The Skylands (A Divergent fanfic)

Tris's P.O.V.

        My whole body ached. I tried to groan, but no sound came out. I tried to open my eyes, to stand up, but, I wasn't able to move at all. I tried to remember where I was, and what was going on, but I could barely think over the pain. My first thought was that I must have been injected with some kind of serum. But my second thought was wondering where I got that thought. Serum? Where had that come from? Was I remembering something? Something about a serum.... It all came back in a flash; the memory serum, David, dying, Tobias... I sucked in a breath, or would have if I had had control over my body. Tobias! Where was he? He must be so worried about me.... wait. Hold on. Back up. I died. DIED. How could I have died? Does that mean I'm in the aferlife? Am I with Mom? I seem to remember her leading me away... or was that a halluciantion? And if I'm dead, why do I still feel pain? Unless I've been judged as bad in life, and sent to the underworld.... I realize that I have to wake up. I struggle to open my eyes, consenrating as hard as I can on this small movement. I manage to open them a slit, but I can't see much. I seem to be facing the sky, and it looked just as it always did.

        "I think she's waking up!" I hear someone say. The voice sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it....

        "Tris, are you awake?" asks another voice, this one more masculine. I seemed to remember it more clearly... more recent.

        "Uriah?" I tried to say, but it came out as a strangled croak.

        "She's waking up!" exclaimed the first voice. It was becoming more and more familiar now, but I couldn't quite place it. I finally managed to open my eyes, and what I saw might have been a bigger surprise than realizing that I was dead.

        "Mom?" I croaked, barely able to form the word.

        "Oh sweetie, I'm here," she said, happy tears falling from her face. "You're safe now."

        "W-what happened?" I managed, still unable to move much more than my eyes and mouth.

        "You-you died," Uriah explained, as my mom was too busy hugging me to reply.

        "S-so where am I now?" I questioned.

        "Well," he began, "this is the next step. What comes after life on Earth. Your third step of the Great Journey."

        "W-what's that?" I asked, confused.

        "Well, there are many stages- the exact number is unknown- to life. The first is before you're born, when you're just a cell, growing larger and larger inside of your mother. The second is life, as you call it. The third is here, the afterlife. It's what comes after the death of your hman body, and the soul moves on to what we call the Skylands. {A/N creaive name, ikr?} Here, the Judges seperate you either Paradise, or the Abyss. We're in Paradise. It's mostly like normal life, but you're in the sky and there's no evil threatening you at every turn. We don't know what happens after you leave the Skylands, but we don't believe it's anything to fear." My lips curled into a pained smirk.

        "And h-how do you know all of this? Last time I met you, you couldn't care less about being smart." Uriah grinned, but his cheeks pinkened slightly.

        "Well, coming here often brings out unknown talents from within people." Suddenly, I remembered something. Or to be more specific, someONE. Someone else that had died.

        "Will!" I exclaimed, trying to sit up, but letting out a painful groan as I felt all of my injuries flare up again. "Ugh," I moaned, "if this is Paradise, why am I aching everywhere?"

        "Like Uriah said," my mom said, finally letting go of me, "it's mostly like normal life here. You can still live and die like humans, just without all of the murderous maniacs of Earth. You can still die here, just of natural, or atleast more normal, causes. Now, you need to lie back down. We were afraid we'd loose you."

        "What do you mean?" I asked.

        "Well, not everyone survives the journey. Some progress straight to the next stage. It's like on Earth, where sometimes mothers have miscarrages. The unborn child skips straight to Paradise, where they are cared for by a foster mother. The same thing can happen here. If something happens during the journey to the Skylands, there's a chance the person can be sent straight to the next stage," explained Uriah.

        "So what about Will?" I asked, remembering the horrible feeling of shooting a friend. "Is he here? Does he forgive me?" I was quite worried as to the second bit. I could never forgive myself if Will didn't forgive me.

        "Well," began Uriah, "at first, he was quite angry with you, but I think he's gotten over it, now that he's seen what happened with the Bureau."

        "So you guys can see what happens on Earth?" I asked. Both Uriah and my mom nodded. "Then forget about Will, let me see Tobias!" They nodded again.

        "But I should warn you," Uriah added, as my mom walked off to get somehing, "time passes a bit differently here. It's been nearly twor years for Tobias and Christina and everyone on Earth." I nodded. Atleast it hadn't been 20 years.

        My mom walked back in with a crystal ball in her hands a few minutes later. She handed it to me. "Tobias Eaton," she whispered to it, and it zoomed to the Hancock building. Tobias held an urn cradled in his arms, and Zeke was harnessing him to the zipline.

        "Those are your ashes," Uriah whispered to me, but I hushed him. I watched as Zeke released Tobias to the pull of gravity, and he zoomed down the zipline. A single tear fell from my cheek as I thought about what this must mean. First of all, Tobias must have conquered his fear of heights just for me, and second of all, the fact that my ashes had not yet been spread meant that he must have been waiting for the perfect moment. I continued to watch as he let the ashes fly from the urn, and fell onto the circle of arms when it was empty. I smiled.

        "Thank you. I needed to see that," I told them. My mom nodded. Suddenly, my father burst into the room. "Dad!" I exclaimed, but he ignored me.

        "A demon!" he exclaimed between gasps, "Escaped from the Abyss! It's heading to Earth!!" I glanced down at the image of Tobias, now waking away, laughing with all of my friends. If this demon was on the loose..... then maybe they were better off with David...