Heaven's New Recruit

Chapter 3-Ascension

Simon

The vortex swirled as they entered. Simon could feel his body molecules contract through the portal and expand out of the other end. He was hit with an extreme case of nausea, so extreme that the moment he came out of the other side he crashed into the sand. His hands buried deep under the sand and his head resting on the gritty grains.

"Get up."

"Woah, easy there. It was his first time" said Damian kneeling next to Simon. Pearl looked at him, he could see her face from the end of his eyes. It was clear she was trying not to laugh.

"I ought to rephrase that better. It was his first time turning into an atom on the other side of a planet and then turning back. How's that?"Damian asked him, his face grim-looking in the distance, like Superman after defeating Lex Luthor or Doomsday, in this case, his inapt sentence phrasing.

Simon pulled himself up and looked at Damian with a sarcastic smile." Thanks, that helped me a lot".He shook his body and dusted the sand off his clothes. In the distance he could see a city, it glimmered under the shine of the sun like a mirage but Simon knew that no mirage could make a structure so high and mighty. The Burj Khalifa lived up to its name, a tower whose tip was covered by clouds and its body shining against the morning sun. The tallest tower in the world 

"So, are we going to walk all the way there?"

"Pardon me but we came here for the chamber of ascension, not for sightseeing" Rose admonished. 

Great, he thought, I'm already being scolded by a girl younger than me. Though he admitted that she was more mature than he was, it was kinda the case for all girls.

"So where are we supposed to go? Into the sand?"

"Precisely, Watson, "replied Pearl.

"Follow us and try not to piss her off." pleaded Rose."It will be such a hassle if you do"

Simon was about to ask who was referred to as she when the ground in front of them rose revealing an entrance into the earth. He had not noticed the patch in the ground, he was too busy thinking that his insides just exploded. The entrance was like mine entrance. As he entered, he noticed that the walls were lined with torches glowing bright red. Once they had all entered, the mini cave dropped like a lift, he could hear the soft trickle of sand overhead the cave as it descended through the layers of rock and sand. The cave-ish depression stopped and the earth in front of them was opened. They were thrown into the light as they entered the glass dome. He looked around in amazement, he was sure they had dropped around 2-3 meters below the earth, so how was the light reaching so deep and how could he see the sky from here.

" The dome is under sun control film, so the light can pass through here but no one can see it from the top," answered Rose before he could ask what it was.

Rose walked towards him and pushed to the bench seated at one end of the dome."A woman will come and collect you for ascension. We'll, be waiting at the top."

"Who?"

"An elder, when we become 23, we graduate and become elder, we are then given a choice of profession in the spirit world" Rose explained as they all returned to the entrance and they ascended leaving him waiting and anxious.

6 minutes later

Simon retold what had happened a few hours ago to the elder.

"Quite a night you had, didn't you," said the woman. They had entered a room which had a big capsule ."The capsule has electrical and heat insulators built in the wall and is firmly stuck to the ground in case of any 'windy' accidents. Please enter the chamber" She asked.