Death. What happens after it? What lies beneath the surface?
Poor Arielle Daniels stumbled through dangerous hoops to figure this out. She wakes in a new place--the Void--and discovers that what waits after death are layers, dimensions, and sadly...
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The ghost whooshed into the living room, and she paced in front of the wall, where a faint outline of a bookshelf stained the chipped paint. "Phew, that was intense."
Arielle kept her distance, lingering near the doorway, half tempted to spin and watch Benny and Kylie again. Their stubbornness intrigued her, and she worried for their safety—this ghost had some serious issues.
And yet some eerie, unsettling hunch warned her not to turn her back on the ghost. "Okay, who the fuck are you?"
The spirit-girl snorted. "I told you, I'm a ghost." She didn't look at Arielle as she whipped to and fro, her greasy locks grazing her mid-spine and swooshing every time she changed directions.
"But was that necessary? Tossing the device like that?" Arielle grimaced. "I mean... it was impressive, don't get me wrong, but... why?"
"Because I needed them to go, and I'm pretty certain that convinced them to." The ghost slowed her pace, but still kept her gaze averted. She was restless, her timbre impatient. "I've been doing this for a long time, so trust me, okay?"
Unconvinced, Arielle flipped to the entryway. Benny was hugging Kylie, who trembled in his arms, clearly struggling to recover from what she'd witnessed. "Okay, but... it seems... over-the-top. I still think ignoring them would have been more efficient."
"Well, your opinion doesn't count, missy," said the ghost, halting her floating to spin towards Arielle. "I mean..." she frowned, "not to sound condescending, but I am the senior spirit here. I have much more experience in these matters. We don't get many visitors here and have you ever wondered why? Because I ensure they don't stick around. I protect us."
Arielle wanted to say their lack of guests was because of the other spirit that seemed to loom in the area and terrify passersby and haunt people until she found a way to kill them. But she sensed the ghost would scold her for it, reminding her such a thing wasn't possible.
She said I wasn't murdered... and I have little choice but to believe her. I have nothing or no one else to rely on...
"I don't enjoy employing such means, but it wasn't over-the-top. This is what ghosts do, according to the outside, living world, isn't it? It'll work, you'll see." The ghost waved at Arielle. "Come on, get away from the threshold. The farther from them you are, the less the guy can detect your presence. He appears to be too in tune with our realm, and I don't like that at all."
Arielle obeyed, but kept to the side of the space, near the windows looking out into the forest. Thick curtains draped over most of the glass, but she caught a slither of light pouring in and yearned to bask in it, to sense the rays rushing under skin, the warmth worming around her bones.
Would she ever see the sun again?
She reached for the curtain, to tug it aside, but her hand sliced through it, instead. "Fuck." She mimicked what she'd seen the ghost do earlier, hoping to absorb the energy surrounding her and be able to touch the cloth. She closed her eyes, inhaled, exhaled, and thought hard about glowing and sucking up the dreary, foul-smelling air... but again, she failed to grab the fabric. "Come on, I want to open these damn things!"
