Beyond (Afterlife book 1)

by Willow Rose

  Suddenly we heard a lot of noise from the room next door. I followed Mick through a round window and found myself in the operating room where the woman was lying on the table. Several doctors and nurses worked around her, talking agitatedly, even yelling at each other from time to time. They too would be haunted by this experience of not being able to save this woman.

  I looked at Mick and then back at the woman. I recognized her. She was that woman from the book—the woman who was to die just before Jason.

  Chapter 15

  It was horrible to stand there and watch the doctors and nurses fighting for the woman’s life, especially when I knew it was all in vain. She would die anyway. It didn’t matter what they did to her. Then a high-pitched sound from the heart monitor filled the room and the doctors started yelling.

  “We’re losing her!”

  At that particular moment something truly astonishing happened. The ceiling of the room opened above us. A bright light entered, followed by the most beautiful music that drowned out the high-pitched tone and the yelling. I felt so drawn to the music and the light and had a great peace in my heart. Not one of the doctors or nurses in the room seemed to notice it.

  “That’s beautiful singing,” I said to Mick. “What is it?”

  He smiled at me. “It is the Angels singing at the gateway of Heaven. They are welcoming her spirit.”

  I looked down and saw the woman rising from the table and looking straight at us. She smiled widely while her spirit left her body.

  Then suddenly I heard something that made my body shiver. The grumbling and a groaning sounded like an animal approaching. I turned and saw hundreds of small shadows on the wall behind the woman. The groaning turned into a roaring as the shadows grew larger and larger.

  I looked at Mick, who seemed to have his guard up now.

  “Those are the evil spirits, the Se’irims. They have come to take her as well. The light keeps them away from her. When there is light the darkness has to leave.”

  I felt chills running down my back. I felt really creepy about that noise they made and the shadows on the wall. The roaring was like the earth had opened and was ready to suck any life into it. All of a sudden I felt so hopeless, like all joy and peace was sucked right out of me. Then I heard whispering, like someone was really close to me whispering words in my ears.

  “Poor woman…”

  It sounded like a hoarse wheeze. I turned to see if was anyone behind me, but no one was there. Just a low whisper.

  “So cruel… she has to leave her children … No loving God would do that.”

  Mick looked at me and saw that something was wrong.

  “Are they getting to you? Are they messing with your mind?”

  I shook my head. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Meghan … Meghan … Why are you lying to him?”

  I began to move my hands and head around as if I had a small fly buzzing near my face.

  “Meghan… coooome with us … we know how you died … we can bring you to your parents … We can help Jason. It is wrong not to help him. We can stop him from dying. We can bring peace to your parent’s worried hearts. Just come with us …”

  I held my hands to my head.

  “Leave me alone!” I said out loud.

  Mick stared at me. Then he took my hand and pulled me closer to him.

  “Don’t let them get to you like that. You have to control your mind. Don’t trust your emotions. Your thoughts and feelings will try to deceive you. Only you can stop these things from getting rooted in your mind and heart.”

  “I am trying, I am trying,” I said.

  “Good.”

  Then Mick reached his hand toward the woman and she took it. He looked at me to do the same.

  The woman grabbed on to me and together we pulled her spirit with us. As we did I saw the shadows retreat from the wall and slowly the growling noise disappeared as well.

  First we took her to see her husband so she could hear his prayer. Carefully and gently she patted him on the hair and kissed him. When she was done we took her to see her children. They were still holding on to one another, praying. The woman wrapped her arms around them and kissed them gently. Then I saw a few tears slip from her eyes. She looked at us as if to say she was ready and then Mick and I started pulling her toward the light.

  I was happy to see that she at least got to say goodbye to her loved ones; even though they didn’t know she was there, maybe they could have felt her just a little bit, maybe just sensed that she was close. She didn’t utter a word to us as we flew her toward the light and the singing and I couldn’t blame her. I didn’t feel like talking either. It was much too beautiful and magical. As we came closer the light shone brighter and finally we were met by two giant Angels who descended toward us, caught up the woman’s spirit, and flew away with her while they were still singing their calming song. The three of them disappeared in the distance.

  “Wow, that was amazing! Even more beautiful than I have ever imagined. Wow! That takes away my breath,” I said.

  “I know. Just wait until the day you get to go through the gates. You have no idea what is waiting for you there.”

  “But there’s one thing I don’t understand. What happens to the woman now? Doesn’t she have to go to the Academy?”

  “Yes. First she goes to meet with Jesus. And then she comes back to us and we put her on the boat.”

  “But I didn’t do that when I died?”

  Mick smiled and nodded. “Yes you did. Everybody does. You just don’t remember it. It is the same for everybody. That is why no one knows exactly what you talk to Jesus about when you die. Because you won’t remember. The next time you see him in Heaven you will remember that you have talked to him, just not what it was about.”

  “Wow.”

  “I know.”

  “So we will take her to the boat after this and there she will wake up not remembering anything?”

  “Exactly. She might remember a little from the car accident, but she will not remember her husband or children or the meeting with Jesus.”

  “But that is so cruel. She wants to be with her children and husband.”

  “I know, but she needs to learn her new life before she can visit them. She needs to accept that she is no longer part of their world. And wouldn’t it be even crueler if she remembered them and knew they were mourning her, but she couldn’t visit them? And even if she did, she could not stay with them and live the life they used to live.”

  I sighed. This was a lot to take in at once, I thought. “I guess you are right.”

  I have no idea how long we waited. I lost track of time all that day. The woman and the Angels had disappeared through some thick clouds. Mick and I found a small one to sit on while we were waiting. I had a lot on my mind. Jason, Jackline, Mick, the woman, my parents. It seemed as though the more that was revealed to me about this world, the less I understood.

  “They are coming back,” I heard Mick whisper.

  I got up and lifted my head toward the sky with the heavy clouds. Out of them I saw the bright light shining through and in that light appeared the two majestic Angels once again with the woman between them. She was smiling even wider and looked so incredibly happy and peaceful. I couldn’t help smiling myself.

  They approached us and handed the woman to Mick. Then one of them bent down and whispered something in his ear. Mick nodded and looked at the woman.

  The Angels kissed the woman on her forehead before they soared into the air again and in the wink of an eye they were gone.

  I kept staring in their direction. I was in awe. They were so magnificent.

  “You are going back,” I heard Mick say to the woman.

  I turned and stared at him and then at the woman. She nodded.

  “Jesus told me he is answering my husband’s and children’s prayers,” she said. Then she turned her head and looked at me. “It is so beautiful up there that part of me wishes I could stay.”

  I was
speechless as I reached out and took her hand. As we descended I felt such a joy in my heart and a great relief as well. I was so happy those children weren’t going to lose their mother after all. I was relieved that Jesus had heard the husband’s pleading and responded to it. It gave me hope too.

  As we entered the operating room, everything was quiet except for the high-pitched sound from the heart monitor indicating her heart had stopped beating. The doctors stood next to her body and stared at her with heads bowed.

  “We lost her,” one of them said.

  The woman looked at me and Mick and thanked us just before she went back into her human body again. A second later the heart monitor started beeping and everyone in the room turned to look at her as the life floated back into her earthly body.

  “She is back … She is back!” another doctor yelled. Then the room got very busy and we followed them from a distance.

  We went into the waiting room where the husband now had joined his children. They were still crying and he was holding them, trying to comfort them. That’s when I saw Mick do something really amazing. He whispered in each of their ears. Comforting words like: “She will be fine. Don’t worry. God heard your prayer.” And I sensed that they started to calm down a little. The youngest stopped crying so hard and the dad smiled at them and said: “I know she will be fine. I just know it in my heart.” His voice was so reassuring and peaceful that he managed to calm his kids down.

  A second later the door opened and everybody was quiet. A doctor came in and took off his operating mask.

  The husband got up and walked toward him. The nervousness and anxiety made his hands shake.

  The doctor sighed and looked at him. “We thought we lost her there, but she is out of danger now.”

  I looked at the children and saw their faces light up while the husband fell on his knees and started thanking God for answering his prayer. I felt a tear roll down my cheek and wiped it away with the back of my hand.

  “Will she remember anything?” I asked when we had gotten back to the Academy and were sitting on my bed. Everyone in my dormitory was already asleep.

  “Not likely,” Mick answered. “Some remember bits and pieces and remember leaving their body, but that is normally all they remember.”

  I nodded. It made sense that people shouldn’t remember. Who would be afraid of dying if they knew for sure they would go to a greater place afterward? Who would want to make the most of their life on earth? Plus, it wouldn’t take any faith if everybody knew for sure. They didn’t have to believe or trust in anything which I had to admit I had learned was the hardest.

  “By the way,” Mick said as he got up from the bed. “Now you have learned how to make yourself invisible to humans.”

  I looked at him with disbelief. “What do you mean?”

  He pulled out the bottle with the pink water from his jacket again. “This.”

  “The potion? What about it?”

  Mick smiled.

  ”Oh no, you did not!” I said.

  He nodded. “I did. It is nothing but water with a hint of strawberry.”

  I got up and grabbed the bottle. I looked at it while shaking the bottle in front of my face. “So it had absolutely no effect on me? It didn’t make me invisible or anything like that?”

  Mick shook his head with that grin of his. “Nope.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it is all about believing. Flying, going through things, and making yourself invisible—it is all about believing that you can.”

  “Clever,” I said. “Because I believed that the potion could make me invisible to humans, I was actually capable of doing it?”

  “Something like that, yes.”

  I smiled and sat on the bed again. “Well, I guess I should thank you then.”

  Chapter 16

  I woke up feeling really happy. As I looked around I realized the dormitory was empty. Everyone had left but me. Thinking I must have overslept, I hurried out of bed and down to Hornam Hall where breakfast just had been served. I got to the table where we usually sit, but no one was there except Jackline, who got up from the table as soon as I approached it. I stopped her.

  “Where is everybody?” I asked.

  She lifted both hands and shook her head.

  “I don’t want to be a part of any of this,” she said and hurried away from me like someone running from a wild beast.

  What was she talking about? I thought to myself as I sat down and started eating my food. A moment later the Cornwell twins arrived. For the first time I was actually quite happy to see them. I smiled at them, but didn’t get any reaction back. Then Nigel came and even he had a hard time looking at me. Something was very wrong.

  Had I done something that made people resent me?

  “So where is everybody?” I asked a little nervously.

  Alexandra lifted her head and stared at me.

  “I thought you of all people would know,” she said.

  I shook my head. “But I don’t. Did they eat early or something? Is there something I missed out on yesterday?”

  “Oh you missed out on something all right.”

  “What? Can’t you just tell me what it is?”

  Nigel leaned over. “Why would you do that to them?” he asked.

  “Do what?” I felt my heart racing now. I had been gone all day yesterday and now everybody all of a sudden hated me? I couldn’t have done anything since I was gone. How could they think I had done anything?

  Nigel sighed deeply before he continued his meal. I was confused to put it very mildly.

  “Just tell me what happened. I was gone all day yesterday, remember?”

  “Lucky for you,” Alexandra said with a snort.

  I looked intensely at Nigel. “Could someone just please tell me what is going on?”

  Nigel sighed again. He looked around nervously, then leaned further over the table and whispered:

  “Salathiel came to our class yesterday and took Portia, Acacia, Mai, and Abhik with him.”

  I shook my head not understanding anything.

  “Where did he take them?”

  “No one knows. But rumor has it that they are being punished because you told on them. You told that they went outside the school area.”

  A big lump of food sank in my throat. Mick! That scoundrel! I felt a huge rage rising inside of me. He had told Salathiel about us going through the mirror in the cellar. And now everybody thought I was a snitch. Even Abhik! Was that what yesterday was all about? Getting me out of the Academy?

  I got up not knowing what to do. I felt like all eyes in the dining hall were on me. Then I started running. I ran toward the kitchen where I found Mick.

  “Hi there. How are you this morning?” He asked with a big smile.

  “Why?”

  His smile froze and he stared at me.

  “Why what?”

  “Why would you tell Salathiel we went through the mirror? How could you betray me like that? I told you that in confidence.”

  Mick sighed. “I am sorry. I had to do it.”

  “No you didn’t!”

  “Yes, I did.”

  He signaled I should come closer. I sat down at the kitchen table with my arms crossed. Mick sighed again and looked me in my eyes. I always felt so disarmed when he did that. But I was really mad this time. He had betrayed my trust.

  “Listen,” he said. “Portia has been messing with a lot of dark powers and we are afraid she might be turning to the other side soon. She is listening to the evil spirits and letting them into her heart. We need to save her before it is too late.”

  I was confused. Why was it always like this with Mick? Every time I thought I had a reason to be mad at him, he would turn the conversation into something completely different.

  “I don’t get it.”

  “You have heard about fallen Angels and fallen spirits in class, right?”

  “Yeah. Like they turn bad.”

  “Yes. Every day there is a ba
ttle going on and the battlefield is the mind. It goes for humans as well as spirits and Angels. We have to protect our hearts against the evil one and his attacks. And not just every once in a while. It is all the time. The Devil will use tricks and schemes trying to lure you to bow down to him. He will sometimes use your own words against you, or even God’s. He is clever and knows where your weak spots are.”

  “I heard about that in class. But I don’t understand how you can help Portia by punishing her.”

  “Who says she is being punished?”

  “That’s what I heard.”

  “Well I guess Salathiel is trying to teach her and the others a lesson, but exactly what happens is between him and them.”

  “So you don’t know where they are either?”

  He shook his head. “No, but I am sure they will be back later today.”

  The rest of the day I kept staring at the four empty chairs in class. Most of all I felt bad for Abhik. I had never meant for him to get in trouble. Portia and her pack, I couldn’t care less about, but Abhik was not like them. Something inside of me feared this experience would poison his heart as well as the others’ had been. Everyone who started to hang out too much with Portia seemed to be infected by that. I had seen it in Mai and later in Acacia, how they slowly turned more and more vicious every day. She had that effect on people. If Abhik would turn his back on me because of this, would he then turn to her instead?

  I got my answer later that night. I had gone to bed and had just dozed off when suddenly the sound of Portia’s voice yelling loudly through the dormitory woke me up.