Chapter Fourteen: My Life HereAfter by Rosaline Saul

I feel Mark stir next to me, and I am not sure if I did eventually fall asleep or not. I feel as if I just closed my eyes for a second or two.

He moves again as I look up above the canopy of trees. The light is slowly starting to seep its way through the branches down toward us, but it is still midnight dark around us.

“I’m afraid,” I whisper.

His arm around my waist pulls me closer to him. “Don’t be. I’ll protect you.”

His words should not make me feel better because I know in my heart he could not protect me against whatever waits for us on the other side of this valley, but it does.

Carly laughs softly. “For a moment, I didn’t know where I was. Truth be told, I was hoping we are stuck in a nightmare.”

“Probably are,” Mark counters.

“All three of us in the same nightmare, can’t be,” I challenge.

“We better get going, I’m getting a little hungry now.”

I start to move away from Mark, so he has more room to move. “Weird, but I’m not. It’s been how long since food?”

Carly admits, “I’m also hungry. What I wouldn’t give for a Double Cheeseburger and a McFlurry right now.”

Mark stands up stiffly and I feel sorry for him. With me sitting in the hollow formed by his crossed legs all night, it could not have been the most comfortable position for him. His legs must feel numb and dead.

He stretches his legs and groans painfully. “Don’t start, Carly. You’re putting ideas in my head and you are only making it worse.”

I chuckle softly. “Or even a cappuccino with an extra dollop of cream. I can actually taste it and feel the glob of cream bobbing against my top lip.”

Carly starts laughing when Mark groans again.

Mark holds his hand out to me, and I reach up to him. When he has my hand in a firm grip, he pulls me up from the ground. While I scrape whatever strange substance seems to have glued itself to my legs, he helps Carly up from the ground.

“Let’s get out of here,” Mark urges us to get moving.

We stumble through the undergrowth, while Mark walks ahead bashing and pulling and breaking low hanging branches out of our way while forging a path for Carly and me.

“Hello?” Mark calls out. He looks back at us. “Maybe someone will be able to hear us. I think we’re lost.”

Carly and I try to walk closely together. It feels as if we have been walking for hours and I am starting to feel panicked.

I ask her, trying not to sound too worried about it, “It feels as if I am starting to forget things. And you?”

Carly agrees, “I am forgetting some stuff. Do you think it’s normal? Once you die to start forgetting about the people you left behind, otherwise you would never be able to move on?”

“Do you think it happens to everyone who dies.”

“Yesterday I started feeling as if I could not remember some things, but then I thought maybe I just knocked my head or something, but if you’re saying you are also forgetting things then maybe it does happen to everybody.” She starts to sound worried. “I don’t want to forget.”

“Do you ever wonder who put us here?”

Carly shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head a little. “This is not what I expected Heaven to be like.”

“Remember, though, this isn’t heaven. This is just like a training station, the proverbial second chance platform.”

“Where do you think Lionel and Charlene went?”

“Maybe they went to the place we all imagine being Heaven.”

“How come they went there, and you didn’t?”

The little man on my shoulder shouts out with glee: Because of meeee.

I say out loud, “I’m not sure.”

“I wonder where we’re going. It feels as if we have been walking in circles for days.”

“Is it weird I feel hungry, but I’m not hungry.”

“I suppose it could be as if your body knows you should be eating something, but you don’t need to eat anything, if it makes any sense.”

“I suppose, sort of.” I notice Mark walking a little faster and then he disappears behind a clump of trees. “Mark! Where are you going?”

His voice is faint. “There’s something here, and I just want to see what it is.”

“We’re coming,” I call back to him. While turning to Carly, I say, “Let’s see where he went.”

Mark calls back, “No stay there.”

“What’s out there?” Carly asks worriedly.

“For your own protection, just wait there a minute.”

A minute! The man on my shoulder chuckles amused. Might as well say an hour, second or decade. Time here is of no relevance.

I tell Carly, “I can’t just wait here. What if something happens to him.”

“What the hell...?” Mark's voice echoes toward us.

What now?

We rush through the bushes, slapping away twigs, leaves and small branches. We must have been steadily walking up an incline because when Carly and I emerge from the thick foliage we are standing on top of a rock big enough to hold all three of us comfortably.

The forest stretches ahead of us as far as my eyes can see. The sky is still the same blue as when we arrived. Mark turns to look behind us and I turn with him. The forest stretches all around us. There is not a gap in the canopy of treetops or the glint of a building to be seen.

Softly Mark asks no one in particular, “How is this possible?”

“It’s like an illusion, isn’t it?” I wonder.

“This is not good,” Carly agrees.

“I am sure it didn’t look like this when I was sitting on that slight hill yesterday or whenever it was because sometimes it feels as if we’ve only just started and then other times it feels as if we have been wandering aimlessly through these trees for far too long.”

“Do you think we’re lost?” I glance up at Mark beside me.

He looks down at me and as our eyes meet, I can see he is worried. “We’ll find a way out, I’m sure. When the time is right, we’ll walk out the other side.”

Feeling positive, are you, dimwit? The little man must add his two cents to the conversation.

My eyes glance across the massive expanse surrounding us. Even though neither one of them answered my question, I know we are lost. If this is my hereafter, will I be spending eternity drifting around this vast forest?

Carly asks concerned, “Do you think it’s dangerous?”

Mark says reassuringly, “We haven’t seen any animals, so I’m sure it’s safe enough.”

“It’s creepy at night, though. Something doesn’t feel right about the dark and sometimes I feel as if something is watching us.”

“Me too. I didn’t want to say anything, and you all think I’m scared anyway, but the other night it even felt like something was bumping against me.”

“Last night,” I correct her.

She frowns a little. “No, I’m sure it wasn’t last night. It feels like a couple of nights ago, already.”

“We need to get out of here,” Mark announces as he starts to step off the large flat rock. “This place is playing tricks with our minds.”

“It’s like a time warp or something,” I agree as I follow him.

“So, which way now?” Carly asks, looking around at the surrounding trees.

A couple of steps ago, we could turn around three hundred and sixty degrees, full circle, and we were able to see all around us. It was as if the large rock was the centre of the universe. Now when I swivel around, we are surrounded by a circle of trees. “This place is starting to freak me out,” I say as I feel a shiver scamper down my spine. “Are we like prisoners here?” I ask softly.

“Come, we better get going. There’s no way I want to be stuck in this forest when it gets dark again.”

Continue reading Chapter 15/25

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