by RJ Pritchett
“We’ll all meet up again,” Vincent said to Maria and Daphne, but loud enough for everyone to hear, “just find what puts you at peace, and I’ll see you all again.”
“Goodbye, Vincent,” Daphne said, and everything went silent. The only noise came from the sound of the water rushing downstream in the river close-by. Daphne’s eyes widened at the sound of her own voice, “Whoa! I can talk!”
“That’s wonderful!” Maria said, hugging Daphne.
“Wow,” Vincent smiled even more, “I’m so happy for you.”
“And I’m even happier for you,” Daphne said to Vincent while turning to Clara, “your wife is so pretty.”
“Thank you,” Clara said.
“It feels so good to be able to see her pretty face again,” Vincent kissed Clara’s cheek.
“Aww,” a group of people in the crowd said in unison.
“Okay, Vincent,” Clara said, “we should get going. I bet Xavier is super excited to see you again.”
“Likewise,” Vincent nodded. He waved to the crowd as Daphne and Maria joined it, “Goodbye, everyone. I’ll be seeing you all on the other side.”
Clara placed her hand on the back of Vincent’s neck and pulled him in for one last passionate kiss as their bodies began to ascend. Faye walked closer to Rebellia and watched as the two lovebirds took flight. Rebellia stood still as she watched the two souls float higher and higher. She blinked her eyes, and they were gone. Gone to live happily ever after.
Chapter 8 (The Debate)
“The Bible set the rules on how man should live...”
“I always thought marriage was ‘until death do us part’?” Jabari said to Rebellia during a small gathering on the sanctuary’s second floor a couple of days after Vincent’s departure. “How come Vincent and his wife were still an item?”
All eyes in the room turned to Rebellia, who was casually leaning backward, balancing herself on the back legs of the chair. “Marriage is merely a human concept. True love last forever,” she said, expressionless as the many people in the meeting room looked at her.
“So cheesy,” Tobias smirked.
“That’s where the term soulmates come into play. Sometimes, there’s a connection between two people that goes far beyond their human boundaries. Kinda like Travis and Patricia,” Rebellia said.
“Ooh,” all eyes turned to Patricia, who started to blush.
“Why’d you do that, Rebellia?” Patricia said as Rebellia started laughing. “Travis was my friend, and… I missed him when he died. When I first saw him in this world… I was so happy, I couldn’t control myself. Aw, man. I couldn’t believe it was actually him.”
“You two had sex?” Daphne blurted out, surprising even herself.
“No,” Patricia blushed some more.
“Oh, I was always wondering how sex works in the afterlife. Is it possible?” Daphne asked.
Nobody answered her question, everyone just shared a giant laugh. “She’s so adorable,” someone said aloud.
“Um… is that a yes?” Daphne asked, looking around as the laughter grew louder.
“Anyways… I have a question,” a woman named Gabby said, “I may have asked this before, but hearing Vincent’s story made me think… He contemplated suicide. If he would’ve carried out his suicide, would he have been brought here?”
Silence fell throughout the room.
“I think so,” Faye answered.
“I agree,” Rebellia said, finally landing the chair on all four legs, “I personally believe that suicide is completely selfish, and it’s taking the easy way out. Why take your life when you’re fortunate enough to be given the gift of life in the first place? But I do believe that God will continue to try to heal those broken souls after they take their own lives.”
“Oh look. Rebellia finally said something nice about God,” Jabari laughed. Tobias laughed along with him.
“I always say positive stuff about God,” Rebellia shrugged, “I have been saying positive stuff about God my entire life. It’s just that I’m calling it out on a lot of the stuff it allowed to happen, and for not allowing us into Heaven.”
“Why do you keep referring to God as an ‘it’?” Daphne asked, “I thought God was a ‘he.’”
“Do you know that for sure?” Rebellia asked, turning to her.
“Uh… not really, no,” Daphne said, “but that’s what-”
“In the Bible, he impregnated the Virgin Mary,” Tobias said, “only a man can impregnate a woman.”
“That’s what they say,” Rebellia nodded, “listen to this, how are you so sure that the Virgin Mary wasn’t God all along? I mean, what if she was able to bring life into the world without the help of a man, create her child from nothing. And since we’re living in a ‘man’s world’…” Rebellia used her fingers as air quotes, “the story was flipped to make it seem like she received help from a masculine higher power. You know, because women can’t have any sort of power whatsoever.”
“So are you saying that God is a woman?” Tobias asked.
“No. I’m just telling you that sometimes you have to look at things from a different perspective than the point of view you’re told. That’s how you get the full picture. I personally believe that God has no gender. God is… just God. Well, I believe that now. When I was alive, I thought God was a man just like everyone else. I still have my moments where I refer to God as a ‘him.’ But now, I am truly of the belief that God is nothing more than a spirit that embodies love. If anything, it’s both genders.”
“So Rebellia thinks God is a hermaphrodite,” Quentin said, breaking the silence that followed. Laughter erupted.
“That’s a funny way of putting it, but yeah,” Rebellia shrugged, “I mean, unless God comes down and shows us a pair of genitals, then I guess it’s still open for speculation. Gender is an Earthly concept, especially nowadays with the raised awareness of the transgender community. A man could feel that his soul is feminine, and a woman can feel like her soul is masculine. It’s all in the human body. You can’t give human qualities to a being so much bigger than us all. It’s strange. Like giving God a name.”
“So you don’t believe that Jehovah or Allah is God’s name either?”
“Nope,” Rebellia said, “just nicknames that humans came up with to personify it. I don’t even know if the word ‘God’ is the correct term to refer to it as.”
“Alright, Rebellia, since you know everything, answer this,” Tobias said, standing up from his seat at the table, “do dinosaurs exist?”
“I don’t know everything,” Rebellia shook her head, “and if I did know everything, I would know that I don’t know everything. And to answer your question… yes. Dinosaurs existed.”
“Why aren’t they in the Bible then?” Tobias shouted, feeling confident that he asked a question not even Rebellia could answer, “are there dinosaurs in Heaven?”
“Have you been listening to my bonfires, Toby? I don’t look at the Bible as the truth. And to answer your question, Dinosaurs aren’t in the bible, because man wrote the bible long before the fossils of dinosaurs were discovered. At least that’s what I think. Also, I don’t know what’s in Heaven. Never been there.”
“Tobias, why are you questioning the existence of dinosaurs?” Faye interjected, “aren’t you the same man that sat here and told us about all of the mythical creatures you saw on earth? See, I was with you when you said you saw a ghost, but a harpy?”
“I did see a harpy,” Tobias said, running his fingers through his hair, “anybody remember all those people that went missing in New Jersey that one time?”
“No,” was said in unison by multiple people.
“…” Maria stayed silent, thinking.
“Well, it happened. And I saw one. It was big, black, and it had yellow eyes. It was the scariest thing I ever saw in life. Almost gave me a heart attack.”
“Well, I don’t believe you,” Quentin laughed.
“I wouldn’t be too quick to dismiss him,�
� Rebellia said, leaning back in her chair again, this time with her arms folded, “the world is full of unsolved mysteries. Tobias could’ve seen something.”
“Thanks, Rebellia,” Tobias said, sticking his tongue out at Quentin.
“I still don’t believe that story,” Larissa smirked.
“Yeah. Sounds ridiculous,” Maria shook her head, “anyways… I have a question. How can I get peace if I don’t know much about my life? I don’t know what my hobbies were when I was alive, and I don’t think I have a dead husband floating around here that I can find. How is it that Vincent’s memories came back so much quicker than us if we all pretty much woke around the same time?”
“What do you know so far?” Daphne asked.
“I was a doctor… nurse. One of those things. I worked in the medical field as either a doctor or a nurse. I was born to a Polynesian family in Hawaii, but somehow… I worked in New Jersey. Oh, I had a boyfriend… ex-boyfriend… I think. That’s pretty much it. Oh, and I keep getting killed in my dreams, but I can’t see who’s killing me.”
“Maybe it’s your boyfriend or ex-boyfriend,” Daphne said, leaning back in her chair like Rebellia was still doing.
“… That could be a possibility, but I don’t know,” Maria said.
“Don’t worry. Everything will come to you when it’s time. Whether you’re at peace with your life after that remains unknown, but everything will come to you. That part is a guarantee,” Faye said, flipping her hair over her shoulder, “Have you remembered anything, Daphne?”
“No,” Daphne said, “nothing more than I knew a couple of weeks ago. Is that bad?”
“Not exactly,” Faye said, “Tobias been here for years and his past is pretty much still in pieces.”
“Years?” Maria gasped.
“Yup,” Tobias nodded, “your boy Vincent was very lucky for everything to come back to him so fast.”
“Some people are luckier than others,” Rebellia said. She used her index finger to point at the following people in the room with them. “Cornelius has been here for almost eleven months, Brienne has been here for six weeks, Elijah has been here nine months, Yvette has been here for over a year, and none of them know the full story of their deaths.”
“Heh, Cornelius is such a dumb name,” Tobias laughed, “your parents set you up with that one, Buddy.”
“It’s better than Tobias,” Cornelius countered.
“No. Sorry, Cornelius… it’s not.” Gabby said, shaking her head to a chorus of laughter.
“Screw all of you!” Cornelius shouted before joining his peers in laughter, “my name is cool. I was named after the Don himself.”
“Rebellia, I never asked you this…” Daphne said, tapping her chin with her finger.
“That’s because you couldn’t talk until a couple days ago,” Tobias smirked while laughter continued throughout the room.
“Ha, very funny,” Daphne chuckled as well, “I wanted to ask you how you died.”
“Ooh,” nearly everyone in the room howled in unison.
“None of us knows how she died, to be honest,” a woman named Sonia said, “she’s holding out on us.”
“You’ll all know one day,” Rebellia said in a monotonous voice.
Silence filled the room again.
“That sucks,” Daphne said, slamming her fist on the table, “I want to know. I want to know how everybody died, and why they’re here. This is more fascinating than it seems.”
“I drowned after the helicopter I was on crashed into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.” Jabari raised his hand.
“I was hit by a truck.” Faye raised her hand, “but you knew that already.”
“Car crash…” Quentin said, looking down at his hands while his fingers tickled his palm.
“Me too,” Gabby raised her hand.
“I got the death penalty for a crime I didn’t commit,” Elijah raised his hand.
“I think I died in a plane crash,” Cornelius said, rubbing his chin, “that’s much cooler than dying in a car crash.”
“No. Sorry, Cornelius… It’s not,” Faye said, laughing while mimicking Gabby’s head shake.
“My boyfriend was abusive,” Larissa said, breaking up the laughter immediately and changing the tone of the room with one sentence. An awkward silence was broken up when she opened her mouth to speak again. “My family warned me about him, but I never left. At least not for too long. The relationship was toxic, but I was in love. One day, he eventually got so angry, he killed me.”
“Damn,” Daphne said, getting up to hug Larissa, “I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“We all are,” Tobias joined in on the hug.
“I should’ve left after the first time he raised his fists to hit me,” Larissa said, forging a smile as Daphne and Tobias hugged her, “I should’ve left when his controlling behavior was reaching an all-time high. I should’ve left when I felt like I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without his permission. He always went through my phone and stuff like I was cheating on him every day. I should’ve left when he put his hands on me even though he didn’t find anything on my phone that raised his suspicions. But I was scared. I couldn’t leave. If I were to leave, how long would it have been until he found me? I always asked myself that question whenever I contemplated it.”
“That thought, that hesitation is where you messed up at, to be quite honest with you,” Rebellia said, looking down instead of at Larissa, “we’ve spoken about this before, but you can’t do that if you really want to make progress. Sometimes it’s best to just walk away. I know, easy for me to say, right? Because I’ve never been in that situation, but still. You can’t hesitate when your life could be affected. Sometimes you just have to put yourself first.”
“The problem is, I thought I was putting myself first by staying. I always thought that if I left, he would hunt me down, and kill me.”
“But you ended up staying, so he didn’t have to hunt,” Rebellia said, “I mean, I don’t mean to sound like I’m putting blame on you. You’re not the one at fault in this situation at all. That ex-boyfriend of yours is going to get what’s coming to him eventually.”
“That bastard better fucking hope he doesn’t come this way when he dies,” Jabari said, tightening his fists.
“If that demon can make his way into this world,” Rebellia said, “It’ll just be God’s way of delivering him to us. That day can’t come soon enough… I’m waiting…”
Jabari and the rest of the men in the room nodded in silence along with Rebellia.
“So… how did you die?” Daphne pointed to someone, breaking the silence.
“I died of natural causes,” Sonia said, running her fingers through her short grayish hair, “exciting, I know.”
“Very…” Cornelius said.
“… I committed suicide,” Patricia stood up and shouted louder than she needed to. The room went dead silent at her revelation. Everyone’s eyes widened, including Rebellia’s. “Yeah, I know I’ve spent my time here telling people that I was hit by a stray bullet, but that’s not true. The truth is, I committed suicide,” her voice started breaking in the middle of her sentence, “I couldn’t stand being in that house no more. The abuse, the humiliation, the…” tears streamed out of her eyes while most of the people in the room got up to console her.
“Well, I guess that solves the whole suicide mystery,” Tobias said, “suicide victims do come here.”
“Abuse?” Maria whispered, eyes locked on Patricia. She exchanged looks with Larissa before looking back at Patricia, crying into Rebellia’s shoulder.
“He was an animal,” Patricia cried, her words were muffled by Rebellia’s shoulder.
“If you don’t mind me asking…” Daphne said, “by who?”
“My stepfather,” Patricia answered in a much calmer voice, but tears were still streaming down her cheeks, “he would often come into my room and… and touch me… and threaten me to make sure I didn’t tell anybody… he was a monster.
”
“Oh! That kind of abuse,” Daphne covered her entire face with both hands while Maria rubbed on Patricia’s back, “I’m sorry to hear that too.”
“Why haven’t you told us?” Faye asked as Patricia reclaimed her seat. Rebellia’s facial expression asked the same question.
“I never wanted to talk about it,” Patricia said, “I-I don’t even like to remember anything from my life, except Travis. Travis was the one and only bright spot in my life, he tried his best to help me when I was sad. He didn’t know about my stepfather, nobody knew except for my mother, but unlike her, Travis was always there for me. When he was killed… there was nobody around to keep me alive. Me committing suicide may be the reason I’m here.”
“Wow,” Faye broke another silence that followed, “I had no idea.”
“Nobody knew. I didn’t even want to know. It hurts reliving that same nightmare over and over each and every night. At least before, I had Travis to calm me down after that monster appeared in my nightmares, but now... without him… I was crushed when you guys told me that Travis moved on. The two of us were supposed to stay here -in this world- forever, you promised us that, Rebellia. He promised me that.”
“I tried my best to keep him from going,” Rebellia said, “ask the people who were there. When he floated away, I grabbed him and tried to pull him back. Even though I knew that it wouldn’t work, I still tried. I did that for you, Patricia. And with this news about you… about what you been through… about what he did for you… I feel like I failed all over again.”
“Now the only way for me to be with him again is for me to get accepted into Heaven. I know that now. And that is why I’m finally coming clean about my life and death. I can’t keep this secret anymore. Whatever it takes to get me out of here and back with the boy that I loved with all my heart, I’ll do it. I need to come to terms with my life, I need to embrace it. I need to be at peace with myself. I’m sorry, Rebellia. I cannot be a part of your vision for the future of this guild. Travis and I were separated once, and I took my own life so that I can be with him again. I suffered through too much to not be happy.”