Chapter Eighteen: My Life HereAfter by Rosaline Saul

We enter the building in a long passage of corrugated iron on each side of us. “Let me show you around,” David offers. “Seeing as this is now your forever home as well unless the monsters get you, that is.”

As we walk down the long passage with a bare bulb hanging from the high roof above us every few steps, he says as we pass the first door. “Here we eat.”

I glance into the room. The room is large with long rectangular tables. At the far end of the room, I see the corner of what looks like a kitchen.

David adds, “We hardly ever feel hungry, so we almost never go in there. I think it is just to make us feel normal, really.”

I agree. Even though I have felt hunger pangs since arriving here a day ago, or was it a week ago, I imagine it is just residue memory from when I was alive. Even though we ate on our first night at the dorm building, I do not recall if it was because I was hungry or if it was just habit.

We walk past a lot of rooms, with the doors closed.

“These are all sleeping quarters and they are a little like prison cells, except the doors aren’t locked.”

The man from earlier, the one I named, Leader of the Pack, comes walking to us down the long passage. Great! I suppose it is obvious he would be in this specific building. He looks like the epitome of wrath and anger.

David introduces us to him, “This is Christopher.” He looks at Christopher and tells him, “This is my brother and two of his friends.” Turning back to us, David says, “When he’s not around, I’m in charge.”

Christopher looks at us as if the cat dragged us in. “Where did they come from. New intake?”

“They’ve come from the other side.”

He looks shocked. “The other side? That’s impossible.”

“Believe me. We all died on the same bus,” David tells him.

“I suppose that one there will make a good contender.” He looks straight at me.

Me? Contender? For what?

David laughs as he glances at me. The look in his eyes seems a little apologetic now rather than the look of pure revulsion he had for me when we just arrived. “I hope you're not afraid of the dark.”

Christopher says, “Now that you’re here, I suppose we have no choice but to make the best of the situation. If you respect the rules, then you'll get along just fine.”

Mark asks, “What are the rules?”

“You pull your weight, and you never go into the woods.”

“We came through the woods to get here, and we need to go into the woods to get back to the other side.”

Christopher looks at David in surprise. “You saw them coming out of the woods?”

David nods his head.

“You sure? Nothing survives out there.”

“We did,” I say.

“Listen,” Christopher says as he holds up his index finger to make me pay attention.

I hear a sharp wailing noise.

David insists, looking straight at me, “That sound is the souls hiding in the forest.”

“What are they?”

“Your guess is as good as mine; all I know is no-one has ever survived a night in the woods. Everything changes every night. When we leave this building in the morning at first light, it will be as if you are walking into a completely different place. All we have to do is survive the night, from the secrets it hides.”

“Forever? That’s all you’re going to do forever? Hide.”

He smirks. “You’ll see tonight, dearie. Even though we hide in here from whatever is out there, it’s the things in your head which make it a hundred times worse. Sin has double consequences, so don’t get too comfortable, because everyone here is a monster in their own right. This is where we come to prey upon each other’s sins and weaknesses for all eternity and there is a hell of a lot more souls in Purgatory than the ones you have seen today, most of them, we have discovered only come out at night to play.” He gives us each a quick glance. His eyes rest on me a moment longer than on Mark and Carly. “Purgatory is a kind of half-way house after a physical death in which those destined for heaven undergo purification, so they can achieve their full potential. Do you think we would have been so kind and welcoming when you first entered our little patch of refuge, if we were destined for hell or were so far beyond redemption there was no chance at saving us?”

“I suppose not,” Mark agrees with Christopher.

“Someone believes there is a possibility for us to change for the better. However, as I said, it comes with a price and becoming purged of all your sins, realising you were wrong and then asking for forgiveness is not nearly as easy as it sounds. Later tonight, the howling of emotional pain in this building will be even louder than the howling of those souls locked out there or stuck in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.”

I cannot help when a short laugh escapes my mouth. “Valley of the Shadow of Death? Are you serious?”

He gives me an angry look. “Deadly serious.”

“There was nothing in there. We were lost there for days, and nothing attacked us,” I insist.

“On the first night, though it felt as if there was something there, but then Mark said that prayer and whatever it was seemed to have left us alone,” Carly says.

“I remember now, it felt as if we were being watched,” Mark says. “I almost forgot about that. You’re right there was something in the forest with us.”

Christopher turns to look at me directly. “I hear, if not for you, this fresh batch of souls would not even be here. Is that true?”

I do not know where to look. He steps closer to me and I can only see him and his chest. His foul breath washes over me, as he says, “That’s a pity, though, because just as I was starting to not be so vengeful and angry all the time, everything I have worked at so hard went out the window, so to speak, when I heard of the stupid prank you pulled which caused the school bus to crash down the ravine. Then… What made it even worse is you did not come here to face your demons; you went to the other side with the angels and all the good stuff. Do you think that’s fair?”

I shake my head. I feel fear push its way into my stomach.

He sneers, “Once a week, one of the houses of sin must offer up a resident soul to the beasts out there, where you will face your very own demons and it won’t just be your own personal hell in your mind any more. Once this sacrifice is made, they leave and do not take one of us randomly. We decided a long time ago, it’s best to have a selection amongst ourselves rather than leave it all to fate. Guess whose turn it is to sacrifice a soul?”

I close my eyes briefly and hold my breath. I know he is going to say it is this house of sin. The house of anger and wrath. Is this the reason I came here? Is this the purpose of it all?

He laughs sadistically and I try not to cringe away from the air, which rushes from his mouth to wash over me. “It’s our turn, and I speak for everyone here when I say it’s amazing timing for you to arrive on this very auspicious day. Instead of one of us having to pull a short straw, you will be the one to go out there.”

I take a step backwards. This feels worse than any nightmare. Even in my darkest moments, I would never have imagined looking at the faces of people I had grown up with, whom I had gone to school with, for mercy. Even though I might not have been close friends with all of them, I knew each one of them by name.

They all surge forward and I have no choice but to back away from them. They do not physically touch or shove me, but they force me to move anyway. Slowly they push me closer to the large open doors in the front of the large building.

When I feel a cold blast of air on the nape of my neck I realise they have successfully managed to walk me back to the door, even if I took one slow, tentative step backwards at a time, too scared to turn my back on them.

I notice Mark looking desperately from side to side as he scans the surging crowd for a friendly face. He calls a name or two, trying to get them to stop, but his efforts are in vain. They are all scowling, anger etched onto their faces. I can see rage shining from their eyes.

By the time I take the last step out of the large entrance to the building, the area is so crowded there is no way for me to push myself back into the building. Even if I tried, I am sure they would have hurt me, not killed me, but seriously maimed me to make sure I did not enter the building again.

Mark pushes himself through the people closest to the wall forcefully, pulling Carly behind him.

I stand with my shoulders pulled back and stare at the faces in front of me. They are just desperate, scared souls doing everything in their power not to be the one who appeases the monsters on this night. They get to look for forgiveness for another six days.

Mark almost falls when he pushes past the last person between him and me.

I tell him, “No, Mark. Stay.”

He moves closer to me. Placing his hands on my shoulders, he looks down at me and says softly, “It’s cold and dark, and I know it was never your intention for the bus to crash and for all of us to end up here, so I am staying by your side. I want to help you, to protect you. It’s what I need to do”

Carly stumbles into Mark and pushes him against me. She cries out as her ankle twists underneath her and I must use all my strength to keep us from falling. “No, Carly, not you as well. You want to go back and help your mum. I cannot allow you to do this with me.”

She stands her ground. “It’s something I have to do.”

“What about your ankle?”

“It’s nothing. Not sore, at all.” She steps on her foot to prove her point.

The rumbling of the doors as they are closed draw our attention back to the crowd of people huddled in the open doorway of the large building.

“Go back,” I urge Carly and Mark. “There’s still time. I can do this, and I think it’s something I have to do on my own anyway.”

A shout echoes from behind the group of people. “Wait.”

“Oh no,” I say softly, feeling my breath catch in my chest.

“David?” Mark asks concerned as David pushes through the group of people watching us as the giant door slides down.

Without looking at me, even once, he says, “I’m coming with you. You came all the way here to find me, and I cannot let you go out there on your own.”

“Are you serious?” Mark asks him.

Christopher calls from inside the building, “David, that girl is not worth going to hell for.”

Even with the cold wind whipping around me, screeching around the metal corners of the buildings, I can hear the venom in Christopher’s tone of voice.

David shakes his head and then looks at me in frustration.

“You know what she did to all of you,” Christopher screams above the sound of the wind.

David shouts back, “You don’t understand, I love her.”

What! My mind screams.

“What?” My lips whisper.

David says to me, “Look, I’m sorry if you’re upset about it, but I never meant for you to know.”

I cut him off with a bitter laugh. “You’ve always hated me.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Yeah, you have. You have always treated me like crap.”

“Because I didn’t want you to know.”

The large door slides down with a bang and we are left in utter darkness.

This is unbelievable. I am still trying to come to terms with what David just said and I am a little grateful for the darkness because I know he cannot see the look on my face. “It’s not true,” I say softly.

For a long time, David says nothing. Nobody says anything. Then his voice says apologetically, “I’m sorry about that.”

“I’ll handle this,” Mark says.

“No,” David snaps. “You always want to handle everything. I’ll do this. Sunel, I’m sorry about everything.”

Taking a deep breath, I manage to say, “It’s okay.” Although it is not okay.

“There is a clearing to the back of the building, let’s go there and hope daylight comes quickly. Maybe Mark can say that prayer again, and we’ll be okay until then,” David suggests.

Continue reading Chapter 19/25

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