The Afterlife Academy

by Frank L. Cole

  “But I thought only monsters could travel there.”

  “Of course not. Anyone who knows the way can visit the Underworld. And naturally, me being me, I knew the way. But no human would ever dare step into their realm unprotected. That would be like delivering a pizza to a college fraternity, if you know what I mean.” Wisdom stuck out his tongue. “But I have my stone for protection.”

  Wisdom tilted his head to one side. “Charlie, you and I are a lot alike.”

  “We are nothing alike!” Charlie snapped. “I’m not destroying the world with demons just because I was bullied.”

  Wisdom’s face twisted with grief. “You don’t get it. That’s not what I’m doing. I’m just opening a pipeline. Letting a little more in. Giving a select few demons extra powers to mix things up a bit. I’ll keep control over them with the handbook.”

  “How are you going to control them when you can’t read it?”

  “Don’t be silly. I’ve examined the decoding page. I can read it just fine. But only you can provide the soul sacrifice to open the Gateway. Once that’s done, I’ll have no trouble controlling the book. Then, as payment, I’ll be allowed to rule the demons as I choose. Show them off to all the nonbelievers. My benefactor has promised to overlook it when I become one of the most powerful men on earth. I’ll live a long, full life, and then I get a one-way ticket to heaven. Guaranteed!”

  “Hello?” a female’s voice sounded from the stairwell.

  Both Charlie and Wisdom turned to focus their attention on the girl standing in the locker room doorway.

  “Oh no,” Charlie whimpered. Where had she come from? Melissa Bitner had picked the worst time to become interested in Charlie’s life.

  “Hello there, little girl.” Wisdom tried to smile, but he came across looking gassy.

  “You’re Wisdom Willows,” Melissa said, no longer looking as eager and excited as she had outside the hotel.

  “That’s right. Are you a fan?”

  “What are you doing to Charlie?” She took another step, stopped, and stared at the bindings on Charlie’s arms and legs.

  “Ah, you’re his sister? His girlfriend?” Wisdom asked.

  “No!” Charlie’s voice cracked. “She’s neither one of those things.”

  “How long have you been hiding up there?” Wisdom pointed at the stairs with his chin.

  “Long enough to hear that you’re about to do something terrible to Charlie.”

  “Yes, well, what you see before you is just an act,” Wisdom explained. “Charlie and I are practicing for our performance at the festival.”

  Charlie began to deny it, but Wisdom promptly slapped him on the back of the head.

  “Ouch!”

  “Sorry,” Wisdom apologized. “I’m still in character.”

  “What’s really going on here?” Melissa asked. “Charlie, are you okay?”

  Wisdom fixed Charlie with a dangerous glare. “Think about your parents,” he muttered through tight lips.

  “I’m…I’m fine. We’re just practicing, like he said.” Charlie forced a smile. He wanted to rub his throbbing head.

  Melissa narrowed her eyes and glanced around the room. “You’re sure?”

  “Yes, yes, of course!” Wisdom barked. “Now, if you don’t mind, we need to practice, practice, practice.”

  “I don’t think so.” She backed toward the stairs. Charlie could see she was shaking.

  “Tell me, girl, did you come here with family? Your parents?” Wisdom asked.

  Melissa nodded. “Yes, my parents are outside right now.”

  Wisdom gazed up the stairs, his smile widening. “I don’t think so. I think you’re telling a fib.” He snapped his fingers. “Noral!”

  One of the alligator demons bounded out from the showers. He charged right at Melissa, but since she couldn’t see it coming for her, she didn’t move. Suddenly she gave a yelp as Noral’s clawed hand clamped down over her mouth and the demon hoisted her into the air.

  “Leave her alone!” Charlie yelled. “Let her go!”

  “She’s seen too much.” Wisdom sighed. “Put her with his parents.”

  Noral toted Melissa, struggling and kicking to break free, into the shower room.

  “Now, Charlie, no more talkie.” Wisdom pressed his fingers together. “If you value the lives of your parents and your girlfriend, you’ll start reading immediately.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend! And you’re just going to hurt them anyway!”

  “Cross my heart and hope to die, if you do your part, I promise not to lay a finger on any of them.” Wisdom held up his hand, solemnly swearing. “Now, time for your willing sacrifice so that we may open the Gateway and transfer your soul inside.”

  Charlie looked at the opened pages.

  “Wait, willing? I’m not willing. Not willing at all!”

  Wisdom scrunched up his nose. “Eh. Close enough.”

  The room crowded with more demons tromping through the rear exit. A couple of globby orange demons resembling slithering Jell-O molds were the first to enter, followed by many others in a variety of shapes and sizes. Among them walked the small bat-eared demon, the horned gorilla, and the Cyclops, displaying several gruesome injuries. The Cyclops limped up to Wisdom, wincing with every step.

  Wisdom threw his hands up in the air. “Hoonga, Gorge. Don’t tell me Walter got away.”

  Hoonga snarled. “I’m not exactly in the mood to talk about it.” His eye narrowed, and he reached a claw for Charlie’s throat. “Why is he still breathing?”

  Wisdom held up the Celestial stone, and the demons in the room shielded their eyes, cowering at its power. “Need I remind you who’s in charge here? Not you! Me! So get back, and give me space! Sorry, Charlie.” Wisdom paused. “That sounds funny. Sorry, Charlie.” He laughed some more. “Anyway. I apologize for the distraction. Now, where were we?”

  Charlie’s eyes darted around the room, landing on the various creatures glaring at him. They purred and drooled. Some of them bared their teeth while others released flatulence. It was a disgusting crew of demons.

  “Are we still under sufficient guard?” Wisdom asked, hiding the stone.

  Hoonga shrugged. “Not really. I’ve pulled in my best and left a half dozen of the lesser demons and wraiths outside to watch. We’d better hurry.”

  Wisdom clapped his hands together. “Okay, my friend, no more delays.” He once again pointed to the desired passages. “It’s time to begin.”

  “Any more of your friends going to show up to complicate things?” Riley asked.

  Walter shrugged. “Who knows?”

  Melissa’s older sister sat on one of the bleachers, gabbing away to someone on her cell phone.

  “We need to act before she wonders where her sister is and goes down to find her,” Reginald said.

  “Okay, let’s split up as planned. We’ll have to figure out a way to get our hands on Wisdom’s Celestial stone once we’re inside.”

  “Wait.” Ronald cleared his throat. “What if we used a decoy?”

  “Meaning?” Teague said.

  “Well, Wisdom and the demons aren’t expecting us to show up for a fight because we’re not supposed to know about any of this. But they might not be too surprised to see Walter charging in there to save Charlie. He was his HLT, after all.”

  Teague folded his arms. “I’m listening.”

  “It would be dangerous, but if Hoonga’s really down there, he might want to torture Walter first for fun. It could be just the distraction we need to strike. We could dim Walter’s aura with dimming powder to throw Wisdom off.”

  All eyes rested on Walter.

  Go in alone? Allow Hoonga to capture him for torture? It sounded like a suicide mission. But if it could give Charlie a chance to make it out alive…

  “I’m in.”

  “We’ll have to hope that the distraction will cause Willows to drop the stone so that we can destroy it,” said Teague.

  “Actually, I think I have a
n idea about that,” Walter added. “And this one’s even crazier than Ronald’s.”

  “Why isn’t this working?” Wisdom mumbled as Charlie finished reading the passage.

  At that moment, an immense, hairy demon dropped through the ceiling and squished a cluster of smaller demons. Looking bewildered, the new creature stood up, knocked Hoonga over, and stomped on Trutti.

  “Trutti, wake up!” Hoonga smacked the bat-eared demon’s cheeks until the creature revived, blinking and dizzy.

  “What happened?” Trutti whimpered with a drunken voice.

  “Yes, what did happen?” Wisdom pored over the pages Charlie had been assigned to read. “That wasn’t the Gateway spell. What did you read?”

  “What you told me to read!” Charlie fired back.

  Wisdom’s lips moved as he read silently and his eyes darted down the page. “Oh.” A look of slight embarrassment formed on his face. “Yep. Wrong one. Give me a second.”

  The demons murmured disgruntledly.

  “Settle down!” Wisdom flashed the Celestial stone again, and the demons shielded their eyes. Charlie could tell from their angered expressions that the creatures wanted to crush Wisdom as much as they did Charlie.

  “Here we are.” Wisdom nodded with self-assurance. He jabbed a new page and passage with his index finger and smiled. “You can see why I’d make the mistake. They’re almost identical in verbiage.” He laughed, and Charlie mimicked him. The smile slipped from Wisdom’s face, and he shoved Charlie’s head down until his nose pressed against the page.

  “Don’t get cute!” he hissed. “Just read!”

  Charlie stared at the words. Something felt different about this passage. He knew it in his bones. Reading those words would open the Gateway. Would change the fate of the world. Hesitating, he looked pleadingly up at Wisdom. How could he offer himself up as a sacrifice and possibly become the catalyst for global terror? He was twelve years old! He hadn’t fully grown up yet. He still needed braces. Why did he have to find that stupid book in that stupid hole at Victory Junction?

  Wisdom snapped his fingers impatiently, and Noral and Pidge carried Charlie’s parents and Melissa into the room. Their mouths were covered, and they looked both confused and terrified.

  “Don’t make me do something I don’t want to, Charlie.” Wisdom’s words flowed smooth with poison.

  Charlie stared at his mom and dad. They struggled against the firm grip of their captors, voices muffled. As much as he hated the idea of dying, watching his parents suffer would be far worse, and he’d still have to give his soul to the book.

  Charlie looked at Melissa. “I’m sorry.” It was all he could think to say.

  Melissa was handling herself much better than the Dewdles, although even years of scouring SpiritSpy.org couldn’t have prepared her for this.

  Taking a deep breath, Charlie began to read. The stirring in the room ceased. Every demon held its tongue, and Wisdom’s eyes twinkled with delight. The room grew intensely cold, and Charlie’s breath crystallized in the air. He shivered but continued reading.

  “Don’t stop!” Wisdom shouted as a strong wind began to blow through the locker room. The lights dimmed as the temperature continued to drop. Charlie could sense something forming above him, a massive opening, a dark, cavernous hole, but he didn’t dare look up from the pages of The Summoner’s Handbook. He finished the first paragraph and clenched his jaw, trying not to throw up. Only a few sentences remained before the ceremony was complete. Couldn’t he at least say goodbye to his parents?

  Wisdom pressed a hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “Almost there!”

  As Charlie read, his mind pulled away from the moment. He recalled that first night when the shades had swarmed his bedroom. At that moment, his life, and the hundreds of hours he had spent investigating the world of the unexplained, the supernatural, had been validated. He had proof of something more—something outside of human beings and his normal, everyday life.

  Charlie smiled as he replayed his first conversations with Walter. He couldn’t believe it, but he missed that kid. If only Walter were there, Charlie knew they’d find a way out of this mess together.

  “Uh, excuse me?” a voice called out.

  Charlie stopped reading and looked up.

  Walter Prairie was standing in the doorway.

  At least thirty pairs of eyes flashed across the room.

  “Have any of you seen a young boy, medium height, orange hair, freckles?” Walter continued. “A total dork.”

  No one moved.

  “What the heck are you doing here?” Charlie asked.

  “I followed you. I couldn’t let you mess up the world without me at least kicking a few butts!”

  Wisdom stamped his feet up and down. “Don’t just stand there like a bunch of idiots!” he shouted at the demons. “Grab him!”

  All at once, the demons wailed and charged Walter. Hoonga reached him first, snatching him in his arms and roaring into his face. “Foolish move!”

  “Yikes!” Walter said. “You need some mouthwash.”

  Hoonga squeezed, and Walter gasped from the pressure. “Feel that? That’s the pain of me crushing your soul. You will not survive this, boy! You will never come back from where I send you!”

  Walter’s lips moved, but no words escaped his mouth.

  “No!” Charlie shouted.

  “Don’t stop reading!” Wisdom ordered. “Finish it!”

  Charlie’s eyes flashed from Wisdom to the book and then to Walter. “Let him go!” he demanded. “Let him go, or I’ll close the book!” He nudged the book with his knees, and it threatened to fall.

  “No!” Wisdom screamed. “Read it, or your parents die!”

  “Let him go! Stop hurting him!” Charlie shouted.

  Wisdom whirled and kicked a small scaly demon with his foot, sending it crashing into the lockers with a deafening bang.

  “Argh! Let him go, Hoonga!” Wisdom commanded.

  Hoonga continued to crush Walter with his arms.

  “Pain!” he snarled. “Feel it draining you of life. Feel it burning in your veins!”

  “Did you hear me?” Wisdom shouted. “I said let him go!”

  Hoonga still refused to acknowledge the order. Wisdom stomped across the room and shoved his Celestial stone directly in front of the demon’s eye. Walter fell from Hoonga’s arms and scampered across the floor, gasping for breath. Wisdom kept the stone next to Hoonga for several seconds, ignoring his pleas for mercy, then pulled it away, leaving Hoonga whimpering in the corner. “You do as you’re told! That’s my last warning!” He brandished the stone in the faces of the other demons. “All of you! Do you hear me? Is that clear? I will have order and control. Do not force me to make an example of one of you, because I will!”

  With Wisdom’s attention drawn toward scolding his minions, Walter crawled over to Charlie and started untying him. “What’s up?” Walter asked.

  Charlie kept his eyes on Wisdom, who was parading around with the brilliant orb pulsating in his hand. At any moment, order would be restored in the locker room, and when that happened, both he and Walter were as good as dead.

  “Oh, not much.”

  “So you can see me now, huh?”

  “Uh, yeah.” Why was Walter making small talk? “Look, you shouldn’t have come down here. They’re going to kill all of us. Do you know you’re glowing, by the way?”

  “Really?” Walter stared down at his uniform. “Cool. I’m not supposed to. Teague sprayed me with some gunk to dim my aura.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Charlie whispered. “And who’s Teague?”

  “You’ll see in about twelve seconds.”

  “See what?”

  “I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.” Climbing to his feet, Walter cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Now!”

  As Wisdom stood, scolding his Underworld servants, thirty-three Afterlife Academy Agents stormed the locker room from both entrances, charging the demons and
zapping them with light.

  The demons crashed into one another, roaring and squealing. They clawed strips of paint from the walls and smacked lockers and benches. The tight quarters of the locker room made it almost impossible for them to dodge the Agents’ weapons.

  “Holy cow! Are they with you?” Charlie’s arms now free, he shoved The Summoner’s Handbook off his knees, and the gaping hole in the ceiling vanished with a swirling pop.

  Wisdom screamed in agony, but with all the demons and Agents scrambling around him, he couldn’t make his way to collect the book. The Logan brothers circled one of the Jell-O demons and exploded it with bursts of light, spraying orange goo all over the room.

  The other demons scattered. Some of them charged through the entryway, but they crashed backward into the room when they bounced into a pulsating shield the Agents had created. Noral and Pidge abandoned their post, dropping Mr. and Mrs. Dewdle and Melissa to the floor with a thud, and scampered away. The Dewdles rolled around, trying to free themselves from their bindings.

  Charlie’s mom’s gag loosened. “The magic show has to end sometime!” she snapped. “This is not polite. You let my son go right now, Mr. Willows!”

  The three of them still couldn’t see any of the monsters or Agents, but they could see Charlie, who was now completely free of his bindings, and Wisdom flinching and shouting.

  “Duck!” Charlie screamed. Walter dropped down just as a slime-covered snake demon, no bigger than a common raccoon, was hurled through the air by one of the Agents and skimmed across the top of Charlie’s head. The demon left a trail of goop in its wake, and Charlie’s hair stood on end as if doused in styling mousse.

  Hoonga, already injured from his earlier fight with Walter and Wisdom’s Celestial stone, took one look at the much stronger Agents, grabbed Trutti by the ears, and plowed through the middle of the chaos. Agents scattered away from his massive frame, and a sound of shattering glass rang out from the stairwell. The demon had created a gaping Hoonga-shaped hole in the shield.

  Gorge fought his way out of a corner and collapsed upon Ronald, gnashing his teeth near the boy’s throat. Walter reacted instinctively, and a long purple spear appeared in his hand. Charlie’s mouth fell open in shock, but Walter didn’t pause to admire his own creation. With an ear-piercing battle cry, he heaved the spear straight through Gorge’s chest. The demon dissolved into nothing.