They approached the door of the workshop slowly, Alan preparing himself to see a fully burned corpse at any moment, and Razel firmly holding his death scythe waiting for the soul to suddenly attack them.
The door opened with a high pitched creak similar to ones before an intense terror scene in horror movies, an old man appeared; before Alan could ask: 'wasn't the target a college student?'
The man said as he couldn't see the death scythe in Razel's hand : "It is already an hour past closing time, you can come back tomorrow morning.", then closed the door and walked away; revealingly what or who was behind him.
Alan' eyes followed the soul that walked by him and a pair of bright eyes met Alan's gaze in silence, the staring competition lasted for a while before Razel; who hid his death scythe behind his back after realizing the situation, talked to the tiny creature.
" Where are you going?"
"You can see me?!!"
"Clearly."
The brightness in the eyes faded as he says: "So I don't have a super power? Or you have one that allows you to see me even if I am invisible?"
Razel answered, "Both are not wrong but not true either. It is not a super power, you passed away; that is why no human can see you. You don't remember anything?", Razel was still suspecting the child is just acting and we he let his guard down he will try to run away.
Alan was still trying to link the burned corpse he imagined and the little starry eyed child in front of him that frowned when he heard Razel's response.
"Passed away.... I died? I can't remember anything beside my violin, not even my name. How do you know this?"
Alan noticed Razel doubtful gaze so he was the one who talked, "We know you... Well kind of, your name is Charlie. We are here to take you back."
Charlie tried to squeeze between them to head to the park as he is saying, "Although the name Charlie seems familiar, where are you taking me? Trying to kidnap me?"
Alan stopped Razel who was about to use his death scythe to end what he thought was a play, picked up the child and walked to the park while Razel is following them and explained simple words.
"When you die you should not stay with the ones who are alive, but go to where there is others like you. For some reason your soul shattered and a fragment of it stayed here; that is you. Stop moving around you will fall.", then he put him on the swing. Charlie sat still and was convinced easily since they were the only ones who could see him, and said after a while, "Really? Then what is he hiding behind his back?"
Alan saw the light coming from the death scythe behind Razel's back and came up with an answer in a second, "It is a light saber, he is hiding to not hurt our eyes since the light is almost blinding."
Razel slowly revealed the death scythe that appeared in Charlie's eyes as a light saber while Alan saw the curved silver blade of the death scythe completely covered in a golden aura pointing at Charlie who reached to touch the mesmerizing light saber, and the long handle wrapped in red flowers; slowly blooming as Charlie unknowingly touches the top of the handle.
Razel looked at the flowers opening partly and stopping and said, "Done; resentment cleared. Shall we return immediately?"
Charlie returned to his senses and retracted his hand, "What resentment? Anyway, I am not going anywhere before finding my violin; I promised someone to take care of it."
Alan kept his questions deep down for now and focused on getting the kid back, "Promised your aunt right? We met her and she said she took it back from here and put in your room. The violin returned to its original place no need to worry."
"My aunt? The one who brought me here and held my hand..."
Razel interrupted him, " You will know more if we go back now and your soul gets back together."
Charlie's resentment was cleared and the violin returned to its place so he didn't reject anymore, "How are we going to this world of death?"
Razel gazed at the sky and called, "Maloney, please come here.", then turned to Alan, "Seems you forgot your task, I didn't see you write anything in the papers through the mission; which means you will have to do so in your rest time. If you don't start now you are going to delay the next mission."
Alan ran to the car and got the stack of paper and the pen he forgot about and continued filling the remaining cases, while Razel drove to a near parking lot, sent a bit of his energy to the cameras, then telepored the car back to his garage.
Alan and Charlie looked at the astonishing white winged horse with a muscular and deep torso build, long slender legs and a golden shining hair and tail, in from of them in amazement. The horse seemed to hear something, turned to look at the direction of the parking lot when Razel appeared slowly. When that black eyes locked with his gray ones, he hurried toward them, he stroked his back gently as he said, "Sorry for calling you suddenly; I will fly on my own but you will have to let my assistant ride.", then explained to the others, "That is a spiritual horse, Maloney in short."
Charlie quickly asked, "What about me? What about me?"
Razel retracted the hand that was about take off the pin on his lapel and asked the Maloney, "Is it okay?", the horse neighed (neigh is the voice a horse makes) softly in response, Razel interpreted it, "That is a yes, get up you two we don't have the whole night."
Alan and Charlie slowly rode on the back of the horse and secured their pose before the Maloney spread its wings and soared into the air. Razel seemed flowing on the side, and they quickly ascended to the sky.
Alan thought about the cameras, "What about the cameras surrounding the park?"
Razel looked at the stars and responded, "The Maloney and souls are already invisible to humans, same for me and you; I choose to let them see us when needed."
"To the fourth realm please.", they surpassed two fogy entrances and the transport point they used before to go down and stopped in front of a giant door, Razel talked to the Maloney, " Please wait a bit, you will have to take him down to the third realm.", then pushed the door open revealing the fogy path behind it. He reached to the pin on the lapel again and handed it to Charlie.
"Hold it for moment, the other fragments of your soul are there, you will retrieve all your memories before walking to your judgment on the other side of this path."
Alan's eyes stuck to the other side of the door, in front of him was the road of blooming, souls walk through it heading to the afterlife realm at the end, where all the deeds get weighted using an accurate balance that detects even the difference of the weight of a needle. If the good deeds are heavier, then the righteous one will get compensated, before drinking from the forgetting river and entering the reincarnation wheel to live a new life. But if the bad deeds are heavier, the wicked one will get punished before drinking from the river and getting reincarnated; all of this just to prevent the choices of the last life interfering with the future one.
The road of blooming; just like the name is a long road where Alan could see vaguely the red flowers, just like the ones on Razels's death scythe and the pin he gave to Charlie, absorb the resentment and bloom as the soul walks trough the road acting as a companion and guiding the dead to the next reincarnation.
The red spider lily or corpse flower, rising more than 30 centimeters (12 inches) from the ground, and 15 centimeters (6 inches) long flowers arranged in umbels, open its petals slightly to greet the souls and comfort them. On the sides, grow individual flowers creating a barrier between the walking space and the flower beds hinting the prohibition of touching any flower. Alan mumbled the paragraph he had read in the slightly useful book from earlier.
The moment the door opened, not even Razel noticed the different behavior of a flower lower than the others that seemed to detect something, it turned a darker red while fully blooming after delaying for centuries, revealing the spindly stamens slightly extending from the center. Under the cover of the red sea of flowers, a red point of light sneaked all the way to Alan clothes and entered his chest.