Chapter Thirty-Nine
Thirty-Nine
I’ve always known what happens after death, but that doesn’t make the experience any less jarring. Especially because I’ve never experienced it like this.
I notice the lack of tether first. Every other time I’ve been in the Afterlife, even under the influence of Juliet, there’s always been some intangible thing tying me back to my body. Some connection, however distant, that made me feel rooted to something physical.
That is completely gone.
I’m set adrift, floating in an ocean of nothingness, no shore in sight. It feels freeing and terrifying at once.
I don’t so much open my eyes as I realize I can see. Sort of. It’s something different than sight, some awareness that tries to mimic it but doesn’t quite pull it off.
Before I can process what I’m looking at, I hear a loud screech.
Ah. I’m on the T. Green Line, I think. Should have known.
Now that I recognize where I am, my surroundings fully materialize.
I’m sitting in a seat facing backward, jostled at each curve in the tracks.
I look down to find that I’m a presence more than a body.
I don’t feel solid, like I’m in a body in the Beforedeath, but neither do I feel like a specter, like when I’ve been here before. I just kind of…am.
Trash skitters along the floor, past my feet.
It morphs into a rat running in bursts before transforming back into trash: a Skittles wrapper, then a plastic bag, then a crumpled piece of paper.
I feel wind, as though the windows are open, even though they aren’t. But then I look again, and they are.
The car shudders to a stop. I stand with the other passengers. Everyone’s getting off here.
The doors slide open jerkily, and the souls start gliding out. I’m the last one to exit the car. I recognize the platform, but I look to the sign just in case.
Boylston Street
I know I should move up the stairs, not linger with the souls hesitating on the platform. But just like last time I was here, I’m waiting for someone.
I scan the crowd until I see a pair of blue eyes staring back at me, and then I’m running, something like tears falling down my cheeks, and throw myself into my brother’s waiting arms.