All Hope Lost (14 page)

Robert paused. “There is a
living human who can see you? Speak with you?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. “Is this a problem?”

Robert shook his head. “No. No problem. Just interesting.
I may have to look into it though. Do NOT tell him about this place. No mortal
should know until his or her time comes. Understand?”

I nodded again. “Alright. I’ll make sure not to. Can I go
now?”

“Of course. Please come back soon, and we can continue
our lessons.”

Smiling, I shook Roberts’
hand, grateful for the help, and left the room. Back in the corridor, I
wondered momentarily what might be higher up, but decided it could wait for another
day, and headed to the stairs. Meanwhile inside the classroom, Robert was
tidying the chairs and desks back, when he stopped suddenly. His form
flickered, and a figure in a black cloak, with stars for eyes took his place
for a short moment.

“Well done.” It spoke. “Keep an eye on her for me, help
her, gain her trust; my trust. You are a good servant Robert. Soon I will be
free of this place.” The figure vanished, leaving Robert standing alone, one
hand clutching his head.

“Thank you Master. I will do as you bid.” He continued
tidying the room before he left then headed upstairs.

*****

At the bottom of the stairs, I
halted, watching the other dead folk mill about, trying to avoid me. I couldn’t
understand why they were so afraid of me, but it was very disheartening.
Would
there be no one else here apart from Robert who will even have a conversation
with me without trying to run?
I sighed.
And how the hell do I leave
this place?
I tried to catch someone’s attention to ask, but they hastily
moved out of my way.

I decided that maybe I should
try to speak to the room itself, and maybe someone would answer me, hopefully.
“Excuse me? How do I leave this realm? Back to the living one?” I looked about
the room, the people still with their heads down, not making eye contact. I was
about to give up, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Follow me.” A male voice
sounded, to which I turned and found a tall, handsome man beckoning me towards
the main tower door. The only thing I could do was follow, so follow I did. He
held the door open for me as I exited, then led me along the path I had entered
on.

“Thank you.” I spoke.

“No problem”, the man replied. “What’s your name?”

“Sharon. And you?”

“Alex. Pleased to meet you.”

“Same. I was beginning to wonder if anyone would speak to
me.”

Alex laughed. “I felt the same when I entered this place.
Must be over 5 years now. It was as though people were afraid of me. Now they
just let me get on, they’ve become accustomed to me, and many speak with me
freely. It will change for you too. I’m sure it’s just because you are…. New.”

I raised an eyebrow at the pause. “New, huh? I know what
I am, are you the same as me?”

“A Daemon you mean? Then yes, I am. Though you feel
slightly different to the other Daemons here.”

I nodded. “Yes, Robert who was
leading a class on the second floor was trying to explain to me what was
different about me, but he couldn’t tell either. He said there was only one
being here that can, but he was locked up. A prisoner.”

Alex halted mid step, causing
me to falter. I stopped and turned to him. “Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Robert didn’t take you to him did he?” he asked
concerned.

“Oh no. He said he couldn’t, for fear of my inadvertently
releasing him. Not sure how I could but he said it would be probable.”

Alex nodded. “Good. Got me
worried for a second then. I have seen him in his prison. I wouldn’t want him
to break free and start a rampage here, or worse, on the living realm. He did
that once before.”

“Oh?” my interest was suddenly piqued.

“Yeah. You know the Sahara desert? That was his doing.
Killed everything in sight, the environment was changed, where there used to be
sun, rain, trees, wildlife, now there is barren sand. Luckily over the years,
wildlife has returned and a few hardy plants that can survive with barely any
water at all.”

My mouth was hanging open.
“That was caused by this prisoner?” I was shocked.

“Hard to fathom isn’t it? To think, if he could do that,
can you imagine what it would be like if he was freed to go and destroy more
civilised areas on the planet?”

I shuddered, trying not to
think about it. “Good job I haven’t been made to go see him then! I certainly
wouldn’t want to feel responsible for the destruction of cities, of the loss of
multiple, innocent lives.”

“But you have killed, what’s the difference?”

Shocked, I tried to defend my actions. “That was
different. It was only a bully neighbour!”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “But
that neighbour probably had family, friends, people who cared for them.”

“He was scum, and deserved what they got.” I pouted,
insistent that what I did was right. I had gone through all this already in my
own head, fighting a battle of wits and morals with myself for what I had done.
In the end, I agreed with myself that what I had done was good, for the better
of others. They were after all, a waste of good oxygen. I made my point to
Alex, who just replied, “If that’s what you believe, fine.”

I sighed heavily. I would not
be interrogated. Not now. “So, how do I leave this place anyway?”

“Trying to escape me now eh?” Alex smiled. The look on my
face made him serious. “I’m just joking Sharon. Don’t take the questioning
personally, but you must be careful in the living realm. Death by a spirit is
highly frowned upon, although you made it past the higher ups warning beacon by
causing the death by carbon monoxide, it was still risky. The higher ups are
not known for their leniency.”

“I’m sorry Alex. I didn’t mean to come across rude, but I
do believe what I did was the right thing. That will not change.”

“Just try to remember that when the time comes and you’re
standing before them explaining your actions. Power corrupts. Especially those
who believe we are doing the right thing. We cannot play God.”

“So there is a God?”

Alex laughed. “Only if you believe there is. All death
realms are different depending on your beliefs.”

“Does God exist here?”

“Good question. I’ve never seen it myself, maybe that is
who the higher ups are? I couldn’t say. What do you think?”

I shrugged. “I was never that
much in to religion myself. They cause too many wars and bitterness between
people and I can’t be bothered with that.”

“Yet now you create justice because you do care about
others, and what you do could be considered war.”

I thought about it a moment. “Well it is I guess. War for
the right to live in peace, to be able to enjoy our homes and live our lives as
WE want, not be dictated to or forced by nuisance neighbours to live by their
lives.”

Alex nodded. “I see you are
passionate about this.” I nodded back, determined. “Then I hope what you
achieve will be positive for the people you are helping and others out there in
the same boat.”

“Thank you Alex, I appreciate that.” I smiled.

“Well here we are. This is your exit.”

I turned around, and found a
door in the middle of the path. Turning back to thank Alex again, he had
disappeared.
How did he do that?
I shrugged to myself, then opening the
door, walked slowly through.

Passing through the door was a
bizarre experience, going from the realm of the dead to the realm of the living
in a blink of an eye; it felt as though you were being sucked in through a
straw, your body feeling long and thin, then you literally popped out the other
end. I appeared in the kitchen, next to the table. I felt my arms and legs,
making sure they were still attached and not ridiculously long, and headed into
the living room. It was empty.

“Hello” I called, “anyone home?”

There was no answer. I headed
quickly upstairs, but there was no sign of Steve or Michael. I guessed they had
gone out for the day. It felt like I had been gone for hours, so I went back to
the kitchen and checked the clock on the wall.

It seemed only an hour had
passed, so I went back into the living room and finding the laptop in its
regular spot, I booted it up.
Time to see if I have had any replies to my
post.
I logged in as soon as the computer would let me, and scrolled
through the new posts. Finding mine I found it had multiple new views and a few
replies. I clicked on the view topic button and the replies appeared in front
of me.

Reply One:

I am shocked and appalled that anyone has the audacity
to make such a thing up!

KarmaK

Reply Two:

This is a very disturbing post. I hope the Moderators
are seeing this and do something about it.

Torment.

Reply Three:

F’kin stupid, whoever wrote this. No one would ever
believe such crap.

Gareth1971

Reply Four:

So is this Sharon lady really dead? Is this her
account?

Megs

Reply Five:

I just Googled her and yes she is. But anyone could
have found that out and hax this account.

Panda (Moderator)

Reply Six:

Seems a bit weird tho, if the hax person wrote this,
how would they know about our issues?

Rio23

Reply Seven:

It’s a public forum remember. Anyone can access these
posts. It would be simple.

Panda

Reply Eight:

Ok hax idiot. Prove to me that you are Sharon, and
that you are dead!

Megs

Reply Nine:

Yes we want proof. If we don’t get it, I will close
this account down.

Panda (Moderator)

The replies continued, some
asking for proof, others just brushing it off as a hoax. I had had a feeling my
post was going to be a long shot, but I could still prove to them I was dead.
My new training to hone my abilities would do well here. I decided that the
first person I would have to convince was the Moderator to the forums, Panda.
If I couldn’t convince her, then my account would be closed. Although that
wouldn’t stop me from being able to read the other posts, I didn’t want to
leave. Not yet anyway.

I quickly wrote a reply myself:

I will prove to you that all I say is true. My first
visit will be to Panda, then Megs, then Torment, as I have helped you already.

SHart25

Thinking about Panda, I was
loath to frighten the woman. She was an older lady, and I knew I would have to
be careful with her. After all, seeing or hearing a dead person was likely to
send someone crazy, as my own neighbours had found out. This would be a
delicate operation.

I poured myself in to the
laptop and found the line to Panda’s home, grabbing it and letting it do the
work for me. I loved this mode of transport. It seemed that no matter where in
the country, or even the world someone was, it all took a similar amount of
time to get from A to B. I hopped out the other end to find myself once again
in Panda’s living area. Not much had appeared to have changed since my last
visit. The sofa was currently being slept upon by one fluffy cat, and Panda sat
next to it, reading a book.

Now the tricky part. How to
get her attention?
My gaze swept over the room, and finally settled upon a
magazine resting on the coffee table. The cat opened one eye, and watched me as
I knelt by the table. Slowly, I moved the magazine about an inch, which caused
Panda to focus on the table a moment, before going back to her book. I did it
again, this time Panda jumped at the noise of sliding paper against wood, and
confused put her book down, marking her page with her bookmark.

I could see her thinking about
what was happening. She looked over at the balcony door, and noticed it was
slightly open. She got up and pulled it shut, though still confused as there
was hardly any breeze. I got up and turned on Panda’s PC. She spun at the
sudden noise as it powered up.

“Strange” Panda spoke. She walked over to the desk and
sat down, waiting for the computer to boot up completely. “Bloody computers,
always doing their own thing.” She muttered to herself.

When it booted up, she logged
in, and hit the search engine. She clicked on her link to the noisy neighbours’
forum and started to methodically go through the new posts, replying to some as
she saw fit. Finally she came across my reply, saying I would visit her first.
She hit the reply button, and typed:

Look forward to it.

Panda (Moderator)

Accessing her PC, I hunted
through multiple programs before finding the Notepad, and opened it. Panda,
frustrated at her computer still, clicked the X on the window to try to close
it, but I held it open. I began typing the words onto the screen but using the
program itself, not the keyboard. I didn’t want to freak her out too much just
yet.

Hello Panda.
I typed.

Panda stared at the screen, not knowing at first what to
do. She replied:

Who is this and how are you accessing my pc?

My name is Sharon. I am SHart on the noisy neighbours’
forum.