Chapter Twenty-Two: My Life HereAfter by Rosaline Saul
“Fight for what you want.” A fire blazes in its small beady eyes as its head swivels down closer to me.
I take a step or two back and David moves to stand in front
of me. I hear Mark and Carly run closer.
The dragon lisps, “You have no one to protect you.” An aqua blue light shoots out from its mouth and hits me in the middle of my chest. I feel my heart move and stutter as if it had stopped and someone is trying to start it again.
Mark holds both his hands up. “I am here to protect her.”
The dragon swivels its head, and even though it seems
impossible, the dragon gets an amused look on his face. “Markie, Markie, Mark.”
“I
will protect her,” Mark insists.
“But
you like the girl and it looks as if she likes your brother more,” the Dragon
lisps in a mocking voice.
“I
do like her, but not in the way you think. I’ve always had a feeling all the
silly things she does is to get attention, and I was trying to find a way to be
her friend.”
The dragon’s head shoots straight up into the sky and it
laughs a hoarse guttural laugh. Then its head comes down again and it pushes
its snake-like head close to my face. I cringe when it looks as if its forked
tongue is going to lick my nose. “Twins,” it lisps. “Are so closely matched,
don’t you agree?” Its neck forms an S as it lifts its head higher. “A storm is
coming.”
I look up at the sky and it is as if the sun is glowing
through water. It is the strangest sight I have ever seen as if I am under the
water and looking up at its surface.
The dragon roars, “Time is running out for you, Sunel.” It
exhales a burst of flame from its mouth, and I cringe in fear.
It feels as if I am being lifted. I feel hands under my arms,
and I feel weightless and buoyant.
David pulls me closer to him and folds his hand around my
elbow.
The circle of trees surrounding the vast clearing burst into
flames as the dragon turns in a circle while flames surge from its mouth.
Mark falls on his hands and knees from the force of the
flame from the dragon’s mouth.
Carly steps in behind me. “When I was in desperate need of a
friend, someone to reach out to me in my darkest hour, you were there for me,
Sunel. Wherever you go, I go.”
I fold my hand around her hand on my arm.
Provoked, David jumps at the dragon and swings his fists at
it, but the dragon is quick. It leaps backwards and takes to the air. It
hovers, beating its mighty wings to keep it aloft. “Anger has made you slow,
David.”
With one mighty beat of its wings, it lowers itself to the
ground again. It keeps its wings extended and then it fires a blast of blue
light at me again.
Once again, it hits me in the centre of my chest, and I feel
my heart flutter.
David is breathing heavily and unbalanced he approaches the
dragon.
“Say
the words, David. Once you’ve acknowledged your sin which you have harboured
for so long, you will be free.”
David lowers his head for a moment and then looks up at the
dragon. “For too long I have traded reputation and glory for love, but no more.
I lay down my hate and anger, and from now on I only want to feel love.”
The dragon roars loudly, “Love! Keep your love, I only want
your soul.”
“Then
take my soul, but spare Mark, Carly and Sunel.”
The dragon steps forward slowly.
Suddenly, from behind the dragon, Mark runs and jumps onto
the dragon’s long serpent tail and runs up its body, screaming in a voice of
rebellious defiance.
The dragon spins around and slashes Mark with its tail.
As Mark slips and falls, the earth beneath our feet shakes
with the impact as his body hits the ground.
The dragon turns away from us to Mark sprawled on the
ground.
I seize the moment and pick up a large branch lying to the
side. I run forward to stop the dragon from hurting Mark and when the dragon
opens its mouth to bite Mark, I push the end of the branch up and it drives
with an awful squelching noise into the soft skin under its chin.
The dragon shrieks loudly and spins around, its little beady
eyes seething. It grabs wildly in the air and clutches David, who ran up behind
me, by the neck with both its hand-like paws and lifts him high into the air.
With each strong beat of the Dragon's wings, they lift higher up into the sky.
The dragon falters and for a moment they hover.
I cannot bear to look, but I have to.
The dragon starts to fall, then starts to spiral as it
plummets to the ground. The dragon slams into the ground with an explosive
force, then falls to its side, dead.
“Where’s
David?” I shout, running forward.
When I reach the large frame of the dragon, I climb up its
scaly body, searching frantically for David and then find him on top of the
dragon, cushioned by its body during the fall.
Hurriedly, Mark climbs up onto the dragon’s body and when he
reaches David he falls on his knees and cradles David’s head on his lap,
stroking his hair and crying. “He was always so angry with me. He thought our
parents cared more for me, but it isn’t the truth. My parents were only
grateful I was always there to look after my sister. I had to step up and look
after her because I didn’t have a choice, so it was inevitable they would start
to see David as the rebel and the troublemaker, and the more they accused him
of being disrespectful and rebellious, the more he tried to prove them right. I
was jealous of him for being able to leave and to do sports and go to parties,
to enjoy life, while I took on the responsibility of looking after Amy and
making sure she is always safe. I now realise I was looking at the whole
situation wrong. I liked staying at home. Playing sports and going to parties
is not the kind of person I am, even though I also wanted to be popular, I now
realise being popular is actually very lonely and depressing. Wanting the
admiration of others means you are unable to see anything worth admiring in
yourself, and even though you are admired, deep down you feel unworthy of all
that adoration, so it is really just a big vicious circle. I am proud of who I
am, and I am sorry for being envious of David for so long, for silently
loathing him. He is my brother, my twin brother and I do not hate him, I love
him.”
I reach for his hand across David’s body, trying to comfort
him.
From below us, still standing on the ground, Carly says
considerately, “I’m sorry Mark, but we are all dead now and I am not sure where
David’s soul went and we will never know if he was purged from all his sins or
not, but now that the dragon is defeated, we can try to find our way back to
the other side. After my dad died, I lost my will to live. On the bus I was
thinking of ways in which best I could end my life quickly and painlessly, as
well as leaving as little mess for my mom to clean up as possible, but the very
second we arrived here I knew I did not want to die, and I will do everything
in my power to get back, so we need to go and we need to get back to the other
side.”
“Without
David?” My voice squeaks in my throat.
Mark looks up at us with sad, tear-filled eyes. “Do you feel
as if you have been washed clean of all your sins? Of all of us, David was the
only one to accept his anger and to ask for forgiveness.”
Carly replies, “I do. My sin was wanting to die, and I know
now it was wrong and I know I want to get back.”
I say softly, “Me too. I feel as if I have a clean slate and
as if I deserve a second chance at being happy. I would like to give it a go
again, so Carly’s right, we need to go back to the other side, so we can become
guardian angels and help people when they lose their way.”
Mark looks first at me and then at Carly. “Is that it? Is
that all there is to purgatory?”
“It
seems as if it is,” I tell him. “We have managed to purge our souls from all
the unwanted, unwelcome and uninvited feelings, and isn’t that what purgatory
is all about? A place where the souls of sinners can acknowledge and atone
their sins before being allowed to go to Heaven.”
“We’ll
still have some memories, won’t we?” Carly asks worriedly. “I don’t want to
forget.”
“When
we were in the forest, or as Christopher called it, The Valley of the Shadow of
Death, my memories did start to fade, but I think it is just a condition of
that forest. Maybe if souls are lost in there, it is better if they do not have
memories to torment them even worse than they already are.”
Mark asks, “And now? Are your memories back?”
“All
present and accounted for,” I say with a small smile as I look down at David’s
still form. I feel sad leaving him here. I wonder what it would have been like
to be loved by him.
I feel a sharp pain in my chest.
The pain is not a sad feeling radiating from my heart outwards. It feels as if something is pushing against my chest, trying to crush it.
It must be my imagination because I hear David say even though he is still unconscious with his head cradled in Mark’s lap, “Breathe, Sunel. Don’t do this to me now that I have decided to love instead of hate.”
Continue reading Chapter 23/25
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