Life After: The Complete Series

by Julie Hall

  I glared at him. Accusing him with my eyes if not with my words. Yet Joe heard my unspoken words as clearly as those that passed my lips.

  “I cannot ease their suffering.” His voice was hollow.

  “But if you would just—”

  “I can’t!” he yelled back. “They have already rejected me, so there is nothing I can do for them. I did not pick this fate for them. My gift was freely given, yet they didn’t claim it. Whether from pride, fear, or disbelief, they didn’t take it. We did not want this fate for even one of them. Not one.” He punctuated his words with a slash of his arm.

  “But if they had understood . . . ”

  Something in Joe’s eyes made my words falter.

  “Yes,” he said, “if they had only understood.”

  He turned his back to me and swiftly set off through the sea of bodies, not once looking back.

  Kaitlin and I silently followed Joe through the sea of bodies for what must have been hours. Occasionally one of the poor souls would get ahold of our legs or ankles and we’d have to tug ourselves free. The sensation of their stiff fingers grasping at my body stayed with me long after I untangled myself from their hold.

  Joe moved forward at a relentless pace, seemingly unaware—or uncaring—if Kaitlin and I still followed. If I hadn’t seen his initial reaction when entering this ring, I’d consider him cold and compassionless. But the remembrance of the agony etched on his face, his hands pulling at his hair as he fell to his knees, was forever burned into my memory.

  Out of all the horrors we’d witnessed in this realm, this was by far the worst. Forward progression was like walking through a mass grave of desiccated corpses that were not yet dead but were dying forever.

  I tried to numb myself, but hopelessness for these people, or souls, or whatever they were, hung heavy in the air and saturated everything it touched. It seeped into my pores and settled unnervingly in my gut. Much more of this torture and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep my sanity. I was already half mad. My brain wasn’t built to process these monstrosities.

  Yet to reach Logan, I was forced to press on. There was no going back. Joe had warned us this realm would challenge us physically and mentally, but I still hadn’t been prepared.

  Joe’s raised hand was the only warning we received before he halted.

  Kaitlin and I skidded to a stop, almost barreling right into him. Kaitlin’s weary glance skated to me before landing back on Joe. Neither of us knew what was going on. Joe remained silent.

  I forced my gaze to remain on our leader, not wanting to get another look at the scene around us.

  “There’s an illusion in front of us.”

  I jumped at Joe’s unexpected voice. Even though I couldn’t see his face, emotion clogged his words, making them slightly hard to understand. He cleared his throat before continuing. “Once I dispel it, we are going to be at the base of a mountain. Logan is hidden away in a cell deep within these caves.”

  Logan!

  My heartbeat sped at the mere mention of his name. When was the last time I felt one of his phantom pains? It had been hours.

  The absence of the discomfort should have been reassuring, but it alarmed me instead.

  Why couldn’t I feel anything from him? What did that mean? Had our connection somehow been severed?

  “I can’t feel him anymore! Why can’t I feel him?” My frantic thoughts fed my hysterics. “Is he still all right? That was stupid, of course he’s not all right. But what I mean is—”

  “Audrey”—Joe turned and took my face between his hands and pinned me with his gaze—“he’s passed out. That’s the reason you aren’t feeling his pain anymore.”

  I inhaled a breath of relief.

  “It’s a small mercy Satan hadn’t intended to grant him, but it will help you keep your head for the moment.”

  I nodded and opened my mouth to ask what was ahead. I had no idea what we were going to see beyond this illusion he spoke of, but to have a fighting chance, we needed as much information as he was willing to give us.

  Kaitlin stole the words right from my mouth. “So what should we be prepared for? I doubt we’re going to be able to walk right in, find Logan, and then strut back out the front door with him. What’s the plan?”

  “Finding Logan might be easier than you expect. After all, he’s only the bait.” His gaze flicked to me and lingered. “It’s getting him and ourselves out unscathed that’s going to be the tricky part. Follow my lead, but stay on guard.”

  “What aren’t you telling us? What is it Satan wants with me?” I crossed my arms over my chest. I was pretty sure Joe was being purposefully vague. Satan had attacked my family and then, when that failed, stolen Logan practically straight from my arms. Whatever the game was, there was a part scripted specifically for me. I just needed to figure out what it was. What could I possibly have that Satan wanted badly enough to go through all of this trouble?

  Joe stared at me a moment longer before turning forward, effectively evading my questions. “Let’s get going.”

  Before I could press him further, he swiped his hand at the air in front of him, and the illusion dissolved.

  There was no longer a never-ending sea of bodies in front of us. The face of a blackened mountain range jutted up high into the sky. Stealing a look behind me, the bodies had disappeared there as well. A cracked and barren desert landscape replaced that horrid nightmare.

  “Did we just cross through another ring?”

  “No. They’re still there, just covered by the same illusion that blocked these mountains from sight. The land itself is poisoned with lies and deceit. You can’t take everything you see at face value.” Joe pointed toward the base of the mountains. “We’ll enter there. The caves under this range form a labyrinth you’d never be able to navigate alone. Don’t stray from me once we enter.”

  A chill skated up my spine even as sweat trickled down it.

  This didn’t feel right.

  “Why aren’t there demons at least guarding the entrance? They obviously know we’re here. We fought them in the last ring.”

  “Like I said before, finding Logan is going to be the easy part. Satan wants us to find him. Logan was brought here for a reason. There’s something he wants.”

  Yeah, me. “Then why even bother attacking us in the last ring? Why not just let us stroll right up to where he’s been leading us this whole time?”

  “Thinning the herd.” Kaitlin’s words were as hollow as her gaze.

  Joe’s stare shifted to her blank face, and he nodded. She was right. We’d lost half our group in that one attack.

  “What’s he truly after?” I asked Joe . . . again.

  I thought Joe’s gaze flicked over to me, but it happened so fast I couldn’t be sure. When I blinked, he was staring back at the opening to the cave. “I’m sure it will be revealed soon enough.”

  There was something Joe knew that he wasn’t sharing with me. I just didn’t know what or why. Why wasn’t he keeping me informed? Making wise snap judgments wasn’t really my thing. I had an embarrassing history of rash decision making that if put to the test could very well bite us all in the butt.

  I bit my tongue to keep from voicing my annoyance.

  For probably the millionth time, I wished I just knew how everything was going to play out in advance.

  Waiting stank worse than Hell.

  I trudged along beside Joe and Kaitlin, just short of dragging my feet. Half of me wanted to break out in a run—we were closer to Logan than ever—but the other half was filled with trepidation. Joe’s cryptic comments and pointed looks, losing half our team, and knowing that at some point in the near future there was more than a good chance I’d be facing off against Satan again had my anxiety—and adrenaline—levels spiked higher than ever before.

  Best-case scenario, we find Logan quickly and are magically able to slip out of this demonic realm with him right under Satan’s nose.

  Worst-case scenario . . . well, I didn�
��t even know what that could be. Was it possible to end up like those living corpses we’d just picked our way through? I wasn’t sure. Maybe there was an even worse fate?

  Heck, I already knew there was. I’d been privy to some of what Satan had inflicted on Logan. Even the echoes of his pain were debilitating at times. Kaitlin and I could end up in adjoining torture cells for all I knew. And Joe . . . I didn’t know the rules of the game when it came to him. Was there anything Satan could do to harm him? If so, this would be the realm where Joe would be at his weakest. But as the Son of God, wasn’t he untouchable?

  We were completely off script now. There were things I didn’t even know I didn’t know.

  My internal demon-radar was blaring as well, but not one of the disgusting creatures was in sight as we reached the cave’s entrance and descended into darkness.

  8

  Descent

  The moment we stepped foot into the cave, we were pitched into complete darkness. Considering the blinding desert terrain at our backs, there was no logic in the sudden change of light. Some of that brightness should have bled into the cave—eventually being swallowed by the darkness—but instead it was as if we walked into a windowless room with the lights off.

  Did anything make sense here?

  I pulled my sword from the sheath strapped to my back, and we used the blade’s light to illuminate our path. Joe’s strides were even, and he seemed to know exactly where he was going without the assistance of the blaze to direct him. Kaitlin and I, however, stumbled along the uneven and rocky ground like toddlers. Our shared struggle was my only consolation. There was something satisfying in not being the only bumbling one in our shrunken group.

  I pressed a hand to my temple as we trekked forward and forced my eyes to remain open even as I ordered myself to ignore the crushing sense of being surrounded by demons. I trusted Joe to let us know if we were in any immediate danger, but there were definite lurkers nearby.

  Besides the sickening sensations on a constant roll in my stomach, the heat was even more intense in the caves, furthering my discomfort. The hot breath puffing from my lungs was actually cooling to my skin. I imagined that with every step we descended closer to the Earth’s molten lava core. Sweat didn’t simply dot my skin but poured down it. At some point, I was going to run out of moisture to sacrifice to this forsaken realm. I itched to strip out of my body armor, but doing so would be the height of stupidity—and I was working on lowering my stupidity batting average.

  A ghostly wail echoed from the tunnel in front of us, and Kaitlin and I lurched to a stop.

  “Wh-what was that?” I managed to stammer through my dry lips.

  “You don’t want to know,” Joe answered.

  He was right. I didn’t.

  “So . . . are we there yet?”

  Joe shot me a droll look over his shoulder. “Did you seriously just ask that?”

  “What? It’s a legit question. It’s hot as you-know-what down here. We’ve got ghost noises added to the mix, demons are practically breathing down our necks—and quite frankly, I’m hangry and would like to get my . . . my Logan back.”

  Apparently a bad case of cranky pants, sweating worse than a sumo wrestler, and going a couple rounds in Hell made me extra salty.

  I glanced at Kaitlin for some back-up, but she just gaped at me.

  “What?”

  She cupped her hand to the side of her face and whisper-yelled at me, “Did you really just talk to him like that?”

  Crap. That was a teensy bit disrespectful . . . I mean, he was the Son of God. Wincing, I offered Joe an apologetic grimace. He swiped a hand down his face before rolling his eyes and gesturing for us to keep moving.

  “Well, I’m still hangry,” I whisper-yelled back to Kaitlin.

  “I can hear you,” Joe called back.

  Whoops!

  “I’ll just pretend to get over that then.”

  “Good luck with that,” Kaitlin piped in.

  “Alrighty.”

  “In the meantime, give this a try.” Joe pitched a small drawstring bag over his shoulder at me. I snatched the sack out of the air one handed without dropping my sword-turned-temporary-torch.

  Score one for improved reflexes!

  The bag was no larger than my fist. Tugging open the sides, I couldn’t see anything, so I reached in and pulled out a loaf of bread.

  What the what? How did that fit in there?

  There was still some weight in the small pouch, so I awkwardly shoved my hand in and drew out some sort of dried piece of meat. Bringing it to my nose, I sniffed then used the very tip of my tongue to lick the supposed food. Its briny tang assaulted my taste buds.

  Is this a dried piece of fish?

  “Hey, what’s in there?” Kaitlin asked.

  “See for yourself.” I handed her the bag.

  A few minutes later, she chuckled before starting to munch on her own loaf and fish.

  “Classic,” she murmured.

  “If it’s not broke . . .” Joe mumbled in response.

  As Kaitlin and I filled our empty stomachs, we continued through the winding tunnels. Whenever we’d hit a section where the tunnel branched, Joe always continued forward without breaking stride, as if he was as familiar with these underground pathways as the back of his hand.

  Just as I finished my fifth piece of fish jerky—it sounded grosser than it actually was—Joe held up his hand, signaling us to stop.

  Kaitlin lifted her eyebrows and shoulders to confirm she didn’t know what the holdup was either.

  “Quickly, this way.” Joe tore off down the tunnel then banked to the left, disappearing from view.

  Kaitlin and I scurried to keep up. I didn’t even realize there was a small opening off to the side until we had almost passed it.

  We ducked through and followed the sound of Joe’s feet smacking against the stone.

  He was suddenly standing in front of us, facing what appeared to be a wall. He’d stopped so fast I almost stabbed him with my sword.

  “Whoa!” My feet slid forward on the gravelly floor as I came to a stop. My hand shaking at the close call, I sheathed my weapon. Joe had created another blue-and-red fireball that lit the area around us.

  “In here,” he ordered.

  What? In where? He wants us to walk into the cave wall? Last time I checked, this wasn’t Harry Potter.

  Joe stepped forward, and the stone that had been there a moment before dissolved and revealed a crude doorway.

  Didn’t see that one coming.

  An agony-filled groan struck my ears and my heart in the same moment. In the next instant, I was pushing my way past Joe and Kaitlin without even realizing it.

  Logan!

  A lone figure sagged against the far wall. But something was wrong with the hair. Logan’s wasn’t black. He had a gorgeous blend of blond and honey browns.

  Even matted and dirty, that hair was not attached to the person I was expecting. This wasn’t Logan.

  The prisoner’s head slumped forward, effectively obscuring his face. He was trussed to the stone wall in exactly the same manner Logan had been in my visions. Logan or not, we couldn’t just leave this poor soul here. He was obviously being tortured.

  Rivets of dried blood ran from his shackled wrists down the arm suspended above his head. His chest was covered in so much blood that whatever color his shirt might have been before, it was now dyed completely red. There were gashes along his left rib cage, deep enough to see muscle and bone.

  I swallowed back a gag.

  He was wearing pants, which obscured any damage to his legs, but his bare feet looked like they’d been dipped in blood before they’d been rolled in black volcanic cinders.

  Like a soft-serve ice cream cone dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles.

  Why did I have to think that?

  Vomit rose in my throat, but I choked the chunks down before they made an uninvited entry into my mouth.

  As if the world ran in slow motion,
I took stock of the man and our surroundings in a matter of heartbeats. Even so, these were moments we didn’t have.

  “What do—”

  Before I could finish asking what to do, Joe pushed past me. He tenderly took the man’s head in his hands and tilted his battered face.

  The gasp that echoed throughout the chamber was not mine, although it might as well have been.

  The young man’s face was covered in bruises and lacerations, and only one eye was partially opened, but there was no mistaking who he was: Morgan.

  Kaitlin’s eyes were wide and glassy. Her hands covered her mouth. I didn’t know the history between the two of them—if there even was one—except that Morgan had fought off demons to make sure she was safe when we were outnumbered on Earth.

  Perhaps just seeing a person so broken affected her?

  Perhaps it was something more.

  My insides swirled with confusion. Morgan was the enemy. A traitor. He’d threatened my family and betrayed not only Logan but the Creator as well. Yet the traitor in front of me also risked much to save Kaitlin and was obviously being horribly abused in this place.

  I just . . . I just didn’t know.

  In the back of my mind, there was a clock tick-tick-ticking down every moment we didn’t reach Logan. I both wanted to leave Morgan to the fate he’d chosen and stay to help. If I hadn’t been staring at Morgan’s beaten body with my own two eyes, the choice to bolt would have been easy. But seeing the devastation in front of me, I froze.

  As I watched with one foot in the room and the other in the hall, ready to run in either direction at a moment’s notice, Joe spoke quietly to Morgan. His one good eye opened to a slit, and he groaned. A trail of blood leaked out of his mouth when he tried to talk.

  Joe laid a hand on Morgan’s neck and supported his head. I was unable to see the look on Joe’s face as he continued to speak quietly. Despite Morgan’s ravished face, his expression crumpled at Joe’s words as he weakly shook his head back and forth.