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ceeceestories-blog · 7 years ago

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“Collector, who is this? Another one that should have been mine?” said no other than Beelzebub, or ‘Mr. Bee.’ as he liked to be called, and reached for a lock of Serena’s hair.

“Kitty?” asked the tall man, whose face was covered in rags, genuinely confused. His voice was husk, deep and ancient.

“Don’t be silly, Charon. All the millennia you have been moving the souls of the dead across the river Styx and you still have trouble telling the difference between human and animal souls?”

“If she no ours, how I know?” Charon offered as an explanation.

“She is mine.” The Collector said and put one hand around Serena drawing her close and out of the reach of the demons.

Serena buried her face into the Collector’s side.

“Oh girl, don’t be so quick to find comfort in the Collector” Mr. Bee said, “He will soon throw you into the Labyrinth where the suffering is never ending. You’ll spend a thousand lives redoing and undoing things that have already been done. Centuries will pass and as your soul stretches thin, you will wish for death, but death won’t come. The Labyrinth is cruel child, even crueler than hell.”

Serena stepped back from the Collector. “Is this true?” she asked him.

“Purgatory is a second chance,” the Collector explained.

Mr. Bee scoffed, “At least hell is a destination, not a state of in-between… If you had only been a little more deceiving, a little more destructive, perhaps you would have gone with me.”

“The labyrinth is the road to salvation” the Collector interrupted.

Mr. Bee ignored him.

“You know… you could still choose to leave him and come with me. Not to hell, your name is not written in the book of the dead, but you could still come with me to the underworld.”

Serena looked at Mr. Bee suspiciously as the latter extended his hand and bowed.

“Ms., it would be my honor if you would become my companion at the gates of hell. I am kind of bored by the company of this big, stupid bag of bones,” he said gesturing to Charon, who did not protest.

“If you come with me now, we will make an excellent team. We will receive the damned souls together, we can make fun of them, if you like. We could also host hell tours together. It will be so exciting!”

Serena looked at the Collector. Now that she had his luminous eyes, his face looked more human.

“Did the Collector mention that there are rooms that could trap you in the Labyrinth forever?”

He reached out and grabbed her by the hand. Serena felt heavy, grounded, as if her human body had returned to her. For some reason she couldn’t stand it, her body felt like a ton of bricks. Did it always feel like that when she was alive?

“You could go with him,” the Collector said, “but you will never have the chance to undo the unkind things you did. You will not be able to help those you hurt, especially Alice, heal. “

“Alice?” Serena let go of the demon’s hand. Her sister felt like a distant thing. A memory she couldn’t quite grasp. Away from Mr. Bee, her body became light, and her mind clear. She remembered…

12 year-old Alice and 8-year old Serena are listening to their dad speaking angrily on the phone. “Where’s mom?” Serena asks her older sister.“She left. I don’t think she’s coming back.” Serena begins to cry. “Don’t worry. I’ll look after you,” Alice says and hugs her.But Serena was mad and pushes her away. “No! you are not mom! I want my real mommy!”

14 year-old Alice and 10 year-old Serena are fighting over clothes. Serena swears at Alice and the latter slaps her hard on the face. Alice tells her not to be like mom who used to swear at them and at their dad. Later, their father brings them together, Alice asks for forgiveness from Serena, who hugs her.

Alice tells 16 year-old Serena their dad has cancer and he is dying. Serena has her first heavy alcoholic drink from her father’s cabinet. She contemplates if she is indeed turning like her mother.

Right after their father’s funeral, Serena grabs a bottle of vodka she was hiding and intends to drink it in her room. Her sister sees her and snatches it away. They fight. “I need you to fucking grow up!” Alice tells her. “Tell me how I am just like mom,” Serena shouts back. “You are not,” Alice says, “but you are trying so hard to be.”

Serena is 18 when she meets Alice’s new boyfriend. She does not see how they could make it as a couple, if Alice is busy with a part time job and some college courses. Serena notices the way her sister’s boyfriend looks at her and wonders if he would be faithful to her sister to her sister.

Alice slaps Serena hard on the face. It was the second time in her life she gets slapped on the face by her sister, but this time their father would not reconcile them.

It’s the Christmas eve after their father died, both sisters had recently receive news that their mother had also passed away. Alice begs Serena to stay for dinner with their aunt. “Where was she when mom left? when dad was sick?” asks Serena. “She came when she could, and she is here now. Please let’s have a family dinner. I made turkey.” But Serena thinks they’ll judge her and watch the amount of alcohol she consumes. And she had to have some alcohol, both her parents had died leaving her with a different ache in her heart. She decided to skip the dinner and go clubbing.

The summer she turned 21, Serena is at Alice’s wedding. She is the bridesmaid, but not the maid of honor. She becomes drunk at the wedding reception and ends up destroying the wedding cake, while singing “I came in like a wrecking ball.”

“Stop it!” Serena asks the Collector.

“It’s not me, it’s your consciousness.”

Then the Collector puts his hands on her head.

“Now, this is me.” What she saw then were not memories, but what had happened after the pool incident.

She sees Alice just as she realizes something was seriously wrong with Serena as they dragged her out of the pool. Alice runs to her body, trying to revive it. She shakes her, holds her and screams to her husband to call an ambulance.

She then sees Alice at the hospital. She sits there for the whole duration Serena was in a coma. During that stay Alice discovers she is pregnant and tells the sleeping Serena to wake up, because she has to be an aunt now.

Alice is at her funeral broken down, crying non-stop. Serena hears her say “I lost every single one. My family, they all left me.” After the funeral Alice sees blood on her underwear. She knows she miscarried.

She sees Alice at home a month after the funeral having a mental breakdown after she got into an argument with her husband over changing the TV channel. She is screaming and trying to kick him out of the house, but he subdues her gently. Even in his arms,Alice is not the same. Serena sees her sister’s flame become smaller, consumed by rage.

As soon as the last vision ended, Serena fell into the ground exhausted; she covered her face with her hands and began to cry for her sister. In all of her time on Earth, her pain clouded everyone else, even her sister’s pain.

“There’s nothing you can do about that. It’s better to put it behind and move on.”Mr. Bee said, “Your sister will have to move on too, that’s not on you. The risk of getting stuck in the labyrinth is far too great.”

But Serena turned to the Collector with a new determination, “I don’t want my sister’s flame to be put out. She is a good person. She took care of me. I will go with you, whatever the consequences are for me.”

A strange wind blew right then, Serena saw surprised through the locks of her wild hair dancing on her face, that she was the only one who was affected by it. It quickly became a powerful twister that tore her off the ground, away from the demons and the angel. Inside a whirlwind, she saw her father’s face smiling at her. “Well done, love. Be brave. I am waiting for you” he said before the twister carried her through a doorway and slammed her against the wall of a long, but familiar corridor.

An invisible force shut violently the door through which she just came out. The word inscribed on it, “Empathy,” slowly disappeared.

It was a room, Serena realized.

When Serena re-opened the door, everything was gone. It opened to nothing but a small, empty room.

Back in the corridors of the labyrinth, the many doors with the inscribed words awaited her. The words scared her still, but she was different now. She looked down on her chest, and witnessed her flame become a little bigger.

Many doors called for her; “Damaged” was the loudest. She knew it was the one that would make her face her addictions. If there was a room that could trap her forever, that would be the one.

She pumped herself up and went straight for it; get it over with…But right before she twisted the door-knob, she hesitated. She remembered she had previously left a room called “Anna” unresolved. Her mother, who the labyrinth had aged beyond recognition, was in there, patiently waiting for her daughters to forgive her.

The “Anna” door was not far; as Serena went for the room she passed a door which had “brave” inscribed on it. The word slowly disappeared.

-THE END-

#afterlife #purgatory #good vs evil #angels #demons #beelzabub #short story #fiction

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ceeceestories-blog · 7 years ago

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THE LABYRINTH - PART 4

“Weird,” Serena thought as she lay face down on the ground, where the Collector had literally dropped her. She always believed hell would be much warmer; it was actually a bit chill.

“Get up,” the Collector’s voice called, not unkindly, from above.

As Serena obeyed she saw that they were in a big metropolitan city, where crowds of people were always on the move. They were shopping, going to business meetings, and those on the phone, she guessed, were talking to their lawyers or bankers. Everyone was in a hurried- no-nonsense mood and they all looked really unhappy.

When an old man fell as he was getting out of a taxi, Serena noticed no one came to his aid.

“Is this hell?” she dared to ask.

“No, this is not hell, but I can see why you’d mistake a place where there is indifference for hell. I did not get you here to show you heaven or hell, I brought you here to show you humans, lots and lots of them.”

“I have seen people before,” Serena muttered under her breath.

“Not with our eyes.”

Serena flinched when the Collector reached for her face, but then decided to let him… (She had also decided right then, that the Collector was a male and so she witnessed his features became a little more masculine.)

“You, humans, see what you want to see; I will show you what you need to see” the Collector said as he covered her eyes with his hands.

“You were never evil, Serena “said the Collector as she felt her eyes burn.

“You just ran away from them everything meaningful since your mother left you. You let your fears dictate your life, you never took responsibility, and you tried to drown your precious flame in booze…”

Serena screamed as she sank in a world of darkness.

“Even in your afterlife you are squandering your second chance. You walked the labyrinth for a long time and you were not able to open any doors except one… and you ran away from what was waiting for you inside. Even in death, you are not able to face your demons. We want you to understand why it is important.”

When the burning stopped, Serena sighed in relief. Seconds later, she was able to see again but it was a very different experience from what she knew.

It felt like she was seeing for the first time.

The material world was made of more dimensions that she could count. As for people, she was able to see them beyond flesh and bone; she could see them as shells in which a bright fire burned in blue flames.

The intensity of the flames varied from one person to another. Serena noticed that while most people housed an average looking flame burning strong, a few had flames that were barely visible and flickered as if bothered by an invisible wind. A fewer still, had flames that filled their shells completely and caused them to be engulfed in a blue aura.

There was one particular person though, who piqued her interest. He had no flame, instead there was a deep darkness inside of him. He was a slightly overweight middle aged man in a very expensive business suit. He caught Serena’s eye as he was busy distributing equal verbal abuse towards his assistant, and to whomever he was speaking on the phone.

“His flame has burnt out,” the collector explained and pointed, “Look.”

The businessman was suddenly in great agony. He was clutching at his chest, trying to scream out. When he reached out to his assistant, the latter looked at her purse and stepped back.

While a few people stopped this time to see if they could help the man, Serena was busy studying the assistant, for it was at her the Collector had pointed.

The assistant was now holding something small tightly onto her chest . The businessman tried to reach out to her once again with eyes consumed by rage.

When his heart finally gave out, he mouthed incomprehensible things and dropped to the ground. People yelled and there was some commotion.

Serena witnessed the assistant’s flame go from an average size down into a flicker of a flame, no bigger than what you’d find on a dying church candle. She saw her calmly turn her back and leave. Not too far down the street, the assistant threw, what she held so dearly only a moment ago, down the bin. It looked like a bottle of pills.

The Collector then approached the businessman, whose body was now a cracked shell, and Serena followed. As she was busy studying the foul smelling fumes that exuded from the cracks of the body of the once wealthy man, two dark figures surprised her when they stepped out from the shadows.

They waved to the Collector and said, “We are many,” to which the Collector replied, “We are one.”

The tall one had his face covered in rags but, inexplicably, he did not feel as menacing as the shorter with the charming smile. Serena felt so uneasy she hid behind the Collector like a four-year old.

“Oh, hello child… Don’t be afraid” said the shorter one as he extended his arm towards Serena, “Let me introduce myself. I am Beelzebub, but you can call me Mr. Bee.”

TO BE CONTINUED

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ceeceestories-blog · 8 years ago

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Serena’s motto in life was “try everything once, before you’re 30.” She would have never guessed that included dying.

“I just can’t be dead.” Serena told Anna, the old lady in the room, as she was going through every feeling in the world, except the sensation of having passed on.

Anna gave her a faint smile, and told Serena the quicker she accepted it the better.

“So what now? I am destined to walk these corridors for eternity?” Serena asked fearfully.

“No, this, purgatory, is a temporary situation. There is a way out of the labyrinth to the land of milk and honey, and where the lion lies next to the lamb.”

“Heaven?”

Anna nodded and tears ran down her eyes, “once justice has been served.”

“You have to go through all the doors with words on them,” she continued, “each and every one. Even the scary ones… Especially the scary ones. This would be my last room before I am able to move on.”

Serena looked around her and finally asked “What’s keeping you?”

The old woman lifted up her long skirt and Serena saw both of Anna’s legs were chained to the wall. She hadn’t noticed them before, because the old lady hadn’t moved since Serena entered the room.

“I need for both my daughters to forgive me, before…”

Serena stopped listening. There was something about that old woman, who must have been a hundred years old, she recognized. She never knew anyone that old, but she felt she had met her once, possibly in a dream... When realization struck, Serena was mortified.

There was no doubt. That woman was her mother. Her actual mother. Serena ran away.

Out of the room and back into the labyrinth she went. This time the walls became alive. She saw her life projected on them. Every memory from infancy to that fateful night of her death appeared on the walls. She saw every bad and good thing she did. She heard every thought she ever had and when she reached the heart of the labyrinth, a dead end, it felt twenty years had passed.

Somehow she was not surprised to see a figure was waiting for her there. What was weirder was that, as if by instinct, she knew who it was.

It was the Collector and he had been expecting her.

The first thing she noticed about the Collector was the eyes.

They were the only things that betrayed his human appearance. The Collector’s eyes were luminescent shining brightly like two full moons on a dark night.

The second thing she noticed was that the Collector was androgynous, neither male nor female. Nonetheless this celestial being had a kind face.

The third thing she noticed was the awe-striking presence of the Collector. She found herself on her knees as soon as her eyes fell on him.

“Get up Serena,“ the Collector called and it sounded like a thousand church bells ringing.

Despite the Collector’s insatiable appearance, the voice was intolerable. It moved things in her.

“Upon your death you were judged child,” the Collector said and Serena started scratching herself.

“ and we found that you still have the light inside of you… “

Serena now felt her body was weighing her down.

“But you have committed great grievances…”

Serena tried to crawl away from the Collector and that voice, while her sister came to mind.

“and justice must be served.”

“Forgive me Alice!” She called as the Collector came for her and stamped in the ground opening a hole right underneath her. Serena fell through.

TO BE CONTINUED.

#fiction #short story #death #purgatory

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ceeceestories-blog · 8 years ago

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Whenever i mildly annoy my cat, she gives me the death look and goes to sharpen hair nails on the scratch post (while still glaring at me!)

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ceeceestories-blog · 8 years ago

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If this was a prank, it was a very cruel one, Serena thought as she hit her fist against the wall and dropped to the floor.

She noticed that her bare feet had started to bleed. No wonder it was painful to walk.

She so wanted to give up and just die, or at least have a drink. It had been hours trying to find a way out of the labyrinth. So far, she learnt corridors just led to more corridors and doors were pointless, as most of them were locked, and those that were not led to empty, windowless rooms.

She had tried everything, except… except, trying the doors with the carved words on them. They scared her.

Every time the voice at the back of her mind told her these were the only doors worth opening, she opted against it. There were disturbing sounds behind those doors. Noises that made her wonder if it would be better to be stranded in this weird structure forever, rather than face what was behind them.

But this door she was now staring at, the one across from where she sat, was different. The word carved on it did not frighten her, it drew in some ancient feelings instead.

“What was the worst that could happen with a door that spelled her mother’s name, Anna,” she asked herself as she stood up and placed her hand on the door knob decisively and twisted.

The door was heavy. She opened it slowly and cringed at the loud squeaks it made. Serena saw there was a big window dominated the room. It opened to a big green field where children were playing. And just before she could scream “Freedom!” and leap out, a voice spoke behind her startled her.

“This is not real,” it said.

Turning around, Serena saw that it belonged to a withered old woman.

“These are just memories, and faulty ones at that… My children never played in a green field. More like in city playgrounds, but this is how I choose to see them.”

“Who are you?” Serena asked quickly, “Where am I?”

“I am Anna,” the old lady replied and looked confused as to why she was being asked that question.

“Little girl,” she continued, “as to where you are, you might be somewhere bad, but not evil. You can find comfort in that while really bad things may happen to you here, nothing truly evil will fall upon you.”

“I don’t understand… Where the hell am I?

“Well, you are not in hell, little girl.”

Frustrated, Serena screamed at the old lady “Then where the fuck am I? I need to get out, I need to get back to my life!”

The old lady started laughing hard, so hard that tears came out of her eyes.

“Life? What life?” she said in the sweetest old lady voice Serena had ever heard. “You mean you want to go back to being an alcoholic brat who randomly destroys other people’s lives? No, you can never go back, after all you are dead.”

Serena did not know why she believed her, but somehow it seemed obvious.

“How?” Serena asked, her voice was barely audible .

The window then started changing. The spring breeze that came through was replaced by an evening chilly blow. The children and field were gone, and now the window overlooked her sister’s dinner party, the very same one Serena crushed.

Serena cringed as she saw herself get drunk and flirt with her brother-in-law’s business partner, Rob. She now saw how he tried to let her down politely, and how uncomfortable he looked. Weird, it wasn’t how she remembered it,at all. She also saw how anxious her sister was getting, and how her brother-in-law stepped in and pried Rob away from her.

She then, saw herself get naked screaming what must have been ancient celebratory cries. Serena buried her face in her hands out of embarrassment. Did she truly do that?

Serena’s sister ran to cover her up with a sheet– she remembered that– but she pushed her away and ran to the pool.

Drunk as she was, she slipped and hit her head on the edge of the pool and fell face down into the water. What followed was the hardest to watch.

The pool turn red before her brother-in-law could fish her out.

Her sister screamed cried her name, as they carried her to the hospital.

She was tied into a hospital bed, and clung to life for three days.

She died.

“Welcome to purgatory, daughter” said the old woman.

Serena collapsed.

Part 1 and following chapters are/will be available at:

ceeceestories.wordpress.com

#short stories #fiction #Afterlife

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