Chapter 14

I felt woozy and lightheaded. My vision was so blurred I couldn’t see a thing. I waited a few moments for my senses to return. My head felt like I spun around in an office chair. My senses returned and my surroundings became visible. There was something soft in front of my face. I reached out and touched it.

‘It’s just the back of a seat.’ I thought. I rested my face on the back of the seat and took a deep breath. ‘Am I in heaven?’

I glanced to the left and saw two fuzzy looking people beside me moving their heads around. I couldn’t make them out. I rubbed my eyes, and their silhouettes came into focus.

‘Steve, Eric?’ I thought.

They were playing their games. Why was I seeing them? I knew about Steve, but did Eric die when I was away?

“Hey, we’re here,” a feminine voice up front said cheerfully. I worked up the strength to sit up. I looked forward and saw Kate driving. My eyes widened.

‘Kate? She’s here too? Did we all die?’ I raised a brow.

I saw that we were inside the SUV. It was fully restored. There was not the slightest dent anywhere. I felt the SUV pull up and parked in a driveway outside a large two-story log cabin with a giant deck. Outside, we were surrounded by snow covered trees.

“Alright everybody out,” Kate said.

Kate exited the vehicle, as did Steve and Eric. I sat there for a moment. I didn’t know what the hell happened. Why were we in the afterlife like this? Why were we still riding around inside the SUV? That Ariel woman said something about cleansing the souls of men. What did that have to do with where I was now? I thought about that big thing in the sky, that vortex or advent, whatever the hell Ariel called it. Did it really kill me or just sucked me into the afterlife while I was still alive?

I didn’t know how to react. What was I supposed to do now? Where would I go in this new realm? I exited the vehicle and found myself surrounded by thick woods with steep hills. I walked toward the back where everyone gathered. I was dumbfounded seeing them. I looked at Steve who I was the most surprised to see.

“Stanford what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said.

“Steve, so you made it here into the afterlife,” I said calmly. I didn’t want him to dwell upon the situation.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“What do you mean what am I talking about?” I asked. “You’re dead.”

He raised his eyebrow. “What?”

I looked at Eric and then Kate. I balled up my fist and wanted to hit the SUV but held back. “So you guys died after all. I knew I shouldn’t have left you,” I glanced down at the muddy snow-covered ground. “Shit, I couldn’t save anyone.”

Kate and Eric looked at each other with slanted eyes and then at me.

“The hell?” Kate asked.

“Um, Stanford, are you feeling okay?” Eric asked.

“What do you mean?” I looked up at everyone. “Don’t you remember? I know you all were unconscious but don’t any of you remember anything that happened yesterday?”

“But we didn’t see each other yesterday. We said we’d meet today,” Eric said.

“What are you talking about?” I shouted. “We were all together yesterday going to the lodge.”

“That we just arrived at,” Eric said. “Stanford, we all agreed to take the trip today. Don’t you remember?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I shouted. “We were on the trip yesterday but then all that freaky shit happened and-.”

“What kind of dream were you having?” Kate asked with a smirk on the side of her face.

“A dream?” I asked. Kate paced around me.

“You were asleep the entire time,” she said. “Shortly after we left your house you fell right to sleep.”

“What? I was asleep? No, I wasn’t!” I yelled. “I was right here with all of you. Don’t any of you remember?”

“So what happened? What were you dreaming about?” Kate asked.

“I’m telling you I wasn’t dreaming,” I stomped in the snow. “We were in the woods. All those birds came and attacked each other and us. There were earthquakes, thunderstorms, and cracks in the sky. We crashed and Steve died. Kate and Eric, you two were barely alive-.”

“What the hell kind of dream was that?” Kate raised a brow and folded her arms.

“Will you stop being sarcastic?” I shouted at her. “I’m telling you, you were at death’s door! We crashed in the woods and I couldn’t get help! Your phone didn’t work and no one else was around. We were screwed!”

“Then what happened?” Eric asked.

“Then this voice told me to go into the woods. I walked through them for a while. More weird things happened, and it all seemed to get a bit foggy afterwards. What’s most bizarre was the voice sounded exactly like Rhoda. Rhoda?” my eyes widened as I looked at Kate. “Rhoda! Kate, you threw her out because she annoyed you.”

“Yeah that sounds like something Kate would do,” Steve chuckled.

Kate cocked her eyes at Steve. “Shut up Steve.”

“But one thing bothers me,” Steve took a few steps toward me. He slanted his lips. “Why did I have to die?” he looked at Eric and pointed his thumb. “It’s always the black guy who dies first. Why couldn’t it had been Eric?”

“The hell? Why would you say something like that?” Eric asked.

We all giggled. Then I remembered.

“Oh my god! Rhoda!” I looked around frantically. “She disappeared after Kate threw her out and we couldn’t find her! I didn’t know where she went!”

“Calm down. Stop shouting so much. Rhoda’s fine,” Kate said.

“What? She’s here? Where is she?” I asked.

The moment I said that I heard a door close. The sounds of footsteps came from around the SUV. I turned around and saw a small, familiar, young lady emerge.

“Rhoda!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. I ran up to her, lifted her up and spun her around. “Oh my god, Rhoda! I can’t believe you’re here!”

“Hi, Stanford. I’m glad to see you too,” she said with her wide eyes locked onto me.

I placed her back down and everyone looked at me with the same looks.

“You dreamt all of that in a half hour drive?” Kate asked.

I looked around at everyone. “I’m telling you guys, it was so real. I felt like I was really there just as I’m talking to you now. It didn’t feel fuzzy like a dream. I felt everything. Before it all went to shit, I had these weird sick feelings. Plus, after we crashed, I felt all my injuries ach through my body. You don’t feel that in a dream. I was also unconscious after the crash and woke up. That’s why I can’t believe.”

“You know you can wake up into another dream,” Eric said.

“But it wasn’t a dream, it couldn’t have been. So many things happened that shouldn’t have happened in a dream. Plus, it lasted so long. It felt like an entire day.”

Kate frowned. “Stanford, whatever you dreamt about can’t you just leave it? Maybe some freaky shit happened that the rest of us weren’t aware of. But the important thing is that we’re all here in one piece.”

I turned to her. “You told me about your younger sister, Brie. Don’t you remember?”

Kate’s eyes widened and her lips parted. “What the hell? How did you know I had a younger sister?”

“Because you told me when we were hiding from the birds,” I said. “Still think it was a dream?”

“What did I tell you?” she asked with a slight crackle in her voice.

“You said she was sick. But before she died you promised her that you wouldn’t flip out on people as often,” I said.

Kate’s eyes widened further. She turned to the side and placed a hand on her mouth. It looked like her eyes were tearing up.

“Are you alright?” Eric asked her. She looked back at me.

“Stanford, I’ve never told you or anyone else about her,” Kate said in a stern voice. “There’s no way you could have known that. How did you know about my sister?”

“I just told you,” I waved a hand. “You told me when we were in the barn.”

“Enough bullshit, Stanford! Seriously, when did you find out about my sister?” Kate asked sternly.

She wasn’t going to believe me. My so-called dream was real but I didn’t know what else to say to convince them.

“Was there anything else that happened in your dream, Stanford?” Steve asked.

I thought for a moment. “Actually, yeah. Come to think of it there was this really weird woman named Ariel who claimed to be an angel. She kept saying over and over that she came to cleanse souls or something like that.”

“What the?” Eric’s eyes locked onto me. I looked at everyone’s faces. I looked at Rhoda who looked like she saw a ghost. Her eyes and mouth were wide opened. She placed her hands over her mouth and stumbled backwards. Her skin started turning pale.

“Oh my god, who did you say you saw again?” Rhoda asked with a crackle in her voice.

“Her name was Ariel. She was dressed in a toga-looking dress like the women in ancient Rome wore,” I twisted my lips as I recalled what Ariel told me. “She said a bunch of things I didn’t understand. Something about cleansing the darkness in men. Anyway, she was doing something with her hand and made this big hole in the sky appear. All of a sudden, these balls of light went up.”

I stopped and looked at Rhoda. She looked like she was going to vomit. I felt a shiver go down my spine as her eyes were so wide. I never seen her eyes like that before.

“Rhoda, are you alright?” I asked.

“You know that name?” Rhoda asked.

My eyes locked with Rhoda’s. “What name?”

“Ariel,” Rhoda said in a low but heavy voice.

I thought about the rest of the dream. Fragments of what happened at the end came to my mind.

“Before I woke up, I floated toward the sky and Ariel said something very cryptic. I never found out what happened to you, Rhoda. I asked her if she knew where you were. I’m not sure but I think she said, ‘I’m right here,’ something like that.”

Rhoda glanced to the side momentarily and back at me. She took her hands down. “Oh my god, Stanford. You weren’t supposed to remember that.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”

I began feeling sick out of my head. It ached terribly and I felt dizzy. My vision became blurred again. I shook, sweated, and felt as if I was going to vomit. I stumbled about nearly falling to my knees. Kate, Steve and Eric looked at me.

“Stanford? Are you all right?” Eric asked.

Suddenly, the ground started trembling lightly but quickly became stronger causing all of us to stumble and nearly fall to the ground.

“Oh shit! What the hell is that?” Steve yelled.

“Is it an earthquake?” Eric asked.

The quake dispersed and my sick feelings faded. We stood up except for Rhoda who was bent down on the ground next to the SUV shaking. She had her head down and held the back of her neck with both hands. I couldn’t see her face. I walk in front of her and put my hand on her shoulder.

“Rhoda, what’s wrong?” I asked.

“No, no, no!” she shouted. She shook her head violently and looked up at me with tears streaming down her face. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this! You weren’t supposed to remember what happened! The entire plan is ruined! We were supposed to start off fresh! We were going to enjoy our trip but now-.”

Me, Kate, Eric and Steve all looked at each other with slanted eyebrows. I didn’t know what she meant. Distant noises of flapping in the distance came closer and closer. I turned toward Rhoda who was now on her knees screaming at the top of her lungs toward the sky. Suddenly a bright burst of light exited her eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. The light was so bright that we all had to shield our eyes.

“What the hell is that?” Kate yelled. The light went upward into the sky. As it did it looked as if the sky cracked apart and tore open. Beams of bright white and blue colored lights shined down upon the area. As the brightness went away, we took our hands down. To my horror, all around us on each and every single branch in the woods was filled with birds. Crows, buzzards, vultures, hawks, and eagles. They were all looking at us with angry faces.

“Birds? What are they doing?” Eric asked.

I was pretty sure as to why they were here. ‘Oh no, not again.’

Rhoda spun around and looked at us while she wept. I looked at her hair which quickly changed from red to chestnut and grew so long that it touched the snowy ground. Her eyes changed from brown to a pale jade green.

“Rhoda, what the-?” Kate looked down at Rhoda with widen eyes. She staggered backwards away from Rhoda.

“I’m sorry, guys,” Rhoda said to us. “There’s nothing more I can do.”

The birds raise their wings and let out bloodcurdling screeches. All at once they flew off the branches and headed directly toward us. I thought I heard Kate and the others scream at the top of their lungs. All I remembered was closing my eyes.