18 Truths (5 page)

“Welcome, sons and daughters of faith,” one said, nodding to us. Of course, his voice sounded like thunder.
Of course
! “I am Ash. I separate souls from their bodies at the time of death and carry their spirits to the place where they will live their afterlife.”

“Wow,” was all Nate said in return, and I met his gaze, unsure of what my own reaction should be.

The other angel chuckled and extended his hand, shaking first Nate’s, then mine. Interestingly, his grip felt like a normal human handshake. Nate pressed his lips tight, seemingly disappointed.

“Are you guys, like, like the real superheroes?” Nate asked.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

“My name is Riel.”

“Real? As in, for real?” Nate said.

Riel narrowed his dark eyes at Nate. “That’s how it’s pronounced, yes. But spelled R-i-e-l. Now where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?” He tilted his head to the ceiling and let out a sigh.

I couldn’t stop my ogling. It was as if one of Leonardo’s gorgeous paintings of angels had come to life. Yet, their looks possessed a magical realism too; humanlike, yes, but so beautiful one could’ve never possibly imagined what the angels looked like.

“I open the doors of perception to souls during their afterlife. The interceding prayers their loved ones send on their behalf help me determine the reality I should create, one that hopefully will inspire the lost souls to evolve. I was the one who determined your perceptions of reality during your after-death purification processes.”

“Uh, thanks.” I leaned closer to Nate, too afraid to grab his hand as I studied our new bosses. They were both dressed in loose blue slacks, almost like yoga pants, paired with long-sleeved white T-shirts… oddly casual attire for angels.

“You’re welcome, Olga Gay Worontzoff. And no, Nathan Tyler Barca, we’re not superheroes. It’s true we are stronger than humans, but not omnipotent.”

“But still, lifting-a-car strong?”

Riel ignored Nate and continued his explanation. “We’re greater than man in knowledge, but not omniscient. We’re more noble than mortals, but not omnipresent. We are entrusted by God to aid His children and we are holy, but we can still fall to the dark side, just like the humans.”

Nate glanced at me and moved his hand over mine, resting it on my knee underneath the table. I already knew what he would say, but I tried to flash him a look that said
don’t even.

“So, not superheroes, but Star Wars fans, eh?”

Ash actually growled. “Contrary to what you may think due to Riel’s bedside manner, this is not the time or place for jokes. There’s a great unseen war raging beyond anything the pair of you can imagine. The war has been going on since the beginning of time, and you’ve just enlisted yourselves in it. There’s no turning back now, so I suggest you pay close attention.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, anxious to please, but my response just sounded like I was mocking him. I cringed in my seat as I caught Riel staring at me. But he didn’t look pissed off or anything. In fact, he flashed me a playful grin before continuing where Ash left off.

“Dr. Judy has put her trust in you, and I also think you are capable of becoming a master spirit guide; otherwise, I wouldn’t have agreed to your placement in our program. You both did well with the tests I created for you in Limbo and your time there gave me the chance to know you well, even though you were unaware of my presence. In case Dr. Judy didn’t have time to explain the purpose of souls being sent to Limbo, God wants His would-be chosen ones to live within Him more deeply than they desire to go on living falsely for themselves. Your duties as spirit guides will include helping departed souls realize their purpose. You followed your heart during your own Limbo process, and it will serve you well to keep doing so now. Your humanity will be your greatest strength.”

I tried to focus on what he said, but all I could think in my head was
this isn’t real
over and over again.

Ash shook his head in agreement. “Congratulations on all your success. Now, any questions before we go over the details of your first assignment?”

I thought about the difficulty of completing some of the tasks this past year, and tried not to panic. I hadn’t known then that if I failed I’d go straight to Hell, and now I’d put my soul on the line again. I had worked so hard to get through the last fourteen months and just learned the whole experience was total bull crap. If I still didn’t know how to deal with all that, how was I supposed to help someone else?

But maybe helping others was exactly what I needed to get past everything. Moving on with my “life” had been about me and getting to know myself. Mission accomplished. Becoming a spirit guide was about helping others. I mean, Conner had to be in the Underworld somewhere, and I could possibly find him! That was huge! I’d find out what happened to him, and helping Grace might prove the perfect opportunity to delve into my investigation of discovering where he was.

Ash flashed us a dark look. “You should know by now we live not just once, but every day of our lives, whether on Earth or during the afterlife. It shouldn’t be a process for self-indulgence, but that’s really what the past year has been about, has it not?”

My posture stiffened.
Oh my gosh! Can he, like, read my mind or something?

“You need to learn that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself.” Ash’s expression soured, relaying subliminal messages to me, intentional or not. “It’ll only come with the realization that everyone else is as special as you are. Taking care of others is the highest priority around here.”

His words stung like a slap in the face, a wakeup call. The whole time I completed my list, I felt so proud the world had finally seen
me
for a change, well, the peeps from my hometown anyway. But the whole time I should’ve been seeing the world, the people in it. I mean, I guessed the eighteen tasks became much bigger than me, but none of that was real. Only the journey kinda was real because my actions were tied to my loved ones still living. Ah, this thought process proved so convoluted, even to me. I hadn’t heard anything this confusing since I sat down in front of the television one night with Nate and his dad and tried to watch the final episode of
Lost
.

Ash cleared his throat, snapping me out of my thoughts. “We know you’ve
chosen
to become spirit guides, but heed this warning. On Earth, you hear the expression ‘
you’re an angel’
, all the time. But it’s overused. There’s a lot more to being an angel or spirit guide than a bell rings and someone gets their wings. You’re lucky because you’ll get to work together instead of alone. You are bound in spirit now. One’s success will be the other’s success. It also means that if you fail, you’ll cause the other to fail as well.”

Until today, I’d never thought about being tied to someone spiritually before. Was I really mature enough for all this heavy? I sure hoped Dr. Judy meant it when she said we could come to her for help. Taking me on as an intern may turn out to be more than she bargained for because I
loved
to ask questions. And even though I’d wanted nothing but more freedom this past year, I didn’t think the likes of Nate and me should be solely in charge of someone else’s destiny. I let out a big sigh. Geez, this proved much more complicated than the “pass-pass” or “fail-fail” system for group projects at school.

Nate flashed his teacher’s pet smile, seemingly unfazed by all this. “Maybe you could tell us a little bit about what you’re looking for us to do with Grace?”

Okay, maybe he worried, too, but he hid his anxiety better than me for sure. My gaze met his, instantly calming me.

Riel cleared his throat. “I’ll make this simple, so you’ll understand, Lover Boy.”

He snapped his fingers and the fluorescents went out. A panel in the wall slid open and images of a ragged, teenish looking girl played on a large wall-mounted flat-screen monitor. I mean, she looked beautiful, but a hot mess. She wore a Motley Crew T-shirt and barely there shorts, smoking something out of a pipe.

“This is Grace Newton,” Ash announced. “She was killed tonight by a police car, of all things. She just walked out of her house, onto the street that met the end of her driveway, and laid down. The cop never saw her, killing her instantly. We’ve been watching her for a while; scared she might do something like this based on the reports her guardian angel sent us.”

“Why did she do it?” My voice came out barely a whisper.

Ash advanced through the next few slides of Grace’s downfall. The last one landed on what must’ve been her bedroom, looking like a hurricane went through it, photographs scattered on the floor like tree debris. My eyes focused on a picture of Dr. Judy.

“I think you’ve just seen the answer to your question,” Ash said, fanning a hand toward the very photo I studied.

“Because she never healed from losing her mother, and…” My voice squealed, my thoughts too horrible to finish.

“Yes,” Riel concluded for me. “As you can imagine, there was a multi-dimensional frenzy to retrieve her soul. But we got it.”

Ash handed Nate and me a backpack.

“School supplies?” Nate asked, shaking the bag, his eyes wide.

“Good thing we didn’t pack it with explosives. You might’ve just been blown to bits. What a pity that would’ve been.” Riel smiled at me, a playful grin. “And, not exactly. You don’t need to worry about graduating. You need to worry about warfare. You’ll find binoculars, a Bible, a crucifix necklace to wear that’s been anointed with oil, Grace’s case file, the roles you’re playing in this after-death purification process, a copy of your Spirit Guide Insurance Policy, your daily meditation guide, cell phones, a tranq gun, an Angel Phonebook with who to call for specific problems, your Limbo passports in case someone needs to see your ID, Spirit Guide For Dummies 101, etc.—”

“Hey!” Nate snapped.

Since he looked furious, I had to cover my amusement with a question. “They make a Spirit Guide for Dummies book?”

“He’s just joking on that part,” Ash said.

“Not really.”

I detected a teasing note to Riel’s voice, but I wasn’t positive, and frankly, I didn’t have the presence of mind to try and figure him out right now. Even though all the stuff the angels were showing us was cool and all, it was hard to wrap my brain around. Plus, a big part of me had felt lost since learning the truth, like I’d never recover my childlike sense of wonder and my ability to find joy in the things I experienced each day. I knew I should be thanking God for giving me a healing light for my darkened spirit, but the last twenty-four hours had been rough, and I kinda dreaded the work ahead of me. Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose, wondering how I was going to figure out when to use all these new tools. Back on Earth, it took me forever to learn how to use my Smartphone. The only reason I figured out anything was because Conner showed me.

Ash unzipped the front pocket of my backpack, revealing a pencil pouch. He opened the nylon bag, pulled out a glue stick, and popped the cap, exposing a toggle switch. “Now that you’re spirit guides, we won’t be following you like we did during your Limbo tests. We’ll be working on other cases. You can still report to headquarters each night to sleep if you wish, and we’re around then as well, should any problems arise. However, if during the day there’s an emergency and you need immediate help, hit this switch.”

“I thought the Angel directory tells us who we should call if we need help.”

Ash nodded. “It does, but think of the directory as like calling the police station for a non-emergency. This switch is like Angel 9-1-1.”

“Okay, so that’s pretty cool,” I said to Nate.

Riel blushed.

I didn’t know angels blushed, but the pink stood out beautifully on his pale, polished skin.

“Thanks. I invented it,” he explained.

“Yeah, it’s all cool and everything, but it’s summer. We won’t be in school.” Nate tilted his head back slightly and lifted one eyebrow. “How do we approach our assignment?”

“Actually, you will be in school.” Riel turned sharply away from Nate and focused on me only. “Grace was a senior, but failing her classes. If still alive, she’d attend summer school in order to graduate, so that’s what she’ll do in her alternative timeline.”

Nate sighed. “Aw, man. I thought I was done with school. I hoped we could at least enjoy the summer in someone’s Limbo.”

Riel glowered at Nate before flashing a lascivious smile. “Would you like me to arrange another place for you to go?” He snapped his fingers and the room dissolved.

Falling, falling, falling, like I rode in an express elevator.

The light faded into nothingness until it was just a pinpoint above me, and then there were stars winking in the sky.

Rain pelted my skin, leaving me nowhere to hide. I was on a sailboat.

So cold, so alone.

Conner’s dead body was draped across the hull, the number thirteen on the sail flapped in the violent winds.

“Conner!” I screamed, my echo the only sound answering my cry for help.

The full moon loomed like a ghost in the darkness, illuminating the fact there was nothing else around for miles. Just the open sea and me.

My head fell upon Conner’s chest. A rapid erratic heartbeat. I didn’t know if it was his or mine, all I knew was the sound of fear. I cried for him, like I’d done a million times before. I could cry another Lake Michigan with my tears.

“Conner,” I screamed again, louder, sharper.

A yoke of guilt bowed my shoulders and sent my gaze to his pale face. I touched his cheek, fearing he wasn’t real and was real at the same time. A familiar feeling swelled in my chest: frustration. The air filled with the ravings of the unfairness of our wasted lives, cut too short. The sky darkened with each breath I took. As the arms of despair wrapped around me, my eyes grew used to the dim light of my own personal hell. There was no escape hatch, no rewind button. Once again, I was stuck.

Then up, up, up, almost like Peter Pan leaving the Jolly Roger.

My hands flew to my chest, and I blinked the water from my eyes rapidly. I gasped for air, trying to recover. Headquarters felt like such a warm, wonderful place, sunlight pouring through the rectangular windows high on the walls. This didn’t comfort me though. I felt nervous for reasons I didn’t understand.