Beyond (Afterlife book 1) (19 page)

When I realized that, I turned to look at
her and saw her lift the gun and point it at her husband. He was
still bent over Jason’s lifeless body and now he was raising the
bat to give him that final stroke I remembered from the book. The
one that would kill Jason.

First I looked at Jason and all the blood
on the floor, next at the mother. In the second between lifting and
swinging the bat the man looked up and his eyes caught those of the
mother. He froze for one fatal second.

Then she pulled the trigger.

The bullet hissed through the air and hit
the man right in the heart. It was as if time stood still and
nothing moved in the room. Time and even the air were frozen. All I
heard was the bullet hitting the flesh and going straight through
his body. I’m certain I even heard his heartbeat stop.

Then he fell to the floor. The bat
clattered on the tiles. It bounced a couple of times making the
loudest noise I have ever heard. It was like it wouldn’t stop. All
I heard in my head was that sound.

Then I sensed someone else was in the
room. I turned and saw Rahmiel. She put a hand on my shoulder and
squeezed it. I hadn’t realized I had started crying. Her touch made
me feel warm and loved like never before.

What I didn’t know was that I needed her
protection for the next thing that was about to happen. Suddenly it
was like there was a fire in the room. It became burning hot. The
shadows on the wall became bigger and their groaning louder. The
man’s spirit rose slowly from his body and as it did, the floor
opened up underneath him. A horrific screaming came into the room
and filled me with nothing but sorrow and pain. It was as if all
life and hope was sucked out of me. Rahmiel saw it and held me
tight. I heard her voice inside of my head, whispering comforting
words, telling me I was loved.

Then the opening in the floor turned into
what looked like an open mouth. Like a burning crater, like a giant
volcano with nothing but death and despair in it. I now realized
the screaming came from that burning crater. It was an endless
crying and screaming that burned its way into my heart and made me
feel empty and hopeless. I fell to my knees. Rahmiel knelt next to
me. With her mighty body she picked me up and held me in her arms.
Meanwhile the spirit of the step-dad started falling into the
burning crater. His face twisted in pain as he himself started
screaming.

Then the floor closed and he was gone. The
burning and the screaming stopped. Even the shadows had gone as
well.

Jason’s mother hadn’t moved, but now she
dropped the gun and ran toward Jason. She turned him around and
wiped blood off his face. She wailed and it made my stomach turn. I
loved him so much and I only wanted to help him. I wanted him not
to get beaten. But it had happened anyway.

I got back on my feet and flew closer. As
I did I heard a moan. It came from Jason. He was still
alive!

Filled with
such amazing joy inside, I
turned to look at Rahmiel. She smiled her comforting smile. I felt
like everything was going to be all right after all.

While his mother turned her back at us and
started calling for an ambulance Jason even opened his eyes and
looked at me. I was sure that I saw him smile behind that beaten-up
face when I made myself visible for a second. I smiled at him and
touched him gently.

“
You will be all right
now,” I whispered before I made myself invisible again.

Then I heard the mother call the police.

“
I shot my husband,” she
said.

I held Jason’s hand and sat next to him.
The police were first on the scene; the paramedics followed quickly
after. A paramedic declared the step-dad dead and the police
started interrogating the mother about what had
happened.

The paramedics examined Jason and his
wounds before they put him on a stretcher. But Jason wouldn’t lie
still. He kept looking at his mother while she was talking to the
police and crying. That was when I realized why he was so worried.
A second later she was put in handcuffs and two officers were
escorting her out of the house.

Another officer approached Jason.

“
I am sorry, son, but we
have to take your mother in.”

Jason’s eyes became wide and filled with
anxiety.

“
But why? She saved my life!” he
yelled.

“
She has killed a man. She
killed your stepfather and that needs to be
investigated.”

“
He was beating me … and
her!”

“
We still need to investigate if
a crime has been committed. As I said, I am sorry, but that’s the
way it is.”

Jason was now furious and tossing himself
around on the stretcher.

“
You can’t touch her! She was
defending me!” he yelled with all of his strength. I tried to
approach him, but his anger made it impossible.

Jason was carried out of the house on the
stretcher while he was screaming at the police. I felt Rahmiel’s
hand on my shoulder once again and I looked up. “It is time to go,”
she said.

I nodded and followed her back to the
bathroom where we went through the mirror. Rahmiel didn’t say a
word to me all the way back, not until I was in my bed again. Then
she looked me deep in the eyes.

“
You did something extremely
brave but also very foolish today,” she said. “We will talk about
it later. Now get some sleep.”

Then she kissed me on the forehead and as
she left the room with her glowing body all the light in the room
disappeared.

Chapter 22

A month went by with exams
and
, to my
own surprise, I was happy to learn that I passed with good marks.
Even The Art of Transition went pretty well, not something Mrs.
Ohayashi had expected either. After the exam she came out of the
classroom into the hall where I was waiting to hear if I had passed
or not. She looked at me with her narrow black eyes and
said:

“
Well, it seems as though we
will be getting on each other’s nerves in Advanced Art of
Transition next year as well.” And then she went back into the
classroom and closed the door.

“
I guess so,” I mumbled
happily while I went to see Mick in the kitchen.

“
I passed all of my
exams,” I said and hugged him.

“
Now that is something to
celebrate,” he said with a great smile.

He concentrated for a second while staring
into my eyes and then he smiled again.

“
You want strawberries
dipped in chocolate, huh?”

I smiled again. “Those are my
favorite.”

“
Well, your wish is my
command, my lady,” he said and bowed in front of me. Then he took a
plate in his hand and looked at it intensely until the strawberries
appeared a second later.

“
So how have you been?” he asked
while we ate.

“
Up and down. Mostly
concentrating on my exams.”

“
What about the whole Jason
story?”

I sighed. “I don’t know.
I haven’t visited him since, so I have no
idea how he is doing.”

“
Why is that?”

“
I feel like I’ve messed
everything up. I mean I am happy that I saved his life, but … I
don’t know.”

“
What don’t you
know?”

“
I don’t know if it was a
good thing or not.”

Mick nodded while putting another
strawberry in his mouth. I did the same. It was so incredibly
tasty.

“
You probably won’t be
able to visit him again,” he said. “Not through the mirror in the
cellar at least.”

I stared at him. I hadn’t thought about
that.

“
Why?”

“
The mirror was only set
on his house because he was supposed to die. It was prepared for
the spirits to go and get him.”

“
So now it is
closed?”

“
Probably. Or set on someone
else’s house.”

“
But we didn’t go through
a mirror when we went to get that woman in the hospital. We flew
there.”

“
It is only in the cases where
people die in their own home that the Angels put up a portal
through a mirror. Sometimes we have to travel all day to get to
certain people, like we did.”

“
Oh. So does that mean that
there are more mirrors like this in this castle?”

He nodded. “Hundreds.”

“
Wow.”

He smiled and nodded again.

“
More strawberries?”

I shook my head.

“
I have to go. Salathiel
and Rahmiel want to see me in their chamber.”

“
Well, take one for the
road, then,” Mick said while holding out the plate in front of
me.

I took one and kissed Mick on the cheek. He
blushed. And so did I.

Salathiel and Rahmiel turned as I entered
the room through the wooden door. It still left me out of breath,
but I had definitely improved.

Rahmiel smiled and asked me to sit down in
a huge leather chair. Their chamber was beautifully decorated with
old leather furniture, lots of books, and a candle lighted on the
table. It had a nice ambiance to it.

Salathiel sighed and sat on a chair in front
of me.

My heart started beating faster and faster.
An idea struck me. Were they going to kick me out of the school?
Could they do that?

“
What you did in the human world
was a serious breach of our rules,” he said. “It is clearly stated
that students cannot go outside the school area. It is too
dangerous and you might cause trouble in that world of which you
are not aware. Even the spiritual world’s very existence might be
revealed to them. And that cannot happen. Later on, when you
graduate from this Academy, visits to the human world will be
allowed, but not until you fully understand the consequences it
might cause to the people to whom you reveal yourself. Is that
understood?”

I nodded anxiously.

“
Nevertheless,” Salathiel
continued with a more gentle tone. “We find your intentions and
actions toward the human boy as honorable and filled with all the
right motives.”

Rahmiel took over. “What Salathiel is
saying is that you had the right intentions. You followed your
heart and showed compassion for a human being. And that is a good
thing. It is actually a great thing. When spirits or Angels visit
the earth, it is to show the humans that we love them, that they
are being cared for. And that was what you did for
Jason.”

I nodded, a little less
anxious.

“
So what does that mean?”
I asked. “Will I be punished?”

Salathiel and Rahmiel looked at each
other. Then they laughed. I felt relieved. They didn’t seem to be
angry with me.

“
No, sweet child. No one will be
punished for loving somebody,” Rahmiel said. “But you have to know
that your actions have had great impact on Jason’s life on
earth.”

I nodded. Then Rahmiel and Salathiel got up
from their huge chairs and stood in front of me. I felt so small
and insignificant.

“
We need to show you
something,” Rahmiel said and reached out her hand toward
me.

I took it.

The n
ext thing I knew, we were flying in
the air. And we were going faster than I had ever gone before. The
two Angels held tightly onto my hands while they pulled me gently
with them. We stopped in front of a house. It took me a couple of
seconds before I realized that it was Jason’s. It was abandoned.
Windows were broken, weeds had taken over the lawn and it looked
dark and a little creepy.

“
What happened?” I
asked.

“
They had to leave the
house,” Rahmiel said.

“
But where are they now?
Where is Jason?”

Rahmiel and Salathiel grabbed my hands
again and we soared into the air. They took me to the big city and
into a small alley filled with garbage disposals and people
sleeping on the ground.

“
What are we doing here?” I
asked, rather nervous about the answer. This was not a nice
neighborhood. Homeless people slept on the ground with all their
belongings in plastic bags next to them.

Rahmiel sighed and then she pointed at one
of the homeless people. It was a young man sitting on the
ground.

“
It’s okay. You can go
closer,” she said and pointed again.

I approached him as my heart beat faster.
Could it really be? Was it him? I looked closer and recognized
Jason. He was dirty, his clothes ripped. He stared straight into
thin air, like he was paralyzed.

“
What’s wrong with him?” I
asked.

“
Well, his mother was sentenced
two years in jail for killing her husband, so Jason had no one to
take care of him. The bank took the house to pay for all the
hospital bills for Jason’s recovery. He was left with nothing. Now
he lives on the street.”

I stood directly in front of him and
looked into his eyes. I made myself visible to him and waited for
him to recognize me, but he didn’t even see me. He stared right
through me.