by Jamie Ayres
I frowned at her, wondering what consequences she referred to, but then I decided I didn’t care. Turning to Nate, I said firmly, “I love you. I’m not leaving you.”
He leaned down and gave me a quick peck on the lips. I let out a silent breath of relief. I had started to worry he wanted to get rid of me. But this was the guy I did eighteen outrageous things with during the past year when I turned eighteen. Things like riding the biggest rollercoaster in the U.S., wedding crashing, firewalking, and hardest of all, going sailing again. Conner was struck and killed by a deadly combo of lightning and hypothermia the last time I was on a boat. He was the bravest person I’d ever known, and I was tired of being scared.
I met Nate’s eyes and touched his face, my fingers lightly caressing his cheek.
“I love you,” he whispered before turning his attention back to Dr. Judy. “We’re ready to take that oath now.”
Dr. Judy motioned for us to stand as she did the same. She held out a Bible and told us to put our right hand upon the surface and to repeat after her. I anxiously shifted from one foot to the other as she opened her mouth to speak, and we echoed the prayer.
“Heavenly Father, I surrender myself completely to you. I take a stand against all the workings of Satan. I put on the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the sandals of peace, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith and take in my hand the sword of the spirit. I put off my old human nature and put on the new nature of spirit and truth with courage. Blessed Holy Spirit, I pray you would fill me. I pray I would be a mighty spirit guide to pull down strongholds and cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against God. Help me to be aggressive enough to smash the plans of demons. Give me a spirit of love and a sound mind. I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with thanksgiving and humbleness. Amen.”
Nate rolled his shoulders. “So, where do we go for our first assignment? I say, bring it on, Satan! I’m ready to kick some demon butt!” He yelled the words, not sounding very humble at all.
We turned our heads in unison as a loud crash sounded through the walls. A simple wooden cross hanging above Dr. Judy’s bookshelf began slowly swinging back and forth like a pendulum. I gasped when the cross began to rotate in a slow circle, picking up speed until it spun on the wall like the arms of a possessed clock.
“Be gone, in Jesus’ name!” Dr. Judy shouted. “Or I will call upon our guardian angels to torture you and drag you back to the pit of Hell from which you came!”
I did a double take, glancing back to the spinning cross on the wall, and searching for whatever Dr. Judy screamed at. Squelching the surge of terror rising up from my gut, I scanned the room, but found nothing.
Abruptly, the cross stilled, scraping the wall as it slowly slid back and forth, then eventually settled into its original position… as if I’d imagined the entire incident.
I turned to Nate, and he reached out and touched my shoulder hesitantly, his eyes wary as he asked Dr. Judy in a strained voice, “What the heck was that all about?”
She shook her head. “That is just one of the many demons I warned you about. Do not provoke them. They are more than ready to take on a newbie in a fight.”
“But why couldn’t we see anything?” I stared at the crucifix on the wall.
“Some can choose to make themselves invisible, so beware; you never know when you’re being watched.” The phone rang, and with a sigh, she stepped toward her desk to answer the call.
Nate wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me close. “You still want to become spirit guides after witnessing that little freak show?”
I didn’t even hesitate this time. “Yup, you can call me crazy, but love makes you do crazy things.”
He grinned, then leaned down for a kiss, but Dr. Judy’s shriek made us both freeze.
“What do you mean she’s dead?” she demanded into the phone, her face devoid of all color. “How did she die?”
I swallowed hard. Nate and I glanced wide-eyed from one another to Dr. Judy, wondering what was going on as she slumped into her leather chair and put her head on the desk, crying. No, not crying, bawling. Nate and I both moved to stand behind her, our hands embracing her shoulders, waiting. I could hear someone talking on the other line, but I couldn’t make out the words.
Finally, Dr. Judy lifted her head and flashed me a devastated stare before mumbling into the phone. “No, Riel. I have two new recruits I want assigned to my daughter. You and Ash will be their case handlers… uh-huh… the teenagers… I know… I’ll send them to headquarters now… thank you.”
She hung up and just looked at the phone for a moment, like she was trying to will the call to not be true somehow. “My eighteen-year-old daughter is dead.”
I crouched down and wrapped Dr. Judy in a hug. “I’m so sorry.”
“How?” Nate asked.
My mouth dropped open slightly, shocked at his insensitivity.
He looked at me, then seemed to rediscover his common sense. “I’m sorry. I just meant that she’s so young. Was it an accident like ours that’ll mean she’s coming to Limbo?”
Dr. Judy didn’t look angry at his questions. She didn’t look like anything but numb. “Yes, she’ll be coming to Limbo. Grace will be your first assignment.”
“Us?” I frowned in disbelief. “Are you sure we’re qualified for this?” Becoming a spirit guide to your boss’s daughter seemed like a pretty big first assignment, and I felt like there should be some job training involved first.
Dr. Judy stood up, walked to the other side of the room, and opened the door. The waiting room had disappeared. Now the entrance exposed a small pond, and an ancient building looking like Roman architecture stood across the way.
“Olga and Nate, I believe you’ve become spirit guides for such a time as this. You’ll be my interns. I’m always here if you need my help, and I’ll expect a daily report on your progress, but you must go now.” She ushered us out of her office. “Oh, and please, don’t make me regret trusting you with this.” With those parting words, she slammed the door firmly behind us.
“Once we have eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains, however unlikely,
must be the truth.”
—Conan Doyle
haking my head, I whispered, “I can’t believe Dr. Judy’s daughter is dead.”
“Forget that. I still can’t believe we’re dead. I can’t believe they’re allowing us to become spirit guides and giving us her dead daughter as our first assignment!
I didn’t know what to say to that so I just held out my hand, and he took it, sliding his fingers between mine. In silence, we strolled around the pond toward a marble building with great white pillars that supported broad arches, heading toward our future. Ducks swam around a fountain positioned in the center of the water, which I found odd at first before realizing, why wouldn’t God put animals in all parts of His creation?
I still can’t believe I’m dead.
Learning I was no longer a mortal changed things big time, and made me question what I went through all my eighteen things for. But then I looked at Nate and found my answer. Now was not the time to backpedal. He had been my strong tower this past year, and now I needed to stay strong for him. After all, he’d not only learned he was dead too, but that he’d played a part in killing someone else. We had to fix our eyes on the path ahead of us if we were going to steer clear of eternal damnation.
When we rang the doorbell, a girl about my age answered. She stood a couple inches taller than me, and had a golden tan, straight blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. Immediately, I thought of Toe-touch Tammy. She’d remained my arch nemesis throughout high school, but during my after-death purification process, she became one of my best friends, even though I guess my Limbo wasn’t real. Anyway, her looks were startlingly perfect, just like this chick. Already I started questioning if Nate would really want to stick with me forever when measured against beings like this one. I guess even death coul
dn’t keep my insecurities away.
Ms. Perfect glanced at me, then Nate.
“Follow me.” She sprung down the wildly long, vaulted-ceilinged hallway dotted with numbered closed doors, and we hurried to catch up before she abruptly stopped at the eighth door on the left. “Wait in here,” she said before running off again.
A table with four metal chairs sat in the middle of the sterile room. Trembling, I took a seat.
“What is this place?” Nate rubbed his palms down the front of his jeans.
I tilted my head from side to side, noticing the gray carpet, the impossibly white walls, and the fluorescent lights that gave the impression we were in an interrogation room. My mind whirled with a thousand possibilities, but the sound of deep voices alerted me to the door.
A moment later, two angels walked—no, flew—in. Their arms and legs resembled polished gold, their faces like the lightning that killed my best friend. Radiating light bounced off their wings until they landed on the chairs and the wings folded into themselves, the brightness disappearing with them so I could actually see their more human faces. Both of them had the same long, surfer styled jet-black hair, no eyebrows, but their long dark lashes stood out as otherworldly over big blue eyes the color of the sky after a storm. Their lips, their noses, the shape of their faces, were straight, perfect, and angular. They were the most beautiful creatures I’d ever seen.
“Welcome, sons and daughters of faith,” one said, nodding to us. Of course, his voice sounded like thunder. Of course! “I am Ash. I separate souls from their bodies at the time of death and carry their spirits to the place where they will live their afterlife.”
“Wow,” was all Nate said in return, and I met his gaze, unsure of what my own reaction should be.
The other angel chuckled and extended his hand, shaking first Nate’s, then mine. Interestingly, his grip felt like a normal human handshake. Nate pressed his lips tight, seemingly disappointed.
“Are you guys, like, like the real superheroes?” Nate asked.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
“My name is Riel.”
“Real? As in, for real?” Nate said.
Riel narrowed his dark eyes at Nate. “That’s how it’s pronounced, yes. But spelled R-i-e-l. Now where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?” He tilted his head to the ceiling and let out a sigh.
I couldn’t stop my ogling. It was as if one of Leonardo’s gorgeous paintings of angels had come to life. Yet, their looks possessed a magical realism too; humanlike, yes, but so beautiful one could’ve never possibly imagined what the angels looked like.
“I open the doors of perception to souls during their afterlife. The interceding prayers their loved ones send on their behalf help me determine the reality I should create, one that hopefully will inspire the lost souls to evolve. I was the one who determined your perceptions of reality during your after-death purification processes.”
“Uh, thanks.” I leaned closer to Nate, too afraid to grab his hand as I studied our new bosses. They were both dressed in loose blue slacks, almost like yoga pants, paired with long-sleeved white T-shirts… oddly casual attire for angels.
“You’re welcome, Olga Gay Worontzoff. And no, Nathan Tyler Barca, we’re not superheroes. It’s true we are stronger than humans, but not omnipotent.”
“But still, lifting-a-car strong?”
Riel ignored Nate and continued his explanation. “We’re greater than man in knowledge, but not omniscient. We’re more noble than mortals, but not omnipresent. We are entrusted by God to aid His children and we are holy, but we can still fall to the dark side, just like the humans.”
Nate glanced at me and moved his hand over mine, resting it on my knee underneath the table. I already knew what he would say, but I tried to flash him a look that said don’t even.
“So, not superheroes, but Star Wars fans, eh?”
Ash actually growled. “Contrary to what you may think due to Riel’s bedside manner, this is not the time or place for jokes. There’s a great unseen war raging beyond anything the pair of you can imagine. The war has been going on since the beginning of time, and you’ve just enlisted yourselves in it. There’s no turning back now, so I suggest you pay close attention.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, anxious to please, but my response just sounded like I was mocking him. I cringed in my seat as I caught Riel staring at me. But he didn’t look pissed off or anything. In fact, he flashed me a playful grin before continuing where Ash left off.
“Dr. Judy has put her trust in you, and I also think you are capable of becoming a master spirit guide; otherwise, I wouldn’t have agreed to your placement in our program. You both did well with the tests I created for you in Limbo and your time there gave me the chance to know you well, even though you were unaware of my presence. In case Dr. Judy didn’t have time to explain the purpose of souls being sent to Limbo, God wants His would-be chosen ones to live within Him more deeply than they desire to go on living falsely for themselves. Your duties as spirit guides will include helping departed souls realize their purpose. You followed your heart during your own Limbo process, and it will serve you well to keep doing so now. Your humanity will be your greatest strength.”
I tried to focus on what he said, but all I could think in my head was this isn’t real over and over again.
Ash shook his head in agreement. “Congratulations on all your success. Now, any questions before we go over the details of your first assignment?”
I thought about the difficulty of completing some of the tasks this past year, and tried not to panic. I hadn’t known then that if I failed I’d go straight to Hell, and now I’d put my soul on the line again. I had worked so hard to get through the last fourteen months and just learned the whole experience was total bull crap. If I still didn’t know how to deal with all that, how was I supposed to help someone else?
But maybe helping others was exactly what I needed to get past everything. Moving on with my “life” had been about me and getting to know myself. Mission accomplished. Becoming a spirit guide was about helping others. I mean, Conner had to be in the Underworld somewhere, and I could possibly find him! That was huge! I’d find out what happened to him, and helping Grace might prove the perfect opportunity to delve into my investigation of discovering where he was.
Ash flashed us a dark look. “You should know by now we live not just once, but every day of our lives, whether on Earth or during the afterlife. It shouldn’t be a process for self-indulgence, but that’s really what the past year has been about, has it not?”
My posture stiffened. Oh my gosh! Can he, like, read my mind or something?
“You need to learn that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself.” Ash’s expression soured, relaying subliminal messages to me, intentional or not. “It’ll only come with the realization that everyone else is as special as you are. Taking care of others is the highest priority around here.”
His words stung like a slap in the face, a wakeup call. The whole time I completed my list, I felt so proud the world had finally seen me for a change, well, the peeps from my hometown anyway. But the whole time I should’ve been seeing the world, the people in it. I mean, I guessed the eighteen tasks became much bigger than me, but none of that was real. Only the journey kinda was real because my actions were tied to my loved ones still living. Ah, this thought process proved so convoluted, even to me. I hadn’t heard anything this confusing since I sat down in front of the television one night with Nate and his dad and tried to watch the final episode of Lost.
Ash cleared his throat, snapping me out of my thoughts. “We know you’ve chosen to become spirit guides, but heed this warning. On Earth, you hear the expression ‘you’re an angel’, all the time. But it’s overused. There’s a lot more to being an angel or spirit guide than a bell rings and someone gets their wings. You’re lucky because you’ll get to work together instead of alone. You are bound in spirit now. One’s success will be the othe
r’s success. It also means that if you fail, you’ll cause the other to fail as well.”
Until today, I’d never thought about being tied to someone spiritually before. Was I really mature enough for all this heavy? I sure hoped Dr. Judy meant it when she said we could come to her for help. Taking me on as an intern may turn out to be more than she bargained for because I loved to ask questions. And even though I’d wanted nothing but more freedom this past year, I didn’t think the likes of Nate and me should be solely in charge of someone else’s destiny. I let out a big sigh. Geez, this proved much more complicated than the “pass-pass” or “fail-fail” system for group projects at school.
Nate flashed his teacher’s pet smile, seemingly unfazed by all this. “Maybe you could tell us a little bit about what you’re looking for us to do with Grace?”
Okay, maybe he worried, too, but he hid his anxiety better than me for sure. My gaze met his, instantly calming me.
Riel cleared his throat. “I’ll make this simple, so you’ll understand, Lover Boy.”
He snapped his fingers and the fluorescents went out. A panel in the wall slid open and images of a ragged, teenish looking girl played on a large wall-mounted flat-screen monitor. I mean, she looked beautiful, but a hot mess. She wore a Motley Crew T-shirt and barely there shorts, smoking something out of a pipe.
“This is Grace Newton,” Ash announced. “She was killed tonight by a police car, of all things. She just walked out of her house, onto the street that met the end of her driveway, and laid down. The cop never saw her, killing her instantly. We’ve been watching her for a while; scared she might do something like this based on the reports her guardian angel sent us.”