Finding Life | ✓

Chapter Twenty-Six

Finding Life

Part 27 • Death

"Why are you in District 83?"

—Destiny, God's Helper

••••••••••••

Lily, Erin and I are standing in front of court, in Elysium. The banner that's been plastered on court for decades reads "Welcome, Newly Deceased." Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Erin shudder.

"Are you afraid?" I ask, refraining from having eye contact.

"Yeah," he replies, "Where the hell am I?"

"This is Elysium," Lily replies for me, "and that building over there is court. Every soul goes there to get evaluated."

"And then I get to go to Heaven or Hell?" Erin asks.

I shake my head. "It's not the easy. Sometimes it takes months for a soul to get evaluated because there's so many people dying. After they wait and get evaluated, the soul needs to travel to the White Side or the Dark Side and repay their sins for a certain amount of time."

"The AfterLife has sides?" Erin asks.

Lily giggles at this. "Yes, it does. The White Side is for the Angels and the Dark Side is for the Devils."

"Oh," he says.

"Let's go to court, shall we?" I say, already moving past the lingering souls.

Erin follows behind me and Lily stays all the way in the back. We manage to get into court after minutes of pushing souls.

"Stay here guys," I say to Lily and Erin.

Then, I walk up to Dianne and whisper in her ear, "Can you quickly evaluated Erin over there, by Lily, so we can take him into the AfterLife?"

"Sure, bring him in," Dianne says.

I rush back to where I left Lily and Erin. They're still here. Erin looks a little lost and that's acceptable, but Lily seems a bit spooked out by all the commotion. Shouldn't she be used to the hustle and bustle of court by now?

Whatever it may be, I beckon them to follow me to Dianne's booth. When we show up, Dianne looks ready to evaluate Erin.

"Please stand on the stage," she says to Erin.

I encourage him to walk over to the small, circular stage in front of Dianne's booth. Erin slowly walks over there and stands on top of the stage.

Dianne stares at her computer because all of Erin's information shows up there. Dianne keeps a blank face as she reads the results to herself.

"Erin Hart, you're given Heaven. Please proceed to the gates and go to Xades. You will repay your sins for one year."

He nods, probably not understanding what the hell Dianne just told him. Erin strides over to us and says, "So I'm supposed to stay in Xades for entire year?"

"Afraid so," I respond. "Can I take you there?"

"Uh, sure," Erin says, "The lady said something about a gate."

"Hey, Lily," I say and turn to face her, "I'm going to bring Erin to Xades. Why don't you go home?"

"Sure," she says, smiling, as she always does.

I nod and turn to face Erin again. "We don't have to go to the gates. I can transport us there."

Without waiting for him to reply, I hold onto Erin's shoulder and transport us to Xades. When the darkness dissipates, we're standing in Xades. I can see all the souls who are repaying their sins in their own AfterLifes; Erin, I know, can't see any of them.