Pomegranates

One

Jonathan Teodoro Beatriz was a decent guy. He always held the door open for the people behind him. He never littered, or at least tried not to. He never got arrested for drunk driving or for possession of drugs. He never got into a brawl at the bar. He never stole someone else's hailed taxi. Overall, he was a pretty nice guy.
Unfortunately the gods did not think so.

At the age of 19 he was run over by that aforementioned taxi on a cloudy Wednesday afternoon on his way to the movies. He should have looked before he crossed the street like a madman, he knew that, but he was running late and cars have brakes don't they?
That's besides the point. Jonathan was a decent guy, he never stole from his mother's purse. He never cheated on anyone and tried to be as honest as possible. He was respectful, had a pretty good education for someone who's parents had immigrated to this country a few months before he was born with his older siblings. Someone who's family struggled with paying the rent on time sometimes and learned the true meaning of money at a young age.
Still, after all that he somehow ended up in the Underworld. Then again it wasn't so bad depending on who you were really. Most people lived in a neutral zone, unable to communicate or affect the world of living in any way and their "sins" were not sins but just human actions. There was no real punishment unless you were a special case.
For example, Hitler at the moment was probably getting skinned alive and then mauled by vicious raccoons. Genghis Khan was also most likely going through his own series of punishments.
So there was some justice in the end.
Rapists and such were located in a special place in the underworld as well, not sure what happens there but it can't be good from the horrifying screams.
Again off topic.
Jonathan Teodoro Beatriz was a decent guy who had a typical life, a short one but an uneventful one. He didn't discover the cure for cancer or end world hunger. He had just graduated high school. He was working at a damn coffee shop to try and pay for his tuition. He was still living with his parents and his siblings and niece. He was average.

So he has to ask, what did he do to be put in this current predicament?

Lora.

Lora was a special case.
Eccentric attitude. Devious smile but innocent eyes. Soft spoken and at times clueless.
Loralai. Beezelbulb. Lucifer. Satan. The fucking devil. After years of babysitting his younger brother, he was stuck babysitting Satan.

It began when he first got to the underworld. He paid the ferryman, was brought to the gates of hell and was given a very quick overview of what exactly happens after you died.

There was no heaven.

There was no hell.

There was punishment depending on who you were in life.

But naturally everyone else was left in a neutral areas and left to their own devices.
You were even able to watch the rest of humanity continuing living whenever you pleased. Just no communication and no contact to the other side.
People sometimes were even given support systems, mostly to the children who did not understand what was going on. A lot of the time you would see these them running around the place, bringing some type of joy onto the faces of the dead. So yes this was the afterlife.

Jonathan had felt alone when he first arrived here. He didn't know anyone who was dead, everyone he knew was alive. As unfair as it might have been, he did get to meet people he had only ever read about.
Cleopatra was beautiful.
Lincoln was extremely tall, even without the hat.
Martin Luther King Jr. was as intimidating in person as he looked in the books.
Caesar was still pissed about the whole back stabbing thing but he did wish he could try a caesar salad.

So life, he wasn't sure if he should call it life but, life in the underworld was unexpected.

Loralai was the unexpected part.
No one really knew who she was or where she'd come from.
She was her own force entirely. Hundreds of dark ebony curls framed her oval face, with sharp brown eyes that almost resembled the large willow trees that grew. A flat nose and an overbite that always made her look like she was pouting. Yet that never seized to ease the mischievous energy she gave off. She was confident and loud but at the same time curious and soft.
The way she held herself would make you think she taller than what she really was, barely over 5 feet.
She always had a smile for everyone and shaky laugh. Everywhere she went there was a book at her side and a pencil lost in her outrageous hair.

Some days Jonathan didn't even think she was real. Like a mirage, tricking his eyes and causing him to see things that weren't there. But she was real as day and would like to approach him at the strangest at times.
Mostly when he was alone and staring up at the sky.
The sky was magnificent. Colors ranging from dark blues to soft pinks and bright greens would merge with each other to create something even more beautiful than the Aurora Borealis. It was almost as if someone had taken a paintbrush and painted the sky themselves. Truly magnificent.
It was strange to think that this was it for him.

Eternity with mesmerizing skies and a girl who seemed to be anything but human.

She wasn't human, of course, he would learn soon enough.