The Midnight Hour & Other Scary Stories

Happy Fields

When Ash woke up, he was no longer in his car. Staring at a sapphire sky, he was lying on his back in an open field of wheat. It had been a bad crash. Was he dead?

"Hello there, Ash." A soothing voice came from his right. "We've been expecting you."

Ash slowly sat up. He was wearing white robes. The voice belonged to a very tall and slender figure. They wore white robes as well. However, Ash noticed that the figure's skull had been hollowed out and the face removed. A comedy mask, with a porcelain smile, stared back at him.

"It's good to see that you got here safely." The figure said.

"Where am I?" Ash asked.

"Why, you're in heaven of course." The figure said softly.

"Heaven?" Ash asked. He had not been a good person. Quite the opposite in fact. He had been drinking and driving the day of the crash. It was the most recent choice in a long line of bad choices Ash had made in his life. How could he have ended up here?

"You are confused." The figure said, tilting its head to the side. "Not to worry though. All will be made clear in time."

"Are you an angel?" Ash asked. Something about that mask creeped him out.

The figure chuckled. "Yes. I am an angel. Now please, come this way."

The figure turned around. They began to hover towards a city in the center of the field. As Ash followed after them he began to notice that there were other people rising up from the wheat. They wore white robes too. Each person was accompanied by an angel like the one Ash had spoken to. All of them were headed toward the city.

Try as he might, Ash couldn't make out the buildings. There was a strange haze over them so that they seemed to shimmer. It almost reminded him of a mirage. They were still a great distance away.

"Where are we going?" He asked the angel.

The angel turned a little so that one of its hollow eyes fell on him. "Do you see those buildings ahead? That's where we're going. It will be your new home while you're here. Don't worry though, there's plenty of room."

His new home? Ash had heard of mansions in heaven, but he didn't think it was a literal building. As he continued following the angel, he began to realize that he was feeling very warm. When he looked up, however, he noticed that there was no sun in the sky. Where was all the light and heat coming from then? Was it the city? It did seem brighter than before.

A gentle breeze ruffled his hair. It felt good against his skin. Ash could hear something faint on the wind, but he wasn't sure what it was.

He looked over to the other souls.

Ash saw something that made him stop cold. One of the others, a woman, had stopped as her angel continued on ahead. She was talking to it and shaking her head. Her angel slowly turned to look at her. It said something, then the woman began to cry. She started to run the other way. The angel followed, drifting lazily over the wheat.

Ash swallowed dryly.

Before he had a chance to ask what had happened, an icy hand touched his cheek, steering his face forward. His angel looked down at him, mask a flawless, frigid white.

"Do not worry." It said, smiling, "Not all who arrive are ready for the gift in store. Do not be afraid."

But Ash was afraid. Why were the angels so cold? When he looked back to the girl he had seen, neither her nor her angel were there anymore. Again, the wind brushed by his face and he heard something in the distance; a sound on the wind that made the hair on the back of his neck prickle. He began following his angel again, but more slowly this time.

The air grew warmer. Was it his imagination, or did there seem to be more light the closer they came to the city?

It wasn't his imagination. Light was coming from the city! It was bright and warm.

He walked the rest of the way in silence, throwing nervous glances to the other souls. They arrived at a ring of barren earth not much later. The angels had them stop at the ring's outer edge, where the wheat had wilted and turned black. Here, the light was blinding and the heat near suffocating. Ash could hardly see the city. He squinted his eyes.

That strange sound had grown louder. Why did it send chills down his spine?

"We have brought more." His angel said, speaking to the light.

"Very good." The light answered. This voice, like the angels, sounded hollow. Slowly, the light dimmed until Ash could see the city properly now.

Only it wasn't a city anymore.

The collection of shimmering buildings was actually some giant machine. It was stained black from belching soot and smoke. The light, likewise, was a fire. Now that it was dimming, the world dimmed with it.

Then, Ash heard that sound--the one he couldn't quite make out before.

It was screaming. Hundreds of millions of voices becoming a droning symphony that rose even higher than the smoke. Without the fire's roar to cover it, the wailing pierced his ear drums.

It wasn't a city they were headed towards.

It was a furnace.

Ash began to shake. Slowly, his angel turned to face him. Its plastered smile was dark and hollow.

"We are so cold without God's light." It said. "That just won't do in our heaven."