Color of Angels' Souls (20 page)

“What … what happened? Where am I?” she finally managed to say.

“I'm so sorry,” he said with infinite gentleness. “But you … I'm sorry; you're dead, Allison. You're an Angel now.”

Her blue eyes stared into his fixedly. She began to panic, gasping for breath.

“I … I died?”

“Yes. Don't you remember? The killer—the one who killed me. He killed you too.”

She recoiled in fear. Jeremy looked around him to see what had frightened her, before realizing that it was him!

“Jeremy Galveaux! You're the man who was … who was …”

“Decapitated,” he said in a whisper. “Yes, that's right. Quite an original way to die, I must admit. As was yours: electrocuted to death by a sword stuck in a lamp by a psychopath. I think you'll make the headlines just like I did!”

He could see the terror in Allison's eyes. Her face grew tense.

“I'm dead! But … Clark! He's going to … going to … oh my God, this is horrible! It will break his heart!”

Jeremy was too surprised to even speak. Allison had just passed over to the afterlife, and instead of thinking of herself she was already imagining how much her friend would suffer. She really was incredible.

“Yeah, well, he'll get over it,” Jeremy replied, a little more testily than he would have liked.

Allison suddenly jumped to her feet. She tottered slightly but refused his help, then finally regained her balance.

“I have to go back!” she yelled. “I have to go back home!”

Jeremy stepped back, surprised by how violently she was reacting.

“But Allison—”

“You don't understand! I have so much to do! Clark … Clark … I can't just abandon him! And the drug! Some … something has to be done about the new drug, you don't … it's very important, it's a cure—”

“For cancer,” Jeremy calmly interrupted. “I know all about it. It's why the two of us were murdered. My stepfather didn't have anything to do with it. Nor the mafia for that matter. It was all because of some creep who wants to hit the jackpot, and nothing more. But you can't go back, Allison, I'm so sorry. Your body … I mean, your terrestrial body, is dead. Look.”

He gently spun her around so she could see the medics placing her body in a black bag.

Allison couldn't stifle a cry when the zipper closed over her ghostly white face.

She howled so loudly that the living people in the room shuddered. Her immeasurable distress had penetrated their subconscious. Jeremy could feel the tears streaming down his cheeks. He understood only too well! Frankenstein yapped back at her and the people gathered around the dog, surprised by how vehemently it was barking. Yet again, the little animal had been able to perceive the world beyond, and Allison's fear.

Allison finally broke down in anguish and slumped over on the floor. This time when Jeremy put his arms around her, she didn't resist.

He held her quietly for a long time. Then he heard a small, tear-stained voice behind her pretty but messy blond hair: “So why am I naked?”

Jeremy blushed and quickly pulled away.

“Ah, oh, excuse me, I'm sorry. I'll take care of that right away!”

He started snatching up bits of Mist that were floating around them, without worrying about the color since they weren't going to eat it. He eventually had enough to form two yellow, green, and red strips of cloth. It had been a bit more difficult than making his own rudimentary loincloth.

He showed them to her with an awkward smile.

“Please accept my apologies, but this is all I can do for now. I haven't been dead long enough to figure out how to make more sophisticated clothes.”

Then he made two safety pins and proudly held them out to her.

“But I manage to get by.”

Allison didn't move. She remained huddled up on the floor, staring warily at him for a long moment through her long hair, like a primitive child. It looked like she might fall to pieces at the slightest movement. Then, while Jeremy remained completely still, holding the strips of cloth and safety pins out to her, she finally grabbed them. She did her best to pin on the makeshift loincloth with one piece of cloth, and then formed a band across her chest with the other. Luckily, Jeremy had made them large enough to cover her up. In her new clothes she looked like Jane, the queen of the jungle, but Jeremy thought it best to keep the observation to himself. She was certainly in no mood to appreciate his pathetic sense of humor. She had just “passed over.”

He could tell that she was doing her best to ignore what was going on with her cadaver, in order to concentrate all her attention on Jeremy. As if he were the only stable thing in her universe. He completely understood. He had done the same thing with Flint, clinging to him like a shellfish on a rock in the swirling tide. He realized that the metaphor was hardly a flattering one for Allison and smiled slightly. He was happy, for the first time since he had arrived in this strange new world. Even though the girl he had fallen in love with had just been murdered, he was happy.

He had completely lost his mind was more like it!

“What … what did you make it with?” Allison finally whispered, running her hand over the strange fabric, which was soft and warm. “Is it colored smoke? And why does everything look so bright and intense?”

Jeremy was only too happy to explain some of the strange things she could expect to encounter in their new world. She frowned as she listened, and looked so adorable in her skimpy clothes that Jeremy had to force himself to look over her right shoulder in order to remain concentrated on what he was saying. She finally noticed and turned around to see what he was so interested in. Her eyes opened wide when she realized that the medics were about to move her body. While Jeremy had been welcoming her, the police had arrived and begun taking measurements, snapping pictures, and looking for clues all around the crime scene. The lamp and the sword had been placed in sealed, plastic bags; the two bodies were now on stretchers and they had pushed back the furniture to make room.

“No!” Allison yelped. “I … what are they doing?”

“They're going to take your body to the morgue,” Jeremy explained. “I know that the two of you weren't close, but they'll also inform your father. Then they'll bury you. And your new life here will begin. Everything will be just fine.”

Allison snapped her head back to look at him: “What do you mean
everything will be just fine
?!” she yelled. “I hope you're joking! What's going to be
just fine
? I'm dead! Nothing will ever be just fine! Here we are, just standing around watching while …”

She stopped and stared at him.

“How do you know my father and I aren't close? And who told you about the drug to cure cancer?”

Jeremy opened his mouth … only to close it again. How could he explain that he had been following her around for days without her thinking he was some kind of pervert?

When she saw the guilty look on his face, Allison stepped back and took in the scene, realizing that they could see everything going on in her apartment. With startling speed, she realized what it all meant: “You were spying on me!”

Just then the medics walked right through her and she jumped back.

“They … they walked … I …”

“Yes,” Jeremy said, seeing by her reaction that he could weasel his way out of having to face her accusation. “We can't touch the living. Only solid, inanimate objects. Albert has a theory about it. It involves multiple universes and the fact that we actually never touch anything, even in real life, when we're alive on Earth. We're made up of atoms, which in turn are comprised of a nucleus and electrons that gravitate around the nucleus, and about 99.99% of the entire space is empty. These atoms generate a magnetic field that prevent, for example, the atoms of a baseball from passing through the atoms of the bat when it strikes it. Just like on Earth, there's a sort of magnetic field around objects that is thicker and more inflexible, which makes it impossible for us to touch or move them. But on the other hand, the magnetic field doesn't exist for living beings in our world, which is why we can walk right through them. That's why the medics just walked right through you.”

Jeremy was about to continue his scholarly discourse when he realized that Allison was having trouble following.

“Albert?” she whispered, completely lost.

“Einstein. Yeah, he's here too. As are many of the most famous scientists in the world. In fact they're having a conference right now. He's a really interesting man, I must admit.”

The longer he could dodge the question of “Were you peeping at me in the shower?” the better off he would be.

But Allison squinted her eyes menacingly at him. “Enough of your crap!” she snapped. “Now tell me what you were doing in my apartment …
looking
at me!”

Oops. The jig was up.

“At the cemetery,” he began slowly, “I overheard you say that I was killed because of you. I've been investigating my own murder. So I decided to follow you—OK, yes, you could say that I was spying, but not because I wanted to interfere with your life. I wanted to try to warn you that you were in danger as well. The killer bugged your apartment. I tried to rile up your dog, who was able to perceive me from time to time. I also brought a Poltergeist in to bang on your pipes, and I yelled in your ears for hours, but you didn't hear me.”

The thought of it made him happy and sad at the same time.

“No, you didn't hear me,” he repeated. “I tried. I did everything I could. But it was no use.”

Allison suddenly grew pale.

“You were there all the time? You … you mean we can see everything, but nobody can see us? Just watch whomever we want? But how? I—”

“C'mon,” Jeremy said. “Come along with me.”

Before she even knew what was happening, he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her through one of the walls of the apartment.

Allison cried out in fright but had no choice but to follow him. They ended up in the hallway. Jeremy was quite pleased with himself, while Allison, whose face was beet red and hair all tousled, was still holding her breath.

“Actually, it's not like when you dive in the water,” Jeremy said softly. “You don't have to hold your breath.”

She gave him a dirty look, and Jeremy shrugged. She yanked her hand free of his.

“Yeah, well, the next time you plan on doing … doing something like that, why don't you warn me so I don't look like an idiot!”

Jeremy only nodded in response. For a Newcomer, she was adapting incredibly well. Strange, he hadn't realized she had such a temper when she was alive.

He went down the stairs and waited inside the front entrance to the building. It was propped open to let the emergency teams come through. Allison followed him down. It wasn't as if she had much of a choice.

Once she had caught up with him, she crossed her arms and asked sharply: “And what about the stretcher?”

“What about it?”

“You said that we could walk through people but that objects remained solid, since we walk on the ground just like … like the others do. But the stretcher went right through me too—and not just the medics!”

“And so do cars and anything else when it's moving. It's true. The magnetic field between the two worlds doesn't always repel us: You really have to concentrate to travel on a moving vehicle or stay inside a bus, for example. Yet another mystery. Part of it is solid, and part of it isn't. The boundaries aren't the same here.”

Before she had the chance to ask any more questions that he couldn't answer, he pushed her out the door. She was about to yell at him again but stopped in her tracks, dumbfounded by the dreamlike beauty of the city, its incredible luminosity. And also by the celestial ballet in the air; the Angels flew by beneath the glorious rays of the rising sun.

She was so overcome that it took her a few minutes to speak. When she finally found her words, she was filled with awe.

“But … they're flying! It's … absolutely magnificent. How do they do it?”

“They figured out how to modify the density of their bodies. Probably has something to do with the force fields and atoms and all that.”

Two magnificent blue Angels flew past, lightly beating their iridescent wings. Both were completely naked and Allison stared at them wide-eyed. Jeremy tried to play if off like he was used to such things.

“Oh yes, there are also those who remain attached to the old traditions. You know,
winged angels
and all that kind of stuff.”

Allison seemed to have forgotten her combative mood back at her apartment.

“Are we … are we going to meet … God?”

She swallowed hard before adding in a low voice: “And the other one? The D … the Devil?”

Jeremy made a face.

“I have no idea. For the time being, he hasn't shown himself—at least, not in a way that was visible to me. Neither of them have. Albert would probably have more to say on that score. He's been here a lot longer than I have, and—”

Allison looked back at him, still dazzled by the spectacle.

“It's better that way—I mean, not for God, but for the other one. And what about us?”

“Excuse me?”

She stamped her foot in irritation.

“Fly! Can we?”

Jeremy pulled a long face.

“It's the same as for the clothes. As far as I can tell, we can't do it yet.”

“Oh, that's too bad.” Her shoulders slumped. “At least it would have been a consolation. Because it really sucks what happened to me—er, what happened to us, I mean,” she quickly added, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. “And I'm sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“For having gotten you mixed up in this whole mess. I'm sorry. I never thought that one day I would be able to apologize to you face-to-face, but here we are. I'm really, really sorry.”