were casting spells on them. It was supposedly a spell that stopped a person from casting magic for a short period of time. But the short period of time turned into a long period of time. Obvioisly their families were outragged, they cast a spell on my aunt cursing a random family member of every generation to purgatory, whether they go when they die or they go slowly during their dreams. There is a way to stop the curse."

My head is pounding at this point and all I can say is, "How?"

"I'm not sure, there's a lady in her 70's I've found on the internet that knows about curses and voodoo but she won't return my calls or emails."

"Why don't we just go to her?" Jonah asked.

"Because she lives all the way in Nevada, we don't have money to spend on a trip that may not even be worth it. What if she's dead or doesn't know about our specific curse?"

"I have money saved." Jonah said in an anxious voice.

Something clicked in my head and I jumped up in the couch and almost had a heart attack, because of what my mom said earlier. My hand went up to my mouth as tears were threatening to fall, "You said my dreams should be getting weaker, but they aren't."

My mom did the same hand pose as me and said to Jonah, "We need to leave tomorrow morning."