18 Thoughts (My So-Called Afterlife Book 3) (38 page)

He crossed his huge biceps in front of his chest. “Even after all my years of working with our Creator, he is more of a mystery to me every single day. I do not pretend to understand the mind of God, but I do know he always has your best interest at heart.”

Conner pushed to his feet. “How do I factor into all this?”

Riel narrowed his eyes at him. “You were out of my jurisdiction, so I wasn’t concerned about you. However, our girl Olga desperately wanted to find you in the Underworld and went on a rogue mission to find you at Juvie.”

Conner dropped his Mountain Dew in surprise, spilling the green pop all over my carpet. “So I was dead? We all were? But how? We don’t remember any of it. Our parents sure as hell don’t remember us dying.”

“Mr. Anderson, watch your language. And, please, stay seated.”

Riel pointed his finger at Conner, and he flew backward and landed on my futon. I did a double take when I noticed Riel now held the soda bottle in his hand, the wet mess on the carpet already gone.

I could tell Conner wanted to take a swing at Riel, but even he wasn’t dumb enough to get into a fist fight with an angel, so instead he asked another question. “How do you expect me to chill right now? You have answers. You can easily explain everything to us right here, right now, but instead you deny us the truth.”

Riel ran a hand through his surfer hair. “Wrong again. Not easy. Very complicated. Furthermore, I believe the pair of you summoned me here today for some help with a demon, not a round of twenty questions. Is the correct, Mr. Barca?”

“Huh?” Too overwhelmed to think, I’d completely forgotten my true purpose of entering the spirit realm. “I’m sorry. Yes, please tell us what we can do to help Olga.”

Riel threw the Mountain Dew back to Conner, then rubbed his hands together. “What Conner experienced with the possession, and what Olga now experiences, is also a result of the fusion binding you all together in this. The scum who sent those reports to the demon, Sam, was someone very upset about a… situation you three were involved in. Satan wanted revenge, and Sam has been an instrument of that retribution. Demons like Sam are tied to the spiritual realm, but they can break the barrier through possession. They usually don’t because they know they will be Judged the most severely when their time is up. But if they can possess the physical body for more than half a year, spiritual law dictates they can make the attachment permanent. There would be little hope of ever getting Conner back after that, which is why Olga invited Sam in. She had overheard a conversation between me and Dr. Judy a day earlier. Of course, we didn’t know she’d listened outside the door at the time.”

Tilting my head to the side, I decided the time for polite chitchat was over. “Why would God even allow demon possession to happen?”

“He allows it because man’s free will can invite evil in. He doesn’t like it, of course. Every person has a guardian angel to help prevent these things from happening, but sometimes they do.”

His lips parted, as if he wanted to say more but held back. Conner whipped his head between Riel and me. I trembled under the angel’s gaze until he finally spoke again. “You will need to get Olga to ask the demon to leave, and then you’ll need to give him a place to go.”

I rubbed my neck. “One, how do we do that? Two, where? I wouldn’t even offer up my worst enemy to be possessed by that thing.”

Riel laughed. “It wouldn’t exactly be angelic for me to suggest such an act, either. I meant you need to send him back to the Underworld. The angels will take him into custody from there. In order to do so, you’ll need to create an environment for Olga that will enable her to kick Sam out.” He nodded toward Conner. “You, whip out your phone and type up some notes for this. I don’t have time to be summoned twice.”

For once, Conner did as told.

“There’s a portal in every city leading to the Underworld. In Grand Haven, that portal is located in Duncan Woods.”

Every radar in my body went off. “The woods bordering Lake Forest Cemetery?” I had visited the graveyard a few times since moving here, imagining what my headstone would say if I would’ve died like I should’ve in my car accident.

Conner nodded. “Those are the ones. Nice little forest nestled right in the middle of our town. Olga and I used to go sledding there all the time when we were kids. Creepy as heck at night, though. One summer, Olga and I spent the whole day biking around town and somehow ended up in the woods at night. She swore up and down she saw some moving shadows near this big boulder about one hundred, maybe two hundred, yards from the border of the cemetery.”

“That would be the portal. The boulder marks it,” Riel explained. “In fact, if you touch it now, even in the dead of winter, the rock will feel hot.”

I dropped into my desk chair, hitting my scalp on the headrest. “Whoa. So how do we open the portal?”

Riel didn’t miss a beat. “Blood is the easiest way. I suggest you or Conner offering yourselves up as a sacrifice.”

“What?” I shrieked.

A quarter appeared in Riel’s hands. “We’ll solve this the old-fashioned way. Heads or tails?”

“Are you serious?” Conner asked, his voice breaking.

Riel laughed. “No, but you should’ve seen the look on your faces. Priceless.” He flicked the quarter in my direction, then launched right into a very complicated scenario. “Obviously, the boulder is too big for you to move. You’ll need to call on the angel Synoro, the gatekeeper, to open and close it for you.

“Go to the woods at midnight when there’s a full moon and make a square three feet by three feet, to symbolize the trinity. Pour olive oil along the perimeter of the square. Then set a blessed candle on each side of the square to represent the north, south, east, and west. Mix some sage, frankincense, and myrrh oils together and spray the air with it, the boulder, even yourselves. All of this will help protect you against evil spirits.”

My whole body stiffened as I listened to his instructions. “Where are we supposed to get all this stuff?”

Riel shrugged. “Any whole foods market will have the pure oils. Candles you can get anywhere. To bless them, just say a prayer over them. It’s two other items that might prove difficult to find.”

My nails bit into my hands, my fists clenched tight as I waited for him to continue.

“Both you and Conner will need to meditate and go to the spirit realms of the Underworld you were once a part of. That means Nate will be traveling to Spirit Guide Headquarters on the Limbo plane, and, Conner, you’ll visit Camp Fusion in Juvie, alone. The leaders there will only permit one of you to come and only for a few hours. Once there, you will have to follow your intuition to guide you to an item to bring back. Something that signifies your journey. I can’t tell you what that item is; only you will know when you find it. Once found, you’ll use it to mark your territory.”

I didn’t need the light that naturally radiated from Riel to see how confused Conner was, and for once, we were on the same page.

“Say what now?” he asked, halting the typing on his phone.

Riel turned toward Conner. “Here’s how it works: after you get everything and go to the spot in the woods, you find a way to draw Olga there. Rest assured Sam will see what you’re trying to do when she arrives. Evil spirits seldom give up without a fight. He will take action against the two of you, and he’ll call on other evil spirits to help him stop you. Ignore them. Only speak directly to Olga’s spirit. Talking to demons only gives them more power. Hopefully Olga will be strong enough to kick Sam out, but you can’t kill him, only make him go away. After she commands Sam to return to the Underworld, ask the angel to open the portal immediately and then to close it. If you don’t ask specifically for both, Synoro won’t do anything but stand there. Give me your phone.”

Conner shrugged and handed over his cell.

“I’m typing in the words you’ll need to say. They’re in Hebrew, so you’ll need to look up how to say them. I assume you two are familiar with Google?”

He stared us down, and at first I didn’t think he was serious. But I guess he wasn’t playing around because, after a minute, he handed the phone back to Conner and continued.

“After Synoro closes the portal, blow out the candles and put them in a box, along with the items you found at Juvie and Limbo, and lock it. Dig a three foot hole where you set up the square and bury everything there. Make sure you spray the box with the sage, frankincense, and myrrh mixture. After you close the hole, pour more of the blessed olive oil on top of the soil. That’s how you mark your territory.”

I groaned. I was glad we didn’t have to urinate on the grass to mark our territory or anything, but this sounded like a lot of work for something I didn’t even begin to understand. “What does marking our territory do, though?”

Riel crossed his arms. “It’s a covenant with God. It will help keep the three of you safe from paranormal activity for the rest of your lives, unless someone removes the box. This is why you can’t tell another living soul about this. You can ask your friends to pray for you, and in fact, you should, because intercession is a very powerful thing. But nobody besides the pair of you is to know the specifics. Any questions?”

Conner and I looked at each other, then back to Riel. “But is three feet enough?” Conner asked, seeming to read my mind. “Seems easy enough for someone to discover the box at that depth.”

“I’ll come and put my own seal of protection over the spot after you finish. Unless someone knows about it who happens to become the demonic prince of Grand Haven, the box will be very difficult to discover.”

A chill rippled through my arms, raising goose bumps. “A demonic prince? What’s that?”

Riel pinched the bridge of his pointed nose and squeezed his eyes tight. “An evil person can, at times, become a demon prince put in charge of a city that has fallen into a great deal of sin. Grand Haven is a good town, so hopefully you won’t have to worry about that ever happening.”

We lapsed into silence, only nodding in response.

“You have your instructions. Follow them perfectly because I don’t have the time or inclination to babysit you. May God’s grace shine upon you.” He popped his wings out, and the light threatened to blind me again. “Catch you on the flipside.”

My heart sank as he disappeared and everything in the room returned to normal. Even though he had been the most awesome creature I’d ever seen, I hoped the flipside was still a long way off in a galaxy far, far away.

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is more mightier still.”
—Tao Tzu

Conner

ntering the spirit realm happened the same as before, except I was alone in my room tonight. Mom and Dad were fast asleep upstairs, and hopefully they stayed that way. After our visit with Riel last night, I offered to go first and tell Nate about my experience before he ventured to Limbo. Didn’t want him getting too cocky, thinking he was better than me at all this spirit stuff.

The realm remained dark and okay, I’ll admit, a little scary, until I called out for angel help. I watched pinpricks of light stabbing down from my ceiling. Gradually, my vision lightened as the foggy filter draping over the entire realm lifted. Before I knew it, my dresser, my bed, and the carpet I sat on were suddenly more vibrant, like someone had opened a stopper at the base of a rainbow and released all the color. There was no other way to describe it. The angel appearing in my room was like an eight-foot-tall, living, breathing rainbow, his colors spilling over everything and warming me in his presence, despite the freezing temperature outside. He didn’t speak at all but held the most soothing existence of anything I’d ever encountered. Then I realized he was waiting for me to speak, and I didn’t want to keep him from more important matters. But really, what could be more important than my girl Olga?