AfterLife (8 page)

“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 you
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.”

E
mily 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 fields 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.”