Life After Death | A Serial Romance

Chapter 4

The decor of E.E.D. had never interested Ava. She, like all other non-Executors, spent a majority of her time trying to avoid the place at all costs. But once those doors slid open, she felt very small and it was entirely due to the decor. Imposing flat black walls stretched on forever making an endless maze of hallways and turns that Ava assumed led to offices or other hallways. She leaned out and looked up, trying to see where the walls ended and the ceiling began, but she couldn't see it from where she was. Executors went about their business, paying her no mind, which Ava found rude, but practical in a very rude and grating way. Considering she had no idea why she was here, she expected someone to be waiting for her to give her direction, but there was no one in front of her that fit the bill.

A rough voice croaked from her left. "You coming or going?"

Ava's attention snapped up to a tight-lipped blonde who reminded Ava of Prue, if Prue were eternally constipated. She was dressed in an all business suit, her hair pulled back into a tight bun behind her neck.

"I beg your pardon?" Ava asked.

The blonde's cold green eyes narrowed as she scrutinized Ava, which only made Ava more nervous. "The elevator." She swept her hand from the elevator to Ava and back again. "Are you coming or going? Because I'm going and you're in the way."

"Oh!" Ava hopped to it, retrieving her scroll and stepping out of the elevator with a nervous laugh. "I'm sorry. You see I got this scroll and I thought that I was going to the E.D.D. But I think someone made a mistake."

The blonde shifted quickly past Ava, nearly knocking her back. "Clearly."

"Hey!" Ava scowled at the blonde who just turned and stared back at her, inserting her finger into the elevator, which closed and took off. "Bitch." Ava muttered as she turned to examine her surroundings for clues as to why the hell she was here. The only thing she found was a line of people waiting for what she hoped was a map hanging on the wall. From where she stood, though, the object on the wall seemed too small.

She took two steps towards a short line of Executors before she realized that there was an ambient crackling sound like electricity somewhere near her. This world didn't run off of electricity, so to hear the crackling set Ava's teeth on edge. She continued to shift towards the line to wait her turn to examine the map, and tapped the first guy she came to on the shoulder, who shot her a questioning look.

Ava offered him an apologetic smile. "Sorry to bother you, but I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go. Is there a reception desk around; maybe someone who can turn off that irritating noise?" Ava looked around again, trying to track down the sound. It was one of those things that would just bug her all day.

The man looked like he was trying to swallow a smile, but covered it up reasonably well with a cough. "Well, if you received a scroll, all you have to do is place it in the map, and floorboard lights will direct you to where you have to go." He swept his hand towards the map.

Ava watched as Executors cued up and left, but she didn't see any lights on the floor. "Hey! They don't have any lights." She pointed towards the feet of the Executors who were walking away from the map.

He couldn't hide his small chuckle this time as he shook his head. "They only appear for the individual. You'll see it once you put your scroll in there. I promise."

Ava tried not to feel stupid. She tried really, really hard to remember she was just in the wrong place, and she was in an unfamiliar place. She desperately tried to cling to the idea that anyone would feel lost if they were in her position. "Okay. So what's with the snap, crackle, pop?"

He smirked, shoving his own scroll into the map as his turn came up. He walked backwards in whatever direction Ava assumed the lights were leading him and pointed one finger straight up above them, the one place that Ava hadn't thought to look for the source of the sound. Ava glanced up, and promptly wished she hadn't.

The Cradle was gargantuan. An enormous pulsing fluid ball of energy rotated and continuously shot out bolts of purple and blue lightning that crawled through the plumes of eerie green and grey smog that coiled around it. At its heart, the Cradle glowed black. As she stared, she felt like the jet black heart of the Cradle was casting a judgmental spotlight down over her for all to see. The sensation made her shrink in on herself. Inky glowing tentacles occasionally shot down and out of sight into the labyrinth-like setup of the E.E.D.

Ava stared up in terrified awe. "Holy shit."

A soothing deep voice spoke softly just behind her shoulder. "Indeed."

Ava nearly jumped out of her skin as she squealed then turned to glower at the asshole who'd just scared the piss out of her. She came face to face with Hunter. This made the entire experience exponentially awkward and uncomfortable for her. She quickly wiped the glowering shock off of her face before she laid into him.

"That's creepy, you know that?" She said. He reacted with a shrug and a smile and reached out towards Ava's hand, which instantly prompted her to yank it away. "Hey pal! Watch the goods. I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you can keep your hands to yourself. You think you can just go up behind people with that boogety-boo bullshit and we can hold hands? You have one sick sense of foreplay." Ava rested her hands on her hips as he just folded his behind his back and watched her with an amused nonchalance. This further infuriated Ava.

"If you're done making a spectacle of yourself," he began, "I was just trying to help you get your scroll into the map. You look more than a little lost and in case you hadn't noticed, there is a line behind you."

Ava had lost count of how many times she'd felt stupid since she'd walked out of the elevator. She came to the conclusion that today was just not going to be her day. There was some solace to be had in the fact that this would all make a highly amusing story around the proverbial water cooler back up where she belonged at the E.D.D. However, until then, she was still looking at this year's asshole of the year nominee.

She gritted her teeth and snarled at Hunter. "Go fuck yourself."

She turned away from the peacock without another word and shoved her scroll into the map, managing to look both sufficiently sheepish and incensed at the same time. Blinking white running lights appeared along the base of the wall as predicted, resembling airline emergency lights. Her scroll was yanked back out and she plodded along towards her unknown destination; grateful to be away from the map and the peacock.

Behind her, she could hear his last parting shot. "Language, Ms. Paramour, language."