The Afterlife series Box Set (Books 1-3) (43 page)

As always the book was open, turned to the page showing the next person who was about to die and come to this school. The first one wasn’t anyone I knew, so I flipped a couple of pages and then I stopped. My breath caught in my throat. There he was. Once again I saw Jason’s last minutes in this book. This time he was older. He was walking in the street that looked like the area where I used to visit him back when he was a homeless drug addict. What was he doing there again?

He looked much better than the last time I had seen him, I was pleased to see. He wasn’t skinny anymore, but really fit and seemed to have been working out. He had become really handsome. His hazel-nut brown eyes no longer had that tired and worn-out empty look in them. They were so full of life. He looked like he was going somewhere, walking with a lot of strength.

Then suddenly three guys came from behind Jason. The one who appeared to be the leader had most of his face covered with a hood. They stopped Jason and pushed him into an alley. I hadn’t noticed this last time, but there was actually sound on the pictures. It was really low, but just loud enough for me to hear the guy in the hood say, “Didn’t I tell you that if you ever showed your ugly face in this neighborhood again, I would kill you?”

But Jason didn’t seem afraid of these three guys. He tried to force his way through them. “I have somewhere to be right now,” he said and started walking. That was when one of the guys pulled a knife and pressed it against Jason.

“What do you want from me?” he asked.

“You still owe me, man,” the guy in the hood said.

I recognized his voice. He was that drug dealer I had seen Jason with last year.

“I paid you everything,” said Jason. “We’re even.”

The drug dealer shook his head. “No we ain’t. Not until I say so, we ain’t. I helped you big time, now you help me. It’s payback time.”

Jason shook his head. “I am not doing anything for you.”

“Oh yes you are. You do what I tell you to.”

“Or what?”

The drug dealer looked at his friends. “Can you believe this guy?” Then he turned and looked at Jason while he pulled the knife to his throat. “Or I will kill you.”

Tears stung in my eyes and I put my hand to my mouth. I knew how this was going to end, or it wouldn’t be in the book. But still, this was brutal.

“Come on,” Jason said. “Let’s be reasonable. I have paid you what I owe you. I’m out of all this. I don’t do this anymore.”

The drug dealer was in Jason’s face now. “So you think you can just leave and then come waltzing in here on
my
street, in
my
‘hood and think that everything is just a-okay?”

“I’m only passing through, going to visit someone. Just let me go.” Jason’s voice still seemed incredibly calm.

“Just passin’ through, huh?” The drug dealer laughed and looked at his friends. “He’s just passin’ through.” They all laughed.

“You know what? I don’t have any time for this,” Jason said and tried to leave.

The drug dealer stuck the knife under his nose. “If you walk out of here, I will kill you.”

“And if I don’t. If I stay?” Jason asked.

“Then you work for me. You owe me your loyalty. I was good to you once, when you needed it. I gave you drugs, man. You came to me beggin’ for it. Beggin’ for my mercy. I gave you some and you didn’t even pay. Now that is a true friend. And you don’t run out on friends like that. That makes them mad. You hear me?”

“So what you are telling me is that I have to sell drugs for you or you will kill me?”

“You owe me, man.”

Then Jason did something I had never expected. He laughed. He laughed out loud in their faces. “I am not afraid of you,” he said. “I am not afraid of dying. Do you know why? Because I know I am going to a much better place. So if my time is up, then it is up. There isn’t anything I can do about it. I have someone whom I love waiting for me on the other side. I haven’t seen her in years and I really miss her. So go ahead. I’m not falling for your tricks again. I’m not bringing other people into misfortune again. I’m clean and so is my consciousness.”

My heart stopped beating. Could he be talking about me? Did he finally remember me? I was in shock and had to hold onto the stone table. Had he been waiting for me to come back all these years?

“You ain’t leaving, I am telling you,” the drug dealer said. “I don’t buy all that Heaven-is-for-real-bull-shit you just pulled on me.”

“Well, I guess it’s up to you then,” said Jason. “I’m leaving now. I have somewhere to be.”

I knew it was coming, of course I did, but it still tore me apart from the inside to see it with my own eyes. The knife disappeared into Jason’s stomach and a shiver shot through me. I felt the tears piling up as I saw him fall to his knees while putting his hands to his abdomen. Then the drug dealer took out the knife and stabbed it into Jason’s chest. With a loud groan, Jason pitched forward and landed on his face on the wet ground.

“Let’s get out of here,” yelled the drug dealer. He and his friends disappeared as I watched the life run out of Jason.

The date written underneath the picture was four weeks from now.

It took a while for me to be able to let go of Jason’s page. It restarted and I almost came to the part where they stabbed him again before I flipped the page. I couldn’t bear to see it all again. But I did wait until he had spoken about me again. I had heard everything right. He couldn’t be talking about anyone else but me, could he?

I flipped through hundreds of pages until I reached to the woman from my folder. Rosey’s brown hair was a frizzy mess and looked like it had been neglected for years, just like in the photo I had seen in the folder. This day she had it pulled back in a ponytail. She wore a huge worn-out bathrobe, but her collarbones were showing, revealing a very thin body underneath. She walked slowly down a corridor, like she was sleepwalking. She had one hand in the pocket of the bathrobe. She walked into a small room with only a bed, a chest of drawers next to it, one chair, and a plastic flower arrangement in the window. Nothing on the walls except a small wooden cross above the door. I noticed the windows all had bars on them. Everything was very white: the walls, the floors, the furniture and even the door. She closed it behind her. Out of the pocket in the bathrobe she pulled a bottle of pills. She opened it and quickly swallowed all of the pills, while tears ran like a waterfall down her cheeks. Then she drank some water from a plastic cup next to her bed. When she was done she sat down on the bed with a sigh. From the top drawer she took a framed picture and looked at it intensely. Then more tears appeared while she hugged the photo. I felt my heart drop as she got into the bed and pulled up the covers and fell asleep with the picture between her hands. Slowly and peacefully, life oozed out of her.

I looked at the date. It wasn’t until this spring just before my graduation that this would happen. I had plenty of time to prepare for this assignment. I was supposed to go and get her after she had swallowed those pills, I guessed, while wondering who had been in the picture. Was it someone she loved? Someone she was leaving behind?

Heavy in my heart from all this, I left the chamber. Mick was waiting outside.

“So …?”

I sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it.” I threw myself in his arms and held him tight.

“Was it that bad? Will she die in a brutal death?”

I smelled Mick’s scent and tried to keep out that nagging feeling of guilt. “Who? … No, no, it is not that bad at all. She commits suicide and dies in her sleep. It is a very quiet death. Not messy at all,” I answered.

“So why don’t you want to talk about it then?” asked Mick as we started floating back toward my dormitory. It was late and I really just wanted to get to bed. The pictures of Jason being stabbed flickered in my mind. I just couldn’t escape them. Neither could I escape what he had said. The fact that he might remember me changed everything. I looked at Mick who was trying so nicely to figure out why I was upset. He was always so sweet to me. I felt my stomach crumble. I had no idea what to do now.

“So when was it?” asked Mick.

I looked at him confused. “When was what?”

He grabbed my shoulder and made me turn my face toward him. “Hey. Where are your thoughts? You seem like you are in a totally different place.”

“I’m sorry. Seeing people die is just still really hard on me,” I said with a thick voice. I felt the tears piling up inside of me and I tried really hard to hold them back.

“Are you crying?” Asked Mick.

“No,” I said. I wasn’t but my eyes were moist.

“Why are you crying?”

“I am not. I really am not!” I said. Not that I didn’t want to cry in front of him, but I couldn’t tell him why I was caught up in my emotions. It wasn’t because I had seen Jason die or even the woman. It was out of confusion. I knew I either had to hurt Mick so badly I could never forgive myself, or I had to bury my feelings for Jason once and for all and not listen to my heart. I didn’t even know if that was possible. Could I marry Mick when I knew that Jason was coming here, expecting to find me? There would always be a
what if?
What if I didn’t marry Mick and instead waited for Jason? Could we have a future? Was I really meant to be with Jason? Was I making a huge mistake by marrying Mick?

Mick caressed my cheek. “I forget how sensitive you are. And how young. I have done this for so long that it barely touches me anymore. It is hard on everyone in the beginning. It was for me too. You know what used to help me? Knowing we are doing something great when we go and get the spirits. We help those lost souls find their way. And it is a great life that is waiting for them here and also after the school. Don’t worry so much about death. It is only the beginning. ”

We started floating again. I hated keeping things from Mick, but right now I was glad he found his own explanation for my bad mood. I needed time to think, like never before. “I know it is. It is just brutal to see them die, that is all.” I said as we reached the entrance to my dormitory.

“You are still very earthly in your thinking. It will get better.”

Mick leaned over and kissed me gently. I closed my eyes. When he was done he stared deeply into my eyes. “Only three more days, then you are finally mine.”

I felt lousy inside when I left him. What kind of a person was I? Here I had the nicest guy who wanted me so badly and on top of it all had been hurt in a situation just like this once before. And all I could do was to think about someone else.

That night I dreamed about Jason. A real passionate dream. I woke up feeling an overwhelming feeling of guilt. I opened my eyes slightly and in the dark I thought I saw Mick’s sparkling eyes at the foot of my bed. They were staring at me like a cat caught in the headlights from a car. Thinking it could be nothing but a dream, I closed my eyes again and fell into a heavy sleep.

C
HAPTER 9

I
WOKE UP WITH
a strange feeling. A thought had entered my head all of a sudden and it wouldn’t leave me alone. I hurried down to Hornam Hall and flew into the kitchen where I found Mick. He was getting ready to prepare breakfast for the entire Academy. But that had to wait.

“This is a nice surprise,” he said when he saw me. “Missed me so much you had to come see me before breakfast?”

“You might say that.” I approached him and sat at the kitchen table. Mick was drinking hot coffee.

“You want some?” he asked but then paused. “Wait.” He closed his eyes and seemed pensive for a moment. Then he opened them again. “Hot chocolate. You are in the mood for hot chocolate, aren’t you?”

I really was. Whenever I felt a little down or moody I would always get a cup of hot chocolate. My dad would make it for me, I remembered at this moment. Mick always knew just what I needed. I watched him as he rubbed his hands and started pouring steaming brown chocolate into a cup. I smiled. Not because of the drink, but because of the memory of my dad that had entered my mind. I loved when I remembered something new about my past and especially my parents.

Mick finished pouring and gave me the cup. It was perfect. Just the way I liked it with a little whipped cream on top. I looked at it and really wanted to taste it right away, but I hesitated. I took the cup and placed it on the table.

“Not good enough? I never miss.” Mick said with astonishment.

I forced a smile. “It is perfect,” I said.

“Then what is wrong?”

I sighed and looked down. I didn’t feel good about this, but I had to know. “It’s been bothering me ever since I woke up,” I said.

“What has?”

“This feeling. This … this thought.”

Mick looked confused.

“What thought? What feeling?” I could tell by the look of his face that he was about to panic. All the thoughts in his head had to be about me calling off the wedding.

“I saw something yesterday. In the chamber. I saw someone die in the book of
meant-to-be
.”

“I know that. You saw that woman die. We talked about that, remember?” He smiled a little insecurely. He still didn’t know what was going on.

“Yes. But I saw something else in that book. I saw someone else die.”

Mick froze. His whole body stopped moving and that was when I got my answer. The answer to the question that had lingered in my head all morning.

“You know who I am talking about, don’t you?” I asked. “You know perfectly well. That was why you didn’t want me to go in the chamber alone. You insisted on doing this for me. And you ended up standing outside the chamber fearing that I would see it too. Because you saw it a long time ago. When you went to get that woman and bring her here. Am I right?”

Mick was still motionless. He stared at me with big eyes and hardly blinked.

“You knew Jason was going to die soon, and you panicked,” I felt my voice getting thicker. I hated the fact that I was right. “That is why you were in such a hurry with the wedding. Tell me Mick, honestly. Was that the reason why?”

He didn’t say a word. He kept biting his lip as if he was trying to figure out what to say to me. How to avoid a catastrophic outcome to this.