Jenna Walsh3

Chapter 4: Dead Again

I sat up. The train had come again, but this time, no demon. I looked around and waited a few minutes. Then the whistle blew, and I grabbed the nearest car just as the train started moving again.

Being stuck on Earth without a body would definitely be worse than anything Hell had in store for me.

I slammed the door behind me.

Everything was white. A female voice sounded above me. “Welcome to Eternity, Car 93,421.” There were soft seats and windows with billowing curtains that opened to gorgeous, wide open fields.

I looked around. Fresh fruit on the table, a pie on the windowsill, large goblets of crystal clear, ice cold water everywhere. In a room off to my right, a woman was humming a tune and baking a cake. A man sat out on the porch swing doing the Sunday crossword puzzle, even though it was Tuesday. Everything smelled clean and fresh.

Don’t ask me how I knew all this. I just did.

“What the fuck!?” I demanded of the high ceiling. “Where in the hell am I?”

“You’re not,” said a young voice. I looked down. A small girl dressed in white smiled up at me. “You’re in Heaven, Mister.”

I sat down. I didn’t mean to sit down, it just sort of happened. “What?” I queried weakly.

She patted my head. “You’re in Heaven.”

I frowned and the girl wandered off to play hopscotch or something. “Hold up. What the hell? I want answers, now! This is a train, and I want to see the conductor!”

A tall man appeared next to me. He was crisply dressed and stood like butler. “Yes, sir?” he said.

“I want to see the conductor,” I demanded as I stood. “Right now!”

“Right away, sir,” he said and walked towards the front door. I followed.

We walked through a beautiful meadow, over a cool stream, and through an aromatic and very green forest. At the edge of the forest stood a white door. He opened it for me and I tromped through. I nearly fell onto the ground that rushed below me. The man caught me by the back of the shirt. “Watch your step, sir,” said he.

I took a deep breath. And then I felt like I was slipping. “Sir!” said the man in an alarmed tone. I couldn’t stop myself; I fell onto the ground, tumbling under the train. The first wheel rolled over me and I blacked out.

When I came to some time later, I was in a dark room. I was lying in a soft bed with satiny sheets. “Hello?” I asked tentatively. I sat up. I had a splitting headache. Someone roared in my brain. Cid.

Slave! His voice thundered in my head. You are in the body of a young man, life cut tragically short by his own hand. You must bring me the diamond.

“What?” I said aloud. “What diamond? Where are you?”

It matters not where I am. You must retrieve his mother’s diamond.

I blinked. My body felt compelled to climb out of bed. I pushed aside the curtain on the canopied bed. I was in a garish room decorated with deep purples and lots of black. The visages of bats and gargoyles were everywhere. “Oh, God,” I muttered. A goth kid’s bedroom? That meant only one thing. I glanced over to the mirror on the very feminine vanity across from the bed.

“Oh, my God!” I moaned. I was pale as a ghost, tall and awkward. My hair was spiky and apparently the boy whose body I was in died while in full make-up. His name came to me. “Daemon” (Daniel) Higgins.