Paranormal Agency BOOK 2 : THE FUNERAL HOME.

Drip.

Drip.

Emily groaned. Where was she? She opened her eyes slowly, feeling groggy. What had happened? There was water dripping onto her face. Her own blonde hair was sprawled on the hard floor around her head. She lifted a hand weakly, wiping at her cheek and looking at it afterward. It was red. Blood? She gasped at the sight of the red liquid smeared across her fingertips and jerked upright. Where the hell was she?

Moving into sitting position, she looked around her. There were golden bars surrounding her in the shape of a perfect circle. Fear tugged at her heart. Memories of the black creature moving swiftly toward her and grabbing her throat came back all at once and she put her hands to her mouth to keep herself from screaming. She could still remember the feel of the monster’s hot hands around her neck, strangling the life out of her. She could remember dying.

The thing had said “The Blessed must die.”

Then it had choked her to death. She could remember floating out of her body, gazing down at her corpse and knowing she would never see heaven. The fear grew as she looked around her, barely comprehending her surroundings.

The thing had asked her before she died “Why are you blessed?” She wondered what it had meant by that.

She tried to stand up, and for the first time, she realized that something heavy was hanging from her back. She looked behind her, gaping at the sight of two large white feathered wings. Reaching behind her, she gently touched the soft feathers. They were so beautiful. She had never seen anything so beautiful. When she looked down, she saw that she was wearing a simple sleeveless white gown that covered her shoulders, pinched at the waist, and fell down to her ankles. It felt silky and soft against her skin. It was astounding. Completely astounding. So this was what it was like to be dead?

Standing, she felt herself lose her balance and fall onto the flat golden metal floor. It didn’t hurt. Nothing hurt. Her body almost completely lacked sensation. It felt strange. Picking herself up again, she realized that the floor was slowly moving back and forth beneath her feet. Steadying herself, she carefully stood up all the way and made her way to the golden bars of her prison.

Emily wrapped her fingers around the bars, peeking between them. Thousands of other prisons were around her, each with another winged person inside of it. Were they all angels? She could see the prisons clearly now. They were shaped like giant golden birdcages. The giant birdcages hung from a rocky ceiling by a long golden chain, suspending the dangling cages in the sky. The entire place was lit up by an eerie red light that gave everything a hint of a ruby red glow.

She looked down. There appeared to be a giant city below them. The entire place was made entirely out of pale white stone. Buildings and other structures were cut from the stone and were so far down below that they looked like toys from where Emily was. She could make out demonic creatures crawling around on the ground. Some walked on all fours. Some stood on two legs. Some had too many legs to count. Demons? Was she in Hell?

“Hey there!”

Emily looked up again, stunned by the kind female voice that wafted toward her. “Hello?”

A shorter brunette woman with a pretty face smiled at her, her arms dangling around the bars of her cage. She looked to be in her mid-twenties. Her stomach bulged in front of her from beneath the plain white gown she wore. It was the same gown Emily wore and the same one all the other winged people in the cages were wearing. Emily realized the woman was pregnant. “Hey there. You’re new, aren’t you?”

Emily nodded. “Yeah.”

“Welcome to heaven.”

“I don’t think this is heaven.”

“I guess. You’re probably right.” The woman sighed, looking down. “I’ve been here for about a hundred days now. I heard its been longer than that back on Earth. They say years can go by there. Which means my husband is probably about thirty now. He’s growing up without me. I just hope he’s okay.”

“Why are we here?”

The woman shrugged. “Oh, I dunno. Sometimes the devils down below call us the Blessed. Whatever that means. All I know is that I’m not sticking around to find out. Me and the other girls are trying to come up with a plan to bust out of here?”

“Bust out of here? You mean out of Hell?”

“Yep. I mean, we have wings, right? If ever there was a time to learn how to fly, I think now is it.”

“You guys are going to try to fly to heaven?”

“I don’t care where we go. I just don’t want to be here anymore.” She looked at Emily again, smiling. “My name’s Sharon Ranald. What’s your name?”

“Emily.”

“Nice to meet you Emily.”

“Thank you.” Emily looked around once more, acknowledging the many birdcages hanging in the air around her from the stone ceiling. Escape, huh? That’d be nice? But how were they going to get out of the cages? She thought of the beast that had killed her. “Were you… killed by a monster too?”

“You mean the Soulless?”

“Is that what they’re called.”

“Yeah, they’re the Soulless,” Sharon replied. “They hunt us down. The Blessed. I don’t know why yet but it’s big. I can tell. Something really big is about to go down, honey, and I don’t like it. You see my husband is a detective. He solves mysteries. I worked for the newspaper. We used to work together a lot. Kind of like a team, you know? So I’m keen to this kind of thing. This is gonna be big, Emily. Something’s going on here, and I think something bad is going to happen to Earth.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.” She let out a breath, climbing on the floor of her cage and sitting down, cradling her stomach in her hands. “I wish he was here. My husband. He was always the smart one. I know he’d be able to figure it out. He was kinda like… my hero… if you know what I mean.”

Emily’s lips curled into a small smile. “I think I know how you feel. My husband was my hero too.”

“My husband saved my life when I was in college. He was working undercover. Thinking back on it now, I can’t believe how much the two of us have been through together.”

“He saved you?”

“Yeah. A rookie on the police force at the time. Undercover. It’s a pretty ridiculous story. But that was years ago.” She went quiet, patting lovingly at her stomach. “I miss him so much. I think about him all the time. He was the love of my life. I wanted him to meet the baby, but I suppose he won’t be around to witness that.”

“The baby?”

“Yeah. I’m pregnant. Even though I’m dead, his baby still grows inside of me. It won’t be long now before he’s born. He’s going to be a boy. The doctors told us already. My little Brett. My husband picked out the name. It’s cute right?”

“Very cute,” Emily agreed.

“I wish I was with him,” the woman continued, a remorseful expression on her face. “I really wanted him to be with me when the baby was born. I really wanted him to meet Brett. Maybe someday. I made a promise to myself. I’m going to get out of here and get to heaven. I have to get to heaven with Brett. Then I’m going to wait there for when my husband dies. It’s the only way I’m ever going to get to see him again.”