The Purgatory Saga #1: People of the Fire

by Michelle Dalson

  I was drenched with showering blood. The vines started whipping me with their thorny branches. I screamed and yowled with horror.

  Dewey and Grace tried to peck at the vines, but it wasn’t enough.

  Then suddenly, a blast of light shot over me and all the vines disappeared, releasing my body. The rosary was lying on the floor in front of me, and the blood had stopped dripping. But I was still drenched in blood.

  Cain was sitting up on the bed, looking like he was back in his regular state. The demon in his soul had been freed. I panted and slowly took the rosary, and held in close to my chest.

  Saint Grenada hovered to Tyler’s side and looked down at me. “Zach? I’d keep that around my neck if I were you, especially since we’re in this tree.”

  “Zach….” gasped Cain. “Are you alright? I’m sorry if I—”

  “Child, do not apologize,” Elvira was at his side, and she laid a hand on his head. She turned to me and spoke to both of us. “This boy has been possessed by the spirit of a demon, which came from a hell creature. We were aware of these dangers in the outside world.

  “We’ve existed here before the time of the apocalypse, when there were no spirits raised from Earth. Purgatory was inhabited by less of a population without the spirits of the risen dead. But as soon as the apocalypse came about, many spirits came into this world, and many spirits have brought changes to Purgatory. Therefore, any evil spirit from the outside world will be dealt with by the tree itself, and the tree alone will take care of any spirit that enters its body. It has cleaned up the devil that has possessed this boy…and it will do so to you too.” She narrowed her eyes at me.

  And with that, Elvira and the other ladies left the room. They walked through the curtain as if they were ghosts, and only Enoch and Gabriel remained at the side of Cain’s bed.

  I faced Cain and noticed a tall dark shadow was standing at his right. It was the Shadow Man.

  I sighed and slowly got up, feeling drained.

  Jenna turned to me and frowned. “You sure you feel okay? The demon didn’t possess you or anything?”

  I gave her a look and put the rosary around my neck. “I dunno. Does it look like it?”

  She gave a sideways look and then nodded. “Yep. Always.” She spoke with sarcasm.

  “Zachy?” Mira approached my other side, narrowing her eyes at the Shadow Man. “Who is that?”

  Cain was smiling at the Shadow Man with a shining look in his eyes that I had never seen in him before. “Oh, you don’t know?” Cain sounded content. “He was the one who got rid of the demon for me. The other ladies in the tree didn’t see it. They think their crazy hymn chased out the demon, but it wasn’t so. When Saint Tyler presented the rosary to me, this nice man came and rescued me from the demon.” Cain closed his eyes and smiled. “I saw him in the most wonderful place before I woke up.”

  Dewey snorted and jumped away from my side. “Yech! Zach, you’re covered in blood!”

  I winced as I looked over myself. My clothes were wet and reddened as if I had taken a tomato bath. Even Mira didn’t bother grabbing my hand again.

  “Goodness, Zach!” Grenada huffed. “We should get you cleaned up!”

  Cain coughed and rubbed his eyes. “Well…I’m extremely lethargic right now. That exorcist really took out a lot of energy from me.”

  Annabelle nodded. “You should get some sleep.”

  “But I saw something important before I woke up from my vision. It something within this very tree that I must show you,” he was gazing intently at Jenna and me.

  Grenada winced. “Young spirit, you must rest if you want to be strong enough to resist the rest of this tree.”

  Cain shook his head and stepped off his bed. “I gotta see this. Zach! Jenna! Come on!” And he hurried to the leafy wall. Jenna and I followed him and passed through.

  Cain made his way through a narrow branch. Jenna and I crawled after him, but the rosary hung from my neck and was sizzling against the floor.

  Jenna turned and gave me a glare. “Can you put that thing away for a moment? I don’t this giant branch to catch on fire!”

  “Hey! I’m going to be covered with more blood if I take this off,” I hissed.

  Finally, we stopped in an open room. Dewey, Grace, Pete, and Truman were flying and running around the open space. The four SoulBirds seemed to be having the time of their lives in this room. Dewey was hopping and pecking at the air, where there were two air type SoulBirds flying across the room.

  “Oh wow!” Jenna gasped. “Angelic air types!”

  And I instantly recognized these two air type SoulBirds. One had a bigger and fluffier tuft of white feathers behind its head, and I recognized Micah. The other one was Lara, whose spirit was the Beast of Wisdom.

  Micah and Lara were gliding around the room, chasing after Pete, Grace, and Dewey, and trying to avoid Truman’s annoying squawks and quacks.

  “Zach!” A small, smooth voice suddenly appeared at my side and Lara was hovering next to my head.

  “Lara!” I turned to the air type. “What are you doing here? How’d you get into this tree?”

  The SoulBird giggled. “Ask Cain! I made my way through him!”

  Cain was laughing and chasing after Micah. He faced me and Jenna. “Well, when I was trying to escape my horrible vision with the devil, I was starting to see a beam of light. I saw Pete, and by Pete’s side was a new spirit that he knew very well from Heaven. It was Laravanna, the Beast of Wisdom. And she was also bringing another spirit with her, a spirit named Micah. They both found their way out of my dream to enter this world, as soon as I woke up.”

  Jenna laughed. “Well, they’re awesome!”

  Cain nodded. “Don’t thank me, though. Thank the Shadow Man for bringing the light to me!”

  The Shadow Man was standing by the entrance of our branch. “This means we will have more foreign spirits in the tree. We are all going to have to make it to the top.”

  I winced. “Oh, of course. The more, the merrier.” I mumbled sarcastically. “I’ll fill up this tree with so many angels that the tree will have nothing against it.”

  We hurried upwards along the tree, climbing so many stairs, and winding through many branches. The angels and the SoulBirds traveled with us, and guided us through the safest passages that would lead to the top.

  I explained to Jenna and Cain about my dream with Lexie and my sister, and how I had seen my uncle and Damien in the city of Babylon. Lara and Micah also explained how they had met Lexie and Angeline through their dreams on the night after the last of Jerusalem had been sucked away.

  Jenna huffed. “So! Lexie and Angeline are about to die soon, huh?”

  I nodded. “That’s what they said.”

  “Well, that’s great! Aren’t you happy you’ll be able to visit your sister much easier now, instead of having to visit Earth through a star-portal dream all the time?”

  “I guess,” I muttered.

  Jenna gave a slight laugh. “Well, what about Lexie?” She pushed her sharp glasses against her face and stepped closer to my side. “Aren’t you happy you’ll be able to see her in the afterlife?”

  I frowned and met her gaze. “Lexie and Angeline are both going to go to Heaven! Why would I look forward to their deaths? I won’t be seeing them here in this terrible world.”

  Jenna frowned. “That doesn’t mean you won’t see them—the angels of Heaven can visit this world whenever they want.”

  “Not whenever they want,” I said. “Just whenever the Lord allows them to.”

  Jenna huffed. “You know, you can just say it out loud how happy you are to have them join the afterlife! I bet you miss your sister very much, Zach. You don’t have to hide it in front of me!”

  I stopped and faced her with a narrowed look of frustration. The SoulBirds stopped and looked at us. Cain and the Shadow Man did the same.

  Embarrassed by all their stares, I met Jenna’s stern gaze. “Of course I miss my sister! But I barely knew her. I�
��ve only recall a few memories about how close we were, but that’s it!”

  “And that’s all because Lucien took away the rest of your memories,” said Jenna, crossing her arms.

  I narrowed my eyes and looked down. “Well… yeah, of course.”

  Jenna sighed. “I’m sorry, Zach.” She was suddenly looking at me with regret. Her green eyes were full of sorrow. “I’m sorry you’ve gone through so much. It’s already been enough to have lost the memory of your past, as terrible as it was. But I bet it was much more terrible now that you remembered it.”

  I nodded slowly, keeping my gaze fixed on her.

  She huffed and looked away. “I’m sorry I’ve been so mean to you. I know that things have been hard for you. I tend to misunderstand spirits when they piss me off.”

  I couldn’t help smiling mischievously. “Hey, who doesn’t? You’re no different than me.”

  “Oh, I’m wayyy different than you, Zach,” she raised her eyebrows as she faced forward and walked on. “Trust me.”

  I watched her walk up to Cain and the Shadow Man. She accompanied Grace’s side. Then we all continued to head forwards.

  I kept my eyes narrowed and didn’t bother to look at Jenna for the rest of that day.

  “What was that all about?” Dewey muttered. “What was she trying to get outta you?”

  I shook my head. First, she forces me to share my feelings. Then she apologizes for what’s happened and the way she’s been toward me. Whatever she tried to do, I didn’t get it. She was weird. All women are weird, especially the ones in this Evergrown Tree.

  Cain hurried up to Jenna’s side and started to talk to her in a low voice. He kept looking over his shoulder to cast a glance at me, which just irritated me even more.

  The Shadow Man approached my side.

  “Zach,” he spoke, “you don’t have to dwell on the past so much. It doesn’t matter if you can’t remember anything about the moment you were born. What matters is what you do to earn your way up to Heaven from this point on.”

  “Ugh….” I hung my head low again as I walked on.

  I tried to avoid the Shadow Man for the rest of that day. It was rather simple to avoid him. It seemed that whenever I wanted him to stay out of my sight, he would. That was the only part I enjoyed about this strange shadow spirit.

  The next few days went by very slowly. Jenna, Cain, the SoulBirds, the Shadow Man, and I stuck to the emptier parts of the tree where there were less spirits to stare at us while we climbed up. The angels, the guardians, and Mira had taken another route.

  When we finally reached another room, we stopped for a rest. I wished they had windows in this tree, for I really wanted to look out and see how far up we had gotten.

  “We are already almost a third of the way through,” said the Shadow Man. “And we’re ahead of the others.”

  I sat on a hammock between two branches and carefully lied down. The branch that we were inside had a weird curvy ceiling.

  I turned to lie on my side to sleep. I longed to get out of this tree and see Prima Dona as soon as possible. She must be waiting at the top….

  I opened my eyes in a snowy world again. Prima Dona was already next to me. We were hovering over a mountain at my side.

  I immediately fell into her arms and she gave me a hug. Her skin was like ice, and she chilled me to the bone, but it felt good. Purgatory had me heated up for too long.

  Then Prima Dona gave a scream. She let go of me and jumped back.

  “Eek!” She scowled and pointed at me. “What is that around your neck?!”

  I realized I was still wearing my rosary. “Oh….this?” I immediately explained what we had been through in the Evergrown Tree and how the necklace had freed Cain with the rosary. I told her how this rosary was my only shield inside the tree, so that it wouldn’t spit blood at me.

  “Hmph!” She crossed her arms and her hair swayed behind her. “Well, I’m glad you’ve made it to the Evergrown Tree.”

  “Yep. We’re already almost a third of the way through, thanks to the Shadow Man. He and the SoulBirds have sped us up, and we’re ahead of the others!”

  “I want you to get rid of that rosary, though,” said Prima Dona, eying the necklace with a glint of hatred.

  I winced. “What? Why? Did I tell you how bloody I looked when I wasn’t holding this thing?”

  “Take it off,” Prima Dona’s voice was cold and sharp. “Such materials do not belong in my world.”

  I faced her piercing gaze with confusion and slowly took it off my neck. But before I put it into my pocket, I said, “But…I must keep it on when I wake up. The tree hates both angels and demons, including all the spirits who live in Purgatory outside the tree.”

  “Who told you this?!” Prima Dona looked fiercely at me.

  “The Shadow Man.”

  “Ach!” Prima Dona hissed and swatted her arms at her side. “That Shadow Man angers me so! What else has he told you, this stalking, dark creep of a shadow?!”

  “Well…as usual, he explained to me about faith in the Son and the Lord—”

  “Irrational!” Prima Dona threw her head back and laughed. “Zach, come on! I thought you were smarter than that. Dear, I don’t want you trusting another word that man says.”

  I winced. “Why? Are you saying he’s wrong about the tree?”

  “He’s not wrong about the tree,” said Prima Dona, “but he’s wrong about who you should trust in.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean? I thought you believe in the Almighty. He created…everything. Even you said so, yourself.”

  “Listen!” Prima Dona lowered her head and faced me with an icy gaze. “Yes, like I mentioned before, He has unimaginable power over my world, and He is much stronger than me. And that is one of the reasons I wouldn’t want to visit His kingdom of Heaven! But what I’m trying to tell you is this. Do not believe what that Shadow Man says. He’s wrong, especially when he yaks about all that mumbo-jumbo about the Lord. Has the Lord ever spoken to you in person like I have? Hmm? He has wisdom that surpasses all knowledge, but has He ever shared that wisdom with you, or given any of His advice?”

  “Well…no...” I faced her with a stony expression. “That’s what I was telling my guardians. But they won’t listen to me. They don’t want me to see you anymore.”

  “Oh? And why not?”

  I hesitated. “Because…because you are not…God.”

  Prima Dona’s gaze lightened. “Hah! Of course I am not God! Does that mean you don’t have to see me though? Spirit, I think your angels are just jealous because they cannot see our visits together! I’ve saved you before, and I can continue to do so. Wait for me Zach. Wait for me at the top of the tree, and I’ll be there to provide you with something—something that the Lord Himself would never want to give you.”

  And with that, a loud cry screeched through the cold air. The skies cracked open. Madonna flapped her majestic wings over Prima Dona’s head until blinding frozen light surrounded the both of them. The blizzard swept me away and I yowled with horror before I disappeared from that world.

  I awoke and found myself thrashing around. I was covered with flowers that were sticking to my skin like leeches. I was stinging like crazy.

  I ran out of the branches and fell to the ground from the weight of the flowers that stuck to me. I thrashed and tried to rub them off, but I tripped and fell down a set of stairs.

  I hit the floorboards of the lower room and was dazed out of my mind. A light suddenly formed over me and the flowers disappeared. My upside-down vision blurred into focus and I saw my rosary land behind my head.

  “Hey you. You left your little necklace behind,” it was Mira and she was holding the rosary in front of my face.

  I grabbed the rosary and held it tightly in my hands. “How’d you catch up to us?”

  She chuckled. “Zachy, you really think I’d leave myself alone to a bunch of angels? Come on! Bernardo may be hot and Tyler may be cute, but really, I felt like
I was gonna puke if I stuck around those spirits for another minute.”

  “Hah,” I said lowly. “I see.” I stared at the rosary, thinking about what Prima Dona said to me.

  Mira bent down to grab my hands and pull me up to my feet. She met my gaze naughtily and gently took the rosary from my hand. She placed it around my neck. “Hmph….you don’t know how weird it feels for me to do that. Those angels have already scared me to death.”

  I forced myself to smile. “Why?”

  “Oh, it’s just…me, I guess,” she shrugged and then turned to head toward a nearby room. “I’m resting in this branch over here since its walls are filled with the most sap. I won’t bug you anymore. I bet you’re already too tired out from your nightmare anyway.”

  Watching her leave, I couldn’t let her go just yet. I was just about to step toward her, but then I looked at my rosary.

  “Take it off, Zach,” I could almost hear Prima Dona’s voice in my head, and I was startled.

  “Take it off!” She spoke sharply now. “I don’t care what it means for you. Do not worry. I will be at the top of the tree to grant you what’s needed against the Beast, and I will be on the top of the tree, protecting you. Just trust me….”

  I was sure I heard her voice that time. Taking the necklace off of my neck, I stared at it and waited for thorns to shoot at me or the branches to swallow me up again. But this time, nothing happened. Instead, I felt a cold breeze blow through my spirit, and it felt as if I was in Primeval.

  “Zachy?” Mira peered from the curtains to the branch. “Are you still there? Are you going back to sleep or what?”

  I looked at my rosary and then back at her. “Nah….I won’t be able to sleep anyway.”

  “Oh. Well come here! Check this room out. It’s so different from the rest of the tree.”

  I followed Mira inside and then realized where I had felt the cold breeze coming from. Inside this branch, all the walls were glazed with ice, and the branches were a whitish color. The sap was distinguishable on those walls. It looked like there were bloodlines running through the tree.