AfterLife

by S. P. Cloward

  Emily turned and continued down the hallway. Wes followed.

  “Why aren’t there more people here? You said there were thousands of Mortuis.” Wes realized he hadn’t seen anyone else since he’d awakened that morning.

  “That’s because we live in the real world. We can’t survive separate from the antemorts. Although there are thousands worldwide, that’s really a very small number.”

  “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” Wes was still trailing behind Emily, who was passing through a door located near the intersection of the main corridors. The room they entered was spacious enough that his old apartment would easily fit inside with room to spare. It was beautifully furnished with statues and other pieces of fine art. Large wooden desks were situated in each corner. In the center of the room was a circular sitting area, or kiva, as he later heard it referred to, that was recessed into the floor by a few feet. Behind one of the desks was a woman working on a computer.

  “This is the office of the Ancestors,” Emily said. “The Ancestors are the leaders of AfterLife. They are the ones who have been alive the longest. One of them is always present here at the Hub.”

  The woman at the desk noticed them, stood, and walked across the room toward them as Emily was explaining who the Ancestors were. “You must be Wesley,” the woman said as she held out her hand to Wes. “We are so happy to have you here. I’m Anne Marie.” Wes took her hand and they shook.

  Anne Marie was medium height, but her heels and professional attire gave the illusion that she was much taller. Her posture was strong and upright, also giving the impression that she meant business. She had burgundy hair that was cut to frame her face, and although she looked very professional, her smile was kind and welcoming.

  “Wes, Anne Marie is one of the four Ancestors at this Hub along with Caleb, William, and Zach, who aren’t here right now.”

  “Zach was here earlier,” Anne Marie said. “However, he had to leave not too long ago for Chicago.” She turned to Emily and lowered her voice. “They found another one.”

  Emily nodded.

  Anne Marie turned back to Wes. “Well, why don’t you come in and we can get to know one another.” Anne Marie directed Emily and Wes to the seating area. Once seated, she shifted her body around so she was facing Wes. “So Wes, tell me about you.”

  Wes couldn’t help but feel like he was now in the middle of a job interview. “Well, where shall I start? I lived in Chicago and now I’m a Mortui.”

  Anne Marie smiled at him, which eased the awkwardness of the situation. “Don’t feel uncomfortable, Wes. I already know quite a bit about you. It’s one of the benefits of having AfterLife members in high positions in society. We can access a great deal of information on just about anyone. What I’m curious about is not what, but the why. Do you mind me asking you about your death?”

  Wes thought about the question. Such an experience should seem very personal, but it didn’t feel that way. “To be honest, I was depressed; I thought I was in love with someone who didn’t love me. I just wanted the hurt to go away.”

  “Love is a strong emotion and if you’re lucky enough to find someone, you’ll find love is just as powerful for a Mortui – in many ways even more so.” Anne Marie’s smile faded slightly as she looked down at her hand. She ran her thumb around her ring finger on her left hand even though she wasn’t wearing a ring. Wes could tell she was recalling the memory of someone she’d lost who was still very special to her. “It’s slightly different though and not chemically driven, but one thing does remain the same. Whatever characteristics you were drawn to in life you will still be drawn to as a Mortui. You’ll discover that. Certain individuals will always attract you, lift your spirits.” She waited for a moment before continuing, “Tell me more, Wes. Why did you feel depressed about this woman?”

  “I tried to tell her how I felt, and then she just disappeared. I didn’t hear from her for weeks, and I took it as rejection. When I was dying, I realized that I had attributed her behavior – wanting to leave me – to everyone I’ve loved. The truth is I push people away. That night I felt lonely and miserable and didn’t want to deal with the feelings. It’s funny though, when it came down to it, I didn’t intend to end my own life.”

  “So you never got to talk to this girl before you died? You still don’t know how she felt about you?”

  “No.” Now he’d never get to talk to her. He continued slowly, as if recalling a horrible dream. “My death was bad timing, I guess. She called right after I’d taken the pills and said she wanted to see me. The way she said it gave me the impression that what she wanted to tell me was really important. In the end though, I don’t know if she ever stopped by. I imagined I saw her as I was dying, but she was gone before I woke up, so I don’t think she was really there. If she was, wouldn’t she have tried to save me? Wouldn’t she have called an ambulance or something, even if she didn’t care for me? I think she knocked, but I didn’t answer, so she must have gone away.” He sighed. “None of this really matters anyway. I’m dead now.”

  Anne Marie and Emily looked at each other as Wes finished his story. Anne Marie’s smile disappeared and was replaced with a slight look of concern. Emily nodded to Anne Marie, who got up and walked over to her desk to pick up a photo she returned to show Wes. “Is this Jezebel?”

  Wes looked at the picture. It was definitely Jezebel. How could they know? He looked back up at the two women.

  “She’s with the Atumra. We’ve had some of our team following her for quite some time.”

  “You mean she’s Mortui? That’s impossible. I’ve known her for a while. I’m sure I would’ve known!” Wes stared at the picture, imagining it would change into someone else.

  “When she left your building that night, the team following her didn’t think anything about it. There were indicators that led us to believe she might be actively working to recruit you since you have a biological predisposition to be a Mortui, but we didn’t realize she was the one who killed you.”

  “She didn’t kill me! I killed me!” Wes threw the picture down on the table in the center of the sitting area and stood up. “I killed me.” He repeated the statement again for his own benefit. He stubbornly wanted to believe Jezebel wasn’t what they were telling him she was.

  “You probably would have if she hadn’t. If she hadn’t sucked the life out of you before the pills and alcohol had done their job, it’s possible your soul would have severed and you wouldn’t have become a Mortui. However, we don’t know this for sure. You could have become a Mortui just because your death was premature. Your body was decaying too fast for you to have died from an overdose, which is one of the indications that your life energy was taken. It was just a theory, but now you’ve confirmed it with your story.”

  “No. No. There’s no way Jez is a Mortui. She’s too alive. I would have known! I know she wouldn’t have done that to me!” Wes knew he sounded defensive but couldn’t help it.

  “Wes, no one is questioning what you felt for her,” Emily said softly, inserting herself into the conversation for the first time. “Remember that Anne Marie said you’re drawn to the same people you would be if you were living. Since you still feel this way about her, the feelings must have been genuine.”

  “Absolutely,” Anne Marie said, “and she must have cared for you in return.”

  Wes collapsed back down on the couch, his head in his hands. He replayed his death over again in his mind. It wasn’t just his imagination; Jezebel had made it inside and had left after Wes died. Even worse, instead of trying to help him, she had drained what little life he’d had left. It was the worst possible scenario, yet it was true.

  “No, she never cared if she killed me.”

  “We think she does care because she did leave you.” Anne Marie moved closer to Wes and placed her hand on his back. He could barely feel the pressure of it, but the act made him feel better. “Jez was once part of AfterLife but went to Atumra a few years ago. If she had wanted to turn y
ou over, you would have been collected by the Atumra.”

  “After you died, she left you to be found by us,” Emily said, “and that is a big deal. She probably saw in you what I see – that you have a good soul.”

  Wes considered the implications of Jez leaving him behind. Was it Jez’s way of saving him? He guessed it was possible that if they’d known each other as well as he thought they did, she might have figured Wes wouldn’t be happy with the Atumra.

  “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Wes leaned back on the couch and looked at Emily and Anne Marie, who were seated on either side of him. “There isn’t anything that can be done about it now anyway.”

  Anne Marie made a gesture and Emily nodded in understanding even though no words were spoken.

  “I think it’s time,” Emily said as she stood up and reached a hand out to help Wes up, “that we teach you how to feed.”

  Chapter 7

  Emily led Wes to an underground parking area attached to the Hub. The garage was full of cars of all makes and models. “Take your pick!” Emily opened a box that hung on the wall next to the entrance of the parking garage.

  “What?”

  “Well, if you won’t pick, I will.” She chose a set of keys and closed the box. “Let’s take the Camaro. It’s black and I like the way it looks on me.” She smiled and walked past Wes who turned to follow her.

  “You can take whichever one you want?” The idea that he could drive any of these cars whenever he wanted excited Wes.

  “No, you take the one that will suit your situation best. We’re going to a bar where there’ll be a lot of college kids, and I think the Camaro suits our situation. Besides, I told you, I like the way the black complements my hair. And just so you know, big sisters always get to drive.”

  Wes laughed. This was a side of Emily he hadn’t seen before, either in their meeting with Anne Marie or when they were soul-synced. She was turning out to be a saucy redhead.

  Once in the car, Emily reached over and opened the glove compartment to extract a tube of lipstick. “Yes, it’s still in here.” She applied the lipstick using the rearview mirror and put the lipstick back into the glove compartment. Wes laughed again.

  “Okay Wes, this is going to be your first time so I’ll talk you through it on the way, and then I’ll let you practice on me once before we go into the bar. It’s late enough that it should be pretty busy and you’ll be able to find some good energy to feed off.”

  Wes thought about the plan. He didn’t really know where they were headed or what to do once they got there. He looked over at Emily, again noticing that she was dressed up. “I don’t think I look like I’m ready to go out.”

  “Sure you do,” Emily said as she pulled the car out of the parking spot. “Jeans and a t-shirt are fine, and they look good on you. Besides, we’re going to a college bar so you’ll fit right in with everyone else.”

  They ascended a circular ramp and then stopped at a garage door that automatically opened up to allow them to exit into the outside world. Wes looked around to see what the Hub looked like from the outside. To a casual observer it appeared to be a large farm building with giant grain silos. The farmland surrounding the buildings was organized into rows of fully ripened corn.

  “It’s almost time to start harvesting,” Emily said as they drove down a small gravel driveway. “Next year this will all be soy, but I like the corn years more. I feel like we have a little more privacy.”

  They reached a paved road and turned onto it, heading in the direction of the setting sun.

  “How long ’til we get there,” Wes asked, not knowing where they were.

  “Oh, about an hour or so. I’m taking us to a slightly busier bar than some of the ones closer around here. You’ll have more chances to practice.”

  Wes nodded and pulled down the sun visor to check his hair in the mirror. It was the first time he’d seen himself since the rebirth process. “What’s this?” His hair had been dyed from its natural brown color to a red just a shade darker than Emily’s. His eyelashes and brows had been colored to match. “Why am I a redhead?”

  Emily laughed. “Oh, you haven’t seen that yet? Well, you’re going to be my brother when we go on location for training. I thought it would be easier for you to become a redhead than it would be for me to change my beautiful hair to match yours. I’m so glad you like it.” She turned and smiled at Wes, taking her eyes off the road for just a moment and then returning them.

  “You could’ve at least asked me.” Wes looked at himself in the mirror for another minute and then lifted the visor. He figured he looked alright as a redhead.

  “Are you done admiring yourself?” Emily asked as Wes finished with the mirror.

  “Yes, for now, anyway,” Wes said sarcastically. “But, I am extremely vain so every once in awhile I like to verify that I still look good.”

  Emily laughed. “Okay Mr. Vanity, let’s talk about feeding. There are two types. First is what we call grazing. Grazing is making quick eye contact with as many people as you can throughout the day. It takes off the shortest amount of the antemort’s time. This works best in busy venues where people’s minds are preoccupied with other things. We’ll try some of that tonight at the bar. Bars and nightclubs are perfect for grazing since it’s not strange to make quick eye contact with people like you’re checking them out. You’re also close enough to sync. Other great places are conventions, tourist locations, mass transit, malls, and concerts; where there are a lot of people.

  “To graze you simply make eye contact and soul-sync for a few seconds only, but not too deeply or they will pass out. The link only needs to be long enough to gain some energy from them. After that you break contact.

  “Not all antemorts respond the same after these simple syncs; some don’t appear to be affected at all while others may still be in a trance or seem a little confused. That’s why busy places are best. Someone usually bumps into them or a loud noise brings them out of the trance.

  “The second form of soul-syncing is a full connection. This is a strong connection and almost all antemorts will pass out. During this form of feeding you can feed more quickly and in larger quantities.

  “Remember, when you feed you’re taking life from that person: minutes, days, years. It depends on how much energy you take. At AfterLife, we never want to take more than a few days, if that. It’s enough to keep us going without really hurting the other person. You might discover you don’t want to stop so you have to stay in control. There’s a certain feeling of high, a euphoric feeling that we get from a full sync. Since we don’t really have a lot of physical feelings anymore, it can be quite addicting.”

  “How do you know how much life you’ve taken?” The fear that he might accidentally take an antemort’s life was disconcerting.

  “Well, think about when you would take a drink out of a bottle of water. While you were drinking you could tell just by the feel how much water was in that bottle, and you could estimate how much you’d had even before you lowered the bottle to examine how much was left. Feeding is kind of like that. When you soul-sync with an antemort, you’ll be able to sense how much life they hold and how much you’ve taken. Now, it’s no bottle of water. You won’t know exactly, but you’ll have an idea.” She paused and glanced at Wes, who was staring at the road ahead. She could tell from the look of confusion on his face that not a lot of what she’d just told him made any sense. “You’ll get it, Wes, don’t worry. I can explain feeding to you all day but you won’t understand until you’ve actually done it yourself. Besides, Mortuis have been feeding for millennia; some of them without any instructions from other Mortuis at all, and they’ve existed just fine. I think it’s genetically encoded – like a baby knowing how to nurse for the first time.”

  The sun’s descent lowered it far enough below the skyline that it no longer provided any light. In the encroaching darkness, Wes could only see as much of the passing corn and soy fields as the headlights allowed. The fi
elds of corn acted like walls on either side of the narrow two-lane road, while the alternating fields of soy allowed a broader view with twinkling lights in the distance reminding him there was civilization among the expanses of farmland. Passing a soy field, he stared at the red flashing lights on a grouping of radio towers.

  Wes considered the feeding process and wondered what it would be like. How did it feel? Would he be able to take life from someone he didn’t even know to survive? Which brought him to the next question, what kind of life was ahead for him? He made a commitment to only take what he needed and no more. Then he thought about soul-syncing with Emily and the world she had created. “Can you see into people’s minds when you sync with them?”

  Emily nodded. “Yes, you will be able to see glimpses of things from them. Some of the images may be clear and some may not make any sense. Soul-syncing with an antemort is slightly different than syncing with a Mortui. An antemort’s mind is tied to a living, biological body so the picture isn’t nearly as clear as it is with another Mortui.”

  “Can they see our minds?”

  “Yes and no. They can see what you allow them to see, just like when you made the shooting stars. You wanted me to see them, so I was able to.”

  “Can you put thoughts into someone else’s mind like I did with the shooting stars?”

  Emily was quiet for a minute. The lights from the dashboard created strange shadows on her face and Wes couldn’t make out her expression to gauge what she was thinking. “I’ve never been able to do it, and I’ve never met another Mortui who could either,” she finally answered. “Usually the biological brain acts as a barrier for the antemort’s mind and protects it from any type of mental interference. But they can see images from your mind if you share those images with them, and I suppose this could cause them to have thoughts that are based on these images. Sooo…, maybe… I guess in a way that could be seen as putting thoughts in their minds, but not the way you’re talking about.”