To Hell and Back for You

Chapter 10: Astral Travel

"You know what?" I growled at the smug ghost, unable to hold back my rage at his insensitivity any longer, "You have no fucking idea what I've been through, what my childhood was like, what I've had to endure! So stop standing there and berating me until you get a fucking clue!"

I had walked closer to him as I barked, but my sudden outburst seemed to do nothing except amuse him because I saw his lips play with a smirk. Emma, on the other hand, did appear taken aback though she was hard to see from my new position. After a moment of silent anger between Damian and I, she reached a hand out and took hold of my upper arm, tugging me around to face her.

"Mark, calm down," she ordered.

My gaze fell from the guy leaning on my door to the girl who had grabbed me. Vision settling on her face, I saw that her expression was stern yet her eyes were at least attempting to be compassionate. I took in a deep breath to calm the rage, still turning my agitation on her.

Although Emma straightened up and removed her hand from my arm, she didn't speak. Her look remained confused while she watched me step away, around the couch toward my bedroom. I walked right onto my mattress, plopped my back against the wall, and sunk to sit on my ground-level cot. Jesus, Mark, get it together, I whispered silently, hanging my head to rest between two palms. I needed to think.

Assuming that I didn't wake up at some point just to realize my dreams had gotten more vivid after their years in hiatus, was taking these kids at face value really a good idea? Even being proven spirits, they could have ulterior motives. They could be manipulating me.

For all I knew they were actually demons luring me into limbo. Perhaps McGraff himself was using them as a ploy to return and make me a prisoner in my own body for some nefarious use. I realized that despite my experience with astral travel, I had no frame of reference here because I was completely in the dark to what lay beyond and what different spirits were capable of.

But I couldn't allow myself to pass up a possibility that would help me with Tyler, so I began contemplating what was to gain if they were being honest. I was well aware that I hadn't the knowledge to make it into another realm or dimension or whatever the hell you wanted to call it.

Therefore, there would be little point in me flipping them off and simply jumping planes to seek my lost lover out. It would just lead to me traversing the unseen within this world and never severing ties with my body. These kids clearly had a way to get me to Hell, the subsequent freedom gained by letting McGraff's spirit take my place allowing me to be able to travel entirely liberally regardless of realm boundaries.

The biggest problem with that outside of the innocent lives lost should they be unable to properly punish the killer, went back to my inexperience. I didn't really know how to defend myself should demons attack me and I got the feeling that the ghosts weren't too keen on sharing much detailed information. It made me wonder if there were rules creatures were expected to follow regarding such things. In that case, what if I were to break these laws? What would happen to me then?

Why don't I just kill myself and accomplish the same thing? My earlier retort repeated in my brain. Religious people seemed to believe there was punishment for suicide. I had never been religious, but what if there were truth in that?

Maybe I'd be damned to walk this world like the ghost kids, a scenario that brought me full circle to the argument against giving up the chance to be capable of traversing multiple realms in search of Tyler. I still didn't like the idea of inadvertently getting stuck in Hell, but if I didn't take the offer, I might go the rest of my pathetic life regretting it. 

"Alright," I breathed, lifting my head to look at the teens who had circled around me once more, "I'll do it, but I have one last question."

"What is it?" the girl removed her hands from her hips and crossed them.