Dead!

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

My instincts told me that I should run right back into the basement, but I decided to stay to investigate. The boy had an angular face with tan skin and dark brown hair that stuck up in all directions. He was wearing a leather jacket, jeans, and sneakers. He was an inch or two shorter than me, and a cigarette was dangling out of his mouth. "Who...who are you?" I asked him as I stepped a little bit closer.

"I'm Jordan," he said. "Who are you?"

"Ivy Livingston," I said, relaxing a little bit.

"Ivy," Jordan said. "That's such a pretty name. A pretty name for a pretty girl, I suppose."

"Where are you from?" I asked. "I've never seen you around here before."

"That's not important," he said. He started looking around and said, "This is a pretty nice house you've got here."

"It's not my house," I said. "I live next door."

"Why are you here then?" he asked.

"Jack, Henri, and Raj..." I began, but Jordan interrupted.

"Whoa, you're hanging out with three guys?" Jordan said. "You must be really popular around here if you have all of those boys chasing after you."

"They're not chasing after me," I said, blushing. "Henri and Jack are gay, and I'm pretty sure that Raj isn't interested in me. They're all just friends, and they were throwing me a birthday party, or they were until the demons showed up."

"It's your birthday?" Jordan said. "Happy birthday, kitten."

"Did you just call me kitten?" I said.

"Yes," Jordan said. "I called my last girlfriend that, and she liked it."

"You look pretty young," I said. "I bet you've never even had a girlfriend."

Jordan sighed. "You're right," he said. "I haven't."

"How old are you anyways?" I asked.

"I was fourteen when I died, but now I'm sixteen," Jordan replied. "How old are you?"

"I'm seventeen, as of today," I said.

"How did you die?" Jordan asked me.

"School shooting," I replied. "What about you?"

"Car crash," Jordan said. "I jaywalked, and that's why the Celestial Bureaucracy sent me to Hell."

"You're from Hell?!" I exclaimed. I was tempted to get him out of the house as quickly as possible, which in retrospect, I probably should have done, but I was intrigued by Jordan. He had this bad boy charm that just pulled me in.

"Yeah," Jordan said. "It definitely wasn't fair though. All I did was jaywalk! That shouldn't be enough to get me into Hell!"

"That's really not fair at all," I said.

"I'm going to try to stay here as long as possible until I get pulled back into Hell," Jordan said. "I didn't deserve to be sent to Hell."

"You can get pulled back into Hell?" I said.

Jordan nodded. "We can't exist in Heaven for long, so eventually, we get pulled back into Hell. Supposedly, it's a pretty painful experience, but I'd go through it for just a little bit more time with you, kitten."

"That's nice, but can you please stop calling me kitten?" I said. "It's kind of getting on my nerves."

"Fine," Jordan said. "Damn, I wish the demons hadn't destroyed the TV. Then I might be able to get caught up on the Walking Dead."

"There's a TV down in the basement, but everyone else is in there, and they might freak out if they saw you," I said.

Jordan started looking through the books that had fallen off of a bookshelf. "Wow, you guys get books?" he said as he began to flip through one of them. "Lucky. In Hell, we have one bookstore, and the only things in it are exactly one copy of Dante's Inferno, a whole bunch of biographies of Justin Blubber, and some awful fanfiction that I don't remember the name of. It's not like any of us have any time to read anyways."

"Hell must be pretty terrible," I said.

"That's kind of the point, isn't it?" Jordan said. "The weather's much nicer here too. I wish it was like this in Hell."

"Again, isn't that the point?" I argued. "I know you don't belong there though."

"I don't!" Jordan exclaimed. "All I did was jaywalk!"

"Are you sure there wasn't anything else?" I asked.

"I'm sure," Jordan said. He entered the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator. "There's pizza? Awesome! I haven't had that in forever!" He put a slice of pizza in the microwave and heated it up. "What sort of food do you like?" he asked me.

"I love chocolate," I said.

"Chocolate's good, but I tend to prefer savory foods over sweet ones," Jordan said. He took the pizza out of the microwave and devoured it. "Like pizza," he said. "Pizza is amazing."

"You know, Jodi's going to get mad at you for that," I said.

"Who's Jodi?" Jordan asked.

"Jack's mother," I said.

Jordan shrugged. "I don't really care what other people think," he said. "Especially adults. I just don't think that it's fair that they have so much power over us."

"Whatever you say," I said.

Jordan took one last bite out of his pizza before saying, "That was delicious. I haven't had food like that in years."

In a way, I kind of pitied Jordan. He didn't deserve whatever punishments he was getting in Hell. He didn't seem like too bad of a guy. He was just misunderstood. "How often do you come here?" I asked.

"Only every few months," he said. "It's only when one of the other demons decides that we need to attack Heaven. There's a weird sort of hierarchy in Hell. Usually those that have been there longer get to make all of the decisions. I got taken along on this one because I know the area."

"How long have you been in Hell again?" I asked.

"Two years," Jordan answered.

"And you only get let out a few times per year?" I said. "That must be horrible."

"Yeah, it really is," Jordan said. "I wish I could be here with you, Ivy."

Just as he said that, he began to fade away. "JORDAN!" I shouted, but he was gone. Jordan was back in Hell. I sighed and went back into the basement.

"Was everything okay up there?" Raj asked.

"You sure took a long time," Jodi said. "We were getting worried."

"Yeah, everything was fine," I said. "The demons got into the house, and the TV's broken, but that can be replaced. They're gone now."

I decided not to tell anyone about Jordan for now. My encounter with the boy from Hell would be my little secret.