Dead!

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Hey Joe," I said as I sat down next to him. I didn't have anything better to do, so why not talk to Joe?

"Hello Ivy," Joe said. "How are you today?"

"I got called," I said. "It wasn't that exciting. Do you think they're going to call #42 soon?"

"Now serving Number 670!" I heard. "Number 670, please come to the front of the room! Number 670! To all others: remember that numbers may be called out of order. Number 670!"

"I doubt it," Joe said as Henri got up and walked over to the front of the room.

"Good luck Henri," I said as he walked past us.

"Merci Ivy!" he exclaimed.

"Who's that?" Joe asked.

"That's Henri," I said. "He died at the same time as I did."

"Ah, I see," Joe said. "Is he your friend?"

"Not really," I told him. I sighed. "I hope my number gets called soon."

"Don't get your hopes up too much," Joe said. "Otherwise, you're bound to be disappointed."

At that moment, Maya came over to where we were sitting. "I think I'm going to Hell!!!" she shouted.

"Calm down Maya," I said. "Why do you think you're going to Hell?"

"Well, the lady that worked for the Celestial Bureaucracy asked me for my occupation, and I said 'professional fangirl and proud member of The Black Parade.' I also said that I shipped Frerard, because shipping Frerard is a full-time job. She actually wrote all of that down! So she's going to find out that I don't actually get paid to fangirl, and then she'll say I'm a liar, and then the judges are going to send me to Hell!"

"Maya, I don't think you can get sent to Hell just for lying," I said. "You have to do something worse than that." Like bullying a kid so much that he goes and shoots up the school, I thought, but I tried to push that out of my mind.

"It gets worse," Maya said. "Then she asked me if I had any friends or relatives who had died within the last ten years, and I said Pete Wentz, because he died in a fanfic that I read last week. Mrs. Tipton actually had to look him up. Obviously, he's not dead in real life, but the good news is that if he dies for some reason before I get called again and he gets into Heaven, then I get to live with him!"

"Wouldn't you want to go to Hell?" I said. "Doesn't Brandon Urie or somebody live there?"

"IT'S BRENDON URIE!!!" Maya screamed.

"Okay fine, Brendon Urie," I said. "Didn't you say he was in Hell?"

"Yeah, he turned into the devil in the video for 'Emperor's New Clothes,'" Maya said. She promptly began to sing some weird emo song, presumably the Emperor's New Clothes song that she had just mentioned.

"Oh right," I said. "I forgot that all of your music was emo."

"Emo is a good thing," Maya said.

"No, it's really not," I said.

"You should listen to some of my music sometime," Maya said. "What do you listen to anyways?"

"Mostly pop," I said. "You know, Adele, Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, that sort of stuff."

"Ew," Maya said. "I really need to improve your music taste."

"Hey!" I said. "Don't insult my tastes!"

"Well, then don't insult mine!" Maya exclaimed.

"Can you please stop arguing?" Joe said.

"Who are you anyways?" Maya asked.

"Joe Faulkner," he said. "What's your name?"

"Maya Jackson," Maya said.

"Nice to meet you Maya," Joe said.

"Nice to meet you too," Maya mumbled.

"Kids these days," Joe grumbled. "No respect for their elders." Maya ignored him and put in her headphones.

I just sat there, waiting as I heard numbers being called off. "Number 668! Number 669! Number 672! Number 644! Number 701! Number 673!" I was just waiting for #667 to be called again, but I knew that might take a while. I had definitely done some horrible things in my very short life, but I had also done some good things, like helping out at the soup kitchen with my church, or helping Heather with her social studies homework. Maybe that would balance out all of the awful things that I had said to Anthony.

Joe was waiting too, waiting for #42. I hoped that they would call him, but it seemed unlikely at this point. He was trapped, and honestly, I pitied him. Nobody deserved to be stuck here forever, especially not Joe. He seemed like such a nice guy.

At this rate, it seemed like I was going to be stuck here too. Maybe that was what I deserved. I wasn't quite good enough for Heaven, but I wasn't evil either. It wasn't like I wanted all of those people to die. At that moment, I wished that I could undo it. I wished that I would have argued with Chloe every time that she said something mean about someone. I wished that I hadn't spread rumors and gossipped. I wished that I would have saved myself and all of the others. I still wasn't friends with Henri, Raj, and Jack, and I despised Maya, but they were innocent. They didn't deserve death.

I still had no idea what the Celestial Bureaucracy was going to do. I was terrified that they were going to send me to Hell, but it seemed inevitable. I was miserable and afraid, selfish and heavy-hearted, but more than anything, I felt alone.

So I waited for the judges to decide my fate.