Hora Mortis Nostrae (pt 2)

Incase y'all haven't guessed, this story will be coming to you in seven parts. Pay attention to the numbers mentioned, too. I hope you guys like it. I mean, we're not even to the really good part yet.
Anyway! Now back to the story.

Recap: Felix has just rushed into the middle of an intersection to pull a mysterious girl out of the busy street. Instead, they are both hit by an SUV, and after the impact, the girl leads Felix away from the scene, leaving their bodies behind.

Part Two

The girl reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me farther and farther away from my own body (which I suddenly wish I was still inside) and out of the intersection. As the paramedics arrive, sirens blaring, SUV driver still screaming and crying hysterically; I realize that I am most likely dead. The farther and farther the girl pulls me from the mess in the middle of the street, the more I am sure that I have just died and am now entering the afterlife.

Oh my God. I'm dead. I've just died.
This is a moment I've been wondering about since early childhood, and here I am, simply on the other side of the street. No white light, no fall into never-ending darkness, no, I just got up and walked away. I'm honestly a little disappointed at how anticlimactic this has all been.

The sound of a stretcher hitting the ground snaps my attention back to the scene before us. One of the bodies has been covered by a tarp, and the other is surrounded by bustling EMTs. I can't tell for sure, but I think the girl's body may have survived the whole ordeal.

I feel a tug, and the girl begins to lead me down the street in the same direction that I originally intended on going. Her eerie silence continues as we walk, but I can bare it no longer. I have some serious questions that need to be answered now.
"What the Hell were you doing in the middle of the street? Who are you? Where are we going? Are we dead?!" I spray out the questions in a blustery stream of confused-sounding words at the girl. She stops, looks at me, and taps the tip of my nose with her index finger. A mischevious grin spreads across her face and her eyes connect with mine.

Those eyes are terrifyingly beautiful, clear grey with a bright gold tint outlining the irises, and are thick with understanding. This girl has lived a while, and knows something I don't. Suddenly, she speaks.
"I'll explain everything once we're upstairs. By the way, my name is Gabrielle, and you have access code E15:20, you'll need to remember that in order to get in. Hold onto my hand and exhale when I tell you to."

I grab her hand and she slugs me in the stomach, forcing the breath from my lungs with her sharp, unexpected blow. I squeeze my eyes shut and try not to breath until she lets go of my hand. Then I keep my eyes shut, trying to contain myself as I try to refill my stunned chest cavity with oxogen.

When my eyelids finally relax and part, they reveal the truth. At last, I know where one goes after they die.

We are standing in the middle of a street, but it's dark out. There's a single white feather floating through the air. Everything sort of has a yellowy glow, and there's this faint pulling beneath my feet, as if we are in motion, but are moving incredibly slowly. The streetlights eminate clear, blue light. The buildings are normal looking, like on a city street, but each have odd quirks, as though that city street might be in Soho.

I have this inherent knowledge that we are in a city in the clouds; Heaven. Gabrielle looks at me and grins.
"Let's go see the boss." she sighs.
She leads me through about six blocks of this odd city, and I realize that the buildings aren't quirky, they're simply mixed up. As we walk by a particularly odd building, it hits me that it is simply mixing architechtural styles from all over history. Huh.

When we stop, we are standing in front of a large, steely skyscraper, with dark tinted windows like a glistening black sheet towering above us in the still, night air. The address is emblazoned above the large entry way: 666 Heaven Street

Though it seems as though the entire city is asleep, Gabrielle pulls me towards the building. Once through the revolving doors, I see that we are in a huge, silent lobby. Along one wall there is a reception desk that is a hundred feet long, with as many telephones sitting on top, and all the way at the end is one lonely receptionist who was unlucky enough to get the graveyard shift.

We approached her, and she glanced up from her copy of The Lady Chatterly's Lover. She didn't even ask our names, she just looked at Gabrielle and picked up her telephone.
"Gabrielle's back...got some kid with her, real character, with all these ridiculous piercings and the weirdest t-shirt,"
Um, hello? I'm standing right here, lady.
"Anyway, I know the boss'll want to see her, even at this unholy hour.... Oh no, they can come up by themselves, you don't have to send anyone.... Yep...Yep, they'll be up momentarily." She motions for us to go.
"No, he doesn't know a thing. You'll have to explain once they get up there."

Gabrielle pulls me towards a large, silver framed elevator and presses the call button. There's a quiet ding as the doors slide open. We enter, and she types in a code on the touch-screen pad on the wall; D9:20. And then we go zoom.

The lift travels upwards so quickly that there is literally a low zooming sound. I watch the numbers on the floor counter scroll through 200, and we finally slow to a stop at floor 214. The doors sleekly ding open, and I know instantly that we're on the executive floor, because there's another reception desk before us, but this time, with only two telephones. As we approach the desk, the smiling secretary sitting behind it presses a button, and nods at Gabrielle.

Gabrielle holds up two fingers in the peace sign and sticks her tongue out at the secretary, then swiftly turns and leads me down a darkly lit hallway and into a conference room. I sit at a random chair at the table and look straight ahead in dumbfounded silence, trying to process the last ten minutes. Gabrielle plops down across from me, and is about to speak, but suddenly the door opens and the last person I was expecting to see walks in, sits down next to Gabrielle, and grins at me.

"Um.... Jesus?"


To be continued.
Julia