The Journey After

Chapter 3: First Assignment

Ash got up. He felt well rested. That is just an illusion though, as Lockie had told him he no longer needed to sleep or eat. They still do this to keep a sense of normalcy. Ash found everybody else up and awake in the games room. "Mrs Crest came while you were sleeping. She wants to see you in her office." Livi informed Ash. "I don't know where that is" Ash said. "I'll take you," Lockie said.

The way there the topic of conversation turned to the team. "You know when our last team leader found his after, I thought Ms Crest would make me team leader" Lockie announced. "Man I was trying to steal your thunder here. I DIED and ended up here. Given the choice I'd still be alive." Ash exclaimed, jaw clenched and frustrated. "Mate, I know none of us chose to be here. I'm just making the most of it all. I mean being here, being a guardian angel of the in-between, it's like being given a second chance. A bit more of life you know?" Lockie explained, but Ash just nodded unconvinced. They arrived at a door. It was blue, it stood out almost all of everything else about Ms Crest so far. On the door was a plaque with Ms Crest was embezzled on it. "This is the place." Lockie said and turned to leave. "How am I going to get back?" Ash asked. "You'll find a way," Lockie replied, then disappeared right In front of Ash's disbelieving eyes. Taken aback by Lockies sudden and literal disappearance, it took a little while for him to muster up the courage to knock on Ms Crests door. "Come in." Ms Crest hollered and Ash promptly did so. "You wanted to see me?" Ash said. "How are you settling in?" She asked, deflecting from his question. Ash was puzzled as to why she asked to see him just to ask that. He shrugged a don't know in reply. "On to why I've called you here for," and here it comes Ash thought. "I've picked your first assignment. How it will work on this particular occasion is you're going to choose one member of your team to do this assignment with you. It will give you time to get to know one of your team well on a one to one basis. Back to the topic of conversation. Your assignment is to help a soul, a Blake Granger, he had a life albeit not a pleasant one. He was a bit of an alcoholic. He has unfinished business on earth." "To my understanding don't we all?" Ash interrupted. She rolled her eyes. "Not the point-" "What is the point?" Ash butted in. "The point is, you signed up for this and therefor you're just going to have to get on with it." She said bitterly. "Okay." Ash said bringing the conversation back around. "Back to Blake Granger. Somethings holding him back, stopping him from moving on to his after. Your job is to help him find out what and why is stopping from moving on." Ms Crest started, "You're going to find him moments after his sole left his body. Help him work out why he hasn't moved straight on to the after." Her eyes never left Ash's awestruck face. "This one will be tricky for you, so I would suggest choosing one of the most experienced members of your team for this one. To err show you the ropes." She went on to say, "Maybe Lockie, Max or Livi. They've been at G.O.B.A the longest." "How long?" "Max six earth years. Livi two. Lockie three. The others are pretty new. Although I would say that Lockie and Max are most experienced." Yet again Ash was shocked. Max the scrawny looking geeky kid has been dead six years! How could he have gone that long without moving on to his after, whatever that is? Will that happen to me? Ash thought.

"How do I get back?" Ash asked, "When I came here Lockie brought me. Then he literally disappeared right out of thin air. How is that possible?" Ms Crest gave him a look like he was made of pure stupidity and explained. "You're in the in-between you no longer conform to the laws of physics. Just imagine where you want to be and in a click of your fingers you're there. You might want to be aware that you can manipulate the forces, but that much is obvious, because we're so close to what the living call ghosts." Ms Crest answered.

Back in the boy's room Ash was thinking over the day. He had found it hard enough to take in that he was dead, yet to be bombarded with more shocking information; that's hard enough for even the emotionally strong and stable people to cope with. He started to ponder why and whether his life and death was significant. Was he supposed to be in the in-between? Was it fate that he was here and not alive? One in seven billion. Did his life and death really matter? He had a billion and one more questions stored up in his head. Thousands of things to think about. It was completely beyond him why he'd impulsively signed up to G.O.B.A. thinking about it, really thinking about it makes no sense to him. He could, no should be finding out why he himself hadn't moved on. Max had been dead and with G.O.B.A six years. Six bloody years and never found his after.

Lockie seemed to just be in it for the crack. He must just want a bit more time on earth and alive, or at least as close to that as possible. He must have been getting a kick out of pretending to be some kind of angel. Ash got strong feelings of hostility from Lockie. To Lockie it must seem like Ash's sole purpose in death was to steal his shine. Ash almost pitied Max and Lockie they'd been stuck helping other people finding their afters; which has made them side tracked from finding their own. Ash had decided to try and become detached from the group, so he could focus on finding his own after and what was holding him back.

What could be holding him back? He thought, why I was in care? Did it have something to do with my real parents? Or possibly a combination of things? Ash eventually gave up on the mess that was his thoughts and got some rest.

'I'm a just a kid' was deafening my ear drums. I was intent on seeing what was drawing me out into the night. Was it a completely creepy superstition or something more? It was as I took my first step in crossing the road, the car came speeding towards me. My last thought was: Is this a coincidence that was my found date? In his final moments on Earth, the car collided into him.

Ash let out a piercing scream. Everyone came running to his bedside. "Are you ok?" Livi asked concerned. "You know what it'll just be his death mares." Lockie said like he couldn't care less. "Death mares?" Ash mumbled confused. "We'll all get them. It's like a flashback of your last moments of your living life. Just know that we all go through it, you're not alone." April comforted him. Ash tried to shrug it off.

Death mare? Maybe they're not thinking about this enough. Maybe these... these death mares are supposed to help. Throw some light on this jigsaw, it could possibly help find why we're stuck here in the in-between. That's just one of the many ideas floating around Ash's head. Suddenly it struck him. In the dream the day he died was his found date, could that be related to anything?

Ash never knew his real birthday. He could only really celebrate the day he was found. Ash was found on a cold winters evening, in the middle of the woods on a frost ridden day. He was left in a Moses basket with just a blanket and a tag attached that said, 'Astrid. A fallen star. A son I couldn't keep.' It was a surprise to the man who found him that Astrid was even alive and for a while it was uncertain whether or whether not he would've lived. He was rushed to hospital that day. He left the hospital under the care of the authority's but still holding on to the tag. Ash kept that tag on his person till the day he died. Ash had memorised those words on the tag. Memorised and analysed those three sentences over and over in his head. They gave nothing away. Not why someone gave him up and left him in the woods. Not what poor baby Astrid had done to get abandoned. What circumstances had happened to lead his mother or father to leave him there. Ash was in the local newspaper when he was found. There was even a small search for his mother and father or anyone related to Astrid, was started. Nothing ever came of it, they're searches were in vain.