Beyond (Afterlife book 1) (14 page)

We went through another window and entered
a room where a man knelt alone on the floor crying.

“
What is he doing?” I
whispered to Mick.

“
Praying.” Mick looked at me and
smiled. “He is asking God not to let his wife die.”

“
What happened to
her?”

“
She was in a car accident a few
hours ago.”

“
Where is she
now?”

“
In the operating room
next door.”

Now the man became loud in his praying. He
began to yell, “Is this how you treat a man of God? Is this how you
treat me when I have been faithful to you all of my
life?”

“
Is it his wife we are
here to get?”

Mick looked at me and nodded.

“
That’s cruel!” I
said.

“
Life and death are cruel. But
it is part of our world and theirs.”

I wanted to cry. I couldn’t believe Mick
could be so cynical about this. Here we stood next to a man crying
his heart out to God to save the wife he obviously loved, and we
knew she would die in a matter of minutes. We were there to take
her away. That was horrible. I became mad at God and the Angels for
their cruelty toward humans. The man was pleading; why didn’t God
listen? I had always thought God answered prayers, but now I saw
with my own eyes that he was in fact not going to answer this
prayer. Mick had been right about one thing, this experience was
going to be life-changing for me all right. Just not in the way he
wanted it to be. I was afraid because I was about to lose all
faith.

S
uddenly we heard a lot of noise from the
room next door. I followed Mick through a round window and found
myself in the operating room where the woman was lying on the
table. Several doctors and nurses worked around her, talking
agitatedly, even yelling at each other from time to time. They too
would be haunted by this experience of not being able to save this
woman.

I looked at Mick and then back at the
woman. I recognized her. She was that woman from the book—the woman
who was to die just before Jason.

Chapter 15

It was horrible to stand there
and watch the
doctors and nurses fighting for the woman’s life,
especially when I knew it was all in vain. She would die anyway. It
didn’t matter what they did to her. Then a high-pitched sound from
the heart monitor filled the room and the doctors started
yelling.

“
We’re losing her!”

At that particular moment something truly
astonishing happened. The ceiling of the room opened above us. A
bright light entered, followed by the most beautiful music that
drowned out the high-pitched tone and the yelling. I felt so drawn
to the music and the light and had a great peace in my heart. Not
one of the doctors or nurses in the room seemed to notice
it.

“
That’s beautiful singing,” I
said to Mick. “What is it?”

He smiled at me. “It is the Angels singing
at the gateway of Heaven. They are welcoming her
spirit.”

I looked down and saw the woman rising
from the table and looking straight at us. She smiled widely while
her spirit left her body.

Then suddenly I heard something that made
my body shiver. The grumbling and a groaning sounded like an animal
approaching. I turned and saw hundreds of small shadows on the wall
behind the woman. The groaning turned into a roaring as the shadows
grew larger and larger.

I looked at Mick, who seemed to have his
guard up now.

“
Those are the evil spirits, the
Se’irims. They have come to take her as well. The light keeps them
away from her. When there is light the darkness has to
leave.”

I felt chills running down my back. I felt
really creepy about that noise they made and the shadows on the
wall. The roaring was like the earth had opened and was ready to
suck any life into it. All of a sudden I felt so hopeless, like all
joy and peace was sucked right out of me. Then I heard whispering,
like someone was really close to me whispering words in my
ears.

“
Poor woman…”

It sounded like a hoarse
w
heeze
.
I
turned to see if was anyone behind me, but no one was there. Just a
low whisper.

“
So cruel… she has to
leave her children … No loving God would do that.”

Mick looked at me and saw that something was
wrong.

“
Are they getting to you?
Are they messing with your mind?”

I shook my head. “I’ll be
fine.”

“
Meghan … Meghan … Why are
you lying to him?”

I began to move my hands and
head around
as if I had a small fly buzzing near my face.

“
Meghan… coooome with us …
we know how you died … we can bring you to your parents … We can
help Jason. It is wrong not to help him. We can stop him from
dying. We can bring peace to your parent’s worried hearts. Just
come with us …”

I held my hands to my head.

“
Leave me alone!” I said
out loud.

Mick stared at me. Then he took my hand and
pulled me closer to him.

“
Don’t let them get to you like
that. You have to control your mind. Don’t trust your emotions.
Your thoughts and feelings will try to deceive you. Only you can
stop these things from getting rooted in your mind and
heart.”

“
I am trying, I am
trying,” I said.

“
Good.”

Then Mick reached his hand toward the woman
and she took it. He looked at me to do the same.

The woman grabbed on to me and together we
pulled her spirit with us. As we did I saw the shadows retreat from
the wall and slowly the growling noise disappeared as
well.

First we took her to see her husband so
she could hear his prayer. Carefully and gently she patted him on
the hair and kissed him. When she was done we took her to see her
children. They were still holding on to one another, praying. The
woman wrapped her arms around them and kissed them gently. Then I
saw a few tears slip from her eyes. She looked at us as if to say
she was ready and then Mick and I started pulling her toward the
light.

I was happy to see that she at least got
to say goodbye to her loved ones; even though they didn’t know she
was there, maybe they could have felt her just a little bit, maybe
just sensed that she was close. She didn’t utter a word to us as we
flew her toward the light and the singing and I couldn’t blame her.
I didn’t feel like talking either. It was much too beautiful and
magical. As we came closer the light shone brighter and finally we
were met by two giant Angels who descended toward us, caught up the
woman’s spirit, and flew away with her while they were still
singing their calming song. The three of them disappeared in the
distance.

“
Wow, that was amazing! Even
more beautiful than I have ever imagined. Wow! That takes away my
breath,” I said.

“
I know. Just wait until the day
you get to go through the gates. You have no idea what is waiting
for you there.”

“
But there’s one thing I don’t
understand. What happens to the woman now? Doesn’t she have to go
to the Academy?”

“
Yes. First she goes to meet
with Jesus. And then she comes back to us and we put her on the
boat.”

“
But I didn’t do that when
I died?”

Mick smiled and nodded. “Yes you did.
Everybody does. You just don’t remember it. It is the same for
everybody. That is why no one knows exactly what you talk to Jesus
about when you die. Because you won’t remember. The next time you
see him in Heaven you will remember that you have talked to him,
just not what it was about.”

“
Wow.”

“
I know.”

“
So we will take her to
the boat after this and there she will wake up not remembering
anything?”

“
Exactly. She might remember a
little from the car accident, but she will not remember her husband
or children or the meeting with Jesus.”

“
But that is so cruel. She
wants to be with her children and husband.”

“
I know, but she needs to learn
her new life before she can visit them. She needs to accept that
she is no longer part of their world. And wouldn’t it be even
crueler if she remembered them and knew they were mourning her, but
she couldn’t visit them? And even if she did, she could not stay
with them and live the life they used to live.”

I sighed. This was a lot to take in at
once, I thought. “I guess you are right.”

I
have no idea how long we waited. I
lost track of time all that day. The woman and the Angels had
disappeared through some thick clouds. Mick and I found a small one
to sit on while we were waiting. I had a lot on my mind. Jason,
Jackline, Mick, the woman, my parents. It seemed as though the more
that was revealed to me about this world, the less I
understood.

“
They are coming back,” I
heard Mick whisper.

I got up and lifted my head toward the sky
with the heavy clouds. Out of them I saw the bright light shining
through and in that light appeared the two majestic Angels once
again with the woman between them. She was smiling even wider and
looked so incredibly happy and peaceful. I couldn’t help smiling
myself.

They approached us and handed the woman to
Mick. Then one of them bent down and whispered something in his
ear. Mick nodded and looked at the woman.

The Angels kissed the woman on her
forehead before they soared into the air again and in the wink of
an eye they were gone.

I kept staring in their direction. I was in
awe. They were so magnificent.

“
You are going back,” I
heard Mick say to the woman.

I turned and stared at him and then at the
woman. She nodded.

“
Jesus told me he is answering
my husband’s and children’s prayers,” she said. Then she turned her
head and looked at me. “It is so beautiful up there that part of me
wishes I could stay.”

I was speechless as I reached out and took
her hand. As we descended I felt such a joy in my heart and a great
relief as well. I was so happy those children weren’t going to lose
their mother after all. I was relieved that Jesus had heard the
husband’s pleading and responded to it. It gave me hope too.

As we entered the operating room,
everything was quiet except for the high-pitched sound from the
heart monitor indicating her heart had stopped beating. The doctors
stood next to her body and stared at her with heads
bowed.

“
We lost her,” one of them
said.

The woman looked at me and Mick and
thanked us just before she went back into her human body again. A
second later the heart monitor started beeping and everyone in the
room turned to look at her as the life floated back into her
earthly body.

“
She is back … She is back!”
another doctor yelled. Then the room got very busy and we followed
them from a distance.

We went into the waiting room where the
husband now had joined his children. They were still crying and he
was holding them, trying to comfort them. That’s when I saw Mick do
something really amazing. He whispered in each of their ears.
Comforting words like: “She will be fine. Don’t worry. God heard
your prayer.” And I sensed that they started to calm down a little.
The youngest stopped crying so hard and the dad smiled at them and
said: “I know she will be fine. I just know it in my heart.” His
voice was so reassuring and peaceful that he managed to calm his
kids down.

A second later the door opened and
everybody was quiet. A doctor came in and took off his operating
mask.

The husband got up and walked toward him.
The nervousness and anxiety made his hands shake.

The doctor sighed and looked at him. “We
thought we lost her there, but she is out of danger
now.”

I looked at the children and saw their
faces light up while the husband fell on his knees and started
thanking God for answering his prayer. I felt a tear roll down my
cheek and wiped it away with the back of my hand.

“
Will she remember anything?” I
asked when we had gotten back to the Academy and were sitting on my
bed. Everyone in my dormitory was already asleep.

“
Not likely,” Mick
answered. “Some remember bits and pieces and remember leaving their
body, but that is normally all they remember.”

I nodded. It made sense that people
shouldn’t remember. Who would be afraid of dying if they knew for
sure they would go to a greater place afterward? Who would want to
make the most of their life on earth? Plus, it wouldn’t take any
faith if everybody knew for sure. They didn’t have to believe or
trust in anything which I had to admit I had learned was the
hardest.

“
By the way,” Mick said as he
got up from the bed. “Now you have learned how to make yourself
invisible to humans.”

I looked at him with disbelief. “What do
you mean?”

He pulled out the bottle with the pink
water from his jacket again. “This.”