Go Home or Go Dead ✓

No Going Back?

This... must be a dream.

Because really, how else do I explain the imaginary part where I get a visa, book a flight and land my ass in Australia? Yeah, definitely a dream, and whoever's playing with my spirit realm this uneventful season is taking things a little too far.

"Australia?!" Ilona screams.

A couple eyes whip to our direction and I hiss at Ilona to quiet down. Unfortunately, my sister is a lot more unnerved than I am.

"How the hell did we get to Australia?" Ilona continues, and more eyes stare, no doubt wondering who was foolish enough to ask such absurd nonsenses.

I pinch my sister's arm and she yelps, her screaming abruptly cut off. Rio senses the urgency of our situation, because he then wheels us towards a small parlor upstairs that's devoid of people.

Plopping onto a large sofa, I weigh our nonexistent options. We're somehow all across the end of the Earth with no clue how we got here. The only way this would be possible is if we actually got on a plane, and that would be impossible because we had been just blocks away from our house an hour ago.

Rio's Aussie lilt lifts me from my thinking when he says, "I don't know what's goin' on with you both, but it's clear there's been some sort of mix-up. Can you tell me exactly how you got here?"

Ilona narrates the whole episode to him, though it's hard to piece what she's saying with all her mumbling and sniffing and stuttering. I watch Rio's eyes widen and narrow in succession and he goes awfully still as he listens to her.

"...and Maisie comes over and drags me out to a whole ass high budget horror film set! I mean what the fuck is up with those headstones?"

Right, the headstones. Chills run down my arms as I recall touching them, scanning the names to gauge their authenticity. Vanessa, Diana and Danielle— probably twins— and Rio. Rio...

My eyes widen as I whip up to stare at Rio.

"You're Rio? As in Rio Smith?" I interrupt Ilona's rambling.

Rio goes even stiller, and his stare makes me hold my breath in hopes my assumptions are wrong.

"How'd you know my name?"

Holy cow.

Ilona looks back and forth between us. "What are you talking about?"

"The headstones, Ilona. The names on the headstones," I grit out.

I don't wait to see the realization pass over my sister's features. It's as if this whole prank can only get worse and worse. Like we're taking two steps forward into understanding the mess we're in, and ten steps back when we think we're halfway there.

My brain puts our most recent puzzle pieces together: Rio Smith's ghost is standing in front of us, and we've been transported to the afterlife.

***

Rio takes the next few minutes to explain how he thinks he died. My heart aches as I watch him describe his death process and subsequent afterlife transition in a detached manner. I wonder if it'll be like that for everybody— what if we speak of our lives so emptily once we're gone? The thought made tears prickle at the corners of my eyes.

"So let me get this straight," Ilona starts. "We've been transported all the way to Australia from the party, and also somehow ended up in the afterlife?"

Rio shrugs. "Kinda what it looks like, yeah."

While that's our working theory, something about it irks me. Like, why would we suddenly be transported to the afterlife when we're living people? Unless we'd somehow died and come here. Even then, why Sydney and not New York?

"Maisie, say something. Don't just work shit in your head."

I blink at her and then at Rio. "I don't know, Ilona. I don't understand why we're even here. There was nothing relating to Australia or the afterlife in the  invitation card."

Then, it hits me.

I jolt off the sofa, startling Ilona. "Jesus, calm down, sis."

"The-the invitation card. Ilona, that's how we got here. It has to be."

"Okay, so?"

"I don't know, gosh! I just think it may be true."

Ilona nearly shouts, "But there was nothing of Australia in the card! It shouldn't have brought us here."

"Can I see the card?" Rio asks, holding his open palm out. Ilona fishes it out her purse and slaps it into his hand. He scans it, studying the card and envelope inside out. Then, he smiles and passes the card to me.

"I don't know about getting you ladies to Sydney, but I thinkyou have an ultimatum."

I flip the card like he did, studying it intently. Ilona moves behind me and studies it too.

"I don't see anything."

"Turn the card over and put it to the light."

I do as he says, and Ilona and I gasp in unison. Though the ultimatum is in code, with the numbers 1031 in some ancient font and a skull next to it, but we both can guess what fate awaits us by tomorrow morning on Halloween.

We have to figure out the way to go back to the living world and back to our city before then... or we're stuck here forever.

Dead in Australia.