Nightfall

Chapter 5: The Other Side

"I'll do it"

"Do what?" all three of the men asked in unison, looking at me as if I had lost my mind.

"I want to go to the spiritual plain, and I want you to make my friends and family forget about me for now, but I'm not joining this organization of yours. After all, if I'm gonna be dead from here on out I want to at least be free to do what I want. So, take me to this spiritual plain, I'll fend for myself when I get there."

The paladin looked at me with an eyebrow raised, "I don't recall that being one of your options."

I looked at him square in the eyes, "Why can't it be? I mean you're going to take me over anyway, why can't I just fend for myself? If I have no choice but to die, I at least want to be free in the afterlife."

There was a long pause, pregnant with tension as everyone in the room stared at the hulking man. He held my gaze silently and sat still as a statue with his arms crossed.

Then after what seemed like forever he spoke, "It's not easy to live on the other side you know."

"I can guess that."

Another long stare followed that statement.

"Why?" he asked

"Why what?"

"Why do you hate the idea of joining us so much?"

I hesitated, "Well, there's a couple of reasons. But mostly, I just know that if I joined you, I would suffer every day. I would remember this moment where you ripped me from my world and I wouldn't be able to let it go. On some level I understand why you have to do it but that doesn't mean I can forgive you, it just makes it a little less painful."

The Paladin nodded, "Well considering how rare this particular circumstance is I can probably make an exception. However, I need to ask you once more, are you sure? If you do this you will never be able to rely on us to get on your feet. You will be jumping in the deep end not knowing how to swim.

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, "Yes, I'm sure."

They all seemed to relax a little after hearing me say that. Jack looked a little surprised, but none of them looked happy. Paladin Jacobs sat back and stared at me for a second before turning to the other two and telling them to get the preparations ready. They nodded and walked out of the room, leaving us alone in silence.

The Paladin's gaze was full of suppressed emotion. It was plain to see by his rigid expression that he didn't want me to see how he felt, but even with all of his effort there was still an unmaskable sadness in his eyes.

He sighed, "I'm sorry that we have to put you through all of this. I know it's hard to leave everyone behind on such short notice, but unfortunately, I haven't got much time to help you come to terms with your situation. If I let you take too long it will make it much harder to contain the situation, not to mention the risk that would come with waiting."

He paused for a second and frowned slightly, "As some consolation I'm going to tell you a few things I think you should know before crossing over. I know it doesn't make up for destroying your life, but it is really the only thing I can do to ease the pain."

I didn't give any signal to start talking, so there were several tense seconds before he started speaking, "First, the majority of the people in the country don't have any powers and are relatively unaware of the threat that demons still pose to it. We typically call people without powers mundanes, and they are exactly the same as everyone here on earth. That is all important to know for one reason; if they somehow come in contact with your pure aura in any way their souls will wake up and it is strictly forbidden to wake up the soul of a mundane. It causes a certain... bad omen that isn't present when it's woken naturally, and as a society we want to prevent it if at all possible. So, if you get caught using your aura on mundanes, you will be having another, less friendly visit from our organization. And I want to warn you to avoid that situation."