Dead!

Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Thursday came more quickly than I would have liked. I called Rosie that morning and told her that I was taking a day off. When she asked why, I simply told her that I had more important things to do. It was kind of the truth. Saving Maya was more important than going to work that day.

I quickly got ready and then went out the door. Henri, Jack, Raj, and I had agreed to meet at the train station, so that's where I went. I spotted Adam on my way, and I desperately wanted to talk to him about our plan, but I didn't have time to stop. The boys would be mad if I was late.

I couldn't find them at first, so I headed to Starbucks instead. I needed my morning caffeine boost, so I went up to the counter and ordered a mocha frappuccino. Of course, at that very moment, Raj, Jack, and Henri walked by.

"I knew it!" Henri exclaimed. "I knew that she would be at Starbucks."

"It's such a stereotypical white girl thing," Raj added. He casually entered the store and tapped me on the shoulder. "Ivy, we need to go. The train leaves at 8:30."

"But my mocha frappucino will be done in only a few minutes!" I exclaimed. At that moment, the barista finished my drink and handed it to me. "Thanks," I said to the barista and then I turned to Raj. "We can go now. I have my drink."

The four of us went back to the train station and got on the train. "Do we have a plan yet?" Jack asked us, clutching onto his copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Underworld.

"Not really," Raj said. "Do you have anything?"

"No, but you guys were supposed to come up with something," Jack said.

"We could wait until someone opens the door, and then we could run in," Henri suggested.

"That's a pretty good idea," I said.

"We are definitely going to get caught if we do that," Jack said. "Any other ideas?"

"I don't have anything," I said.

"We could disguise ourselves as Celestial Bureaucracy employees," Raj suggested. "It's kind of like Luke and Han pretending to be stormtroopers in Star Wars."

"We still wouldn't have the necessary clearance to open the door to Hell," Jack said. "None of this is going to work, but we need to come up with something."

"We will improvise," Henri said as the train came to a stop. All four of us got off and walked over to the Celestial Bureaucracy building.

"The door to Hell is on the eighth floor," Jack said as he motioned for all of us to come towards the elevator. When we all got in, Jack hit the button for the eighth floor. The elevator went up to that floor, and when it stopped, we all got off.

I looked around. It appeared that we were back in the waiting room. The plastic chairs in the rectangular formation were unwelcomely familiar. I was hoping to see Joe, but I didn't see him. Maybe he was just hiding, or maybe he really had been called. I just stood there for a while, but I was startled when an elderly woman spontaneously appeared next to the ticket dispenser. Then I heard, "Now serving Number 996! Number 996, please come to the front of the room! Number 996! To all others: remember that numbers may be called out of order. Number 996!"

Yes, this was definitely the waiting room.

"Where do we go next?" I asked.

"Just go to the front of the room," Jack said. "I have enough clearance to get that far."

All of us went up to the front of the room, but a grumpy-looking older man stopped us when we got to the line of desks. "Hey, what are you doing?" he shouted. "Wait until it's your turn to be called!"

"I'm a employee here," Jack said. He took out his ID and showed it to the man. "I'm delivering Soul Analysis reports to the judges."

"What about your little friends over here?" the man said. "You can't all be 'delivering reports.'"

Jack was at a loss for words, so I took over. Lying couldn't be that hard, right? "I work here too, actually. I forgot my ID today, but I'm also delivering reports. Henri just started here - he's shadowing me for the day. Raj...Raj, I think, is Number 996. He's not with us, but he just got called. So can you let all of us in?"

"Fine," the man said. "All of you can enter the judging room." The man led us into the room, which all of us immediately recognized. As I closed the door, I heard the real Number 996 screaming about how Raj was an imposter, but I didn't bother to listen too much. We were so close. All we had to do was sneak past the judges' table and somehow unlock the door into Hell.

Unfortunately, the whole sneaking past the judges' table part didn't work so well, mostly because Jack couldn't keep his mouth shut. "Did you know that banging your head against a wall will burn 150 calories per hour?"

"Really?" Henri said. "That's so interesting."

"Could you shut up?" I said. "The judges are going to catch us."

At that moment, Samantha swiveled her chair around and spotted us. "Ivy? What are you doing here?" she asked. I sighed and quickly explained the situation to Samantha. I then asked her if she could open the door. "I can, but are you sure this is a good idea?" she said. "Your soul could be destroyed if you go in there, and then you'll never be able to be reborn."

"We're sure," I said. "This is for Maya."

"Okay," Samantha said as she opened the door. "Good luck."

This is it, I thought. There's no turning back now. I took a deep breath and stepped through the door. I was prepared for whatever was to come.