Life After Death

Chapter 50

It was dark in the material realm.

An inky darkness that cloaked over the woods and swallowed everything in its wake. An occasional owl would hoot. The sound of sticks and dried-up leaves crunched underneath the soles of my sneakers. Danny was whining and I had to say I missed his yammering on. Sylvia was cussing because Danny was yammering on. And Roman was grumbling because Sylvia was cussing because Danny was yammering on. I was smiling because I had them back. They were alive.

It took a lot of convincing to get them to come along with me though. When Alexandru, Meg and I abruptly arrived at Roman's door he almost - almost - slammed the door in our face.

I had to remind myself that the last thing Roman remembered was our fight at Kassima's cottage in the woods where he left me. But as soon as he read my mind - like he annoyingly sometimes does - he saw everything. And I mean, everything leading up to the moment where I had been banging on his door.

The way he looked at me and Alex and then me again - it ripped me to shreds. And then he punched Alex which I hadn't expected ever since that moment they hadn't spoken - even though on many occasions Alex would try and initiate some conversation, but, Roman being the stubborn mule he was, wasn't having any of it. It broke me inside to know that Roman wouldn't even take the time to listen to his father - sure he was Satan's henchman and he did basically throw us to the wolves in the Chamber when he didnt help us from being killed into nothing but stardust filtering the air, but that was in another time, in another realm, literally, this is the new present now so technically that didn't happen.

Danny was easier to convince. As soon as I told him that the End was near he began to panic - then again, I assume it was mostly because he fucked my boyfriend and he panicked because he met me - but he listened when I explained.

I showed Sylvia what had happened - having the third eye came in handy in situations such as these. As soon as I transported those memories telepathically she had one of those shiver thingies and said that she could feel it - the memories, and she was hooked.

What felt like hours later we trekked our perpetual journey back to the material realm.

Now, with all of us walking in the darkness, we finally came to a stop in front of the cottage in the woods. The lights were on inside. Everything was just as I remembered it. The square-windows with the turquoise shutters, the large dark door, the ivy crawling up the side of the cottage, the tall gnawed trees scraping at the night sky. An occasional breeze picking up the scattered leaves and blowing it around our ankles.

"What now?" Danny asked, his voice wavering in what I supposed was fear.

"We capture her." Alex said, the shiner he sported a couple of minutes ago, gone - vanished from sight as though it never existed in the first place.

Just then a scream ripped through the atmosphere and all five of us jumped slightly. "Thats Topher," Roman said. I bursted out with laughter. Everyone gave me a sharp pointed look - the kind of look a mother give her toddler when it does something wrong. I mumbled an audible "sorry".

Alex bit down on his bottom lip, and said, "Kassima said that all I have to do is knock and she'd open for me and give me his soul so..."

"You knock and make conversation with her and then Meredith and I will sneak in the back and grab Topher while Danny and Meg attack Kassima and grab her," Sylvia suggested.

"Doesnt sound bad," Meg nodded. "I can transport her to the base right now. She'll be trapped there."

"Then it's settled." Alex said.

"But, um -" Danny spoke up but was shushed by Sylvia as she grumbled that she knew how weak Danny was already and that he'd just have to "man-up" and grow some "nice big balls" and attack Kassima. He reluctantly nodded and followed Meg.