The Afterlife series Box Set (Books 1-3) (7 page)

We all gasped with excitement. And then we waited. It felt like an eternity, but still no sign of Portia. I felt a little anxious. After all not one of us knew anything about where she had gone.

“Do you think she will ever come back?” Acacia asked nervously. “Oh no, what if she doesn’t? We will get in trouble for this, I just know it.”

Abhik looked at me with fear in his eyes.

“It will be okay, don’t worry,” I whispered to him.

Acacia was still rambling on. “What if she met one of those … dark creatures, those … Se’irims … what if she … how will we explain that?”

“Maybe we should go before anyone knows we were here …” Mai started but never finished.

She was interrupted by Portia who suddenly stuck her head out through the mirror and stared at us with her green eyes.

“Boo!”

Acacia and Mai jumped. Portia laughed.

“Ha! You should’ve seen your faces. You look like you have seen a ghost. Ha, ha, ha!”

“It is not funny,” Acacia said. “We thought something had happened to you. Something really bad.”

“Pah,” said Portia. “You were just afraid you would get caught.”

She was right; that had been the two girls’ only concern when they thought their friend wouldn’t come back. For once I agreed with Portia.

“What took you so long?” Abhik asked.

“I had to check everything out and make sure that there was nothing for you chickens to be afraid of. And now I have. You are safe to go. What are you waiting for? Come on!”

Portia’s head disappeared again through the mirror. We were all staring at each other before Abhik stepped forward.

“I will go next,” he said.

I looked at him. “You sure you want this?” I asked.

He nodded while staring with determination into the big empty mirror in front of him.

“The little sick boy is gone, Meghan. I feel more alive than ever. Kind of ironic isn’t it?”

I had to admit it was. Here he stood in front of a mirror that didn’t show his reflection and in a way it manifested that he had ceased to exist. But yet he was next to me and so full of life. I had felt that way lately too, like this was only the beginning.

“Then go,” I smiled. “I will follow you.”

Abhik smiled at me before he put both his hands on the mirror and pressed them through. Soon the rest of his body followed and he was gone.

I took in a couple of big breaths and stepped in front of the mirror. I had to hurry up. For all I knew Portia could have gotten Abhik into trouble already.

 I put my palms on the mirror, exhaled deeply and pressed my body through. I had no time to think or be worried that I would get stuck like in the classroom, and therefore I went straight through.

I felt like my body was ripped to pieces and put back together again on the other side. I came out of a mirror and tumbled onto the floor.

Portia stood right in front of me.

“Quite the entrance,” she said with a smile.

I caught my breath and got on my legs again. It still drained my energy to go through solid objects. I wondered if I would ever get used to it like other spirits who did this all the time.

“Are you all right?” Abhik asked.

“I will be,” I said and looked around. We seemed to be in a bathroom.

“Where are we?” I asked.

Portia hushed me.

“We are in a human house,” she whispered. “The mirror led us into a human bathroom.”

 “Who is living here? Are they out there now?”

Portia shook her head.

“They are all sleeping. I checked.”

“Okay, so the important part is not to wake anyone up. How many are they? And where are they?”

“There’s a woman in the bedroom. Her husband has fallen asleep downstairs in front of the TV. And then a son is sleeping in his room next to the woman’s room,” Portia said.

“Okay, so all we have to make sure is—” I didn’t get any further before Portia interrupted me.

“Here comes another one! Move over!” she said motioning that I needed to move aside.

We heard a small shriek, and then Mai landed in the bathroom as well. Her small figure made it easy for her to go through, so she just floated past us.

“Now we only have to wait for Acacia,” Portia whispered.

Acacia was a much bigger girl like me. I’m not on the skinny side either, not that I am fat. Like me, she had a hard time going through things as well. So all we saw now was her hand pushed through and then it was like the mirror was bubbling underneath, as though she was trying to press through but made an imprint of her body and face instead. We heard her yell from the other side. It sounded like she was talking through a pillow.

“I can’t get through this thing. It’s like the gateway is closed!”

Portia and Mai giggled and I have to admit it looked rather funny. But I didn’t say anything.

“Try again,” Portia said.

So she did. Again we saw her face emerge and this time she got her head through, but then she was stuck.

“Try to press your hands through,” Portia said. “Then we can pull you the rest of the way.”

Acacia tried hard and groaned loudly. Slowly her hands came through and Portia and I each grabbed one.

“On three …” Portia said.

I nodded.

“One … Two … Three…!”

We pulled all we could but our hands kept slipping through hers. That was still something we needed to learn. How to hold on to things. Not having a physical body wasn’t as easy as it looked.

Finally we had to give up. We kept trying but Acacia didn’t move one inch. So Portia told her to go back to the cellar.

Acacia was disappointed and started arguing.

“Come on! It is not fair that you get to go and have fun, and I don’t,” she said with the whining voice of a five-year-old.

“We can’t spend all night trying to get you through this mirror, Acacia,” Portia said. “Wait for us there. We will bring you next time.”

Acacia sighed deeply and then she wiggled her way back through the mirror again.

“One less to worry about,” Portia said while opening the bathroom door slowly. It squeaked and we all looked at each other. Then Portia signaled that we should follow her.

Slowly we floated through a hallway and found the stairs leading down to the living room. A man slept on the couch, wearing a white shirt and black pants. His tie was thrown on an armchair next to him. His black shoes were kicked off on the floor. He slept with his mouth open and head leaning on the back of the couch. He snored and his small moustache wiggled when he breathed. The table in front of him was filled with empty beer bottles. The big flat-screen TV showed an infomercial for fitness equipment.

Portia and Mai giggled as they came close to the man. Portia took a deep breath and blew air in his face. I saw his hair move as if a draft had come through. Mai giggled again and then she tickled the man by touching his face with her finger. They circled around him and laughed.

Suddenly he moved.

He wiggled his nose and grumbled before he turned over to the side. Portia and Mai were surprised and moved back.

“He’s too drunk to wake up,” Portia said and floated away from the man on the couch.

“Yeah, he’s boring,” Mai said. “Let’s try something else.”

Portia glanced around in the living room with that incredible smirk on her face.

“Let’s make a mess,” she said.

“Yay,” Mai said.

I looked at Abhik. He looked disappointed, as though this wasn’t why he came here. I guess all he wanted was to come back to the human world as a new person. Maybe it sounds weird, but I think he wanted to see what it would be like to be in the human world without feeling pain, just being there, being able to move around as he wanted and wished, to do whatever he felt like.

So while Portia and Acacia started to move things around in the living room, giggling and snickering, I took Abhik with me outside.

We found ourselves under the most incredible starry sky. The full moon shone at our feet. We flew out in the front yard, but then Abhik stopped. Slowly he placed his feet on the grass. He looked at me and I understood. He wanted to walk. So we did. For the first time since we learned how to fly, we walked on our legs. It felt weird after months of flying everywhere. It was a slow way to be moving around. But I could tell that Abhik enjoyed it. He couldn’t stop smiling. In the backyard sat an old swing set. Abhik took one look at it and then ran toward it like a small child.

I ran after him and took the swing next to him. Since we were nearly weightless, it wasn’t quite the same as I remembered swinging in my childhood, but still Abhik seemed to enjoy it. Afterwards he tried the monkey bars and then the slide.

“You know I didn’t get to do this much when I was human?” he said. “It was too much for me. I was so fragile and in too much pain.”

“Well I am glad you get to do it now,” I said.

“Me too.”

We played like two small kids in the yard for hours, although it felt like minutes. When we got back inside, Portia and Mai had put their mark on the whole living room. Pictures were hanging upside down, chairs had been placed differently, and books were on the wrong shelves, one even on the top of the ceiling fan. Portia had a big vase between her hands and looked like she was going to break it.

“Portia!” I said. “That’s enough!”

She stuck out her tongue but put the vase down.

Great, I thought. Nice and mature.

“I wasn’t going to break it, just put it somewhere else. We were only having a little fun, that’s all,” she said. Don’t be such an old spinster.”

Who uses that kind of words?
I thought while laughing on the inside.

“Well I don’t want to be involved in it. Let’s go,” I said to Abhik.

But he didn’t come. He looked at me like a defying child.

“I want to try this,” he said.

I rolled my eyes as he started pushing pillows on the floor from the couch. He missed a few times when his hands just went through it, but I could see on his face that he was having fun.

The drunken man on the couch didn’t seem to wake up, so I felt it was safe. They didn’t leave a big mess. It was mostly just small things like tying the man’s tie around his leg and taking his socks off and placing them on top of the TV. And when he woke the next morning he would think that he had been very drunk and had quite a party in the living room. Or at least his wife would, we figured, as we left the living room and floated up the stairs.

 Everyone was giggling—even Abhik—and I couldn’t help being a little amused myself.

But that was only until we reached the bathroom door. As Portia opened it with that squeaking sound, we heard another door being opened as well.

C
HAPTER 9

T
HE FACE IN THE
doorway immediately grew pale, eyes wide open with a scared look—the one spirits see a lot when they appear to humans. Spirits get used to it eventually, but at this point I had never seen it before. I had never had anyone afraid of me before and it sincerely scared the crap out of me. We all got so scared of the guy who was staring at us that we screamed and fell into each other trying to get to the bathroom mirror.

“Hurry, let’s get out of here,” Portia yelled.

She pushed herself ahead of the rest of us so she could get to the mirror first. Then she went through it. I was last in line as the boy closed the door to the bathroom with a shriek.

“Hurry, hurry …” Abhik said while Mai slid right through.

Then came Abhik and he had no problem either. He went through and now it was my turn. I put my right arm in front of me and pushed it through and as I did the bathroom door opened slightly. A baseball bat was the first thing I saw and then I panicked. Trying too hard to get through the mirror made it impossible. My hand was stuck. Not only was I trapped in a human house with a human, but I couldn’t move either.

Great
, I thought.

“Who’s in there?” I heard the boy yell while swinging the baseball bat in the air. Who was he thinking he would scare off with that?

Then with a sudden bang the door opened and he stood in the doorway with the baseball bat on his shoulder, ready to swing it. I felt the others trying to pull my hand on the other side, but I didn’t move an inch.

It’s all in your mind, I thought. Come on, have you learned nothing?

The boy stared at me from the doorway. His eyes were still wide open. Then he took a swing at me. The bat whistled through the air. Forgetting all about who I was, I covered my head and … the bat went straight through me.

“Now what do you know?” I said quite impressed. I felt it go through me, but it didn’t hurt at all.

The boy’s eyes became even wider and his mouth opened. He dropped the bat on the floor. He looked at me like he was paralyzed. His whole body shook and trembled. That was when I saw it. There was something about him. I was certain I had seen him somewhere before. Maybe I had known him before I died?

“Who are you?” I asked.

Of course he didn’t answer. He was still in too much of a shock. “You’re … You’re …” he stuttered.

“I am a spirit, yes.” It sounded so weird in my own ears and I tried to imagine how it must have sounded in his.       

“But … But …”

I tried to smile. “I’m kind of stuck, as you can see.”

“This must be some dream or something,” he mumbled and tried to pinch his own arm.

“Nope, I am real.”

He kept staring at me. “Where … where did you come from?”

I sighed. “Well it’s kind of a long story. See we come from this school … well … it is going to sound a little strange, but it is the truth. We go to a school of … spirits. See, I kind of … died some months ago and now I am … well … this.”

The boy seemed less pale now and looked at me with suspicion.

“You’re really dead?”

I tried to smile again. Once he got the color back in his cheeks he was kind of cute-looking and about my age as well. I noticed he had a purple mark on his forehead, like he had been in a bad fight.

“Well … if you put it like that, then yes. I am dead.”