Her blue gaze met mine and I had no doubt she would be okay. Better than that, she would no longer suffer any pain or know sorrow. Even if our parents weren’t waiting for her, I knew Oliver would be. He would keep her safe in every way possible.
“I know, Evie. Thank you for keeping your promise,” Faith whispered in my ear. “I love you and I always will. We’ll see each other again, I know we will.”
“I love you, too.” I let her go, still holding her hands. “Say hello to Oliver for me, will you? Tell him I’ve kept his promise. Remember that, it’s important.”
She nodded her little head. “I will. I have to go, it’s pulling at me. Thank you, Evie. Thank you so much. I love you.”
“I love you so much, sis. Forever and always, okay?”
“Forever and always. Just like a purple dinosaur.”
I couldn’t stop the smile forming through my tears. “Just like a purple dinosaur.”
The pull was too strong to keep her any longer. I released her hands and Faith floated upwards with the others. My eyes never left hers until she disappeared into the white light. The last image I saw of my sister was the look of complete rapture on her face.
She was gone.
But safe.
Jet’s arms wrapped around me, pulling me against his chest. I let my tears fall onto his bare skin. Once I was done, I was determined they would be my last ones. With Oliver, Faith, and every spirit I’d ever known gone, it was time to focus on the living.
“It’s going to be alright,” Jet said into my hair as he held me close. I was so grateful for everything about him. If I had to do it all alone, I would never have been able to do it.
“I hate to interrupt.” Lucifer’s voice was grating on my last nerve. I would never do anything wrong again in my life if it meant I could avoid spending my afterlife with him. “But what am I supposed to do now? You stole all my souls.”
I reluctantly left the safe haven of Jet’s chest to face the devil. “They didn’t belong here in the first place. We only made things as they were supposed to be.”
“Do you really think I care about what is supposed to be? Those souls were mine.”
“You knew what would happen when Kostucha was killed,” Jet said. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with it then.”
The devil let the words sink in as if only just realizing it himself. “I guess it slipped my mind. And I never thought you’d actually win. Thank you for so wisely pointing that out for me.” There was something in his tone that said he wasn’t at all thankful.
Neither of us dared to say another word. Not when we didn’t know exactly how we were going to make it back home again. There was no way to find our way back to the portal and it had disappeared the moment we went through it anyway.
Lucifer’s laser-red eyes pierced a hole right through me as his gaze drilled my way. I couldn’t help but squirm under such scrutiny. I thought for sure he was assessing my soul to see whether he wanted to keep it or not.
Finally, he shrugged his oversized shoulders and smirked. “I guess more souls will arrive soon enough. I’ll have my home filled in no time.”
The thought made my skin prickle with goosebumps. With all the violence and horrible things going on in the world, he was probably right.
Which made it even worse.
“What will happen to us?” Jet asked the question I was too afraid to know the answer to.
Lucifer eyed us both, taking in every inch of us while he made a decision. It wasn’t like the devil was known for his fairness or mercy. He could surely throw us into a fiery grave if he really wanted to.
Or worse.
“You don’t belong here,” he replied, with great reluctance. “But I’ll see you again soon enough.”
His laughter rolled through the empty planes as he raised an arm and swept it our way.
The last thing I remember was falling.
Down down down.
Like Alice through the rabbit hole.
Chapter Twenty
Darkness surrounded me.
I waved my hand in front of my face but I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t even work out if I was actually waving or not. I could have been in a space two feet wide or a vast expanse for all I knew. If I took the wrong step, I might fall right over a deep cavern and crash to my death.
Maybe the devil would see me sooner than he could have hoped.
The darkness was too much. I was never scared of the dark as a child but it was never this dark before. It wasn’t just an absence of light, it was as if all the light in the world had been vacuumed away.
My heart pounded in my chest, about to break free of its prison and thrust right out of my body.
Deep breaths.
To get out of this I needed to think.
Think think think.
Jet had been with me. What happened to him? “Jet?” My word bounced and echoed tightly around me. So I wasn’t in an open area but somewhere tight and contained.
“Ever? Are you okay?”
I could have swum in the pool of my relief. “Yeah. Are you?”
“Fine. Where are you?”
“Here.” It was a stupid answer but it was all I had. I grappled around, my arms flailing blindly as I tried to find him in the absolute darkness.
My hands hit warm skin.
It took all of two seconds to find the rest of him and grab on for a hug. Jet encircled me with his arms like I did him and we held on like we hadn’t seen each other for a century.
His body was warm but the air around us wasn’t. In fact, the cold was starting to seep in and dry up all the sweat until it was nothing but a salty crust on the skin.
I eased my grip on Jet but our hands found each other so we could still maintain contact. “Any idea where we are?” I asked. Because, really, I was keen to get the hell out of here.
“Judging by the smell… the tunnels.”
He was right about the smell. Dirt, dust, mildew, with a hint of wrongness. It was all too familiar. We were most likely standing where the portal originally opened up for us.
“Any idea which way is out?”
I could feel Jet shrug. “I guess we walk until we hit a wall and pray we are going in the right direction.” He pulled me over until we reached a cold wall. We felt along it until we got some sense of where we were and then started walking.
“Do you think it’s really over?” I asked. I held my breath as I waited for an answer.
“The souls all passed into Heaven. It has to be over, doesn’t it?”
“The souls in Hell, they’d already half-crossed. The souls trapped on Earth might be completely different.”
There was a big difference between the souls in Hell and the souls on Earth. The former had already commenced a transition to the afterlife, they were on their way. It would be much easier for them to finish their crossing than those trapped.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Jet said.
I couldn’t wait any longer. I started running. It was completely dark and probably utterly stupid but I couldn’t hold back. I needed to see whether it was worth it, whether we had gone through all that pain for nothing.
“Everly, you’re going to kill yourself,” Jet called out.
“I have to know,” I yelled back. My voice echoed off the walls and bounced around in a spiral. At least the jogging warmed me up. The fact I was only wearing my underwear and covered by a thin singlet would have to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
But not yet.
Not until I knew if the spirits were safe or not.
My feet pounded on the ground, continually sliding over loose dirt and threatening to take me down with each step. Jet’s footsteps were right behind me, keeping pace in my crazy run.
We reached the cavern and the light from the fire was blindingly bright. I wondered how long it would take for me to see fire and not remember Kostucha as he burned to his death.
Probably a long time.
Longer than I wo
uld admit to anyone.
For now, I couldn’t dwell on it. I headed for the pathway upwards and pushed through the pain in my legs. They were almost completely jelly but they would not stop.
I would not stop.
Not until I had an answer.
The few remaining adults stopped to watch us, looks of confusion written all over their faces. The kids did the same, all trying to comprehend what we were doing – especially considering we were in our underwear.
It wasn’t something they saw every day.
“Where on Earth have you been?” Perry demanded as we passed her. She was not happy to see us.
“I’ll explain everything later,” Jet called out back down the tunnel.
“You better!” she screamed back.
The daylight from the vents passed by so quickly they were like camera flashes. In and out of the light we ran through the tunnels until we reached the top.
I skidded around the last corner and almost lost my footing. My hand shot out to use the wall to stabilize my body before I could continue.
Finally, I reached the tunnel entrance. Jet pulled up behind me a few seconds later, puffing for air as much as I was. We stood, chests heaving and adrenalin flooding our systems.
I’d never run that fast before.
Uphill.
Pushing it all aside, I stepped out into the open air and took in what was happening. There were still spirits everywhere. Dozens, if not hundreds, of them.
It felt like déjà vu.
All my hopes sunk deeper than the deepest ocean.
“What do you see? What’s going on?” Jet asked eagerly. He was standing so near I could feel the electricity of his skin. I didn’t want to admit that I had failed again.
I studied the faces of the spirits, trying to find a way to explain to them that I didn’t know how to help them anymore. That they should be able to cross over into their eternal resting place and I didn’t know why they weren’t.
But they weren’t scowling.
There was no pain contorting their features.
They were smiling. The same look of rapture I had seen on Faith’s face was everywhere. Their beautiful smiles, the eyes that were seeing wondrous things that were just for them. They were at peace already and their passing was only just beginning.
The few immediately around the tunnel’s entrance noticed me. “Thank you so much.”
“You did it, you did this!”
“We can finally rest.”
“All thanks to you.”
“I never doubted you had it in you, kid.”
“It’s so beautiful, everything.”
“I can feel it calling to me. The angels sing for our arrival. They call to us.”
“You are extraordinary, thank you.”
“The pain… it’s all gone.”
“Every bit of it.”
“It’s all so peaceful.”
Tears started to well in my eyes and stream down my cheeks as I watched them. They were all so happy, some were even hugging one another. I didn’t understand how that was possible but they were making it work.
One by one, the spirits made their way toward the light and passed over to the hereafter. I wasn’t sure if it was a religious place where they were going, but it didn’t matter. Their new home was full of light and peace, that’s all they needed. They would be together there, no longer suffering or trapped on Earth.
No longer fearing the demon.
Or the devil, for that matter.
Heaven was a lucky place to have so many beautiful souls. They would be well looked after there, far removed from all the horror they had suffered in the last year when their lives were so cruelly taken away from them.
Jet’s fingers threaded in mine but he didn’t ask me anything again. I don’t think he had to. He could see my joy through the tears.
“I wish you could see this,” I whispered. “It’s so beautiful.”
“I’m seeing it through your eyes and that is beautiful enough,” he replied. I glanced at him for just a moment, he was staring at me. His dark eyes so intense and sincere.
“They’re all leaving, crossing over.”
“You saved them.”
I squeezed his hand. “We saved them. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
He leaned closer so his mouth was so near my ear I could feel his warm breath. “I think you underestimate your abilities to do amazing things.” He kissed my cheek and I almost melted into a puddle right then and there.
My eyes returned to the spirits, trying to hide my creeping blush as it threatened to set my skin on fire. The spirits were disappearing rapidly, embracing the light just in case the gateway closed like it did the first time.
A little girl broke through the others and rushed at me. Her shimmery glow reminded me she was a spirit rather than a living being.
“Lilia?” I gasped.
The little girl I had tried to save and failed was skipping along the pathway. She was as happy as I had ever seen her. “Everly! I can hear singing. It’s so pretty.”
I wanted to pick her up and spin her around I was so happy to see her. Kostucha hadn’t got to her. I kneeled down so we were at the same height. “You should go toward the light, that’s where the singing is coming from. They’ll look after you.”
“Will there be angels?” she asked excitedly. She was never this full of life when she was alive. I was so glad her suffering had come to an end. I just wished I could have saved her.
“So many angels,” I replied.
“Thank you for being my friend, Everly.”
“Thank you for being my friend, Lilia. You should go now, just look at the white light.”
She nodded, trying to be brave. With one last glance over her shoulder, she skipped toward the shining light and was swallowed up in it.
I stood up again and looked at the remaining spirits. I wanted to remember every one of their faces, tuck their images into my pocket so I could recall this moment. Even if I didn’t achieve anything else in my life, at least I did this.
And maybe that’s all I was put on this earth for.
It was enough.
To have helped the spirits was enough to keep me going for a very long time.
“There you are,” Perry’s voice interrupted my reverie. “Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on or what?”
“Ever, will you be okay for a while?” Jet asked me. I nodded. “I won’t be long.”
He disappeared into the tunnels with Perry. Judging by the amount of screaming she did when she found us, I would say they were in for a long chat.
Considering the others knew nothing of the spirits’ problems, I wondered how much Jet would share with them. I trusted him with all my secrets, I knew he wouldn’t reveal more than I was comfortable with.
He’d probably lie about the whole thing.
Trying to explain our lack of clothing was going to be tricky. I almost considered following him just so I could hear him talk his way out of that.
But the spirits needed me more than my curiosity needed sating. They were still thanking me, acknowledging my part in their departure before being guided into the next stage of their life.
They had scared me for over a year but it was still bittersweet saying goodbye to them. Everything was going to change without them being here. I wasn’t sure if it would be for the better or worse. I had never been alone since discovering I could see spirits.
And now?
It was going to be very quiet around here.
A couple caught my eye through the thinning crowd. It was a man and woman, both looking at me and then back to the light again as if torn between us.
They were my parents.
I hadn’t seen them since the Event and they were just as beautiful as when they were alive. I wanted to replace the memory I had of them lying dead in our apartment with this one right now. It was time to forget everything about the Event and draw a line in the sand.
From no
w on, only the living would occupy my mind.
Both my mom and my dad smiled at me. To know they hadn’t been consumed by Kostucha was the biggest relief possible. I still wondered why they had stayed away from me for all those months but it didn’t really matter. Maybe I hadn’t wanted to see them, preferring to remember them as living beings.
Something told me they were never too far away though. So many times I had felt them around but had never seen them. Sometimes it was as simple as smelling Mom’s perfume or Dad’s shampoo. When I was living in the house on the hill, I always felt them. To know they were watching over me was enough.
And now they were crossing over where they could be with Faith and reunite as a family. They would be together again and able to rest in absolute peace. They would comfort each other just like they used to.
Pieces of my heart started clicking into place knowing everyone I loved was safe again. All the struggle, pain, and anguish was worth it to reach this point. I had no regrets about getting involved in the spirits’ fight.
I didn’t realize how long I had been standing there until I started to shiver. The coldness of the last traces of winter were wrapping themselves around me and making themselves at home on my bared skin.
The sun was about to wave goodbye to the day and dip below the horizon as the last of the spirits went. The entire space around me was completely empty and so, so quiet.
I had never heard such silence before.
Every other noise was amplified. My heartbeat was a drum marching in a parade, the crickets chirping were a full-piece symphony orchestra. Even the stars as they started to twinkle for the night seemed to chime with a common rhythm.
I doubted the quietness would ever feel normal again. My world had been full of chatter for too long. That was my normal, not this silence.
Alone.
I was all alone for the first time in almost two years.
No comments, no opinions, no questions, no begging, no pleading. Nobody wanted anything and I didn’t have to do anything. My life was my own again.
Nothing would ever be the same.
And perhaps that was a good thing. It was time to move on. I had said goodbye to everyone from my old life. Now was the best time to start afresh.
We Are Always Forever Page 19
