Life after Death: The Afterlife of Hezekiah Chamblee

Chapter Twenty-One: A Meeting at Afterlife Station

Third-Person POV

Meanwhile, at the Afterlife Station...

"Hezekiah's been through hellfire and hurricane, hasn't he?" Salgiel remarked as he, Louis, Catia, the archangels, and the archdemons finished watching the bonding time between Lucifer and Hezekiah, the duo in question enjoying themselves for swimming in the teenager's pool. "I'm actually glad that he's been placed in the Nexus if I'm being honest."

"Who isn't glad?" Catia remarked as the live feed went dark on the projector before she and the others sat down around the conference-room table. "He's been dealt with one too many bad hands in his life on Earth and he still manages to keep his feelings to himself. I don't think I could've handled it if I was in his shoes for even a day."

"Me neither," commented Louis. "And what Miss Slade pulled at the dinner party to celebrate the soulmate-discovery of Alvin and Damon was purely uncalled for and tasteless. She's even worse than Adelle Chamblee and her brood."

"Speaking of which, Michael and I just consulted with God about what had transpired at Hezekiah's memorial service which took place fourteen days after he came here. It's bad enough that they waited this long, but what happened was one for the books," said Gabriel.

"What did happen, I'd like to know?" Abaddon asked.

"Well, everything went smoothly according to schedule," Michael answered as another seraphim came in with drinks on hand. "Then came the eulogy made by Adelle and how she and her husband acted as they truly cared for Hezekiah. That's when Michael Coleman and his wife finally called them out on their bullshit and the family showed their true colors, all of them- except for Cameron- saying how much they hated him for being in their lives. Michael's son Andrew agreed with them and even said that he wouldn't be surprised if they did themselves a favor if the Chamblees had him killed."

"Oh my goodness," Catia breathed, shaking her head. "That's just foolish and cruel."

"Tell us about it," Gabriel commented. "Of course, he doesn't know the WHOLE story and neither do the other Chamblee kids while Cameron has a hunch on what really went down. Still, that comment was more than enough for the senator and his wife to disown Andrew and denounce the Chamblee clan while imploring for Cameron to cut ties with his family."

"Wonder what the little dude have to say about that?" Azrael piped up.

"You guys are going to love this," Gabriel went on. "Once the funeral service wrapped up, Adelle and Jeffrey gave him one last chance to renounce Hezekiah and be a part of the 'winning team' or face being sent away to Europe for school over the summer. Cameron was all for being sent away, citing that his family crossed the line completely and wants nothing to do with them ever again. His new nanny- a Jana Salzbach- also agreed and gave the now-stunned couple her resignation upon Cameron leaving for London the following day. So it's safe to say that Cameron's finally done with the Chamblee Diamond Standard nonsense completely."

"That's a relief," Salgiel said. "No doubt the kid's going to heaven if he keeps himself aligned with God's designs. But what happened to Hezekiah's ashes?"

A shadow of anger crossed Azrael's face. "Abaddon and I were there to watch Jeffrey toss the ashes in the garbage pail," he gritted. "Lucifer's been notified. He was livid as was God."

There was a terrible icy silence for a brief second before Salgiel spoke up. "Hezekiah's parents and three of his four siblings are a true piece of work," he said tersely. "No family worth their salt should treat the deceased like that."

"But there are those who do, Salgiel," Michael reminded him. "Which is all the more reason that things are going to get real for everyone real quick."

"Ain't that the truth," Abaddon commented. "Back to Miss Slade, I think it's safe to say that we're dealing with one rogue of a woman on our hands."

"I tried to find more about her when I registered her from the Nexus database of residents," Louis said. "But to my surprise, there's nothing about her. So I tried to find her through the land of the living. Imagine my surprise when I found out that there is only one other Catalina Slade in the records- a single mother of one from Alabama who's heading for heaven. She's been here only once with her child and was given a second chance of life on Earth."

"That means that whoever's in the Nexus is using a living person's name to be given access to the Nexus," Abaddon intoned, making the others gasp. "And if my hunches are correct, the fake Miss Slade's been here to avoid going back to hell. With the Convergence coming up, she'll be using that opportunity to cement her place in the Nexus."

"And it's all the more reason to find out more about her," Louis said. "I'll be digging deeper into the records from the lake of eternal fire and damnation to see what I can find. Because if she is trying to wait until the Convergence, then it means that she'll do all she can to make Chance Dalton hers."

"Not if God or Lucifer can help it," Gabriel said sharply. "And I might as well say this now because there's a good possibility that Hezekiah will need Chance more than ever."

"How's that?" Catia asked, confusion lit in her eyes.

"Chance and Hezekiah are destined soulmates," Louis answered. "But more importantly, they are both created to be demigods by both Lucifer and God."

"Wouldn't that make them brothers?" Abaddon asked.

"You'd might be surprised on how God and Lucifer can work, Abaddon," Azrael answered. "Like they say, a little faith can and will work wonders, a little faith."

"Well, with the boys being destined soulmates under special circumstances, it's all the more reason to find out who our 'Catalina Slade' impostor really is," Gabriel said. "Louis, you do your magic on the computers while Catia and Salgiel join you in keeping a close eye on Hezekiah. We archangels and arch-demons will notify the other demons alongside the cherubs and seraphs on what we discussed. Salgiel, you inform Thorn of what's going down since Hezekiah's his patient at his office. All hands are on deck for a lot of changes going on, folks, and we're going to have to batten down the hatches for one hell of a journey ahead of us."

"Right," Louis said, abruptly standing to his feet. "I need to head to my post, anyway, and get back to work with registering newcomers. The waves of change are fast upon us and Hezekiah is in the middle of it."

He was sure of it as was everyone else was.

But as they all say, gentle readers, nothing was truly easy as Hezekiah's life in the Nexus would be full of challenges, opportunities...and even a bit of romance. Turn to the next chapter and you'll see what I mean.

And the next two chapters in this story involve Chance and Hezekiah planning for the latter's trip to Pacifica Vista and finally settle the matter about their past on Earth...before things get sensually steamy and scandalous in all the right ways. You can bet you bottom dollar that the next two chapters are going to be worth the reading!

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