Afterlife (Purgatory Series Part Three)

Chapter Nineteen: Dead but not Gone

After nearly a minute of awkward silence and Gabriel's insane grinning, I cleared my throat and scooted away from him. It was too dark around us to see much, but his angelic glow allowed me to see his face at least. His creepy, smiling face.

"Uh, Gabriel, I don't mean to be offensive, but could you stop staring at me like that? It's getting weird."

"Staring at you in what way?"

"I don't know, like you're planning to murder me or something."

His smile grew wider and he threw back his head to laugh. A bad feeling began to blossom in my stomach and I swallowed hard.

"But I already have, Alethea," he said once his laughter had subsided. "And you won't be making a comeback this time, I'm afraid."

My bad feeling turned into rapidly growing horror. "What the hell are you talking about, Gabriel? What is going on?"

"Well for starters, my name isn't Gabriel. It's Lucifer. Also known as the Great Deceiver," he boasted with a wink. "And, boy, am I great at it."

"This isn't f-funny, Gabriel," I stuttered, though a part of me deep down was beginning to realize the truth.

"Well, that's because it isn't a joke," he replied, his grin returning. "Though I do know a few. Have you heard the one about the gullible girl who is manipulated by everyone she meets? It's a real killer."

My eyes narrowed. "What do you want? Why are you doing this?"
That earned me an eye roll and a huff. "You really think I'm going to tell you my plans? Why should I when I could leave you to wallow in misery wondering what's going to happen."

Taking a gamble I replied, "Cause if you are who you say you are, you're a narcissist and pride is your downfall. You want me to know because you think you've won and you want to brag about it."

Lucifer smirked. "Well you're right about my personality flaws, but wrong about everything else. Because I haven't won. Not yet. And I'm not stupid enough to do anything to jeopardize that, like telling you something that might help you stop me. So here's what's going to happen, Alethea. You're going to keep your ghostly self right here until I need you. And I'm going to go get rid of the nephilim once and for all."

"Wait!" I shouted, but he had already disappeared, leaving me sitting in pitch black nothingness. It reminded me of my first days in Purgatory, but I knew I wasn't there. I had fixed it and now the monster Afterlife was a pleasant place. Or it was supposed to be. Now that Gabriel had revealed himself to be Lucifer I wasn't sure what was true anymore.

My mind raced back to all of our time spent together, trying to come up with something, anything that seemed...well, devilish.

A memory floated to the surface. "I was...cast out," he had said. "My brothers were unhappy with me."
At the time I had assumed he had meant he had been cast out for helping me. But apparently he had just been using a partial truth to conceal a lie. He told me something to make me feel sorry for him so I wouldn't look too closely at everything else.

He had led me to Delilah and Altair and then bailed. Of course it made sense now. He had wanted me dead and sent to hell. Once his plans didn't succeed he had come himself to try and find a way to finish me off. God, I was so stupid.

Standing up, I squinted into the darkness to try and find some way out of here. Wherever here was. Lucifer had said I was a ghost. Did that mean I could haunt people? If I could find a way to contact my friends, I might be able to warn them about Lucifer.

But how was I supposed to find a way out when I couldn't even see? Maybe it wasn't important to see. I was dead after all.

That thought triggered another and another until I was trembling and crying under the weight of my existential crisis. Was this really the end of me?

"Snap out of it, Thea," a deep voice rumbled in the dark. "You sound just as pathetic now as you did that first day in purgatory."

"Who's there?" I shouted, spinning around even though I still couldn't see.

"Forgotten me already? And here I had thought we shared a connection."

I blinked repeatedly while my brain tried to process what, or whose, voice I was hearing. "Jelani?"

"You were expecting someone else, I take it? God? Your boy toy Roran? Sorry to disappoint."

"Where are you?" I called, holding my arms out in front of me and walking toward his voice. "I can't see."

"Of course you can't see. We're nowhere, Thea. We're stuck in between a place between death and the Afterlife. It's a void."

Giving up and sitting down, I sighed heavily and said, "Whatever. Look, I get sort of why I'm here, but why are you a ghost? I thought after you die in Purgatory you just stop existing?"

"That's generally what happens. I'm here because he wants me to be. Because I stopped following orders and tried to do good."

"Oh."

Silence reigned for several seconds as we were both lost in thought. Jelani was the first to break it: apparently he had been here alone too long.
"How did you die?"

"A freaking witch. I hate witches."

He laughed. "That makes two of us."

"If we're ghosts and this is where ghosts go,"I began, pausing to listen for any other sound, "shouldn't there be more voices than ours?"

"Sometimes there are. Sometimes we're all just too damn tired."

I noticed then, how exhausted I was. As if this conversation was draining the life out of me. But before I could lose all my energy, I had to try and find an escape.

"Is there any way out of here?" I asked desperately. "Any way to contact the outside?"

"Sure, if you're willing to risk it. And if you have the energy. Most are too cowardly, and too tired."

"Risk what?"

When he didn't answer, I yelled it louder. "Risk what, Jelani?"

"Losing your soul," he eventually replied, sounding haggard, as if each word was an effort. "Being dissolved from existence."

"But you already risked that once," I said. "Why not try again?"

"Don't have the energy, Thea," he moaned, trailing off at the end.
I knew by the tone of his voice that he wouldn't be talking to me anymore. But he told me all I needed to know. I could contact my friends and warn them of what was coming. And I would, no matter what it cost me.

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So, yeah. Not my best and I'll be the first to say it. BUT it's been forever and I'm tired of trying to make it perfect. I've rewritten this half a dozen times and it's never been how I want it. But I hope you at least enjoy it.
Please let me know if you have constructive criticism and advice. I'd love to hear it. Also, since I can't get it the way I want it, I'm just going to post it as it is. So this will probably be finished by the end of this month.