Erica's POV
When my eyes flung open, the room was dark.
This should be a direct teller that I had indeed made it to hell, except that I didn't feel the heat that it was said of hell to be unbearable. In fact, I didn't feel any pain whatsoever. When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I found that I was in my old room; the one I'd been in before Ronald had moved in. I walked towards the heavy curtains of the window and pulled it apart to be sure, the brightness that engulfed the room was almost blinding, but I was able to ascertain that I was indeed in my old room.
Was this what hell looked and felt like?
I slowly picked my way around the room with scepticism. I inspected everything closely, but was too scared to touch or poke anything, lest it explode and the real experience of hell began. I also wondered if I was in purgatory. A lot of people talked about the spiritual place people were kept in when they died an untimely death and, or, didn't fulfil destiny. I wondered if I qualified to even be in purgatory and if being there meant I was waiting in line to be given a second chance, to be reborn.
I didn't want to hope, I really didn't but my being in the room felt too natural to be considered heaven or hell. It was more logical to consider it purgatory, or at least some sort of waiting room that was waiting on me to set off a butterfly effect that would launch me into the reality of my place in the afterlife.
That was why I'd avoided going towards the door. I was afraid that opening it would put an end to this natural feel around the room. So when the door knob suddenly turned and was flung open, I almost jumped a full foot up in fright.
My eyes almost popped out of my head when I recognised who the intruder was;
Beatrice.
She was on the council of elders; the only one that really—in her uptight way—cared for my well-being when I was alive. She'd tried to show me the ropes of politics and wanted to school me into being a shrew, but I was beguiled by Ronald that she was evil, so I steered clear of her. She sent a secret message on a fateful evening to meet her up for an important information she wanted to share, I'd told Ronald and he'd discouraged me from going. The next day, she was found dead in her hut.
I would later know that she was the only elder who really took her time to look out for me and I'd let her die for it. Now that I saw her in the same black outfit she'd worn on the day of my family's funeral, I wanted to reach out and hug her and apologise for causing her death, but even in the land of the dead, her expression was so rigid, that I couldn't tell if she was going to appreciate the show of affection.
I could only watch her enter deeper into the room and move around it with her usual haughty air about her. She stopped when she got to the window I'd earlier pulled back its curtains.
"I see that you're finally beginning to understand what responsibility is, Luna. You got out of bed and pulled back the curtains all without help. How delightful."
Every word in her low tone sounded as deriding and menacing as it always did, even with her back to me.
"Unfortunately, the people down there are expecting a leader that can do more than get out of bed and pull back curtains, they're expectant of a leader as strong as your father, or at least smart as your brother." She finally turned around to gaze piercingly at me in her almost white orbs. I almost flinched at the emotion that was depicted in her eyes, I couldn't tell what it was, but I was terrified all the same. She started to make her way out of the room, only to stop just as she got to the door.
"You should get ready. Your pack is waiting for you for the final rites, the council will be meeting you after the funeral and your family is waiting to be laid to rest." With that, Beatrice was out of the room in the same demeanour with which she'd come in. She didn't bother to close the door.
Now I didn't know if I was still terrified or just plain confused.
Yes, Beatrice did have a way of ruining someone's day with her snide remarks that bordered on absolute disrespect, she'd just said a lot of things that wasn't making sense;
As I walked towards the door to close it, I tried to decipher what Beatrice had come to say. My family was waiting to be laid to rest? What did that even mean?
That you're going to be attending your family's funeral again?
I halted in my steps so suddenly that I would have fallen if I'd been running. My astonishment wasn't only because of the implication of what was said, but also because of whose voice had said it;
It was my wolf, Lena! It was my freaking wolf!
Seven months before I'd died, the link between me and my wolf had been severed; it happened after I had a life threatening encounter with poison. I later realised who did it, but that was of little consequence as I was already not able to turn anymore after the incident; regardless of the several therapies I underwent. It was what marked the genesis of my ailment. Now that I was dead, I'd reunited with her.
I never left and You're not dead.
I flinched again as I made my way to my bed and settled on it. It was still so surreal to hear Lena speak to me after so long, to feel her presence inside of me. I didn't know how much I'd missed her until that moment.
However, I was confused as to what was going on.
You asked the Moon goddess and she listened. You've been reborn two years younger.