Color of Angels' Souls

by Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian

  After having worked for years in business circles, Jeremy could easily see what Ventousi was scheming. He would announce the latest in a series of failures at the R&D department, offer a rock-bottom price for the shares, which the group would gladly sell to avoid bankruptcy, wait a year or two to make everyone think that he had been working on a new product, and then announce his miracle drug.

  And make a fortune.

  The bastard.

  So Jeremy had lost his life because of a sordid financial affair. He felt like screaming his head off. And crying like a baby. If he hadn’t been killed, he could have met Allison—really met her, when she was alive. Maybe he would have fallen in love with her, just like he had as an Angel.

  He sighed, knowing full well that, even if they had met, things wouldn’t have worked out that way. He had been so obsessed with his work that he probably wouldn’t have even noticed Allison. He would have blown her off with some curt reply and completely forgotten about her. It was only by dying that he finally realized the most important thing in life was exactly that: to live.

  And to love …

  A loud “clank!” rang out and both of them jumped. Allison stopped reading. Still grumbling about the plumbing, she turned off her computer, grabbed her jacket and took Frankenstein, who still hadn’t forgiven her, outside for his evening walk. They took a nice, safe walk under the watchful eye of Jeremy and then came back to the apartment. Allison stayed home that night. By ten o’clock she was already yawning. The intermittent clanking noises kept grating on her, and after tossing and turning she finally climbed out of bed and went to get some wax earplugs that she must have kept from an airplane flight. She stuck them firmly into each ear, cursing all the while.

  Then she went back to bed after making sure she’d locked the front door and attached the safety chain. Jeremy lay down next to her and, just before closing his eyes, couldn’t resist the temptation of “tasting” the blue Mist that was rising out of Allison.

  He almost choked, it was so delicious. He couldn’t believe how intense it was, as if he had never eaten or drunk anything like it before, either as a living human being or as an Angel. It was an explosion of taste and pure joy. It blew him away.

  “I love you,” he whispered in a trembling voice. “I love you and it’s going to drive me crazy!”

  But Allison didn’t hear him. Protected by her earplugs, she began to drift off. He slowly followed suit, with his hand passing through hers on the mattress.

  Jeremy would never know what woke him up. Probably the jangling of the safety chain as it snapped, and then the deep growling of Frankenstein.

  Suddenly, the little dog began barking furiously and charged at the front door just as it slammed open. The dark shadow standing in the doorway had been expecting him. When the little dog leaped at him and bit down hard on the man’s padded glove, he once again neutralized the dog and tied him up.

  Jeremy started yelling, but with her earplugs in, Allison didn’t hear the killer entering her apartment with his sword any more than she had heard the dog.

  Was she going to get herself killed because Jeremy had brought a Poltergeist to her apartment and she had put in earplugs to get some sleep?!

  Jeremy charged at the man and began swinging wildly, trying with all his might to stop him. All in vain of course. Put off at first, the three horrible red Angels that floated behind the killer soon began laughing at him.

  Frankenstein was choking on his gag as he struggled to bark and move his legs.

  All the noise and agitation must have somehow disturbed Allison’s sleep, and she finally opened her eyes. A bit of light shined through the window. The moon was full, and she hadn’t closed the shutters all the way. With a rapidity that took the intruder completely by surprise, she immediately understood what was happening, snatched the lamp from her night table, jumped from her bed, and lunged at the killer, screaming her head off.

  He only barely managed to fend off her first blow, as he probably hadn’t expected the young woman to snap awake so quickly and put up such a fight. Jeremy recalled that she had taken Kung Fu classes, and how Clark had made fun of her.

  But unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. The man quickly sidestepped her attacks and positioned himself to counterattack. He slammed his fist into her stomach. Allison doubled over and fell back onto the bed, dropping the lamp next to her on the sheets.

  The sword hissed as he pulled it from its sheath. Allison cried out when she saw the blade. So did Jeremy.

  Worried voices began crying out in the stairwell and the corridor of the building. The hit man cursed.

  He brought down his sword on Allison, but she had just enough time to grab the lamp and hold it up to protect herself. She unwittingly switched on the light in the process, blinding the killer. The sword just missed her head. It smashed into the light bulb and the blade stuck in the socket. Her assailant was immediately racked by convulsions, and Jeremy quickly realized the man was being electrocuted. The sword handle was made of wood, but the hilt was made of metal and was touching his bare hand.

  Then Jeremy suddenly realized that Allison was convulsing as well. The lamp was made of metal, which was probably why she’d used it to defend herself. She was clutching it with both hands and the same current was now coursing through her and the killer. Both were trembling violently and suffocating, locked in a horrible, deadly embrace.

  Why didn’t the fuse blow?! Jeremy ran about the apartment, incapable of doing anything to help and about to lose his mind with frustration. Suddenly the room was filled with people—probably the neighbors who had heard all the noise. One of them tried to turn on the lights and the fuse finally blew.

  The killer and Allison both dropped to the floor, struck dead.

  “Quick!” someone yelled in the dark. “Start doing CPR while I call an ambulance!”

  “Forget about this one,” one of the men said with disgust. “Look at his sword! Must be that killer they talked about on TV. He wanted to kill the girl!”

  The other man didn’t stop to argue. Jeremy looked on with the red Angels as they howled furiously at the man, who ignored the Angels and began performing CPR on Allison. First he performed a heart massage and then mouth-to-mouth: He pressed down firmly on her rib cage fifteen times, then blew once into her mouth, and kept up the rhythm: fifteen to one, fifteen to one, while one of the others dialed 911.

  Suddenly, Jeremy stepped back, in shock. Before him had appeared the naked, angelic form of Allison.

  “No,” he whispered, horrified. “No, not yet. You can’t die. I won’t let you! I forbid you!”

  Speechless, Allison could only stare dumbly at him. For a few seconds, Jeremy saw Allison’s body begin to waver, and become transparent.

  “That’s it!” Jeremy yelled; “hold on a little bit longer! Go back! Go back to your body! It’s not your time yet!”

  Behind her, an indistinct silhouette began to slowly appear—it was the killer, whose body lay unattended on the floor. Even though he had only just died, the man’s ghostly body was already a bright red. He stared wide-eyed, terrified most likely for the first time in his life, and looked about him in a stupor. Jeremy had to check a violent urge to grab him by the throat and throttle him. The three red Angels had already formed a protective barrier around him anyway.

  Jeremy turned back to Allison, encouraging her with all his might to hold on, to return to the world of the living.

  Medics rushed into the room and roughly pushed aside the two neighbors performing first aid. They immediately began doing the same and soon the body of the killer Angel began to vacillate as well when they began performing CPR on his real body.

  For twenty long and agonizing minutes, they tried to bring Allison and the killer back to life. More than once, both appeared to be on the verge of returning to their inanimate bodies, but both had passed too far beyond the mortal veil. It was too late to save them.

  After thirty minutes, first the killer and then Allison, who Jeremy h
ad been tirelessly encouraging, both stabilized. On the wrong side. On his side. He was crushed.

  The chief medic, a big strapping man, finally lowered his head. The Mist rising from his body showed how sad and powerless he felt.

  “It’s no use,” he said to the others, who were still massaging the hearts of the two lifeless bodies. “They’re dead. Both of them.”

  10

  The Taste of the Beyond

  It was hard for Allison to speak, just as it had been for Jeremy when he passed over. She had no idea what had happened. Her brain couldn’t accept the fact that she had died so suddenly, and she began trembling uncontrollably.

  She sat on the floor, terrified, wrapped up into a tight ball, incapable of assimilating what had just happened, and where she could possibly be. She was still filled with the horrible fright from the last few moments of her life.

  Jeremy knelt down next to her and smiled gently.

  “Hello Allison,” he said slowly. “Welcome to the world of Angels.”

  Allison could only stare at him with a glazed look in her eyes. She tried to say something. Without success.

  Just as Flint had done for him, Jeremy explained to her how her new Angel lungs, which were still behaving like her former ones, needed to relearn how to use the air in this new world. He kept the explanation short and simple. It wouldn’t be a good idea to overwhelm poor Allison with dozens of theories and explanations. She was already in shock. He did his best to reassure her and calm her down for the next hour. He didn’t dare touch her; each time he held out his hand, she would wince and pull back.

  The three Angels had taken the killer God-knows-where—or rather, the-Devil-knows-where—which was just fine with Jeremy. If the man had remained, Jeremy probably couldn’t have resisted the temptation to pummel him with blows, and he didn’t want Allison to see the dormant Neanderthal inside him awake, club in hand, at their very first meeting.

  “What … what happened? Where am I?” she finally managed to say.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said with infinite gentleness. “But you … I’m sorry; you’re dead, Allison. You’re an Angel now.”

  Her blue eyes stared into his fixedly. She began to panic, gasping for breath.

  “I … I died?”

  “Yes. Don’t you remember? The killer—the one who killed me. He killed you too.”

  She recoiled in fear. Jeremy looked around him to see what had frightened her, before realizing that it was him!

  “Jeremy Galveaux! You’re the man who was … who was …”

  “Decapitated,” he said in a whisper. “Yes, that’s right. Quite an original way to die, I must admit. As was yours: electrocuted to death by a sword stuck in a lamp by a psychopath. I think you’ll make the headlines just like I did!”

  He could see the terror in Allison’s eyes. Her face grew tense.

  “I’m dead! But … Clark! He’s going to … going to … oh my God, this is horrible! It will break his heart!”

  Jeremy was too surprised to even speak. Allison had just passed over to the afterlife, and instead of thinking of herself she was already imagining how much her friend would suffer. She really was incredible.

  “Yeah, well, he’ll get over it,” Jeremy replied, a little more testily than he would have liked.

  Allison suddenly jumped to her feet. She tottered slightly but refused his help, then finally regained her balance.

  “I have to go back!” she yelled. “I have to go back home!”

  Jeremy stepped back, surprised by how violently she was reacting.

  “But Allison—”

  “You don’t understand! I have so much to do! Clark … Clark … I can’t just abandon him! And the drug! Some … something has to be done about the new drug, you don’t … it’s very important, it’s a cure—”

  “For cancer,” Jeremy calmly interrupted. “I know all about it. It’s why the two of us were murdered. My stepfather didn’t have anything to do with it. Nor the mafia for that matter. It was all because of some creep who wants to hit the jackpot, and nothing more. But you can’t go back, Allison, I’m so sorry. Your body … I mean, your terrestrial body, is dead. Look.”

  He gently spun her around so she could see the medics placing her body in a black bag.

  Allison couldn’t stifle a cry when the zipper closed over her ghostly white face.

  She howled so loudly that the living people in the room shuddered. Her immeasurable distress had penetrated their subconscious. Jeremy could feel the tears streaming down his cheeks. He understood only too well! Frankenstein yapped back at her and the people gathered around the dog, surprised by how vehemently it was barking. Yet again, the little animal had been able to perceive the world beyond, and Allison’s fear.

  Allison finally broke down in anguish and slumped over on the floor. This time when Jeremy put his arms around her, she didn’t resist.

  He held her quietly for a long time. Then he heard a small, tear-stained voice behind her pretty but messy blond hair: “So why am I naked?”

  Jeremy blushed and quickly pulled away.

  “Ah, oh, excuse me, I’m sorry. I’ll take care of that right away!”

  He started snatching up bits of Mist that were floating around them, without worrying about the color since they weren’t going to eat it. He eventually had enough to form two yellow, green, and red strips of cloth. It had been a bit more difficult than making his own rudimentary loincloth.

  He showed them to her with an awkward smile.

  “Please accept my apologies, but this is all I can do for now. I haven’t been dead long enough to figure out how to make more sophisticated clothes.”

  Then he made two safety pins and proudly held them out to her.

  “But I manage to get by.”

  Allison didn’t move. She remained huddled up on the floor, staring warily at him for a long moment through her long hair, like a primitive child. It looked like she might fall to pieces at the slightest movement. Then, while Jeremy remained completely still, holding the strips of cloth and safety pins out to her, she finally grabbed them. She did her best to pin on the makeshift loincloth with one piece of cloth, and then formed a band across her chest with the other. Luckily, Jeremy had made them large enough to cover her up. In her new clothes she looked like Jane, the queen of the jungle, but Jeremy thought it best to keep the observation to himself. She was certainly in no mood to appreciate his pathetic sense of humor. She had just “passed over.”

  He could tell that she was doing her best to ignore what was going on with her cadaver, in order to concentrate all her attention on Jeremy. As if he were the only stable thing in her universe. He completely understood. He had done the same thing with Flint, clinging to him like a shellfish on a rock in the swirling tide. He realized that the metaphor was hardly a flattering one for Allison and smiled slightly. He was happy, for the first time since he had arrived in this strange new world. Even though the girl he had fallen in love with had just been murdered, he was happy.

  He had completely lost his mind was more like it!

  “What … what did you make it with?” Allison finally whispered, running her hand over the strange fabric, which was soft and warm. “Is it colored smoke? And why does everything look so bright and intense?”

  Jeremy was only too happy to explain some of the strange things she could expect to encounter in their new world. She frowned as she listened, and looked so adorable in her skimpy clothes that Jeremy had to force himself to look over her right shoulder in order to remain concentrated on what he was saying. She finally noticed and turned around to see what he was so interested in. Her eyes opened wide when she realized that the medics were about to move her body. While Jeremy had been welcoming her, the police had arrived and begun taking measurements, snapping pictures, and looking for clues all around the crime scene. The lamp and the sword had been placed in sealed, plastic bags; the two bodies were now on stretchers and they had pushed back the furniture to make room.
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br />   “No!” Allison yelped. “I … what are they doing?”

  “They’re going to take your body to the morgue,” Jeremy explained. “I know that the two of you weren’t close, but they’ll also inform your father. Then they’ll bury you. And your new life here will begin. Everything will be just fine.”

  Allison snapped her head back to look at him: “What do you mean everything will be just fine?!” she yelled. “I hope you’re joking! What’s going to be just fine? I’m dead! Nothing will ever be just fine! Here we are, just standing around watching while …”

  She stopped and stared at him.

  “How do you know my father and I aren’t close? And who told you about the drug to cure cancer?”

  Jeremy opened his mouth … only to close it again. How could he explain that he had been following her around for days without her thinking he was some kind of pervert?

  When she saw the guilty look on his face, Allison stepped back and took in the scene, realizing that they could see everything going on in her apartment. With startling speed, she realized what it all meant: “You were spying on me!”

  Just then the medics walked right through her and she jumped back.

  “They … they walked … I …”