Life After: The Complete Series

by Julie Hall

  I nodded since my throat had gone dry. Blondie gracefully lifted her willow frame from her chair and pressed her hand to the white wall behind her. A door swung open, one I hadn’t even realized was there. It shut soundlessly behind her.

  The slight nervousness that had started in the pit of my stomach spread and grew into a near panic as I waited for her. I looked around the room to get my mind off what was happening, but it was empty. All white walls, no pictures hung. Besides the desk, which stood like a monolith in the white drenched room, there was a gray table behind me and black chairs lining the walls. Ordinary office furniture. After a few minutes I gave up trying to distract myself and started gnawing on one of my fingernails. This was crazy. I mean, after you’re dead, what kind of administrative mix-ups could there really be? Was I not supposed to have died? Could I have been sent to the wrong place somehow? If so, was I going to be sent back? And what was up with skipping orientation?

  I was torturing myself with ideas of where I was really supposed to be when the door in the wall magically appeared again, admitting another woman, tall, with raven hair swept up in a high, tight bun and a no-nonsense look on her face. She moved briskly toward the desk. Blondie was on her heels, talking quickly as if I wasn’t even there.

  “It’s just so unusual that I thought I should check with someone else before processing her.”

  The words “unusual” and “processing” stuck like knots in my stomach.

  “I mean, I know mistakes in the assignments don’t happen, but look at her.”

  Blondie gave me an apologetic smile. I couldn’t help but feel a little offended even though I had no idea what she was talking about.

  The second woman had her eyes glued to the machine and gave no indication she was listening to Blondie whatsoever.

  She finally spoke. “I understand you wanting to verify, but He doesn’t make mistakes. She’s been assigned.” She looked up from the machine to fix me squarely with a grim stare. Whatever the screen said, she wasn’t too happy about it. “I’ll take her from here, Celeste.”

  Blondie looked relieved. “Oh well, yes, that would probably be for the best.” She glanced at me with worried eyes. “Don’t worry, Audrey, you’ll be in very good hands with Shannon.”

  Shannon smoothly rose from the chair. “Audrey, you can come with me now.”

  Her words might have made it sound as if I had a choice, but her tone confirmed that I did not. I took a deep breath and rose from the chair. I gave Celeste one last look before following Shannon out the door. I think she mouthed, “Good luck,” but I couldn’t be sure. My spirit fell even further when the door clicked shut behind me.

  3

  The Job Eternal

  Ten minutes later, Shannon held a door open for me as I stepped past her and into a room jammed full of people—and not just anyone. The room was packed wall-to-wall with huge, well-muscled guys! My stomach dropped. I’d been mistakenly drafted by the afterlife division of the NFL. This had to be a mistake.

  Shannon placed a firm hand on my back and nudged me further into the room. I tried in vain not to gawk at the scene around me. Beefed-up guys sat conversing around twenty-five round tables. The atmosphere felt relaxed, almost like a break room. I couldn’t pick up full conversations as we wove our way through the room, so my mind worked overtime inventing some of my own.

  Hey man, what did you do today? the guy in the skintight purple T-shirt that said “I ROCK” on the front would say. And the dude on his left would answer in a deep, Schwarzenegger-esque accent, I picked things up and put them down.

  We reached the other side without stopping to talk to anyone. Shannon placed her palm on the wall and produced another hidden door.

  From my limited view behind Shannon’s head, it appeared to be a gym of some kind. Not even the high-decibel manly noises coming from behind me drowned out the unmistakable sound of metal on metal. Shannon stepped to the side. That’s when I saw, on the far end of the gym, two fighters locked in a death match. They were bearing down on each other so quickly I could hardly distinguish the movements. The source of the sound was the thick, heavy swords they were fighting with.

  One of the fighters jumped high into the air and landed at least two body lengths from where he’d been standing, narrowly escaping a blow aimed at his shins. I gasped. A move like that wasn’t humanly possible!

  The fighters, wearing silvery, sleek body armor, didn’t miss a beat as they bore down on each other with a series of quick blows. The movements blurred with their speed, the sound of the swords meeting deafening.

  I gasped again when one of the opponents swung his sword in an arc and nearly took off the head of the other, who ducked and rolled just quickly enough to avoid decapitation. If this was a sparring session of some sort, it must have gotten out of hand. I looked up at Shannon anxiously. Surely someone should stop this!

  Her face was a mask of calm, mixed perhaps with a bit of impatience. One of the fighters took advantage of an unsteady moment to get his opponent to one knee. He was just about to deliver a final blow when Shannon loudly cleared her throat. Both fighters froze. Shannon smiled coolly at them and said, “Logan, may I have a word with you?”

  The fighter who had the advantage took a step back and lowered his sword.

  “Sure, Shannon, just give me a sec,” he said, not sounding nearly as out of breath as I thought he should. He reached an armored hand down to give his opponent a hand up. Not a bit of malice remained in their movements.

  Logan shook the hand of his opponent, who was quite a bit bigger in both height and girth, and gave him a friendly pat on the back. They said something to each other I couldn’t make out and chuckled before parting. The other guy gave Shannon a wave and a nod before pushing through a different set of doors.

  As Logan moved toward us, his armor began to evaporate. First, his shin and shoe guards melted into the air, revealing brown sandals and dark-washed jeans. Then the metal covering his arms and hands disappeared, followed by his breastplate, uncovering a T-shirt that read “Hunters Rule, Demons Drool.” He was leaner than the guys back in the break room, but still muscular. Last, his helmet evaporated. He looked younger than I expected . . . perhaps only a few years older than me. But who knew if age really meant anything here.

  Shifting my weight I craned my neck to the left, trying to make sense of where his armor had just gone, peering around him as if it might magically appear somewhere behind him.

  I was still gaping when he stopped a few feet short of Shannon and me. “Hey Shannon, what’s up?”

  He glanced my way with only a mildly curious look. I wasn’t certain if I should be offended or relieved.

  “Actually, I’ve brought you a new trainee.”

  Logan tilted his chin up to scan the area behind us. I turned my head as well to see who he was looking at.

  “Oh yeah, that’s great! Where is he?”

  Shannon gave me a firm prod. Unprepared for the push and still gaping at Logan, I stumbled forward.

  “Here she is,” Shannon said with a smile.

  Logan’s eyes opened wider, and this time he really looked at me. He had dark blond hair, on the longer side and tousled, with wild highlights throughout, the type you get from too much time spent in the water and sun. His eyes started at my feet and slowly moved up my body until they locked with mine. Under the scrutiny, I registered that his eyes were a deep cobalt blue. It reminded me of the color of the ocean on a sunny day. The intensity of his stare embarrassed me. Heat rose to my face but was trapped in his gaze. I felt judged.

  Without releasing my eyes, he addressed Shannon. His words came out deliberately, with an icy edge.

  “You have got to be kidding me.”

  His tone sent a chill down my spine, which actually helped combat the warming of my cheeks. That was the final straw.

  I broke his stare and pivoted on my heel. I’d had enough of all of this. Muttering to myself about how crazy this all was, I marched purposefully toward th
e door. I didn’t care if there were a zillion muscle dudes on the other side, I just wanted out.

  Before my fourth step, Shannon was in front of me. In fact, she appeared so quickly I walked right into her, bounced off, and landed on my butt. Dang, how’d she get there so fast? She appeared to be glowing but was no longer smiling. She looked over my head at Logan.

  “You know we don’t make mistakes about these things. There is a reason for this.”

  “She’ll be eaten alive out there. Just look at her, Shannon.”

  Shannon glanced at me, sitting there on my butt, before looking back up at Logan. A shadow of doubt crossed her face but was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared. Eaten alive. How was that even possible when you were already dead?

  “Logan, it is what it is. You’ve been chosen as her mentor. You need to train her as you would anyone else.”

  Neither of them spoke. I looked back and forth between the two. Then Logan asked with slightly narrowed eyes, “Is this because of what happened?”

  Shannon’s features softened perceptibly.

  “No, Logan, this isn’t some sort of punishment. You know things don’t work like that here.” Her voice was quiet but still strong when she continued, “What do you think they said about Romona when she first joined?”

  Logan let out a deep sigh. There seemed to be some silent communication, a faceoff, going on between those two. Shannon must have won, because after a few minutes her calm, cool smile returned.

  “Thank you, Logan. I’ll leave her with you now. You know what to do.” The words sunk in fast as she turned to go.

  “Wh-what?” My speech was stuttered as I scrambled up to stop her. In my rush I lost my footing again and ended up half-running, half-crawling after her. When the door shut behind her, it occurred to me how pathetic I must look. I struggled to my feet and stared at the door.

  Indecision about whether to run after her or turn around and face my fate, kept me rooted in place. I was equally torn between wanting to shout at someone or break down crying. What in the world was going on? Whatever I might have thought the afterlife would look like, it surely wasn’t this.

  I inhaled a deep breath to steady myself. There was no use getting too upset until I found out what sort of job I had been assigned to anyway. Could it really be that bad?

  So far, Logan hadn’t made any attempt to talk to me. For all I knew, he wasn’t even still there. I squeezed my eyes shut and let the air escape my lungs. When I opened them and turned, Logan was exactly where he had been when I attempted to make my grand exit. He was either giving me time or didn’t know what to say, so I took control of the moment. At the very least, I needed to try to pull back some of the dignity I’d already lost.

  I plopped my hands on my hips and let out a breath. “Okay, so will you at least tell me what exactly it is that we do?”

  Logan looked me straight in the eyes and said, “We kill demons.”

  I saw his eyes, heard the words, and then everything went black.

  I had never fainted before in my whole life. At least, I was pretty sure I hadn’t. But when I came to, I knew exactly what had happened—it wasn’t like the movies when someone slowly wakes up, looks around, and asks “What happened?” in a calm and sleepy voice. Nope, I woke up into full awareness and total embarrassment. And it hurt! My left shoulder was throbbing, my arm was crossed in front of my chest at a weird angle, and my face was squished into the floor but didn’t hurt. If I stayed like that much longer, my arm and face were likely to fall asleep.

  I considered pretending I was still out cold. Maybe if I stayed on the floor long enough Logan would just go away, or better yet, I’d magically be back in the real world.

  Deciding I couldn’t just stay there, I rolled onto my back with a groan. Logan was standing directly above me looking down. He had a look on his face that might possibly be concern. And then he opened his mouth to speak, and I learned what really worried him.

  “Do you do that often?”

  Irritated, I sat up, ignoring the question. That was as much of a dignified stance as I could muster considering the circumstances. I needed a little more time before getting to my feet.

  I took a moment to scrutinize the gym more closely. Logan’s fight had completely monopolized my attention earlier, and I was beginning to notice all the details I’d missed. It was a small gym with high ceilings. Three of the walls were nondescript and gray. The left wall stood out, as it was lined floor to ceiling and end to end with more hand weapons than I had ever imagined even existed. Some I had never seen before. They had odd angles and sharp edges and looked menacing enough that I hoped to never touch them.

  I didn’t want to think about the weapons. I didn’t want to think about what they were supposed to wound.

  The floor beneath me was black and slightly squishy. I reached down to poke it with my index finger, which left an indentation for a moment before smoothing over. I spent a few more moments than was necessary poking at the spongy ground. It was time to stand and face the music, or in this case, Logan.

  He was silent while I mentally and physically pulled myself together. I didn’t have to wonder if he was still there; I felt his stare boring into my back. He didn’t offer to help me up.

  Stumbling at first, I managed to get to my feet and turned to face him. He was leaning against the wall with one foot crossed over the other, arms folded over his chest like he had all the time in the world. His hair was still tousled, but in just the right way to make you wonder if it was styled or just messy. His eyes were slightly narrowed, sizing me up, but the rest of his expression was closed off.

  “Okay.” He pushed himself off the wall, apparently having made up his mind about something. “I guess we should at least get you settled.”

  He walked straight toward me and then straight past me. He didn’t say so, but I assumed I was supposed to follow him, so I did. Heading down a long gray hallway, we passed a number of doors with strange sounds emanating from most—swords clashing, maybe somebody practicing martial arts or just listening to a Bruce Lee movie really loudly. I scurried past one door that vibrated with the roaring noises coming from within. None of this fazed Logan, who forged ahead as if I wasn’t there.

  Logan stopped suddenly in front of a door and pushed it open. The light from the other side was so bright it stung my eyes. I blinked a few times. We were outside. It was beautiful.

  We’d exited a building on the edge of the glistening city, but it was the mountain range before us that completely captured my attention. Tipped with white snow and rising from a base of lush green forest, the sight truly took my breath away. Moments passed before my gaze dipped lower. Laid out before me were streets and sidewalks to the left and green space to the right. There were people everywhere! Briskly zigzagging around each other to my left and relaxing, playing, and running in the fields and courts on my right. There were young people and old people and every age, shape, size, and nationality.

  I followed Logan as he walked straight into the masses and headed for a sidewalk that appeared to skirt the city. At his brisk pace I had to pick up my own to keep up.

  To the right was a small field with people playing a game I didn’t recognize. A few shouted greetings to Logan. He nodded or gave short waves in response. Straight above us was a crystalline blue sky, free of any clouds or imperfections. It was so clear, in fact, that I noticed the absence of the sun, despite the overwhelming amount of light all around.

  Apparently I stared up too long, because when my eyes lowered, I wasn’t following Logan anymore. I turned in a quick circle and spotted him to the left. Whoops! No time for sight seeing I guess. Time for a quick jog. When I caught back up, he either didn’t notice I had been missing or didn’t care. Both possibilities irked me. It wouldn’t kill him to be a little sensitive to my situation. But instead of saying anything, we walked along in silence. Him leading and me following behind like a little duckling.

  “Quack.”

  “What’
s that?” Logan turned his head.

  “Nothing.” I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Logan didn’t press it, just rolled his eyes and refocused his attention forward.

  There was too much to take in to be annoyed at Logan for long. Leaving the sidewalk, we veered off on a stone pathway that led us toward the mountains and trees and past small meadows of brilliantly colored flowers, winding brooks with water as clear as glass, and familiar yet oddly misplaced things like ice skating rinks and sledding hills next to swimming pools and skateboard parks. As we walked, the tall spirals and buildings became smaller, and the forest before us captured my full attention.

  Trees soared hundreds of feet in the air, wider than small skyscrapers. It was only when we reached the wooded edge that I realized just how enormous they really were. We were like grasshoppers standing next to them.

  Logan put his hand to the trunk of a tree, and for a moment, it looked like the bark was melting off. Reds and browns merged together and streamed down to pool at Logan’s feet. With a poof, the melting bark evaporated, and a shiny brown door appeared on the side of the tree.

  Logan reached for the doorknob without hesitation. It registered with me that this should be completely insane, but after what had happened in only the past few hours, it wasn’t the strangest thing by far. I considered staying outside longer just to see if he’d notice but decided against it. He most likely didn’t care, and I was too curious about what was inside that massive tree to wait.

  We entered a corridor. The walls were uneven and dark brown like dirt. It was slightly musty inside, and the humidity made the air feel sticky. Whatever they used for lighting wasn’t working very well, because I had to wait for my eyes to adjust before I could see much.

  About ten feet in front of me, Logan moved gracefully and quickly through the corridor. I reached my fingers out to lightly touch one of the walls. It felt soft and mossy. I held the fingers up to inspect them, but the tree wall had left no residue.