Death of the Body (Crossing Death) (20 page)

“Orange,” I said, “Like a sunset; almost flawless.”

“Almost?” she mused.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Quon and Nicholas exchange a confused look. “What’d I tell you?” Quon laughed.

“Oh brother. What have you done?” Nicholas chided in both exasperation and playfulness.

“I’m Edmund,” I said.

“Nice to meet you… finally.” She stepped around Quon and extended her hand. I must have felt like ice to her incredibly warm skin. I realized I still didn’t have my body temperature back up to normal.

“Well, Quon, Xia, please sit down. I’m afraid I have some things to tell you, and whether you like it or not, you are a part of it.”

Xia’s face almost exploded in delight. “See, I told you!” she jabbered at Quon. “This has something to do with that man that showed up with your phone doesn’t it, and the fact that you appeared out of thin air. Quon told me you were into some sort of witchcraft or something. Are you Wiccan? How long have you been practicing? You must be really strong to…”

“Uh, no. Nothing like that. Not exactly,” I interrupted before she could get carried away. “I don’t really practice any belief system. They’re all standard sets of rules that have access to some truth while attempting to explain a bigger picture no one understands. To me, Wicca is just another religion.”

Xia looked offended, but stopped talking.

“But yes,” I continued. “This does have to do with all of that. There are beings that some could consider demons, and I’d assume, angels, but not in the way any religion prescribes. The definitions aren’t that easy.”

“So all religions are wrong,” Nicholas stated, beaming. He jumped to a simple conclusion that fit him.

“No, Nicholas. It’s more like... well...” I was having a hard time phrasing what I wanted to say. “What if all religions were stories, and all stories were true?”

I watched as three expressions tried to grasp what I was saying. All I got was confusion.

“Let me give you an example,” I said. “In Mormon theology, there are seven degrees of existence. They believe we existed before we came here, that’s one, and then we are here now, that’s two. After we die we go to something they call the spirit world that is divided into two sections, paradise and prison, that is three and four. Then, after the judgment and resurrection, we go to one of the three heavens Paul talked about. Remember that scripture we discussed in Sister Mary Elizabeth’s class, Nicholas? Three heavens. That makes five, six, and seven. Seven levels.

“It is the same with the Catholics, at least before the Council of Trent. Four levels of hell, three levels of heaven. Seven.”

“Christians believe only in three,” Nicholas stated matter-of-factly. “This existence, then heaven and hell.”

“An oversimplification,” I stated. “The Christian bible says
three
heavens, just like any other.”

“Buddhists believe in ten planes of existence,” Quon added.

“Perhaps a complication of the truth. But even in those religions we see a seed of consistency. Reincarnation, for example. Every major religion believes in an eternal soul that will come back somehow. Sometimes on another level of existence; sometimes on the same one. Whether we come back as a spirit, as a resurrected or perfected being, or a cow, or a blade of grass, or as nothing more than intelligence—there is a thread of commonality.”

“I think we get that you are saying that in these commonalities is where we find the real truth, Edmund,” Nicholas said, rolling his eyes. “So what?”

“So what if those levels weren’t actual worlds, separate and distinct, but instead existed right here, right now, stacked on top of each other, with doorways between the worlds that allowed access to the gifts and abilities of that world. What if that is what ghosts are? Echoes from the other worlds. What if that is what magic is? A simple opening of the door to allow the abilities of another world into our own, maybe like a place where the laws of physics can be different.”

“Sounds complicated,” Quon said.

“Simpler than most religions,” Xia responded.

“So what?” Nicholas reiterated.

“So, Nicholas. The story I told you about in the orphanage is true.”

“You were somehow reincarnated here, with some amazing gift to remember your past life?”

“Not exactly. I’m not sure. Somehow this ring came with me,” I said, holding up my hand. “I don’t know exactly how the doorways work, or how the levels are interconnected, but what I do know is that demons are spiritual creatures from another level, a bloodthirsty and power-hungry level. I met one on my way home from Arizona. He destroyed my truck, and tried to kill me in the process. He told me that Joshua is trying to find a way into the other levels. I don’t know why, but it can’t be good.”

“Now you’ve gone over my head,” Xia said sharply. “Who are you talking about?”

“That’s why I needed you all to come together,” I responded. “I need to tell you my story. Hopefully, together, we can figure out what is going on. We need to do this. If we don’t, we won’t be able to save Nicholas’s life.”

Fourteen

Although he looked uncomfortable, Nicholas sat quietly with a dazed look on his face while I recounted my story. I started at the beginning, discussing briefly what I remembered about growing up in Orenda, which, sadly, wasn’t much anymore. I supposed I could blame that on the years I had lived since, and the fact that my existence there, I believed, wasn’t even an existence on this level. My memories as a child had grown fractured and dreamlike, but I was able to tell Quon, Xia, and Nicholas about my father, mother, Ralph, and Hailey.

The exception was the two days before my death. Those memories were still just as vivid as they were on the first day I woke up in the orphanage. I recounted the details quickly but effectively, including the grass-growing test on the hillside right after Max’s encounter with the demon snake, the strange events surrounding my father’s death, and the book that Joshua stole from me.

Xia interrupted there. “Wait. You actually died?”

“I think so.”

Her puzzled eyes were filled with excitement. “Then how did you end up here?”

Nicholas scoffed. “You’re really buying into all of this, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know exactly what to think, but I do know what I saw, Nicholas,” Xia chided. “Do I need to remind you that he dropped out of thin air?”

Her retort caught Nicholas a bit off guard and I saw a moment of anger flash across his face. He wasn’t used to being challenged.

I started talking before either of them could say anything else. “I don’t know how I got here,” I stated bluntly.

As soon as I started talking again, Xia returned to hanging on every word and Nicholas went back to staring out the window. I slowed my story down as I talked about my few days at the orphanage. Nicholas didn’t have to feign interest as soon as I started talking about Sister Chantale and her son Simon. As soon as I said the names, his ears pricked up and he was sitting taller.

I told them about how Sister Chantale was actually Simon’s mother. This was part of the story Nicholas had not previously heard. I told them about our conversation by the river and how the trees had shown me the story of Sister Chantale before she came to serve at the orphanage. When I recounted the events of Simon’s death, Nicholas turned green and finally looked at me. I paused when he looked like he was about to vomit.

“Are you okay?” I asked sincerely.

I could tell by his face that he was struggling with whether or not he wanted to answer my question. I had never seen him look so strained.

“I saw that,” he finally blurted out.

My mind whirled to the subject of Simon’s death as I tried to comprehend what he obviously thought was a great revelation.

“I know you saw it,” I said, “I know you were there when Simon died. It must have been a horrific experience for you.”

“No,” Nicholas said, “I saw the shadow people.”

“Shadow people?”

And in that moment I understood: Nicholas had seen the disembodied energumen who had killed Simon.

“You could see them?”

Nicholas just nodded.

“How long has it been since you’ve seen one of them?”

Nicholas swallowed hard. “It
had
been a while, a year or two, until…”

“Until what?”

“Until you disappeared.”

“So you’ve seen them recently?”

“Every day this week, at least one.”

“Where?”

“On campus, in the dorms, at the mall…”

“In this room?”

Nicholas shook his head.

“Then they are close. Do you know if they know you can see them?”

“Come on, Edmund,” Nicholas’s demeanor changed and he was suddenly back to his old sarcastic self, “it’s just my eyes catching a moving shadow or something. Don’t make it a big deal.”

I glanced at Xia, who was positively glowing with anticipation. Quon just yawned. “What’s the big deal about shadows anyway?” he asked wryly. “Everyone’s got one.”

I ignored Quon completely. “Nicholas, I need you to stay with me here. Please stay with me. Do they know who you are?”

I could see the wheels spinning in his head again as he shifted uncomfortably. He was debating about whether to tell me the truth or not.

“The truth,” I demanded.

“I only thought so once. They’ve always ignored me, always just been shadows.”

“Except once,” I repeated.

“Not recently. When I was little... it freaked me out.”

“When?”

“Right after I got adopted.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Come on, Edmund! What does it matter? I was a kid. I probably imagined the whole thing. We all know everything you are saying isn’t possible anyway. There is no such thing as magic
or
the supernatural
or
levels
or
demons
or
heaven
or
hell. It’s
all
make-believe. Intelligent people don’t need it.”

“Did you miss the mysterious appearing ice-ball boy?” Xia asked sharply. “You were
here
for that.”

I saw ire flash in Nicholas’s eyes as he answered. “Who says there isn’t a
scientific
explanation for what we experienced? You are just so willing to accept whatever he tells you.”

“And you aren’t? He’s your friend, isn’t he?”

“My best friend, but that doesn’t exclude him from fault.”

Xia harrumphed and her voice went up in pitch, “So you think he is lying or making up his story? What about his experiences in Orenda?”

“Guys,” Quon weighed in, but his lack of mastery of the English language didn’t allow him to express himself fully. He muttered something in Japanese and Xia’s eyes flashed at him briefly before they calmed a bit. This was the first time I realized that Xia spoke better English than Quon.

Whatever Quon said to her must have worked because her voice was a bit calmer when she continued.

“I’m just saying we shouldn’t dismiss something simply because science can’t prove it. Just look at the bumblebee. Until September of 2000, no one could prove that the two dimensional hovering motion of the bumblebee’s wings could generate enough lift to carry the bee, but the bee flew anyway. Science is always evolving.”

“Fine.” Nicholas said through clenched teeth before turning to me. “Go ahead then, Edmund. Prove it.”

“Prove what?”

“Anything. Prove that what you say is true.”

I wasn’t sure if he was being serious or facetious. “How?”

Nicholas just shrugged his shoulders. “Defy the laws of physics.”

That one would be easy, but at his request my mind immediately returned to that day in the orphanage when Sister Mary Elizabeth slapped me, and in retaliation I made water spring out of the stone topped desk in a recreation of what I had remembered reading in the Bible when Moses smote the rock. For some reason, the feeling in the air was similar now. The last thing I wanted was to cause hysteria. Maybe I shouldn’t have trusted Xia or Quon with my secrets, maybe I should have just dismissed my mysterious appearance (even if I wasn’t sure how), but my biggest fear was that by simply knowing me they were in danger. If the demons were actually after the survivors from the orphanage, then my friends, undoubtedly,
were
in danger.

But this was not what I expected. Perhaps they would have been better off not knowing. Too late now.

Nicholas grew smug when I didn’t act. No doubt he translated the worried look on my face as my inability to fulfill his request, but my true nervousness was not lost on Xia.

“It’s okay, Edmund. Go ahead. Show us something.”

Her interest was genuine but, I felt, sadly misplaced. She wasn’t excited for truth. She was excited to see someone more advanced than she was show her a magic trick.

Still, I could see no other alternative.