[Completed] Ranked #1!
Ariana Grayson is young, beautiful, popular...and dead. Her best friend, Everly Clarke, is devastated and broken. She has never had to live without Ariana, relying on her as a crutch to hide her crippling anxiety. After meetin...
The library was quiet and almost completely empty, which gave me the perfect setting to read and take notes uninterrupted. According to the first book I had found, Ariana would most likely be where she currently was, The In Between, for anywhere between one and four more months, giving me that same amount of time before joining her. My adrenaline slowed back down to normal as I sighed in relief.
I could spend the summer with Leo. My mom had mentioned joining a pool club for the summer, which at first I shrugged off. But now it sounded perfect. The thought of hanging out by a pool with Leo would be ideal. Before my daydream continued, I forced myself to keep reading the books.
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The library didn't have much of a selection on the subject of paranormal stuff, so I made do with the few I had found. They all said basically the same things about spirits going somewhere right after death. Then the spirits, or souls, depending on what you like to call them, have their lives reviewed before they are sent to Heaven or Hell. It sounded similar to purgatory, to me, although I wasn't very religious. However, these books didn't mention specific religions, and instead focused on vague facts. I tried to put the pieces together myself.
If Ariana was somewhere waiting to have her life reviewed for sin, I assumed she'd then get the chance to atone for her sins, allowing her to go to Heaven. Flipping through the next few chapters, I passed over most of the text about sinning. Ariana wasn't a bad person. Plus, she was still young. I couldn't imagine it should take long before she was whisked up to Heaven.
Yet, as I began to read about souls who turned angry or malevolent, a voice in my head told me to write notes. Even as I protested to myself, reminding myself that Ariana was a good, caring person, I couldn't help but be a little put off by her since her death. She was certainly acting angry. What I tried to pass off as being upset she had died too young, I also heard her voice in my head from the now handful of times she'd come to me. She hadn't been screaming about how she'd died so young or unexpectedly. Ariana was furious that I wasn't there with her. Her anger, I realized, was focused at me.
I stopped taking notes as chills went up my spine. Ariana was enraged that I was still alive.
It was hard for me to process. My mind didn't want to accept it and spun it into a confusing mound of words that didn't make any sense. Why would my best friend want me dead? To join her in the afterlife? She was about to go on to Heaven...wasn't she?
Each book I read said the same thing: a spirit who seemed to be driven by a raging anger and resentment could cause harm to the living. As difficult as that was to accept, there was one thing that sounded much worse. Spirits who act infuriated, baiting the living to cross over to join them in death are going one place, and one place only. And it wasn't Heaven.
My eyes widened as I sat completely still. I didn't want to believe it, but Ariana was showing all the signs mentioned. If she wasn't going to Heaven.... I couldn't even finish that thought.
