A Glow of Stars & Dusk by Eve L. Mitchell

The wind toreat my clothes, I could feel it in my bones. The entire world was white, not covered in snow or anything explainable. I was in a forest, and the trees were white. White wood, white leaves, white berries. The grass was white. The sky was white.

The world had been bleached.

“Did I do this?” I asked out loud. The wind picked up, and I huddled against its force as leaves and debris swirled around me, creating a vortex that I stood in the middle of, crouching under the pressure of the wind. “Stop it!” I yelled.

The wind died.

I stood straight and turned slowly in a circle. I was in a desert. I had seen pictures of the white sands of the Caribbean. This was not that. This was sand turned white. Sand dune after sand dune rose and fell like frozen waves across the land under a sun that held no heat.

“Sam!” I yelled into the silence. There was no sound. I turned again. My feet made no sound on the sand. I jumped up and down on the spot. Nothing. “Sam!” I screamed.

A flutter caught my eye, and I turned quickly. It was gone. “Who’s there?”

The wind picked up again, and once again I was crouching from the force of it. The cyclone travelled fast over the desert, and I braced myself as it enveloped me. I stood in the middle of it, staring upwards at the white cloudless sky.

“Where am I?”

Again the wind was gone, and I was on the edge of a cliff, looking down at a colourless sea. I could see the fish and sea animals clearly. I turned swiftly when I saw a shape that was too close to shark shape in the water below me. I stared out over plains of long white grass.

Another flutter, and I turned and came face to face with my gran. “Gran,” I whispered as I fell forward and embraced her.

Gran hugged me back for a long time as I cried in her arms. “You’re okay, lass, I got you now,” she said as she soothed me.

Eventually, I stood back and rubbed my nose as I sniffled. There were more people now. The plains were full of them. They all stood immobile staring in the same direction.

“Where am I?”

“The Plains of the Dead.”

“I don’t want to be here,” I told her with some alarm.

“Oh?” Gran looked around. “We better find someone to tell them then. I wonder who we can ask?”

“Funny. Honestly, I’m no longer in the land of the living, and you decide now’s the time to be a comedian.” I rolled my eyes at her as I looked around. “What are they staring at?” I asked quietly as I looked at the dead.

“Hmm?” Gran stopped chuckling. “Oh, they’re really boring.”

I looked at my gran in surprise. “What?”

“They are,” she said defensively. “They stand there for eternity, waiting.”

“Waiting for what?” I asked as my attention returned to the lifeless statues. “Wait, did you say eternity?”

“Give or take a millennium.” Gran shrugged. “You want to stay here or move on?”

“Move on.” I nodded firmly. The dead-kinda-alive-but-definitely-statue people were freaking me out. “Wait.” I grabbed Gran’s arm. “When you say move on, you don’t mean like to here. Spiritually.”

“You’re a breath of fresh air.” My gran beamed at me. “I missed you so much.”

“I miss you too,” I said tearily.

“Oh stop crying, or I’ll give you something to cry for,” Gran scolded me. “Call the wind,” Gran instructed me. “Come on, Pocahontas, I don’t have all day.”

“She painted with the colours of the wind, she didn’t call the wind.” I shook my head in despair. “You watched that movie with me a million times.”

“Whatever, call the wind.”

I was about to say how when I saw the mini tornado coming straight for me. “Brace yourself!”

Gran stood calmly in the eye of the storm and waggled her eyebrows at me. “You can stop now.”

“Wind?” I called hesitantly. The wind disappeared. I was in a valley with high walls, thick white vegetation, scattered shrubs and trees and a beautiful crystalline waterfall that fell into a clear lake. “Wow.”

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Gran smiled as she walked leisurely towards the water. “This is my favourite place.”

“It’s beautiful.” I looked around me in wonder as we walked together. “Is this, um…”

“If you say heaven, I will whack you so hard, lass, you’ll be feeling it next week.”

“I wasn’t going to say that,” I lied as I avoided eye contact with her. “Where am I?”

“This is the Land of the Souls.” Gran sat down on a big white boulder. “But you knew that.”

“Why haven’t they moved on?” I asked quietly as I sat beside her. “They should be up or down by now, no?”

“Elevator broke. Repairman can’t come until…Tuesday?”

“Are you going to be serious at all?” I demanded as I glowered at her. “I love you, and I love being able to see you, but can you tell me why I’m seeing you and how I got here?”

“You took a pretty good chunk out of that binding spell when you had your lovers’ spat with your demon.” Gran patted my hand in affection.

“I heard them.” I remembered. “My powers, they spoke to me.”

“Well, that’s interesting.” Gran looked at me speculatively. “Never heard that happening before.”

“I don’t want to be interesting.”

“Too late, you’re a natural at it.” Gran grinned at me cheekily.

“Gran, please?”

She sighed long and loud. “Fine. I was just teasing. But you’re right. Your demons are tearing my cottage apart trying to find you.”

“My body isn’t there?” I asked in alarm.

“Why would it be there when you are here?”

I stood abruptly. “Are you telling me I’m physically here?”

“You think it was your spirit?” Gran cocked her head as she considered me. “That’s stupid thinking.”

“What am I supposed to think?” I demanded in exasperation. “I know nothing.”

“Well, you don’t need to shout it to the world,” Gran muttered. “Did you not learn when I passed, girl?”

“No. Mum sent me back to uni.”

“Jean.” My gran shook her head in sadness. “Stubborn as a mule, that one.”

I looked at my gran in amusement. “Mm-hmm, I wonder where she gets it?”

“Hush you.” Gran patted the stone, and I sat back down. “You were bound by that peacock Hamish and me. I didn’t know he put a blood spell on you until it was too late. But…” Gran sighed. “It was for the best. Your powers are…wild. Unbound, you would have caused too much destruction.”

“Then why am I being unbound now?” I asked in alarm.

“When you were a child,” Gran emphasised. “As a child, you would have been destructive; as an adult, you can be taught.”

“But then Hamish died.” I nodded in understanding. “You died,” I added sadly.

“Your mother promised me I would get you when you were twenty-one.” She sighed heavily. “Old ticker got fed up waiting though.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why? You didn’t make me eat bacon and butter and all the other deliciously wonderful bad things that clogged me up.” She looked me over. “Although looking at you, maybe you need some bacon and butter.”

“No need to make it personal,” I said with a smile as I nudged her.

“I told you to let them in,” she admonished me.

“I did. I do readings, I listen to them, I pass on their messages,” I protested.

“Parlour tricks,” Gran scoffed. “I meant seances, Ouija boards, be the actual conduit you were supposed to be.”

“A conduit?”

“Yes, you are the bridge.”

“Bridge to where?” I asked apprehensively.

“Here.” Gran looked up at the sky. “There, everywhere.”

“Is that a serious answer?” I asked sceptically. “Or one of your funny things?”

“You can take a soul up, down or here.” Gran was serious.

“I’m the elevator repairman?” I asked loudly.

“Kind of.”

“But Sam said there are reapers, he said the reapers take souls.”

“Oh, they do, but you can take them from the reapers.” Gran winked at me. “Say you die—shut up and listen,” she cut off my question. “Say you die. The reaper comes for you. He takes your soul from your still warm body, he carries it beyond the veil, and he drops it off.” She scratched her chin as she thought about it. “He’s like the go-between, the middleman.” She considered her next words. “Do you know how long you wait for someone to come get you once you’ve been dropped off?” I shook my head. “Eons,” she answered.

“Eons?”

“Eons,” she confirmed. “Yes, some pop right out of there in seconds, but most of them, the so-sos? The could-be-up, could-be-down ones? They spend eons waiting for their number to be called.”

“Gran, is this…” I looked around. “Is this purgatory?”

“Mmm, not quite. Almost. It’s like the next level up. Purgatory, you have to atone first. Ugh, talk about tedious.”

“Have you been to purgatory?” I asked apprehensively.

“Don’t be ridiculous, lass, I’m a witch.”

“So?”

“I knew exactly where I was going. Now I just need to wait.”

“For?”

“You, of course.”

“What will I do?” I wasn’t keeping up. My head hurt, and something was pulling at me.

“You can fast track souls.” Gran looked delighted.

“I don’t think that’s for me to decide,” I said hesitantly. “I think if there is an up and a down, someone may disagree with me interfering.”

“Oh, don’t be so square.” Gran huffed in exasperation. “You cannot clear everyone, but you can fast track the ones the reapers know are going up or down.”

“How?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” Gran admitted as she watched the waterfall.

“This is what my powers were bound for?” This didn’t sound so bad.

“What?” Gran gave me her attention again. “Oh no, that’s nothing.”

Speak for yourself, Gran.

“No, you can also remove blood curses. Especially from certain princes of hell.”

“Who is it?”

“Asmodeous.”

“Never heard of him.” That had to be a good thing, surely.

“Pft.”

“Bad then? Wonderful.”

“Have you ever heard of the seven circles of hell?” Gran asked.

“Um, vaguely.”

“The seven deadly sins?”

“Yes! I know that.”

“They’re the same.” Gran told me.

“What do you mean?”

“Each sin is a level of hell. Each level is ruled by a prince of hell.” Gran patted my hand again. “And each prince is a complete and utter bastard.”

“And Sam?” I asked with growing trepidation. “Is he a prince?”

“The Watcher?” Gran chuckled. “No, he and his fallen brethren are more soldiers but powerful in their own right.”

“You call them Watchers,” I mused.

“They are. They watched the world when they were in heaven, and they wanted what they should never have.” Gran frowned. “Like the archangels that followed them, they coveted, and now they rule in hell for their sin.”

“So the seven levels?” I brought her back to my current problem. I glanced at my surroundings. One of my more pressing problems, I should say.

“Asmodeous, he rules Lust.”

“Oh.” I was somewhat disappointed in my demons, lust was so…cliché.

“Your Watchers are not tied to any level,” Gran assured me. “There are princes of hell, but the Watchers answer only to themselves. They orchestrated the fall. When Azazel fell like a star from heaven, their destiny was forged.”

“Azazel fell first?” I whispered.

“You think a loyal soldier like Azazel would let his general fall into unknown territory?” Gran looked at me with a knowing eye.

“No, Zel would cut his arm off first.”

Gran nodded in agreement.

“So, I cleanse a curse from Asmodeous, and then what?”

“Go home?” Gran shrugged carelessly. “Learn your necromancy. Be the bridge.”

“This makes no sense,” I said just as I doubled over. “Ow, shit,” I hissed.

“Star?” Gran was rubbing my back in concern.

“It’s pulling me,” I groaned as I clutched at my stomach.

“What is?” Gran asked me with mounting panic.

“Him,” I hissed. “Gran!” I screamed. The pull tightened, and then I was whooshing, there was no other word for it, I whooshed.

My back was on a cold floor. I opened my eyes and met green glowing ones. “Demon.”

“Witch,” Sam growled. “Where the fuck did you go?”