Somewhere In-Between ~ An Adventure in the Afterlife

CHAPTER 16 - THERE'S A WAR GOIN' ON

Bertha laughed, holding her belly. "I guess Mister Demon don't want no hug from Miss Bertha! Ha!"

"Thank goodness you came along," said Max. "Those creatures must be pure evil. It looked like they were making my parents fight with each other."

"Demons." Bertha shook her head. "Yep, that's what they do. They take advantage of human weakness. Fear, guilt, anger, depression... these things attract demons the way a sick animal attracts a predator." Bertha gazed at Max's parents. "Demons spread their poison in the world by preying on poor suffering folks like these. It's always been that way."

"You were right when you called it a coward." Max folded his arms. "Mom and dad have enough to deal with, without those nasty demon guys making it worse. So that little creature I saw bothering Mom – was that a demon too?"

"Yeah, they come in all forms and sizes." Bertha wrinkled her nose. "Nasty things. That dark figure following Graveyard Girl around – he's one o' them too, of course."

"What do they want, anyway?"

"They want what any tyrant wants, Max: power. You remember my mural, don't you?"

"Yeah." Max remembered, of course. It was hard to forget the swarm of snarling creatures crawling out from the darkness, dragging people back into the deep with them. It was horrific. He'd rather remember the beautiful side, where bright glowing people charged to earth's rescue.

"In case you haven't noticed already, sweetie, there's a war goin' on. You've experienced a lot already, I know. But I have one more bombshell to throw at you. Honey, I'm what you'd call a recruiter for this war. Do you know what that means?"

Max shrugged.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "It means, I'm on the lookout for new talent, Maxie boy. Now, I've had my eye on you since you got here, and I've seen you adapt very quickly. You also seem to have a good measure of what's right and wrong – even though you are a bit of a troublemaker at school." She let out a chuckle. "Messing with the digital whiteboard in Mrs. Davis's room?" She slapped her side. "That was a silly thing to do, son, but I gotta hand it to you, that was creative. And sticking up for Graveyard Girl against those In-Betweener bullies – I was super proud to see that!"

Max smiled. "Wow, thanks," he said. "It sure is nice to be appreciated for once. So, then – what are you recruiting for, anyway? Is it some kind of ghost club?

Bertha laughed. "Well kind of... I want to recruit you as what we call a Warrior of Light."

"A Warrior of Light? Seriously? What does that even mean?"

"Sounds high-falutin', I know. I prefer the term Light Shiners, but I was out-voted. What just happened in this room here was a good example of what we Shiners do."

"So you make that bright light appear and it makes the bad guys go away?"

"That's a pretty simple way of saying it, but yeah, basically."

Max looked at his sister in the bed. He remembered the way Perry would come up behind him and wrap her little arms around his legs. Sure, she could be a brat sometimes, but she always looked up to him. Once they role-played superheroes together. She called him "SuperMax," and the nickname stuck. "I don't know. I don't think I should be volunteering for anything like that. I need to stay here with Perry and wait for the light to come. That's why I'm here."

Bertha smiled. "No, son, that's why you think you're here. You've got a much bigger purpose than that."

Max felt frustration well up inside him. "What purpose? I don't have a purpose, okay? I'm dead! It's over! I died before I could even figure out what my purpose was supposed to be!"