Nightfall ✓

Chapter 12

• chapter twelve •

It was one of those days when you feel like you're looking at everything through a grayscale filter. The air was cool and wet, and smelled like summer, even though summer was a month away. A strong wind picked up, making my hair fly wildly about, blowing sand into my face. The grey was everywhere: the sky, the buildings, the ground, the trees were washed in the pale colored light. There weren't many people around. It was definitely going to rain. I had to go home before the downpour started.

I picked up my art-bag and began walking. My usual route was through West Pages Lane. I was ever in the hope that I'd see Liam somewhere. I probably should've gone home, because there was no chance of him being out and about in this weather, but I went there anyway.

And he was sitting on the porch alone, reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Even from the distance, the book was recognizable because of its distinct lime-green cover. I stood and looked at him for some time, then he saw me skulking around and waved.

My heart did a flip-flop.

I went over and sat next to him. "You're reading an amazing book."

"I know. I've read it before. I'm just re-reading it." He closed the book. "So what are you doing outdoors in this weather?"

"I really don't know."

"Me neither." He stood up and opened the door, and shouted, "Dad? I'm going to the bookstore with Hazel." He shut the door. Then he opened it again and went inside, and when he came back out his jeans pocket was bulging with something.

"What's that?" I asked, but he said he'd tell me later, and we walked to the bookstore together.

The yellow light from the store reflected off the pavement outside. The glass doors opened with a jingle-jangle sound, and inside something smelled like cinnamon. An old lady with spectacles sat behind a desk in a corner, reading the paper. Next to her, there was a sitting area which consisted of three couches and a glass table, where people were reading. The rest of the area was filled with rows and rows of bookshelves.

"Wow," I said.

"Nice, isn't it? I come here all the time."

We wandered among the rows. Liam went off to look for some encyclopedia. I walked slowly among the shelves, trying to look at as much as I could. There were millions of books here, new, old, thick, thin, red, blue, everything. I wanted to read all if them. One book caught my eye. It stood out from the rest. It was huge and black, and very old. I took it down.

The Book of Souls

It looked interesting. I sat down on the floor and put it in my lap and leafed through the delicate yellow pages carefully. Most of the text was in a language I didn't know. There were a few figures, which looked a lot like they'd been drawn by hand. I found one paragraph in English and started reading.

'The length of the life of a person is decided before he's born. The day he's going to die is predestined. 
A person dies when his body becomes too damaged for the soul to live in it. After shedding the body the soul moves on to the afterlife.
But sometimes a person can die before he's meant to die: this happens when he's killed or he kills himself. His body is shed at the wrong time. When this happens the soul stays back on the earth.

This soul is what we call the ghost of a person.
The ghost cannot move on to the afterlife even if it wants to, for the Portals to Heaven and Hell don't open. The Portals don't open until the soul's mission on the earth has been fulfilled. The Portals don't open till the soul completes the task it was sent to do. The Portals don't open till the soul has played the role it was sent to play.
However, an exorcism may be performed to open up the Portals of afterlife.