Old Soul

Praeses

Praeses could read her thoughts, so this is the afterlife. 

That made him laugh out loud. He could feel her tense up, her thoughts formed a barrier. She was being watched and she knew. She forced herself into a sitting position, gasping when she could actually move. Praeses covered his mouth with his hand. He wanted to watch her for a while longer, before she knew everything. They were always less exciting when they knew everything. Less curious, less wonderous.

Unknowledgable humans were the best.

She was standing now. Her back to him. She ran her hand over the small of her back, and she pressed in. There was no gasp of pain. She wiped a finger beneath her nose and it came back unbloodied. I'm whole, she concluded with wonder. 

She was truly beautiful, not in a traditional way either. She was athletic, with thick toned legs beneath her cutoff Jean shorts. She had prominent regal cheek bones and a high forehead. Her nose was long and straight, the kind that was a perfect slippery slope for precariously perched glasses. Fortunately for her, she wore none, so her almond shaped, golden hazel eyes could be seen properly. She had pink tulip lips with a thin upper lip and plump under one. Back in her earlier years, she had had long straight ashy hair, but now it was short, in a pixie cut. To Praeses it was like seeing her for the first time, even though he had watched her grow up 6 times already.

This was Praeses' favorite part. The joy, the happiness. They were okay, the afterlife was not a big black void of nothing. There was something, and they weren't in pain. It was the best they could have hoped for. But wait...what was there to do in this afterlife anyway? He could see in the way her shoulders sagged and the way that she turned to scrutinize every corner of the room, that she had reached this point in her wonderings.

"Come out and talk to me," she said suddenly. 

Praeses hadn't expected that. At least not only a minute in. She was smart.

He let his disguise fade, something they weren't allowed to do in front of humans. He was visible to her now, but she still hadn't seen him. And then-

"You!" She exclaimed, "the doctor?"

"I'm not a doctor," Praeses replied simply, "nor will I ever be one, I'm afraid. Not a high enough level of training. For now, I'm just your Eternity Guide."

"So what, you're supposed to show me the sights of heaven?" She asked sarcastically, "Doesn't look very interesting from where I'm sitting." 

Looking around the bland walls that seemed to stretch into nothingness, Praeses could see her point. "Lucky for you we aren't in heaven, yet." He told her. "We're just in limbo. And if we don't get moving in the next couple minutes you'll be stuck here forever." 

She raised an eyebrow, "right, well then, let's get to the good stuff."

"Not so fast," Praeses whispered. Whispers were always more effective that screams. They always caught one's attention with their solemn eeriness. Her head was cocked. "See, I have your permission to take you somewhere else." 

"What, no! I've never given you any sort of permission."

Praeses whipped out a diary, "it says right here,  April 14th, 2016, subject 24576 nodded." 

"Only because you told me to." She exclaimed, "I didn't know I was giving you permission to lock me out of heaven when I died. And secondly, my name is Juliette not 3.1415 whatever..."

"Subject 24576. And yes that is your name."

"It's Juliette."

"Well, technically it's Julien, if we want to be technical that is." 

Juliette laughed, "I have never been called Julien in my entire life."

"Not in your life," Praeses recounted mysteriously, "but in your past life."

He saw the space between her eyebrows crease, and he knew that he had her hooked. Nonchalantly he murmurred, "I could prove it to you."

Her head jerked up, and Praeses held out a hand. "Com'on Julien, we've got 30 seconds until we become stuck in limbo, for all eternity."

She growled, "well, then I don't have much of a choice do I?" She snatched his hand. "And it's Juliette!"