Read Online Beyond (Afterlife book 1) by Willow Rose - Free Book Online

again.
    “ One less to worry about,”
Portia said while opening the bathroom door slowly. It squeaked and
we all looked at each other. Then Portia signaled that we should
follow her.
    Slowly we floated through a hallway and
found the stairs leading down to the living room. A man slept on
the couch, wearing a white shirt and black pants. His tie was
thrown on an armchair next to him. His black shoes were kicked off
on the floor. He slept with his mouth open and head leaning on the
back of the couch. He snored and his small moustache wiggled when
he breathed. The table in front of him was filled with empty beer
bottles. The big flat-screen TV showed an infomercial for fitness
equipment.
    Portia and Mai giggled as they came close
to the man. Portia took a deep breath and blew air in his face. I
saw his hair move as if a draft had come through. Mai giggled again
and then she tickled the man by touching his face with her finger.
They circled around him and laughed.
    Suddenly he moved.
    He wiggled his nose and grumbled before he
turned over to the side. Portia and Mai were surprised and moved
back.
    “ He’s too drunk to wake up,”
Portia said and floated away from the man on the couch.
    “ Yeah, he’s boring,” Mai said.
“Let’s try something else.”
    Portia glanced around in the living room
with that incredible smirk on her face.
    “ Let’s make a mess,” she
said.
    “ Yay,” Mai
said.
    I looked at Abhik. He looked disappointed,
as though this wasn’t why he came here. I guess all he wanted was
to come back to the human world as a new person. Maybe it sounds
weird, but I think he wanted to see what it would be like to be in
the human world without feeling pain, just being there, being able
to move around as he wanted and wished, to do whatever he felt
like.
    So while Portia and Acacia started to move
things around in the living room, giggling and snickering, I took
Abhik with me outside.
     
    W e found ourselves under the most
incredible starry sky. The full moon shone at our feet. We flew out
in the front yard, but then Abhik stopped. Slowly he placed his
feet on the grass. He looked at me and I understood. He wanted to
walk. So we did. For the first time since we learned how to fly, we
walked on our legs. It felt weird after months of flying
everywhere. It was a slow way to be moving around. But I could tell
that Abhik enjoyed it. He couldn’t stop smiling. In the backyard
sat an old swing set. Abhik took one look at it and then ran toward
it like a small child.
    I ran after him and took the swing next to
him. Since we were nearly weightless, it wasn’t quite the same as I
remembered swinging in my childhood, but still Abhik seemed to
enjoy it. Afterwards he tried the monkey bars and then the
slide.
    “ You know I didn’t get to do
this much when I was human?” he said. “It was too much for me. I
was so fragile and in too much pain.”
    “ Well I am glad you get to do it
now,” I said.
    “ Me too.”
     
    We played like two small kids in the yard
for hours, although it felt like minutes. When we got back inside,
Portia and Mai had put their mark on the whole living room.
Pictures were hanging upside down, chairs had been placed
differently, and books were on the wrong shelves, one even on the
top of the ceiling fan. Portia had a big vase between her hands and
looked like she was going to break it.
    “ Portia!” I said. “That’s
enough!”
    She stuck out her tongue but put the vase
down.
    Great, I thought. Nice and mature.
    “ I wasn’t going to break it,
just put it somewhere else. We were only having a little fun,
that’s all,” she said. Don’t be such an old spinster.”
    Who uses that kind of
words? I
thought while laughing on the inside.
    “ Well I don’t want to be
involved in it. Let’s go,” I said to Abhik.
    But he didn’t come. He looked at me like a
defying child.
    “ I want to try this,” he
said.
    I rolled my eyes as he started pushing
pillows on the floor from the couch.