The Purgatory Saga #1: People of the Fire

by Michelle Dalson

  Micah let out a soft coo and Lexie chuckled.

  “Oh Zach,” she said with a sigh. “I wouldn’t see you if I were in Heaven though.”

  “I’ll find my way,” I winked at her. “I graduated Bhad—just recently.”

  “Oh, you did?” Her expression gleamed. “That’s great! How’d you do it?”

  Before I knew it, I was walking down the desolate street by Lexie’s side and telling her about everything I had been through since I left the center of the Earth. Just like before, she listened carefully, with an attentive expression.

  “That’s wonderful,” she remarked when I was finished. “And it’s great that you’ve met Jenna and Cain, and the rest of your saints.”

  “Well, there’s still one more guardian,” I said. “Unfortunately, all my guardians have shown up unexpectedly, which just shows how irresponsible they are.”

  “Oh! Well, perhaps now is a good time to call for your last saint!” Lexie raised her eyebrows. “Why don’t we head back to the Temple and call your last guardian right now?”

  I stopped and then looked uneasy. “Eh…I dunno. To be honest, I’m kind of scared of that Ark.” I remembered how that heavenly beam of light had killed me, and how I was immediately whipped out of this world when I tried to peek inside during a dream.

  Lexie raised her expression and looked troubled. “Oh. Well….I can try to do it for you.”

  I shrugged. “If you’re that desperate...”

  When we finally made our way to the Ark, it felt ominous to be this close again. Lexie and I stepped up to the front opening where the curtains hung.

  I looked at her. “So what are you gonna do?”

  “What’s your guardian’s name?”

  “Saint Tyler.”

  Lexie faced the altar and took a deep breath. “Okay. Lemme see if this can work.” She kneeled down and held her hands together under her nose. I did the same. “Repeat every word I say,” she said.

  “Um…okay…” I muttered, feeling awkward. “I’ve never done this before, so you’re going to have to go slowly.”

  Lexie giggled. “We’re just going to send a prayer to the Lord.”

  So I closed my eyes repeated the words that Lexie was whispering.

  We waited for a few seconds, and I opened my eyes to slits to see if the dream had faded away yet. But we were still in front of the Ark. The curtains started to shake.

  I gasped and stood up, facing the Ark with horror. Lexie was still kneeling beside me, and she still had her eyes closed and her hands clasped in prayer.

  Then suddenly, the curtains stopped shaking. Instead of opening aside, a ghostly figure stepped through the curtains and hovered in front of them. I stared with wonder. The spirit was wearing a pure white robe, and he had no feet sticking out from the bottom. His robe ruffled in the breeze, as if there was no body inside. His hands were clasped together, and his head was tilted downwards as if he were praying. His head was covered with a hood that shadowed his face.

  He did have a halo that hovered above the top, so I knew he was an angel.

  Lexie opened her eyes and faced the man.

  I spoke in a whisper. “Saint Tyler?”

  The man slowly raised his head. He had the strangest pair of eyes. The left eye was emerald green, while the right eye had an unusual dark blue color. His thin eyebrows were pointed down as if he was angry, and his nose was long like my uncle’s. And Saint Tyler had no mouth. His pale face only consisted of his multicolored eyes and his pointy nose.

  Lexie didn’t seem scared at all. She smiled and stood up.

  “Nice to meet you, saint,” she addressed.

  I stood up and nodded. “Y-yeah. I-I’m Zach…you know me.”

  Saint Tyler was silent. He slowly lifted his arm, and pointed at me with a long skinny finger. His finger shook and moved in a circular motion.

  I winced. “Uh….”

  There was a giggle behind me. I turned to see that Annabelle was coming, and behind her were the rest of the saints, with Gabriel, the Shadow Man, and the SoulBirds.

  Annabelle hovered to my side, smiling at Saint Tyler. “He’s saying hi to you, Zach.”

  Grenada nodded, narrowing her gaze. “Yes…..Saint Tyler is very fond of you Zach.”

  Saint Tyler remained in his position and drew his arm back. He didn’t take his eyes off me, and I felt like he was trying to read my soul.

  Bernardo laughed. “Hee! Nice to see ya, bro!” Bernardo hovered next to Saint Tyler and gave him a hearty pat on the back.

  “That angel has weird eyes,” I heard Angeline mutter to Hoshinda.

  Saint Tyler lifted out a hand toward me and gestured with his four fingers to come forwards.

  Holding my breath, I stepped forwards to him, and as I got closer, I felt my dream slowly fading away.

  “What?” I looked around as I got up to Saint Tyler. Everything around me was starting to swirl. “Is it over already?”

  Grenada hovered above me and Annabelle, Bernardo, and Hoshinda joined her.

  “It is time to wake up now, Zach,” said Grenada. “Saint Tyler wants to meet you in the world of Purgatory where your real troubles lie.”

  I gave a longing look toward my sister and Lexie. Angeline sniffed. “Bye, Zachy! Be sure to take Dewey with you, next time when you visit!”

  “Of course I will,” I reassured as I slowly faded away. Before I disappeared, I reached out my arm to hold Lexie’s hand.

  She smiled. “Whatever world I enter, I’ll promise to visit you, Zach. I make sure I see you in the afterlife, no matter where I am.”

  I gave her a smile and bid her a farewell before my star-portal dream came to an end.

  Chapter Twenty-One-

  Saint Tyler hovered with the guardians above Ace. We were just about a few minutes from entering the land of Pryde, and Gabriel even told us it would be less than an hour before we reached the Evergrown Tree. It was the highest tree in the entire world, and also the widest. Not only was it extremely tall, but its trunk and its branches were so thick that an entire city could exist inside.

  Saint Tyler managed to strengthen Ace with a cordial he had brought from Heaven. But to my horror, the Shadow Man decided to cancel our course. Instead of climbing up the Evergrown Tree, we would continue flying on Ace until we reached the top of the northernmost borders of Pryde.

  I decided this was the right time to get Prima Dona’s message to everyone and convince the spirits to climb that Evergrown Tree, like we had planned.

  I told Jenna and Cain about my dreams and how I had met Prima Dona, and her promise to grant me an extraordinary power to defeat the Beast.

  Cain seemed suspicious, and Jenna was shaking her head with a sharp frown.

  “Why would you want to trust some lady who’s stuck in an ice world?” She said. “How do you know that she’s telling you the truth? What if she’s spy for the devil?”

  “She can’t be a spy. Her world is uninhabited, and I’ve seen it for myself,” I retorted. “She wants us to go to the Evergrown Tree where she can grant me powers to confront the Beast.”

  Jenna narrowed her eyes and her glasses flashed. “And you’re just going to trust her?”

  “Hey, I’m the one who’s been dreaming with this lady, so I know her well.”

  “Oh, faugh!” Grenada hovered above me with an angry stare. “You’re just transfixed! I bet she’s gotten you under a spell. Your spirit’s been freezing up ever since you started visiting that witch, and now you’re telling us to meet her at the Evergrown Tree?”

  I rolled my eyes and arched my head to see Enoch at the front.

  “Hey, Enoch! Can we can try to stop at the Evergrown Tree from this point? We’re pretty high up, and if we land on one of the branches of the Evergrown Tree from here, we can probably climb up to where we can meet Prima Dona.”

  Enoch turned with an uncertain look. “Zach, if we land toward the tree right now, we would be a third of the way up. It would take about an entire week to
get to the top. We can’t waste time—Michael’s angels will need me and Gabriel to help them fight the Beast. We can’t keep them waiting.”

  Gabriel was nodding. “Through Ace, I just got word that Hannah and Michael have gotten their band of angels to Primal already, and today they are going to be leaving Purgatory altogether. They will prepare for a fight below this world, where Lucien plans to bring up his Satan Beast.”

  I huffed. “But it’s pointless to fight the Beast if it’s going to drag me to Hell with it! Prima Dona assures me that she’ll give me an extra power so that won’t happen!”

  “You won’t be dragged to Hell, my boy,” said Bernardo. “We’re your guardians. All you have to do is trust us and we’ll keep you safe.”

  I rolled my eyes and cursed under my breath. No one was going to listen to me.

  “You’re not thinking right!” Grenada was grabbing her head and clenching her teeth. “Oh, will you ever learn?! Zach! You need the Lord if you want to defeat the devil! You should be praying to Him instead of secretly visiting an ice witch from another dimension.”

  But I didn’t hear her. I was lost in my own thoughts. I was thinking about how easy it had been for Prima Dona to give me the answers. Up to this point, she seemed to be the only spirit who has been giving me all the right answers.

  Up ahead, there was a large wide veil that seemed to stretch as wide as the border cliffs behind it. As we drifted closer, I realized it was a tree. I gasped and looked up. Saint Tyler had his eyes narrowed and he lifted out one of his arms to point at the tree.

  “The Evergrown Tree!” Yowled Hoshinda’s loud voice.

  The tree was huge. Just from here, it appeared to be as wide as the mountains. Its branches were enormous, and were so long that they had disappeared into the foggy clouds. By the time we were flying past its trunk, it felt as if we were passing a wooden mountain. The trunk seemed to be hundreds of miles wide. Above and below, it was just like that of Primeval. The tree seemed to have no end as I looked up, and it didn’t seem to have a beginning as I looked down.

  Suddenly Truman flapped in front of my face and started quacking.

  I winced and gave the SoulBird a swat. “Get away from me, you stupid….” I swatted at Truman as his quacking grew louder. He started beating his wings at my face, nearly tipping me off of Ace.

  “Argh! Go away, you dumb forsaken SoulBird!” I yelled and everyone turned to look at me.

  Truman was flapping at my face with that stupid, dimwitted look in his eyes.

  “TRUMAN, GO TO HELL!” I lunged forward to grab the SoulBird and strangle him. I didn’t care that this was the so-called Beast of Swiftness.

  As I grasped the SoulBird in my hands, Truman squawked and pulled me forwards so that I bumped against Jenna in front of me.

  “Ahh!” She screamed, turning to give me a rough shove. “What are you doing?! Leave Truman alone!”

  Ace was neighing distractedly. Finally, the white horse stopped in midair and raised his front legs to kick at the air. The white horse kicked its back legs, and all of us—Enoch, Cain, Jenna, and I—were bucked off the horse’s back. We yelled with horror as we all fell down through the air.

  “Nooo!” I yowled. “Dewey!” I gazed up as I plummeted downwards. The SoulBirds were making their way down toward us like jet planes. The angels hurried after us, and Enoch rode down with Ace. The Shadow Man still remained at the back of the horse.

  “Wahh!” Dewey cried as he reached my side. “How long are we gonna fall now?!”

  “Argh!” Jenna grabbed her head as she fell. Her long red ponytail stuck straight up while she rapidly drifted toward the ground. “I can’t even see the ground yet!”

  “Why’d we have to let Truman come with us?!” I growled.

  Suddenly, a red harpoon zipped past my face, and I felt a hot burn on my cheek.

  Cain gasped. “What was that?” And then another harpoon zoomed pass his head from behind. “I think the tree’s shooting at us!”

  We must have been passing down some unfriendly spirits hanging around the outside of the tree branches.

  Every few seconds, we’d fall through a large branch sticking out, but we never landed on anywhere on the branches.

  After falling for what seemed like hours, we splashed into a large pool of warm water. I bobbed up and gasped with surprise. There was water surrounding us everywhere. The waves were thrashing violently, and I could barely see where I was going.

  I felt a large shadowy body move underneath me and make me sway to the right. I gasped as another wave splashed me down and nearly drowned me.

  Suddenly, while swaying roughly in the waves, I felt the water started to swirl around me. I felt like I was going to be sucked into a whirlpool. Then I saw a dark shape, and made out that of human body around me. Was I going to be raped by mermaids now?

  Thunder rumbled in the sky and rain started to pour. It just made the Ever Sea worse. I was thrown around like I was inside a blender.

  A loud squawked echoed through the thunderstorm and I recognized the cry of an earth type SoulBird. But it was not Dewey.

  I turned to see that a devilish earth type was coming forth to peck at me. Its eyes were squinting through the storm, and its tiny wings beat furiously as it flew over the waves and headed toward me. It was Shiigo.

  I widened my eyes and looked down into the swirling water. There was a human circling me through the wavy stormy waters. It was Miranda. She stuck her head out of the water and revealed her angry, narrowed gaze. Her hair was even darker when wet and her eyes were smeared with dark eyeliner.

  I narrowed my eyes and tried to steady myself through the crashing swaying waves. “Are you trying to drown me to Hell?”

  She gave a haughty rasp. “Shut up, you idiot!” She gave me a splash in the eyes.

  And as another wave washed over me, I felt my weak body give away. I felt Miranda’s arms grab me and I was pulled underwater.

  I woke up on dry land. I choked and coughed, and then sat up to look around with confusion.

  Shiigo jumped in front of me and let out an angry squawk. She pecked her long, sharp beak at my forehead.

  “Oww!” I yelled, grabbing my head. “What the heck is your—”

  “Shiigo!” Mira’s sharp yell came from behind. I turned as Shiigo ran back to her soul-mate with a nasty glare. Mira was sitting against a large wide trunk—the trunk of the Evergrown Tree. I stared with awe as I looked around and realized where we were. This was just a single piece of land that where the Evergrown Tree grew from. The trunk up from the very center of the small land and disappeared up in the stormy sky. Its large branches gave us shelter from the storm.

  I snapped out of it and then felt sharp claws poke at my sides. I flinched and got up, looking down.

  “Ahaha! Surprise, little spirit!” Demetrius was glaring up at me on my left. He was holding his mini trident. To my right was Jezebel.

  “Ahh!” I jumped back and glared at them. “You guys again!”

  “That’s right, you little twerp!” Jezebel banged her trident on the soft ground. “You don’t think we didn’t know where you’d be falling after the route you had taken?”

  Mira chuckled and got up. She strutted up to me. She still wore her low-cut black shirt, and her hair was still wet. She looked very seductive, and I couldn’t help staring at her like a zombie. She gave me a dirty smile. “You must have had a long fall if you were riding on a warrior of Heaven, hmm?” She crossed her arms.

  I blinked and faced her. “Of course. How did you get here?” I glared at Demetrius and Jezebel, who were whispering snide comments to each other. “Why are you with Demetrius and Jezebel?!”

  She chuckled. “Oh, it’s a long story. After I left you with that snake, these two imps decided to help me find you since they were on the run to track you down for Lucien. I certainly didn’t want to catch you and hand you over to Lucien, though. I know you’re scared of the Higher One. But since the imps were on your trail, I decided why n
ot? I might as well go along with them so that Shiigo and I won’t have to search for you on our own.” She gave a naughty smile over at the two imps. “I find it fun when Shiigo and I torture the imps when they don’t do what I tell ‘em to do.” She bit the end of her long black nail with a slight smile. “I like to see hell creatures suffer more than angelic creatures.”

  I raised my expression. “Oh really?”

  She nodded. “They express their agony much better.”

  “Well, what are we going to do here? I need the rest of the angels to be with me!”

  “Don’t you wanna climb the Evergrown Tree?”

  I looked at her with caution.

  She sighed and gave me a look. “Lucien told me everything, okay?”

  I flinched. “L-Lucien?” I could barely speak his name.

  She nodded. “I met him by the border cliffs of Nawt. He’s been on your trail as well.”

  Demetrius came up to my feet. “Huh! Yeah, when we met with the jailbird, Lucien arrived and told us where you were headed.” He glared up at me.

  I winced. “What?!” I looked at Mira, who was nodding.

  “He knows everything about where you’ve been,” she said dryly. “He’s been tracking you down from the Assembly Room in Nawt, to the Egbala house.”

  I stiffened. How could he have known? Someone must be a spy. But who could be spying on me?

  It couldn’t be any of my saints. It couldn’t be Enoch, Gabriel, or any of the SoulBirds. None of the angelic spirits would ever do that. It couldn’t be Cain—his spirit was just too innocent. Even Jenna was way too sophisticated, and she was not the type of spirit who would keep her identity hidden for a long period of time. If she wanted to betray me, she would have left me behind in Zellux. She wouldn’t bother putting up with this journey with me.

  I raised my head with a sudden feeling. It must be the Shadow Man. That dark spirit seemed to have had such a strange connection with those hellish Egbala spirits. What if he was associated with all hell spirits?

  Thunder clapped in the sky. The waves thrashed violently and shook the island. I immediately lost my balance and fell to my knees, and Mira let out a scream as the waves crashed over me and soaked me all over again.