The New World: Afterlife

Chapter 26

"I guess I'll see you again sometime in the future. Thanks to you I can now move on. We can all move on. Now go, live out the rest of your life." Was the last thing Jim Pickett The II, Jim's great ancestor, told him before they parted ways. Jim was alive again, just in a very deep sleep. Grim had forced him to get the rest Jim very much needed. He had a very strange dream about breadsticks though, they were stuck to his hands and he couldn't get them off. When he woke up again he didn't immediately open his eyes, but he could feel the warmth of Turg around him. Turg was cuddling Jim, keeping him close and protecting him from whatever Turg was afraid of. Jim gave Turg a small kiss on the cheek and whispered "Hey, you awake?"
Turg immediately opened his eyes and was wide awake, Jim only just opened his. His vision was quite blurry still, but he could still see Turg looking back at him while smiling. Turg then started kissing Jim back as he started to laugh a bit and said "I missed you too, Turg." 
"Turg so happy! Jim back!" Turg excitedly exclaimed as he sat up and started flapping his hands around. As Jim's eyes adjusted, he saw that he was back in that blue-purple sparkle room in Turg's family's home in the magic realm. The floor was entirely covered by matching cushions, pillows and blankets. Jim could also see that Turg was wearing Jim's blue and grey sweater and that he was shirtless. Jim couldn't help but to smile back at Turg, his joy was contagious. Jim sat up with him and stretched, he didn't feel sore while he did it. While he was stretching, Turg grabbed him and pulled him closer for a hug. Jim just embraced it, he really needed it. He was doing everything in his power to not breakdown into tears. Eventually Grim returned and knelt down next to them while asking Jim "How are you feeling?"
Jim looked back at Grim with tears falling from his eyes, that was enough of a response for them. 
"Do you need to talk?" Grim then asked as Jim couldn't hold it back anymore. He broke down into tears, he was incredibly frustrated over everything that had happened and was hoping it was over, or at least the worst of it. After a few minutes Jim calmed down enough to finally respond with "Is it over?"
"For the most part." Grim answered before asking Jim again "But how are you feeling now?"
Jim thought about it for a moment. He was still very tired while also feeling a bit dizzy and lightheaded. 
"I don't know besides the fact I still feel exhausted." Jim answered Grim's question. 
"I would be too if I went through that. Thankfully I can't because I am already dead." Grim said as Turg gave his own input "Turg too."
"I never want to experience that again." Jim said as Grim responded "Neither do we."
"In fact, I would rather forget that this whole thing happened." Jim said again before looking back up at Turg, remembering what happened to him last time someone messed with memory erasing. Jim then looked back at Grim and added "Actually, bad idea. I will instead learn from this." 
"And what did you learn?" Grim asked. Jim thought about it, the more he did the more he began to realize that none of it was his fault this time, for once. 
"Uh, don't trust anyone with my last name?" Jim answered, though he wasn't so sure. 
"Turg don't like Leehoimen." Turg mentioned as Grim said "I think for once you didn't start the chaos actually. My bad, force of habit." 
"What happened after the fight though? I assume we won." Jim felt like he needed to ask. Turg was the first to reply "Turg took staff. It gave life back to people. But Janice broke it. Janice also killed fake Jim." 
"Wait, Janice?" Jim asked again as Grim explained "After you and Leehoimen vanished, Janice insisted that she destroyed the staff and it freed a lot of trapped souls. Man was most definitely a serial killer. You and Leehoimen became trackable to me again after it was broken too for some reason. She also saved me from having to kill." 
"So I guess it does run in the family." Jim jokingly said before giving his actual response "And that's a lot to take in."
"The important things are that you are alive again, Leehoimen is for sure gone as I made sure of that and Janice is alive, as you requested." Grim told Jim before adding "And she's here too, somewhere."
"But what happened to you? I thought the plan was to be the host of Turg but you suddenly vanished." Grim asked Jim for an explanation of his side. Jim smiled as he explained himself "I don't know what happened either. He took my hand and sent me to the void where we proceeded to have a very magical and nonsensical fight that nobody could win. Then the next thing I knew I was in the afterlife again surrounded by relatives who looked nearly identical to me."
"Oh, that would explain why you completely vanished from my internal radar." Grim said quietly as Turg started cuddling Jim again. 
"Think you'll give me my sweater back?" Jim asked Turg who replied with a simple "No." 
"Alright then." Jim said as Grim asked him again "So, do you want anything to eat and-or drink?" 
"Uh, yeah actually, you can just get me anything." Jim replied before looking back up at Turg again and adding "Would be a good idea before I inevitable fall back asleep while in the arms of my beloved Turg." 
"Alright, I'll be back then." Grim said as they stood back up and left the room, leaving Jim alone with Turg, not that it was a bad thing. 
"Turg, I just want to tell you that I'm sorry for putting you through that. It was unexpected and I would've avoided it if I could." Jim told Turg.
"It's okay. Turg don't mind. Turg just happy to help." Turg responded as Jim said "Yeah, but still. I will do everything in my power to prevent it again."
Grim then returned with some food and water for Jim, though Turg took some of it because he felt like it. Jim would then fall back asleep for a bit only to wake up a few hours later smelling smoke for some reason. Turg had brought Jim the giant shark plush again, though because their home burned down it smelled like smoke. Didn't have any damage it just had the smell. Turg was still in the room when Jim woke up again, he was with someone else. It was Janice, though from what Jim could see through his slightly blurred vision, her vampirism had been cured. Her skin was less pale, her eyes looked more human-like and she was wearing a dress that was light pink in colour with some white accents. 
"Jim has awoken." Turg said as Jim sat up again while rubbing his eyes. For once he didn't feel like shit after taking a nap, a rare occurrence for him. Janice didn't say anything, she remained knelt down next to Turg.
"Yes, and were you moving things from the house?" Jim asked in response to what Turg said. Turg answered "Grim said to take what not damaged."
"Did you find the cats?" Jim asked again. Turg responded "Yes. They not here. They safe though."
"Good, I'll deal with that later." Jim said as Janice also said "I'm sorry that happened to you guys, I didn't think he'd go that far."
"Well, he got what was coming to him." Was Jim's only response to what Janice said. He no longer hated her but still didn't fully trust her either. 
"Yes. I killed his brother for you, while he was using your body. I-I hope you're not mad about that." Janice said again as she was very clearly avoiding looking at Jim. She seemed to be scared of how Jim might react to that. 
"I'm not mad, it's what needed to happen." Jim told Janice in attempt to reassure her. Janice then explained "It felt so wrong to do, it was like I was killing my own child, but he wasn't my child. I've never killed anyone before, but I guess it doesn't really count because he was already dead, just fused into a body that wasn't his. I guess I did do some good, I freed all those souls he had trapped in that crystal ball on his staff by shattering it."
Turg gave his own input by saying "Turg there to watch."
"Well, I appreciate you doing that." Jim told Janice again as she started looking at Jim. She then responded with "Oh, well, you're welcome I guess."
She then started ranting "I thought I could trust Leehoimen but I should've known something was up when he became obsessed with getting custody over you. I see now that it was for malicious purposes and not because he cared about you. Once again I was fooled by former in-laws. I hope everyone in that family suffers, everyone who deserves it at least." 
Jim was silent for a few moments before he responded with "We are both fools, I trusted him too."
"Turg too. Not anymore." Turg responded to what Jim said. 
"Honestly after having experienced all of this I think I'm going to take your last name when we get married." Jim said as he pointed to Turg as the realization then hit him. The wedding day, he forgot about it and had no idea how many days had passed. 
Jim then started exclaiming "Oh shit! The wedding! Feck! I completely forgot!"