The Purgatory Saga #1: People of the Fire

by Michelle Dalson

  Shiigo squawked and held her ground next to the mirror as hot wind blew from the reflection. Dewey and Truman held the back of my ankles to keep me from sliding backward.

  Lucien aimed his arms toward us and the flames burst from the ice wall. But the Shadow Man immediately outstretched his shadowed arms, and the flames exploded in midair. Bright light exploded in the room, and I could almost see a faint color on the Shadow Man’s body.

  The ice in this room was starting to melt.

  Turning to flee, I headed out of the room. The rosary was bouncing behind my neck as I ran.

  I returned to the room where Jenna and Cain still lied frozen. I shone the cross over Jenna and Cain, and as soon as their spirits were revived, Bernardo snapped them into focus.

  “Wah!” Cain winced and looked around. “What’s going on? What happened?”

  Pete landed by his side and shook his feathers as they started to burn up again. “Ugh! What in the world—I feel like I’ve been stuck in a freezer for two hundred years!”

  “Ow! Truman!” Jenna flinched and looked down at the water SoulBird.

  As she turned to glare at me with confusion, I immediately explained to both her and Cain what was going on. My guardians had caught up with us, and they helped explain everything as quickly as they can. Pretty soon, they were staring at me, surprised and horrified.

  “What?!” Cain’s eyes looked ready to pop. “You mean there’s another place much worse than Hell?! There’s another place where spirits may eternally freeze to death?”

  “Yes!” I huffed. “Prima Dona is waiting for us at the top, and we have no choice but to keep climbing to her.”

  “Well, we have no time to waste!” Jenna carried Grace and let the earth type ride her shoulder. “Let’s hurry up right now!”

  She started heading toward the room’s exit to continue climbing, and Cain and I caught up with her, with our SoulBirds at our heels and the saints above our heads.

  We pressed on and took up the rest of the night to get to the top. The Shadow Man managed to catch up with us, and I didn’t dare to ask about what had happened in that room with Lucien.

  I kept my mind off Mira by arguing with Jenna about whose fault it was that we were here. Arguing with Jenna always took my mind off of other things.

  At last, we climbed up a long straight pathway of stairs. Unlike all the other stairs of the rooms, this one was straight up, and didn’t curve around.

  Micah flew forwards. “Oh boy...I’m freezing my feathers off. Why wasn’t there ever an ice-type SoulBird?”

  The top seemed so far away and the climb seemed to take forever.

  At last, we made it. We were so tired that we barely noticed the opening that was in front of us, but Cain was pointing toward the light that shone through the exit.

  “It’s…snowing outside,” he said quietly.

  Slowly, Jenna and I rose to our feet. The Shadow Man stepped forward, walking simply as if he wasn’t the least bit tired. We followed him and stepped out of the opening, and I breathed the fresh smell of open-air—cold, chilly air. Snow was falling around us.

  But the open air froze my nostrils and my calming sense of relief immediately washed away. I sensed Prima Dona.

  “Come here, Zach…” her sharp voice echoed through the snow around us. There were no branches over our heads, for we were at the very top branch. No leaves grew up here anymore, for the snow covered everything in sight.

  “Did you hear that?” Cain was looking around.

  I gasped and looked at him. “You heard it?”

  “Zachy…”

  Jenna narrowed her eyes and glared at the sound Prima Dona’s voice. “Of course…we aren’t deaf anymore.”

  A gasp came from Lara as she faced forwards. “Oh no…..”

  I looked toward her direction and I could see that straight ahead was the vague image of the top of a cliff, which was the very place where Primal would be. If only we could drift forwards to that mountain just across the top of this tree, we would make it to the next stage finally.

  But then my gaze slowly ventured down. There, sitting at the end of the branch, was a tall, thin lady. She was leaning on her side with her beautiful dark hair blowing in the wind. Her eyes sharpened into me and her crown glittered. Prima Dona was lying on her left side as she leaned on her hand and stared at me maliciously.

  Jenna gasped and Cain stiffened. Micah and Lara hovered closer to their sides.

  “Come forwards, dear spirit,” she was staring at me and when I didn’t move, a strong gust of snowy wind crashed behind all of us. The wind pushed against us and forced us to walk forward.

  I saw that this branch was thick, but not as thick as the ones I had seen below. This branch was only about twenty feet wide from left to right, while the others were probably ten times that length. I didn’t dare to look down from this unimaginable high point on the tree.

  At last, Prima Dona gave a snicker and then rolled her eyes. “Alright, I don’t need the rest of you!” The lady thrust her arm forward and a strong wind blew against Jenna, Cain, the SoulBirds, and the Shadow Man. She gestured her hand toward me and blew me closer toher until I was standing a few feet from her.

  I looked down as she gazed up at me with her piercing eyes. They glittered like icy blue sapphires…wait, blue? Prima Dona’s eyes were purple…

  “Zach…I’ve been waiting for you,” she stood up and laid her hand on my head. Her long, skinny fingers to gently brushed my hair to the right. “You didn’t have to bring your friends. I was going to take care of them myself, you know. Didn’t you hear me?”

  I was scared of being so close to this lady again, in real afterlife now. But I still narrowed my eyes at glared up at her with disbelief. “Darn right I heard you. You tried to freeze their souls! You tried to freeze all of us in the tree! Why would you do that? Are you mad that I told them about you?”

  “Not exactly,” Prima Dona’s tone was edgy. “You see…I only want to share my power with someone as special with you, not with anyone else. Your friends…they wouldn’t have accepted this.”

  “What are you going to grant me?” I asked carefully, challenging her. “Can you make me stronger than the Lord Almighty, or Jesus Christ? Are you that powerful?”

  “Grah…..” Prima Dona’s eyes flashed and she thrust out her spear from behind. “Don’t ever mention that name again!” She struck the ground with her spear and the entire tree shook. The winds howled and the blizzard intensified. Jenna and Cain gasped and nearly lost their balance. Prima Dona grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me to her, and kept her hand around my shoulder. I gazed up at her with wide, startled eyes.

  Her icy blue eyes pierced me sharper than they had ever done before. “Do not fear, boy! For if you were to have my power of ice, you too, would be resistant to the fire—just as you had seen before—with your father’s image in the ice.” She winked at me. “Not even your father can withstand my terrible icy power. With this power, you’d be able to conquer the Beast and resist its grasp to pull you to Earth, for you would be just as powerful as I would be.”

  “What?” I narrowed my eyes and tried to wriggle out of her grasp, but she was grabbing me hard and her arms were freezing my spirit all over again. My rosary flashed, but Prima Dona immediately grabbed it. She bent over to press her cold nose against mine.

  “I told you to throw this away,” she hissed angrily. She pointed down at her right. “Look carefully in the snow, now. What do you see?”

  And to my horror, as I peered through the snowfall down at the very edge of the branch, I saw the body of a girl lying on the snow next to Prima Dona. Her dark hair covered her face and didn’t blow in the wind. It was Miranda. Her body was frozen like a statue.

  “Mira!” I gasped. I felt rage burn through me and I tried to push Prima Dona away from me, but she tightened her grip.

  “Argh!” I yowled with frustration. “I don’t want your stupid power!” I yelled with fury. “Let me go! I hate you! Yo
u’re a witch and a devil! You’re no worse than my father!”

  Prima Dona instantly released her grip on me and gave me a hard shove. I fell flat on my face, against the soft snow. My rosary had snapped off from my neck, and Prima Dona was gripping it in her left hand. She gazed down at me with a wild look of fury on her evil face. Her hand was trying to turn the rosary to ice, but the rosary was able to withstand it. It glowed intensely and caused the ice to crumble away.

  “Yahh!” Prima Dona threw the rosary toward Jenna and the others. I lost sight of it as it disappeared in the blizzard.

  I sat up on my side as I looked up at Prima Dona’s raging gaze. The snow swirled around her furious face. my mind started to spin. I remembered a familiar moment like this.

  “You despicable, ill-tempered, unworthy child!” Prima Dona’s scream thundered through the storms. “How dare you reject my powers?! You are no more different than the impious, foul-hearted child you were on Earth!”

  She kicked at my side with her sharp icy heel and I groaned with pain.

  Jenna and Cain watched through the storm with horrified looks on their faces.

  “Zach!” Cried Jenna.

  “”Unworthy, impudent, idiotic whore!” Prima Dona was kicking at me over and over again. Bruises and wounds instantly formed on my back, but she continued to stab her icy heels into my spirit. She cursed at me with all the hateful words I had ever heard.

  “Zachariah!” Jenna cupped her mouth and couldn’t bear to look. She had never sounded so worried for me. Unfortunately, I was under such agony that I barely noticed it.

  Prima Dona gave out a loud scream. She raised her spear and then hit me on the head. As soon as that ice spear banged hard against my head, my memories were taken back to the days when I was still a child, alive on Earth. I was no more than two years old. I was in the palace of Jerusalem, and I was suffering terribly. Someone was kicking my and abusing me, just like this. It was my own mother. Sarah Madonne was whipping, whacking, and cursing at me. I was wailing and crying like a baby. I was only two at the time, but then I turned five, and she was still kicking and screaming at me. She threw at me as I tried to crawl away. I was ten years old, and I was still crawling away from the abusive, maniacal woman who was my mother. I had scars and bruises that lasted up to this moment in the afterlife.

  And now, those old scars that I have always borne, were reopened. My shirt was torn apart from her sharp kicks, revealing horrid bruises and scabs that bled like crazy. All the scars I had borne were torn apart and splattered with new blood.

  “Bah!” Prima Dona put her hands on her hips and stared down at me with hatred. “Call yourself a spirit worthy for Heaven? No one will ever heal the wounds given to you by your own mother!”

  And with that, Prima Dona gave a final whack with her spear. She hit my chest, and I tumbled over to the side of the branch. I held on for dear life at the side of the branch, and the snowstorm whipped around my spirit. I strained to gaze up at Prima Dona through my blood-stained eyes, but I wasn’t seeing the majestic ice lady I had met in my dreams. I was looking at my own mother. Prima Dona was Sarah Madonne, my evil mother that had betrayed Uncle E to marry the wicked man who would become my father.

  Prima Dona looked into my fearful eyes, and smiled evilly. She seemed to know what I was thinking. “Oh, Zachariah, my dear little boy.” She chuckled slyly and let the blizzards heave my body up and blow me to the ground in front of her again. I fell to my knees, messy with blood and gashes. My right eye was dark black and the other was bleeding, and my bottom lip was stinging with a deep cut.

  Prima Dona knelt in front of me and grabbed my chin with her cold fingers. She tilted my head up to face her. Her sharp eyes stabbed into mine. “Oh, Zachy, understand that I want the best for you. I want you in my arms more than anything in the world. For what more can a mother want than to have her own son to be with her?”

  I gazed into her eyes with my wounded and disfigured face, and a trickle of blood from my lip landed on her fingers under my chin. Prima Dona slowly let go and my head immediately dropped, hanging as I leaned on my knuckles in front of her. Prima Dona leaned forward and gave me a soft kiss on the head. Her kiss ran a chill through my entire body.

  From the corner of my blurred, bruised eyes, I caught a trace of light flashing by.

  “Zach!” Gabriel’s voice echoed to the right. He, Enoch and his SoulBird, Ace, were hovering in the air, with the five of my guardians.

  Hoshinda let out a scream. “Good gracious—it’s Sarah Madonne!”

  “Oh, Lord of Heaven!” Yowled Bernardo.

  “Zachariah Ezekreth!” Grenada’s sharp voice was filled with a horror and fear.

  I was too weak to turn my head to look. Prima Dona—or Sarah Madonne—gazed at me meticulously.

  “Remember me, Zach. Your father and I only want you with us, so that we can all be together—as one happy family—forever,” she added the last words quietly in a dreadful whisper.

  Then her eyes flashed and turned from icy blue to glowing red. Sarah Madonne had had the most intriguing eyes, just like Lucien said. Yes, I recalled it now. They had always changed colors.

  And Prima Dona shot up to her feet and whipped around to face Gabriel and the other angels that had appeared. Jenna, Cain, and the SoulBirds were just beneath them. They were all frozen to the bone, and could’ve done nothing to help me if they tried.

  Prima Dona aimed her spear up at the sky and summoned a terrible swirl in the blizzard. The spirits were immediately tossed through the air, and I watched as Cain fell off the side of the branch.

  I choked a gasp but I was too weak to yell. As soon as Jenna was tossed off the branch, I let the storm take me and whip me over the branch until I was falling freely. The branches were a blur as I fell through the storm.

  Then, I was caught in someone’s warm arms. My blurred and scarred vision whirled around and I saw nothing but a shadow holding me.

  “Zach, you’ll be okay,” the Shadow Man’s voice spoke to me, and he was holding me as we both drifted down from the tree.

  In front of me, Jenna’s thin body fell silently in the wind, and the Shadow Man reached out an arm to catch her as well.

  “Oh wow….” Jenna was breathless and faint. “We’re….falling down the tree, aren’t we?”

  “Yes,” said the Shadow Man gravely. “But we will be safe. We will not be at the same place we were when we first came to the base of this tree.”

  “Where are we going? And….what about Zach?” Her voice trembled.

  “I will take you somewhere safe— you and Zach. Do not worry. Both of you will be alright.” assured the Shadow Man.

  I had no more strength to listen. I let myself pass out as the Shadow Man held Jenna and me in his arms.

  Chapter Twenty-Four-

  I woke up to the sound of lovely murmuring in my ear. A fresh breath of morning air gently woke me up. I found myself lying on my back, facing a bright blue sky. This was something I had never seen in my afterlife. The sky was bright and blue, and the clouds were big and fluffy. They were the cleanest, whitest clouds I had ever seen.

  The sun was shining upon me and brightening my vision. It was much different from the dying sun back on Earth.

  I sat up and looked around myself. Light green grass grew everywhere around me. I was sitting on a vast meadow, and in the distance behind me was a grassy plain filled with luscious trees and plants. I saw animals that I had never seen in Purgatory—deer, squirrels, mice, rabbits, foxes. There were all kinds of animals from Earth. A great bald eagle flew over me above, like a valiant silhouette in the sky.

  I blinked and felt my spirits rise with surprise. Where was I? One thing was certain: I was not in Purgatory.

  I looked at my arms and noticed my torn clothes over me. I was still in wounded and beaten up, and as I blinked, I started to feel pain again. Pretty soon, my short moment of comfort was washed away as I remembered what had just happened to me.

  Jenna was lying t
o the left side of me. Her back was turned as she lied on her side, and her red hair was tangled and messy in her ponytail.

  “Jenna?” My voice was a mere whisper. My throat was dry, and I could taste the blood in my mouth.

  Jenna slowly sat up at the sound of my voice. But she faced forwards without meeting my gaze.

  “Where do you think we are?” I muttered.

  She straightened her glasses and rested her arms on her knees. “I don’t know. This can’t be Heaven, though. Don’t get your hopes up.”

  I gave her a raised look. “Why would you think we would ever go to Heaven, anyway?”

  “Well, look at this place!” Jenna said indignantly. “Look at you!” She turned to me and then widened her narrowed gaze. “You look just as worse as you did when Prima Dona beat you up.”

  I blinked. My eyes stung. One was bruised and blackened, and the other was bleeding.

  Jenna sighed and looked sorrowfully at me.

  “Where’s Cain?” I looked around suddenly. “And our SoulBirds? Where did everyone go? Are we alone here?”

  “No,” said Jenna rather tartly. “The Shadow Man saved us. “He brought us here somehow. This world must not be Purgatory…but it isn’t Earth, nor Heaven, Hell, or even that so-called Primeval world.”

  “The Shadow Man must be here,” I said urgently. “He wouldn’t just leave us stranded in any foreign place, no matter how beautiful and relaxing it may be. We should go look for him….he mustn’t be too far.”

  “Well….then he might come back,” said Jenna. “We really need to thank him. This place makes me feel so…refreshed and reborn. And not like the way I felt in that Evergrown Tree!”

  “You can go look for him,” I mumbled, wincing at the stinging pain in my lip. “I’ll stay here in case he comes back.”

  “No way,” Jenna spoke sharply. “I’m not just gonna leave you here alone when you’re in this shape.”