Child of Earth

33

We made it to the top just before the door to Heaven closed, luckily the doors shut after the sun went down.

I stepped through the portal without looking what was on the other side, and can I tell you right now, Heaven is amazing.

Okay imagine every amazing place you've ever been to. Heaven had all of those. Now imagine all the horrible places you've ever been, Heaven had none of those.

It was the idealistic vision of perfect. No pollution, no graffiti, no crime, no litter, no angry drivers, no clogged lines or pathways.

Everything was perfect.

And here I could hear the ghosts talking and laughing and doing things that would be similar to what others in the mortal world would be doing, and it almost deafened me.

Imagine that Heaven had grabbed every good place in the world and sewed them together seamlessly, leaving out all the bad things.

I could smell cooking food, living trees, freshly cut grass and new paint.

It was a weird but wonderful combination.

I smiled and recognised this place as a city, like someone had taken New York, London and Melbourne and just woven them together, leaving out the bad bits.

I looked around and I could see Big Ben, the Sydney Opera House, Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building and Pokémon Headquarters somewhere around the place, in the distance.

Although I did see a huge floating landmass as well, that definitely wasn't a part of the mortal world.

It was Annabra Academy's castle mixed with the City of Oz, and it was mind-blowingly, breathtakingly, amazingly, beautiful.

"Well my father has good tastes." Said Nick looking up as well, I laughed lightly before realising that that was Death's castle, and he wanted one of us to die.

I swallowed my doubts and tapped passing woman on the shoulder.

She turned and smiled warmly. "Uh do you know how to get to the castle?" I asked nervously. She just nodded understandingly and chuckled lightly.

"Of course dear, head into the little building under the castle and one of the angels 'll beam you up, don't be scared honey, everyone does it."

She smiled again, patting me reassuringly on the shoulder before turning around and continuing down the street.

Ebony shrugged and Nathan grunted, shifting Ebony in his arms so he was more comfortable.

"Okay, Nathan can you make the walk?" I asked realising how tired he must be.

"Yeah, Eb's not that heavy, I can do it." He said shifting her again.

I sighed and put my hand on his shoulder giving him a large amount of my core essence, making me feel really tired.

Boys and their stupid pride... he'd say he's fine if he's half dead and missing all four limbs.

I sighed and continued in the direction of the floating island that strangely enough, didn't cast any shadow. Which sort of worked in our favour.

The closer we got to underneath the middle of the island, the more cautious I got. I hadn't been to the city in ages and because of that, I had to pull myself up for jaywalking all the time and my inner compass was of no use in the Underworld.

Half the time I just followed Nick along until finally we stopped in front of a building labelled 'Heaven co.' in huge stark white block writing, like the Hollywood sign but much smaller.

Nathan had managed to hold onto Ebony the whole way here and I was tempted to give him a medal or something because half of the time Ebony was ranting about something no one of us bothered with, unconscious or blaming us for almost killing her.

I would have been almost comical had it not been true.

I took a deep breath and opened the door, Nick and Nathan right behind me. I walked up to the counter and got right to the point. I hate procrastinating.

"Hi there, we have an appointment with Death." I said placing my hands on the counter and leaning forwards slightly not bothering to gather my surroundings like I usually do.

The woman behind the desk looked up from behind her computer and I would say that she would have been quite attractive if it wasn't for the fact that one of her eyes was pitch black and the other was stark white like the sign outside.

I held back a gasp and just smiled like I didn't care. She looked slightly shocked at my reaction until she formed a little 'o' with her mouth.

"Okay so you're Annabra right?" she said as if just realising, glancing at Nathan and Ebony briefly before focusing on me again.

"Alright, pleasure to find you in Heaven no doubt you deserve it but is Tomeinus expecting you?"

I nodded, "Yes he's been expecting us for a while. We have a very serious matter to discuss with him. We even brought his son."

Nick poked his head out from behind me and waved before going back behind me again.

"In fact we aren't even dead! We need to talk to him immediately, the fate of the Earth is in balance."

The woman raised an eyebrow, which I wasn't able to do consciously without raising both and she closed her eyes.

A second later she opened her eyes and grinned sadly. "Go right up the stairs to your left, when you reach the top you'll be in the castle. Thank you for what you do to save us mortals... just think about what would happen if you had a bigger family."

She got out of her desk and walked behind a long floor to ceiling curtain, leaving us alone.

What in Hell did she mean by that?

---

We climbed the floating glass staircase until I reached the last step which was made of stone. I placed one hesitant foot on it and nothing happened, I shrugged and placed both feet firmly on the step I wasn't standing on the step anymore, I was inside the castle, standing in between two doors.

I tried to open the one behind me and when it didn't budge I just waited for my friends to come through so we could all go through the door I was standing in front of.

It was made of very strong iron and looked to be incredibly thick. Breaking it down wasn't an option if it didn't open. The door was single but quite huge considering how small I was compared to it.

Like the door was literally about nine feet tall and didn't even reach the ceiling. I could only just reach the door knob.

Nathan and Ebony appeared behind me and I moved forwards slightly so they had room before Nick appeared.

I nodded to each of them and licked my lips, placing my hand on the door knob.

I turned my wrist and the door clicked open. I let out a breath and walked through, Nathan and Ebony right next to me and Nick behind.

Here one of us would die, according to Nick. I tried not to dwell on it but I realised that I didn't want any of us to die after what we had all gone through, but you can't fight Death, it'll get you in the end, even if 'the end' is only just after you turn thirteen.

I'd face him with my friends and only think of every moment before this, I was hoping this one specific memory would keep out of my mind.

I already had trouble sleeping.