After

Chapter One-Waking Up

"Where am I? I swear I will slit your throat, british boy." I snarl as I press my knife point against the boy's pale neck.

"Calm down love. I told you I'm not going to hurt you." He speaks so calmly, as if I wasn't pressing a knife against his adam's apple.

"Don't love me. Where... am I?" I say, half certain my eyes are blazing red.

"After, miss, After."

"After what? You had better open your mouth or I will take this knife and.." I start.

"Go ahead, won't help you any." He says chuckling under his breath.

"What is wrong with you?" I say. Great, I've been kidnapped by an insane person.

He grabs my hand and shoves the knife into his own throat. I scream like I am the crazy one. I hear the knife hit the floor from behind my hands. I peek around my fingers when I don't hear the body hit the floor.

. When I do he begins to laugh, standing in front of me clutching his sides from laughing that hard. "You...have...no idea... how... funny that is." He say's tear streaming down his face. "Hurt's like fire but so... so worth it."

"What... I don't...What!?"

"You should have seen the look on your face." He says.

"Can you stop being insane for one moment and explain what... just... happened?" I grit my teeth and yell from behind them. I stare at his neck, no scratch let alone the stab wound that should have been there.

"Sorry, love, that's above my pay grade. The director will explain. Here's your knife kid." He scoops it up from the floor and throws it at me catching my arm. There's pain but, not like there should have been. I stare at the cut, and watch as the skin knits itself together. The blood dries before the drops can hit the floor.

"What the...."

"Can't keep the higher ups waiting." he says as if nothing's happened.

"I'm not going anywhere until you explain. What... just... happened?" I hiss through my teeth.

"You shouldn't grind your teeth like that." He states as if it's the most intelligent observation ever made.

"What just happened?" I yell.

"Let's go, love. Then you'll get your bloody explanation." Finally, finally he seems annoyed.

"Fine, but it better be fantastic. This is Insane."

"'Bout time." I grab my knife as he pulls me out of the room into a maze of walls.

"Go on in." the boy says.

"What?"

"I'm...uh...not allowed in, a punishment of sorts." He runs his hand through his ginger hair.

"For what?" I ask, not exactly caring.

"I scared a few kids."

"I would have never thought such a sane individual, as yourself, could scare some children." I throw as much sarcasm in to my reply as possible.

"I think you're a bit sarcastic, but I like that not many talk back." He says laughing again.

"And I think you are absolutely insane, dude."

"Alexander."

"Alexander the Insane has a nice ring." I say in a sing-song voice.

"Go in, love."

"Ida. The names Ida."

"Go inside Ida." he turns on his heel and walks back the way we came.

I find myself in a chapel. Stained glass on three of the four walls, filling the room will strange diluted light. It seems that I am alone, the room is completely silent. There's a peacefulness to the room.

"Over here Ida. Hello, I'm the director and governor of After." say's a vaguely familiar woman's voice. I turn to the direction of the voice that startled me. I see a woman in all gray her face covered by a veil sitting in a pew in the back of the room.

"What is After and what is going on?" I say taking a step closer.

"Come, sit with me."

"Tell me now or I will hunt myself out of the maze you call a building and call the cops." I say hearing my voice raise a little.

"The police can't help you Ida." she says shaking her head a little.

"What!? I swear, everyone has lost..." I say fully yelling now.

"Ida, you're dead."

"What is wrong..." I scream.

"Ida, look at me." I refuse as I shake my head angrily.

"How do you even know..."

"Look at me."I turn away from her.

"This is the afterworld, heaven so many other titles, but it's all the same. Ida you are dead." I hear her get up and walk.

"No...no...no. I was... was getting away. She didn't kill me... did she? I was..." Tears come for reasons I do not know.

"You were hit by a car Ida."

"I couldn't have. I was getting away..." I bury my head in my hands again.

"Ida, look at me. Who am I?" I look up to see that she has removed her veil.

"Mom!" My mother died of cancer when I was ten, and she's standing in front of my like no time has passed. Her black hair is flowing down her back like it did before the chemo.

"Yeah, you're dead Ida." I finally believe her, there's no other explanation.

"I happened to die into the sector of the horse."

"What? Mom I..."

"I know this is shocking. I'm so sorry I left you with him and... that woman." The woman that abused me since I was eleven, every burn, every scar I have is thanks to her. The woman my father married after my mom died.

"How did I die?"

" I already told you already. You were hit by a car."

" How?"

"You were twenty miles from the house."

"Mom I..."

"I know."

"I was running away. I was going to the police. I couldn't anymore." I was going to report her I was running so hard, my breath ragged.

"I know, Ida. I read the report. We'll talk about this later. We have to get you to the sector-less." She says looking at me.

"What?"

"You were under eighteen when you died so you live with everyone else who died while they were underage."

"Oh."

Two men come in through the door behind me. One blonde, and the other italian looking.

"Sam, Austin see that Ida makes it to the sector-less safely."

"Yes, ma'am." the blonde one says obidently.

"See you later, Ida." my mother says giving me a hug.

"Bye...mom..." i manage before I walk out of the chapel.