THE JOURNEY OF SHEIRA HART

23 | Like Monica but…Creepier.

I looked at Mikhael who was peacefully sleeping. I don’t know how long do we have to travel to get to our destination but it’s been three hours. And I was thankful the attendant didn’t give me another blank puzzle because I swear I am going to lose my mind rather than being happy and feel accomplished. The attendant, mercifully, didn’t force it on me. But I’ve been bored and staring outside for the last three hours. And I have finished a three hundred-page book and they’re all about the different types of leaves. I couldn’t believe I actually finished reading it enough to know that they have a name for every shape of the leaf.

I glared at Mikhael. Of all the times for him to keep quiet, he had to sleep now? But then I had to rethink that. Watching the scenery outside is probably better than hearing Mikhael di Angelo talk about things that don’t interest me. Plus, he’s probably mastered the art of annoying the s**t out of me and I’d rather be bored than end up pushing his face into our cabin’s window.

It was when some announcement echoed throughout the train through the speakers that Mikhael groaned and opened one of his eyes to observe and listen. I looked around and listened too. Then we felt the train stopped moving.

Mikhael got up and rubbed his eyes. His ruffled hair looked even more ruffled and with just expert swift movements of his hand, he made it look like he got out of bed and still look gorgeous anyway.

Wow. I just complimented him.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. Probably some technical problems,” I mumbled.

He scoffed. “I mean this is like a train power by divinities how on earth did it have a technical problem?”

“Don’t ask me Mr. Famous.” I held up a hand and stood up, looking at the hallway. I could hear mumbles from the souls near our cabin. Like us, they’re confused, too. The announcement just said we’d be stopping for a few minutes but they didn’t say why.

“At times like this, it’s the best time to go to the cafeteria and eat.”

I was about to retort but then he gently pushed me aside, away from the door, and opened it. He looked from left to right and when he didn’t see anyone, he looked at me. A sneaky look was plastered across his face. He jerked his head to the hallway, urging me to get out.

I furrowed my brows. “Why are you hiding?” I asked.

He then jerked his thumb to the hallway. “My fangirls might see me so I have to hide,” he said and gave me a toothy grin. I didn’t hide my grimace.

I rolled my eyes and shove me aside before I went out. I looked at him and his state. He gave me a questioning look. “You look like you were mobbed by ten strippers.”

He looked at his clothes and chuckled. I thought he was going to fix it but then much to my surprise, he opened the rest of the buttons, showing the rest of his…upper body.

I had to blink and look away. I don’t how it works in the afterlife but seeing a male stripping in front of you is still embarrassing. And it seems like they have removed all the feelings I needed to feel the moment I realized I was dead but they certainly did not remove embarrassment from my system.

Mikhael di Angelo is someone who plays sports and is probably active physically while he was still alive. He is someone who is nicely built. And I would understand his fangirls. But I willed myself to stop acting so embarrassed and looked at him. I stared at his chest down to his…abs. And then I went back to his face, all the while maintaining a blank face.

“Do you think you’re on a beach or something?”

“Oh come on,” he walked closer towards me and then leaned to whisper on my ear. “These people—souls have been dead for I don’t know how long and they have never seen something worth a thousand sceneries.” He stepped back with a grin on his face.

I looked at his state and then back to his face again. “And you think this,” I gestured my hand to his body, “would suffice?”

He ran his hand down his hair and I admit for a second—just for a second—he looked good. But I am not going to say it to him. “Baby, this is what their eyes are made of. To feast on me and to how good-looking I am. And besides, we’re on the other side. We’re allowed to do things and feel things that we used to feel when we were still alive. That’s one of the risks. Too much indulging of those emotions could get you in trouble, like what happened to Monica.” He looked around. “Those emotions will be removed once they’re in the afterlife.”

I quite understand what he meant but still…

“Just call this my fan service,” he said and winked before he walked past me and into the hallway towards where the restaurant is located.

I groaned and followed him to wherever he was going.

And the moment we walked from one car to another, I could sense the other souls peeking from their cabin doors, just to see a glimpse of Mikhael. I know he noticed it too as he winks or smiles at them sometimes. I just didn’t mind. I took the opportunity when he was talking to a particular girl, to walk ahead of him. From the very start, I didn’t think this journey would be an easy and peaceful one. I have known Mikhael di Angelo and he is someone who shuts up only when he’s asleep.

The train was still not moving and I could hear some cabin doors opening either because they’re bored and want to go somewhere or probably want to see Mikhael di Angelo. I’m betting all my imaginary money on the latter. This man has a strong charisma like he claims he has.

I felt him walk close behind me. “That was fun,” he said and chuckled. I didn’t have to mind him enough earlier as I was busy thinking about what he said.

“Could you tell me more about the afterlife and emotions?” I asked without looking at him. I continued to walk and I could tell he wasn’t expecting the question.

But he said, “We feel sad, happy, and any kinds of emotions in the afterlife. Just not that intense on how we feel it while we were still alive. Just enough to satiate us. And for souls who come back to the world of the living, they will be exposed to those emotions too thus, they had to match it. In short, we feel the same way as to how the living feels.” He stepped beside me.

“You have felt it. The happiness, the sadness, grief…those are really strong emotions too. And for someone like Monica who was probably denying her death and had a hard time coping with it, she became desperate and badly needed anyone just to be with her. She felt scared and doesn’t want to be alone. She was consumed by that desperation and ended up killing innocents. So we have to be careful.” In my periphery, I felt him look at me. “Monica’s soul was already tainted and that’s why Mr. Thanos had to take care of her.”

“Tainted?”

“You know, normal ghosts would just look…normal. But the ones who have already tainted their souls look kind of creepy…scary.”

I stopped walking and stared far ahead of us.

“Like they could do things that ordinary souls like us couldn’t and the only ones who could handle them are the Grim Reapers. If that fight with Monica the other night continued, we would have been dead. Or no, not dead. We would have just completely disappeared. With no trace at all.”

I gulped as I saw a guy, probably about our age standing at the end of the hallway. At first glance, he looked normal but then I could see black veins creeping along his neck and into his face. Very much similar to Monica’s.

“That guy’s soul is already tainted, right?” I asked and Mikhael looked at where I was staring. And the moment he saw what I was looking at, a curse got out of his mouth.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he mumbled and pushed me behind him.

And as if seeing a man standing a few meters in front of us looking awfully like Monica wasn’t creepy enough, it started moving but I could hear his joints cracking with every movement.

“What on earth…”

I wasn’t able to finish what I was going to say when the man opened his mouth and everything inside it was black.

I heard Mikhael say, “Ew,” before he stepped back. And when the man started walking faster towards us, it was the time that Mikhael pushed me to run and we did. We ran back where we came from.

What the hell is happening?

I looked back only to see the soul walking faster than before. Mikhael must have looked too because I heard him mutter a curse. We didn’t have time to reach our cabin and just entered a random one. I don’t know what material is this train made of that we couldn’t just simply pass through walls like how we could in the living world.

“He’s coming,” I muttered as I looked at the tainted soul walking not so normally towards our direction.

Mikhael pounded on the door and the ones inside were looking at us curiously. And Mikhael must have pounded the door too hard that they got startled and opened the cabin to let us in. They were the four girls whom I saw earlier that was attempting to talk to Mikhael.

He locked the cabin door and luckily, the cabin was big enough for the six of us. The girls inside gasped as soon as they realized it was Mikhael di Angelo. The guy they adore so much. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. And also, my attention was more focused on the zombie-like tainted soul outside. We both sat on the floor and took a deep breath. We have experienced so many traumatic things with Monica and we don’t ever want it to happen again. Monica was enough.

“What on earth was that?” Mikhael hissed as he looked at me. I was panting so hard from running and I couldn’t even mutter a single word. So I just shrugged.

We looked at the four shocked ladies in front of us. Their gazes went from di Angelo, then to me, and then to di Angelo again. And moments of taking in what was happening, all of them suddenly giggle and batted their lashes at the man beside me. I grimaced and rolled my eyes.

I was about to tell them there is a zombie outside when somebody pounded on the cabin door. We both froze. The ladies looked at the door. They probably couldn’t see what was outside but Mikhael and I are certain it was the zombie. We pressed our backs harder against the door but the zombie kept pounding on the door.

“Who is that?” asked one girl and we both shook our heads.

“You don’t want to know,” Mikhael said. He was about to reach the lock when somebody’s hand broke pushed through the door. The girls screamed and scuttled as far away as possible from the door.

I muttered another curse as the zombie's other hand pushed through the door. We both scuttled away from the door and looked at the hands touching mindlessly on the knob and eventually found the lock. But before it could even unlock the door, Mikhael picked a hard-bound book and hit the hand of the zombie. The zombie squirmed and then it let out a screeching sound so sharp it made our heads hurt.

“What is that?” one of the girls asked. More like screamed.

“I’m glad you asked,” Mikhael said, panting. “Stay on your seats or run if we need to because right now, we are getting attacked—“ he groaned as he pushed the door close.

He pushed using his hands and looked behind us.

“We are getting attacked by a zombie,” he said, and as if on cue, the lights on the train went out.

Bloody hell. 

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