Life After Death

Chapter 35

I was the one that should ask the questions,, not him. I was the one that had been kidnapped from Pizza Palace and brought to Lucifer's lair in the fucking Underworld. I had discovered so many horrible things about myself and I had so much questions that it caused pain to strike through my skull whenever I thought about it. It was all too much. Things were going out of control and I needed to gather all the information I could. I needed closure. Or else I would explode.

"How did you get here?" Roman asked.

"I was brought here - teleported, I think."

This peaked Roman's interest, and he sat up on the bed to give me his full attention. "By whom?"

"Someone." I grumbled.

Roman sighed in annoyance and gestured for me to take some Cheetos. I took two handfuls and stuffed my face. It was so good. I remembered staying up, watching American Pie with Amy, and stuffing our faces with Cheetos - it had been our favorite midnight snack.

I felt emotion well up inside of me. It was scary how things changed. Just a couple of months ago, I would have been talking to Amy over FaceTime about the upcoming Winter Formal. I would have been normal and alive.

"Meredith?" Roman said, snapping his fingers in front of me. "Are you okay? You blanked out for like five minutes."

I licked my fingers and gave him a small smile. "I'm good." I took a deep breath. "We need to talk. I've been wanting to talk to you ever since you stormed out on me - and I know that time in Kassima's cabin was all my fault, I was being selfish, blah blah blah and I'm sorry. But things have gotten serious like, life after death serious, here."

Roman gave me a deadpan look.

"And no, I'm not exaggerating right now," I added.

"Somethings off about you," Roman said, after a brief moment of silence.

"Hey, something just occurred to me you said I blanked out for five minutes, right? Well, I didn't know you had a sense of time here in the Underworld," I looked around in intrigue.

"You're still dumb as fuck," Roman added, "but something's... different."

"Maybe its the fact that I've inherited my soul power," I said, arching a brow at him.

"What?"

"You heard me - liar."

Roman couldn't meet my gaze. Instead, he stood up from the bed, and began to pace around the room.

"Too much for you?" I asked timidly. "I have a lot of questions for you. There are so much things you have been keeping from me and I want to know everything."

"You were supposed to move on to your Elysium," Roman mumbled more to himself than me. "There, you would've been safe and..." He looked up at me. "What happened?"

"I went outside of the pizzeria and I began calling out to you, because you know, technically I'm your charge or something," Roman sighed but let me continue, "as I was saying... I called out to you. But then someone else came - some... guy - and I was taken to the Underworld where I met the Prince of Darkness and his henchman and he offered me a deal for a price. He activated my powers or the Underworld did, I don't know. And now, whenever I focus on something I have these visions and stuff. I don't know how in fucks name to control it, so it just randomly happens." I let out a giant breath I didn't know I was holding in and looked at Roman who looked shocked and surprised and scared all rolled up in one.

"They are going to kill me," he whispered.

"Who?"

"I'm a dead, dead person..."

"WHO?"

"Reggie!" He screamed, fisting his hair in his hands. "I thought... I thought taking you... your soul would prevent all of this because, I saw this... I saw it all. Now it's happening."

"Sometimes things just have to happen and you can't stop it. Everything happens for a reason, brother," I crossed my legs on the bed and grabbed the Cheetos.

"How are you not panicking right now?"

"Because I had a lot of time to overanalyze this shit," I muttered. "It's your turn now."

I still felt hollow. I wanted all of this to be over, more than anything, I wanted things to be okay again.

Roman controlled his breathing and stopped pacing.

"Who's Clara Clarkson?"

He looked up at me. Something flickered over his face. Something I couldn't quite gather because as soon as it was there, it was gone.

"C-Clara?"

"I had a vision... or something. You and Sylvia talking about Clara, about me..." I looked into the packet of Cheetos. "Who is she, Roman? You are going to tell me everything you know. I can't be left in the dark anymore."

"I thought you were safe not knowing..."

"I was. I'm just not safe there anymore," I said. "Now talk to me. Please." It came out as a gentle plea. Roman frowned and gave me a curt nod. He sat down next to me and after a hesitant minute or two. He began to talk.