No way in Heaven or Hell - Afterlife Series Book 1

Chapter 6 - That painful sense of déjà-vu - part 1

Eliana and Khyros fell out of the portal... and landed on each other.

"Ow! Get off, that's my leg!" Eliana said as Khyros's foot accidently kicked it.

"Well, get off my back and I might!" Khyros snapped.

After much tossing and grumbling, Khyros managed to get to his feet. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and held out a hand to Eliana, who blinked.

"Would you rather sit on the floor all day?" he asked.

Eliana rolled her eyes and let him pull her up.

"Thank you," she said, grudgingly.

He shrugged and turned to walk away.

"Wait! Don't you think people just might notice our wings? We may be dead but not invisible."

"Well, your wings are gone, and I'm guessing mine too."

"What?!"

She glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, the long white feather wings she had been sporting on her back for the past months had vanished.

"There's still there, they'll just come back when we need them... right?"

"Well, we can't risk putting that theory to the test, right now." Khyros said, though he looked annoyed. "Come on. Let's go find out where we are."

They stood in what seemed to be a small empty street. It smelled strongly of stale tobacco and Eliana was glad to get away from it. They brushed off their clothes and stepped out into the open. The main street was full of people, cars, noise and bright sunlight. Eliana remembered she'd died in March, so it had to be sometime in February now. She glanced at a newspaper stand near her and spotter the headline, some article about a major basketball game with the Chicago Bulls the night before. She looked at the date: February fifth 2014. So time really flowed the same way in Cethiel that it did on Earth. She looked at the headline again. Above it, was the name of the paper. Chicago Tribune.

"We're in..."

"Chicago," Khyros finished. "Yeah."

She looked up at him.

"You know, I did learn how to read. How do you know that, anyway?"

"I know this street." he said evenly. "West Madison Street. I came here with my friends to hang after school."

He seemed to be warring with his emotions, fighting to not let her see them.

"You lived here?" she asked, pretending not to have noticed.

She was probably being too nice, but "You had friends?" had sounded a little rude and mean. Plus she didn't trust him not to get mad if she got snarky. And an angry Thendarian was not a good idea. Khyros shook his head.

"Not here, but in Chicago. In the uptown suburb area."

Eliana wasn't sure what she was supposed to answer to that, so she prefered to remain silent.

"Why are we in Chicago, though...?" she wondered aloud. "I thought we were supposed to go to South America."

"Don't look at me," Khyros said. "I don't know."

"Well, it must have come from you, somehow." Eliana argued coolly. "You said yourself you lived here when you were alive. Were you thinking about Chicago when we left?"

She didn't think anyone would listen but you were never too careful, even in a bustling city like Chicago.

"No," he said. "Not.. not deliberately at least. I guess a part of me still was without my noticing. Come on, then, we'd best find a way to get to the airport and get a plane to South America."