When I woke up I was laying on a soft bed of some sort. My chest felt like there was a huge weight on top of it and I was having trouble breathing. I guess the bullet couldn't kill me since I was already dead. I tried to sit up but my head started to spin and I fell down with a thud. I looked over and saw that I had been sleeping on the boy that had saved me. His face was hidden under his wild hair and his ears were limp against his head.
I hurriedly flipped him over and checked for a pulse. Nothing. I pressed my hands against his chest and pushed down with all of my strength. The boy's eyes flew open and he tackled me to the ground. When he saw that it was me, he let go.
"What the hell were you doing?" he asked. I felt like a moron. Seriously, how can he be dead if we are already in some sort of afterlife?
"I uhh... Well you see..." I didn't know what to say. Every way of putting it made me sound like an idiot.
"You thought I was dead right," the boy grinned. "It's ok. It takes a while to get used to it. Everyone gets freaked out especially since I wasn't breathing and had no pulse right."
"Ya. Umm, how did you do that?" I asked. It seemed really strange, not breathing.
"Well, it's not like we have to. I mean, who needs air when our bodies are already dead."
I didn't like the way that sounded. Being dead didn't feel that much different than being alive and I wanted to keep it that way. I was afraid that if I started acting dead, I would give up on life.
"Hey, didn't you say that we could come back to life if we escape this place?" I asked nudging the boy in the back.
"Ya. But before you say yes, you should know that there are some consequences," he leaned in close to my ear. "If you try to escape and get caught, there is no judgement for you. Instead, you get sent straight to hell for disobeying the natural order of things. Of course, if you escape, they wipe the slate clean and you restart your life without any blemishes."
"Crap, you get sent to hell! What idiot would take that risk?" I moaned.
"This idiot would," said the boy, pointing to himself. "By the way, my name is Jackal but everyone calls me Jack. What's your name?"
"Luke, hang on did you say- " I couldn't finish my sentence because Jack had grabbed my hand and shook it so hard that I fell flat on my face.
"Oh. Sorry. Here in Erebus, we rebels like to call ourselves animal names so you can be Lynx! Welcome to the club!"
"Hey wait. I haven't agreed to anything yet," I grumbled, shaking all of the dirt off of my clothes. Jack turned and gave me the saddest puppy-dog look I had ever seen. His ears even drooped to add effect.
"That's not going to help me decide. Is the middle plain so bad that I would risk eternal damnation just to escape it?" I asked him. Immediately he dropped the puppy-dog look and frowned.
"Well, I don't know. All I know is that I'm not ready to die and I still have a family I want to see. So I don't care how good or bad the middle plain is, I'm not giving up on life just yet," he stated with conviction.
"Well, they already saw me run away so I guess I don't have much choice in the matter," I grumbled.
"Oh, they take apologies for the first two days. You still have time to return to the square," Jack said matter-of-factly.
"Shut up. I'm trying to convince myself to join you and this is how I'm doing it. So, I Have No Choice In The Matter, got it?" I replied irritably.
"Whatever you say! Come on, you have to meet everyone else," Jack jumped up and grabbed my arm. "Hold tight."
We rushed threw the air. I saw the dust clouds billow behind us. This either hid us or gave away our position and I really hoped it wasn't the latter.
*******
By the time we reached wherever we were, the sun was setting. It was surprising since it seemed like it was morning only a while ago. i stepped forward to ask Jack but it seems he already knew what I was about to say.
"The time here is random and changes as you switch locations in Erebus. The square where you were is always noon, the place we were before is always morning, and the place we are now is always sunset. It is the best time for us since it has enough light so that we can see an enemy and enough darkness to hide us," he said walking down a worn out trail that led to what looked like a garden.
We walked in silence for a while. I was just about to ask how much further we had to go when an iron rod gate loomed before us. Jack started climbing it. Within thirty seconds he was on the other side. He beckoned for me to follow. I grabbed the bars and hoisted myself up. The intricate design on the gate made it hard to get a foot hold and I fell at least four times before finally hauling myself over.
When I finally dropped to the ground I saw that Jack was laughing at me. That did nothing to lighten my mood and I just walked past him. The trail continued until we came up to the front door of a huge mansion. It was huge and made entirely of dazzling marble. The porch was huge and held up by thick black columns. On the roof were written some letters that I could not read. I looked inquisitively at Jack but he shrugged.
We walked up to the door and banged the huge knockers against it. They formed the outline of a setting sun and were made of pure gold. The huge door shifted and opened to reveal a large room. In the middle stood a girl with dazzling blue hair and bright silver eyes. She wore a wispy blue dress that matched her hair and was pointing a sword right at us.
I backed away and bumped into Jack. He gave me a nudge and we both stepped into the room. The girl sheathed her sword and smiled. Her teeth were perfectly white and reflected all of the light in the mansion. It was so bright that I was actually blinded for a moment.
"You know a sword won't help us against the sentinels don't you," Jack said giving the girl a hug. She frowned and pushed him away.
"Oh come on, I was just kidding. You sure are cold for a star," he smiled at her and she relaxed a bit. "By the way, this is Lynx."
"It's Luke actually," I said sheepishly. The 'star' looked at me and raised her hand. I took it and a wave of energy rushed up my arm and into my body. I let go and fell to the floor.
"Hello Lynx, I am Lucia the blue star," she said with a grin. I stumbled to my feet and backed away again. Jack grabbed my arm and dragged me into another room where three other people sat by a fire. There was a small girl with large rabbit ears sticking out of her light brown hair and two men. They looked like identical twins but one of them had blue hair and silver eyes like Lucia and the other had dark red hair and firey eyes. They all turned as we entered the room.
"The little girl there is Bellatrix Hare, we call her Bunny Bells, and these are Lucia's twins. The red haired one is Lucif and the blue haired one is Luminos," Jack said pointing to each of them. The girl waved and grabbed a large plush rabbit and hugged it tightly hiding her face. The two brothers grunted a greating and turned back to whatever they were doing.
"Now that you've met everyone, I'll show you to your room," Jack grabbed my sleeve and ran up a large staircase. We rushed past a giant corridor and stopped at the last room on the right. Jack threw open the door and jumped on the large bed in the middle of the room. I almost screamed when I saw it. It was pink! Floor to ceiling it was pink! A bunch of stuffed animals lined the walls and lace hung everywhere. I just stood in the doorway and gaped at all of the girly decorations.
"T-Th-This is my room," I couldn't even say it without feeling sick. Jack opened one of his closed eyes and screamed.
"Oops. Hehe. Sorry, this is Cynthia's room. She was one of the little girls who was with us. She got captured but I think they sent her to Asphodel, the middle plain, cause she was too young. Follow me and I'll show you yours," we both ran out of that room as fast as we could.
Jack opened the last door on the left and we stepped in. I wasn't sure if I wanted to open my eyes and see it, but in the end curiosity took over. It was a smaller room. The bed was medium sized and blue. The room had light blue walls as well which was better than the pink disaster in the other room. Still, I felt really sorry for that girl.
"So, does Bunny sleep in Cynthia's room now?" I asked, plopping down on the bed.
"Nah. Bunny like black and red. Put her in a pink room and she'll either burn it down or kill herself, maybe even both," we both laughed. Now that I thought about it, Bunny was wearing a black dress when we came in.
"This is the House of the stars. It's where the white dwarf stars wait for all of their energy to burn out so that they can move on," Jack said. He jumped on the bed right beside me.
"Where do stars go?" I asked.
"Dunno, it's not the same as humans. Animals go in a different section too, even though humans are technically animals."
"No they are not!" I said. It sounded like such an insult.
"Ya, they are. Why do you think we are able to grow animal arts here, all of the main categories of life forms merge here. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Animals are some of the best creatures on the planet. It makes me sad thinking about how humans treat them like lesser beings. Animals can talk just as well as humans. Humans just don't understand them," I could tell that Jack was getting riled up so I let it drop.
"I'm gonna go to bed. I don't want to ask for too much, but do you have any extra clothing I could borrow?" I asked. I really didn't want to sleep in my tattered jeans and filthy t-shirt.
"Ya, I'll get them," Jack disappeared for maybe two minutes and was back with a pile of fresh clothes.
"Thanks man."
"No problem. We all take care of each other here," Jack said with a smile and then vanished. I put on the clothes and wash soon fast asleep. Everything seemed so great. This place didn't seem so bad and finding an escape route out of Erebus felt strangely possible. I fell asleep with no fears or doubts. Little did I know that things were about to get complicated and deadly.
