Chapter 2
Opening the Portal
Luke and Sam have
enjoyed sharing their favorite ghost stories, from Ocean Born Mary to the
Jersey Devil and local legends back in Luke's home state of New Hampshire. Luke
is starting to think his sister isn't so much of a weirdo their parents think
she is, but that she's just like him: misunderstood. She then shows Luke some
pictures.
"This one I took
in Mexico. This one I took in Vermont."
"This is wicked
cool. I never knew my sister is a paranormal investigator."
"Yeah, but I
haven't been able to get a writing gig in about three months now."
"Why?"
"Too much
competition. Everyone and their sister writes about the paranormal or is in a
group now."
"But you're a
great writer and your photography is awesome. I mean, I look at websites that
say 'This is a picture of a ghost' and it's just this little dot. I mean,
you're getting faces, things that look like bodies. You're awesome."
"Thank you."
They sit in silence
for a little bit.
"Luke, I think I’m
going to take a nap. It's been a rough few days. Make yourself at
home."
Sam goes to take a nap
back downstairs and leaves Luke upstairs. She did say make himself at home, so
Luke plans to do just that. He goes into her room, looking at the pictures on
her mantel. One picture, which is older, mid 90's perhaps, shows Sam and their
parents in front of a fireplace back at home. She looks so sad, hopeless, and
alone. He couldn't help but feel like it must be a curse ... put on by their
parents! He then looks at something on her bureau and picks it up. It’s a bra.
Luke holds it against his chest and begins to talk like a snobby girl.
"Look at you, you
sexy thang. Rawr!" Luke rolls his eyes at his silliness and drops it.
He sees a book right
next to him on a table. It says, The Afterlife Codex. He picks it up and
takes his reading glasses out of his pants pocket. He takes interest in the
book right away.
The first page is inscribed. Luke reads it out loud,
“’Dedicated to
my love who I miss dreadfully. May you use the knowledge in this book and join
me. Immediately on your arrival, destroy this book. For your protection, you
must not be caught with it. The ritual herein
violates the governing laws of the Afterlife and were we caught, would result
in the ultimate destruction of our souls and we would cease to exist.”
Luke
shakes his head in confusion. What laws? What “Afterlife”?
He flips through the book until he sees a weird symbol
and stops.
"The Symbol of
the Dead," he reads out loud.
Instantly, Luke is
startled by the sound of thunder and lightning illuminating the window behind
him.
"Isn't that a bit
cliché?" he wryly says to the window.
He continues to read
aloud.
"The Symbol of
the Dead: Once a person dies, a portal opens to the Afterlife. If the deceased
in spirit does not want to move on, the power of his or her emotions allows
that spirit to avoid the portal and remain as a ghost in the Earth’s dimension.
But once through the portal into the Afterlife, it was generally accepted
knowledge that one could not travel back to Earth. Furthermore, it was
understood that a living person could not enter the Afterlife.
This is incorrect. The ritual explained here will show
how to get into the Afterlife as a mortal being. Be warned, this is a violation
of the governing laws of the Afterlife and mortals who attain presence in the
Afterlife are hunted down. The consequences can be the loss of one’s eternal
spirit."
Luke thinks to
himself, It's just a book, right? He continues to read out loud.
“Drawing the Symbol of the Dead grants the living access to the Afterlife.
However, the ritual demands a sacrifice of the blood of the person performing
this rite.
Luke looks over at the
doorway.
"Sam?" He
yells, but she doesn’t answer. Must be still asleep, he thinks, before
adding with a smile, Good.
After studying the
techniques, Luke etches the symbol into the wood floor using a pocket knife he
has in his possession.
"Sorry about the
floor, Sam, but this is just too good to resist. Now for a little
blood donation."
He raises his arm and puts the knife to his
flesh. The idea of cutting himself was easier than doing it. He jabs lightly,
but does not break the skin. He tries a slicing motion, but still cannot bring
himself to cut.
Slightly disgusted with himself, he gives up. What the
hell, he thinks, it’s just a book.
"Oh, screw
this!"
He picks up the book
to toss it away, but the book slides out of his hands and pages slice his skin.
“Damn,” he yelped.
A thin line of blood
etched the cut. Looking down, Luke watches the carved symbol shimmer in the
floor. The blood thickens and drips off his hand onto the middle of the symbol.
One drop, two.
Lightning flashes.
Luke instinctively turns his head toward the window.
When he turns back, a white fog is arising from the symbol on the floor. Shock
and delight makes him laugh.
"Hey, Sam!"
he calls downstairs.
"Yeah?" she
answers, still half asleep, but curious about his excited call.
"Get up here.
Quick!"
She gets up quickly,
thinking, What did he do to himself?
"Something
wrong?" she asks as she gets to the doorway. Then her expression darkens.
"Luke, what did you do?"
"I did it! I
opened a portal to the afterlife. It's cool isn't it?"
"No!"
"Come with me. We
will check things out and …"
And he's sucked
through the portal, down a black hole. Sam runs up to the mist and with a
cracking sound the portal disappears. She lands on top of the symbol as the
etchings on the wooden floor begin to mend itself back to normal.
"Damn it,
Luke!" she shouts.
Luke doesn’t hear her.
He hits the ground with an "OOF," gets us and sees that he is
suddenly surrounded by countless numbers of other people. There are all sorts
of different types: whites, blacks, Latinos, people with holes in their chest,
tire marks all over them, deep gashes, missing body parts and deformed faces.
It's just a normal day in the Afterlife waiting room. It may be mistaken for
Purgatory, but it's the waiting room where dead people go to be assigned a
place in the Afterlife. Some seem content and know they're dead. Others,
however, are disoriented and afraid.
Perched on top of iron
gates are Gatekeepers, strange hybrids of owl and human. Luke sees green
flashing more than red as he looks on in amazement.
He bumps into one lady who he sees has a nice
backside, but she turns around to reveal a face bombarded with pimples and
boils. Her throat is slit from ear to ear in an open gash. Still, she is cuffed
and shackled. Two husky guards accompany her.
"What are you
looking at, kid?" she sneers at him.
Luke had been
appreciating her ass, but once she turned around, he was horrified.
“Nothing," he mumbles, looking away.
The line moves quickly
and they are the next ones at the gate. The Gatekeeper peers down at the woman.
"Name?" he
asks.
"Elizibella
Troust," she growls.
She's had to have done
time, Luke thinks to himself. The Gatekeeper looks at a file, and after little
search, he reaches a name. He doesn’t look happy.
"Oh, tsk, tsk.
You robbed a bank, ran from the police, held a few people hostage, and escaped
with the money. You then went back to your house and …" He almost
chuckles, but then coughs instead. "Killed yourself shaving?"
A few laughs from the
crowd of people. Troust scowls.
"Shut up, you
damned beast."
The Gatekeeper next to
him gasps. "You going to take that?"
The first Gatekeeper
simply smiles and explains, "Why, yes, and I'll exchange it for ... one
hundred years of total damnation!"
He pulls a lever and a
red light flashes with a terrible screech. A trap door drops open and Troust
drops into a burning inferno. The trap door snaps shut. Suddenly, Luke doesn't
think this was such a good idea.
"Name?" The
Gatekeeper routinely asks Luke, without any further comment or reaction.
Business as usual.
"Um..."
Still looking and the
trap door, thinking he can still hear Troust’s horrible screams, Luke can only
stammer.
"That's simply a
diversion," the Gatekeeper says. "There's no Hell, fire, or brimstone
down there. Just a whole lot of nothing really. To be honest, it just came with
the place."
"Ah."
"Now son, all I
need is your name. I realize that death is a shock to you, but just like
everyone else...you need to tell me your name! Now go! Name?"
Luke answers
automatically.
"Luke
Hawkins."
The
Gatekeeper looks, and looks, and looks a little more. After what seems like
forever to Luke, the creature shakes his head.
"No Luke Hawkins
… " the Gatekeeper mumbled, “maybe somebody screwed up again.”
Shrugging he starts to
pull at the lever, the bad one.
Luke steps
forward. "Hawkins! Check
again."
Rechecking, the
Gatekeeper say, "I have a LOUIS Hawkins."
Luke quickly responds.
"Luke, Lucas, Louis, I'm all...confused. Death isn’t an easy trip."
He wants the adventure to continue.
"Hmm, you don't
look half bad for getting your skull caved in."
"What?!"
The Gatekeeper laughs.
"Just kidding. You died of a heart attack."
Luke nods, laughs
nervously, and silently thanks the real Louis Hawkins for letting him steal his
name. The Gatekeeper pulls on the good lever. As the gates open, a pleasant
ding is heard. He walks through the gates and as soon as he does the scene
around him changes from a cluttered, airport-size waiting room to a street.
Luke almost gets run over by a passing rickety old bus before someone pulls him
to safety. Luke looks back and sees a man hunched over with a bent back, only
one eyeball and rotten teeth.
"Thanks,
man."
"No
problem," the man says, walking away.
As Luke walks the
streets, there are all sorts of dead people around him. They are all pretty
nice, saying "Hello, good day," and some speak other languages that
really don't make sense to him, but he says "Hi" regardless.
The buildings look odd
to Luke: old stone buildings, some looking like cathedrals. Other buildings,
definitely newer than the stone but still old, are wooden, rickety and tilt at
funny angles with age. There are weird creatures in the sky, ghosts flying, and
other odd creatures running around that look like they belong in a mythology
book. Out of all the places he's seen, he hadn’t yet seen a restaurant. He does
feel hungry and as if by some magic, a restaurant is right across the street.
He crosses the street and goes into the restaurant, where he is met with a
cloud of smoke ... cigarette smoke. He coughs and wheezes a little.
"Buck up,boy, or
get out of here."
He peers through the
smoke and barely sees a bartender running a dry cloth in a mug.
"I just wanted a
drink or something to eat."
The bartender slides
him a mug as Luke gets up onto a bar stool. He looks at the drink and grimaces.
"What's
this?" he asks disgustedly.
"Well, I forget
its real name, but we call it Moldy Oldie."
"I'll just have a
soda."
"Oh, attention
everyone, we got a real heavyweight here. Boy wants a
soda." He throws Luke a can
of soda. "So, how'd you kick it, young one?"
"Excuse me?"
Luke says, snatching the can and opening it.
"Died! Kicked the
bucket! Put in your last request in the jukebox. Don't act stupid with me,
fella."
"Oh, I died of a
heart attack."
"You?
Blimey, you aren't even old."
"I know."
"Don’t even look
sick."
"Yeah."
"You sure are
ugly though."
Luke stops mid-sip.
"What?"
The bartender shrugs.
“I see what I see. Now bury that snout in your drink."
Luke drinks as he
looks at the clock. It's dead. He looks at his watch. Also dead.
"Excuse me."
The bartender grumbles
a sigh. "What now?"
"I just wanted to
know what time it is."
"Time? Time
doesn't mean much in here, boy. I'm sure you just realized your watch is dead
too." Luke nods. "It's something to do with this dimension or some
stupid thing. Get used to being dead, because you’re in it for the long
haul." Luke bites his lip and nods again. The bartender is reminded how
young the kid is and finds a bit of kindness. "Hey look,” he says, “if
there's anything you need, let me know."
"Where's the
bathroom?"
"Now, you're just
taking advantage!" the bartender snaps back in a sharp shift.
Luke freezes and
decides to look for the bathroom on his own. He finds it in the back and it's a
dingy bathroom, as dark as a cave. There is a urinal though, so the place is
not a total antique. As he does his business, he sees something written on the
wall. "Need help adjusting to the
Afterlife?” he reads aloud. “Come see the man who knows his way around a
graveyard or two. Hell, my name even has to do with death!"
Luke returns to the
main bar room, apprehensive about asking the bartender a question, but he wants
to know about what he just read.
"I was just
reading your wall and was wondering who wrote that message about adjusting to
the afterlife?"
The bartender's
ever-present cranky expression melts away. He then looks around and motions
Luke to come in closer so only they can hear each other.
"Now do yourself
a favor there, lad. Stay away from him. That guy is nothing but a con artist.
You wanna learn? There's a school called Poltergeist Academy. They’ll teach you
everything you need to know about being dead. They'll even give you a purpose
to live out for the rest of your existence."
I don’t need anyone to
tell me what my purpose is, Luke thinks to himself. And I’ve had all the school
I ever want, life or afterlife.
"What's his name
though? It didn't say," Luke persists.
"It's best you
leave here not knowing. Now scat!" Luke grimaces at him, but leaves as the
bartender shouts, "Best of luck to you. You're going to need it."
Meanwhile, back in
Sam's apartment, she is etching another symbol of the dead into the wooden
floor. It is more artistic than Luke's. Will it work the same? She hopes so.
She takes Luke’s knife and holds out her arm above the middle of the symbol.
She runs the knife across her skin, cutting a small gash. As her blood drips,
the symbol turns deep red, pales to white, then turns into ash as the floor
caves in and she falls down another portal hole. She hits the ground, gets up,
and realizes she is not in the Big Apple anymore.
"Where am
I?" She asks out loud as she looks into the deep, dark woods in front of
her.
There's a fog on the ground
reminding her of a morning frost back home, not New York home, but New
Hampshire home. Cool air blows at her face gently, pleasantly. She feels
relaxed, like nothing in this world could harm her. Walking to the forest’s
edge, she finds a trail. A rustling sound comes from the trees. She stops,
holds her breath, but nothing appears. After a few moments she begins to walk
the trail again, hoping she'll reach whatever awaits her soon.
