Start of Elysium & Purgatory (Prequel)

1- Wooden Stakes and Sins

"Krista! Why are you standing up again?" Hayden's concern and frustration were rolling off in waves.

"Hayden, calm down. I'm only a week pregnant, not 6 months pregnant that I have to be resting every second of every day. Plus, there have been more souls coming in lately. I could help reduce the traffic." Grinning, I went to my closet to choose from one of the endless dresses that it was filled with. 

"I know but I just get so worried. I would die if anything happened to you." 

Turning around, I hugged him, instantly calming him. My hugs always worked for that. Landing a chaste kiss on his lips, I whirled around and ran giggling to the door. 

There was no way that I was not going to help him with the sorting of the souls today. I ran down the stairs and opened the castle doors. 

The beauty of the courtyard still didn't fail to astound me, even though I had been living here for hundreds of years. I walked down the courtyard to one of the caverns where most souls were coming from recently. 

That particular cavern collected souls from different countries but the most souls were coming from Syria and Yemen. Probably something had happened on Earth. 

Today, everything seemed beautiful to me, even those black flowers that my gardens were filled with. I was tired of the lack of color here but I still survived. This place was definitely better than Earth for me.

Humming a song that I had recently heard on the radio, I walked into the cavern just to see a man materialize out of thin air. As soon as he appeared, his legs buckled under him causing him to face plant into the earthy ground. 

His back had a wooden splinter protruding out with blood on it. I grimaced slightly, feeling pity for the guy but centuries of sorting souls stopped me from crying hysterically. He was one of the hundreds of people who came from this cavern who had died even when their time wasn't over. 

He slowly looked up, his face a mask of agony. I hurried forward to help him up. The sooner he went to Heaven, the sooner his pain would go away. 

"Where am I?" He looked at me with broken eyes. 

"You are in what we call the Underworld, a place where souls go before they are sent to Heaven or Hell." He grabbed onto my arm as if shocked. 

"Does that mean that I'm really...dead?", he asked with such horror that I almost laughed. He probably imagined death as a horrible place. I was shocked at how he didn't argue with me. Most people thought that I was joking with them. This guy was very smart.  

"Yes. Yes, you are. Now, do you mind loosening your grip on my arm so I can escort you to the elevators which will choose if you will enter into Heaven or Hell?" 

Slowly, he withdrew his hand, leaving a rust-colored mark on my arm. Slinging an arm around him to keep him upright, I dragged him out of the cavern and to the elevators. 

As soon as we reached the elevators, he collapsed, taking me down with him. Spitting out dirt, I helped the man up who was staring at the elevators in amazement. The elevators stood tall and proud, one a blood red and the other a shade of blue that you could never have seen on Earth. 

I pushed him right in the middle of the two elevators. Seconds passed while I impatiently waited for the papers to come that would decide his fate. With a whoosh, a paper dropped into the box in the middle of the elevators. 

I jumped forward and grabbed it. The man still had remains of pain on his face but his face was now morphed into one of curiosity. I read the first two lines and stopped to look up at him.