Pomegranate Parfait

Chapter 4

Korey Rodi fought an unnatural sleep. It clawed at her, dragging her deeper into unconsciousness even as she battled to stay awake.

Korey ran towards the stone arch, but the ground pulled at her feet – she moved in slow motion, screaming as the sun disappeared beneath the ground. Darkness erupted from the arch, dragging Korey through it like a whirlpool.

Her skin glistened above a layer of slick sweat. A bead gathered on her temple, slithering down her goose-bumped skin, landing in a pool beneath her head.

Korey sat at a shrunken table. She was too small; everything around her was too big. She poured the tea from the steaming pot: four servings, one for each of them. To her right, a woman in a stark white nurse's costume smiled behind painted red lips. To her left, a legless man picked through the columns of a torn newspaper, murmuring to himself. Korey drew her teacup to her lips; the steam tickled her nose. When she laid it to rest, a gnarled, near skeletal hand pounced on her arm. Korey's gaze followed the gnarled hand up a dark robe to a sunken, blurry face. Even as she focused, the face would not come completely into view. All she could remember were the two black holes; emptiness where the eyes should have been.

Her raven-black hair tangled on the sheets. Her thin eyebrows pursed together against the weight of sleep. Someone sat at the foot of her bed. Someone was speaking. "...it's impossible. A mortal shouldn't have been able to enter the Dark Realm. Nothing living survives the passage."

A clipped voice answered, the last thing Korey heard before the Darkness took over once more. "Then why isn't she dead?"

A bouquet of shriveled roses, blood red and rippled with thorns. A petal shivered and detached, slipping to the ground. When Korey looked closer, she realized they were not roses; they were beating, human hearts.

Korey seized against the power keeping her down. It hissed terrible things in her ears; toss and turn as she might, Korey could not silence its haunting voice, puncturing not only her ears, but her mind.

Korey screamed and screamed; there was no answer. She could not move. She forgot how to speak. A single tear escaped from her eye. Exhausted from fighting, Korey felt her cries fade. She let her head roll to the side, the only part of her body she could control. Her own reflection stared at her through the bars. It grinned.

***

Korey was definitely going crazy. Flowers rained from the sky, bathed in eerie blue light. She blinked furiously. The flowers remained, only now, she could recognize the brush strokes behind the petals. A mural decorated the domed ceiling above Korey's bed, depicting a summer day so warm, she could almost feel its heat radiating in her bones.

The room had no windows, and only one door. The high, vaulted ceilings made Korey feel smaller than a mouse. Every object was made of obsidian stone, reflecting the pale blue light hanging from the center of the ceiling like an inverted sun. There were no decorations save the mural above her head. The room was completely void of life.

A large figure slumped against a chair beside her. Korey tried to raise her head, but it was like trying to escape quicksand: the more she tried, the less her body would obey. Jax snapped to attention, his rigid body mellowed by the sleepy-muss of his hair. His dark eyes scoured her face, revealing nothing. "You're not dead." It was not spoken as an insult, merely a fact.

"'Course not," she rasped, trying to remember how to move her mouth. "You'd miss me too much."

Jax quirked his head at her. "You are unlike anyone I have ever met, Korey Rodi."

"Thank you."

"It wasn't a compliment."

She cast him a sideways look. "Whatever you say, Deathboy." Then, partly to herself, "they always change their minds."

Annoyance visibly rippled through his body. "Don't call me that."

Korey rubbed her eyes. They were rough and crusted to the touch; it seemed her mascara truly was ever-lasting. "You call me zoi," she countered.
"It's not a name – it's what you are." Jax rolled his neck, flashing pale skin pulled taut over muscle. "The zoi are mortal souls. You humans are given them at birth and wear them until death. Then, your souls return to the Afterworld through the Mortal Gate. Most end up as raw power, which are used to run the city, or fuel soul-lights," he motioned to the glowing blue orb above their heads. "Those are the zoi that made no great difference either way. The pure souls live in their own city above the River of Rebirth."

"And the other ones?"

Jax stopped his stretching, a pensive look settling upon his face. "Souls that do not pass judgement are not granted entrance to this realm. They end up somewhere much darker than here. No one really knows, I guess. Part of no redemption is no memory of who they were, so that they are bound to be obsolete for all eternity."

"Cheery," Korey mumbled, wincing as she attempted to rise. Jax watched without hiding his smirk. He laughed as she fell back against the pillows.

"You're not exactly in mint-condition, Rodi," he sneered. Jax rose from his chair and headed for the door, calling over his shoulder, "And the longer you stay here, the worse it will get. This is no place for the living."