Sudden Departure

Chapter Ten

I pushed myself up from the ground to lock eyes with the girl in front of me. Her hair was large and swollen with thick coco curls. She towered above me in her black high-heeled boots. Her face was pure and unblemished and her eyes were a mesmerizing transparent blue. Dark jeans were painted on her legs and a loose blue sweater draped off of her shoulders.

She must have noticed the confused expression on my face because she told me her name. "I'm Nebula, and you're dead."

More tears sprayed from my eyes. I feigned a laugh and wiped them away. "Nebula? What kind of name is that?"

She snorted and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Don't judge. I changed it. It was the seventies and I was a space nerd."

I laughed through tears and Nebula flashed me a sympathetic smile. "You better come with me." She grabbed a hold of my forearm and twisted us around. When we turned we were in a giant room. The ceiling was tall and vaulted and had multicolored wisps were painted on it.

"Welcome to Paradise!" A million happy voices chimed.

Millions of people filled the room. Some of the faces were read like mine and others were devoid of emotion. Dull chatter and the scuffling of chairs polluted the air. Pale men and woman in black suits and dress skirts tapped away on bluish floating screens.

Nebula pulled on my arm and ushered me into a little room. A glass wall, much like the one in my house, separated us from the din of the other room. The remaining walls were painted a light mauve and a sleek gray couch wrapped in a "u" in the center of the room.

As Nebula pushed on my shoulder to sit my down I looked down at my body. My grimy hoody, jeans, and converse were replaced with a sleeveless, flowing white dress. My hair was tied back into a simple bun at the base of my head and my shoes and socks were gone, leaving my chipped green polish exposed.

Fresh tears escaped my eyes. The hoody wasn't even mine. It was Cameron's. That was really the last physical memory I had of him. I sniffled and hiccuped. Nebula pulled out a tissue and handed it to me. I gratefully wiped my eyes and nodded at her.

She strode across the room and settled into the couch across from me. "Okay. Um, let me start... Oh! Okay, have you ever been geocaching?"

I I but my lip, confused, "No,"

Nebula scoffed, "Gosh, what did you do with your life?"

I frowned at her huffed.

She clasped her hands to her mouth. "Oh my gosh! I am SO sorry."

I waved her away and wiped more tears from my eyes.

"Um, anyways," she continued cautiously. "Geocaching is like a treasure hunt. You are given GPS coordinates and you have to go to them. From there, there are mile markers that you have to follow to get to a certain destination. Once you get there, there is a hidden capsule with a little gift inside.

"Life is like this. You have many different life stages, the first one is waiting. You are basically in this giant green room waiting to be born. First, you get your coordinates, or life plans (we call these Mortal Assignments.) Then, you go to these coordinates, your birth. After that, the various geotag mile-markers are just generall life milestones. The last mile-marker is your death."

I nodded and smoothed my hair back.

"So, you know how you are supposed to take the gift, but leave one of your own. No? Okay, well, that's what you do. A spirit comes and does a special ritual, called the Parting Ritual, to take your Life Essence (mortal personality, relationships, belonging) and replaces it with your Death Essence (immortal personality, yada, yada, yada.)

"But, stay with me here, a long, long, LONG time ago everyone knew when they died so that they would be able to tie loose-ends and get their priorities together. Well, in the spirit world there is a form of death and the spirits doing the ritual were jealous because they didn't know when they died. To ease their jealousy they started practicing the ritual on unsuspecting people. These people were called 'Sudden Departures.'"

Nebula nodded at me and I nodded back.

"Now, Shailene, over time the knowledge of the point of time in which you died was revoked because of the number of spirits that rebelled and the number of Sudden Departures coming in. Then, the name stuck for those unfortunate people.

I stood up and stared into Nebula's transparent eyes. "What does this, any of this, have to do with me?" I challenged.

Nebula walked to me and squeezed my hand. "I'm sorry, but you are one of these poor souls. You are a Sudden Departure."

I sank back into the couch and stared at the wall. "So, what you're telling me is that because of their anger and jealousy these spirits murdered me? Cold blood?" I mumbled dazedly.

Nebula kneeled in front of and rested her hands on my knees. A fierce fire grew bright in her clear eyes. "Yes. That's true. As a Sudden Departure it is your duty to protect other people from the wrath of these rebelling spirits. You have the choice to say 'yes' and fight them."

I frowned and stared at her. "What happens if I say 'no.'"

The crazed smile fell from her face. "You pass through death here in Paradise and go to the death world of the spirits. That place is worse than Hell."

I bit my lip and considered. A first death is bad, but a second one is worse. I would be traveling farther away from my family and whoever else I would come to meet here.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. "Yes."