"Julie..." the Colonel whispered, stroking his daughter's hair as he held her body close. "Oh my sweet baby girl..."

Julie wanted to cry. The last time she'd heard her dad talk to her like that was just after her mom died. For one brief moment, he'd grabbed her up, his throat tight with tears, and he'd spoken just like he was doing now. Then abruptly, he'd pulled away, his face growing hard, and told her bluntly that mom was dead. She'd been shattered, and could only watch in stunned silence as he went to the car to get the shovel.

Julie sighed. She couldn't take his pain anymore. This was too much. Even Marcus was looking at her with a dull, dead sadness that tugged at her heart, and she sighed at him too, reaching uselessly to comfort, just as she had her dad.

"Marcus... Dad.. I'm coming back.. don't.." Her voice trailed off, because of course, they weren't listening.

Julie looked down at her own very still, very dead face. Then peered closer, fascinated. Then she felt weird. Was it morbid, to be so interested in her own dead body? What the hell else could she do but look? She couldn't touch anyone, nobody was hearing a damn word she said, and trying to jump back into herself had ended with a faceplant in the dirt. She'd tried that twice now, desperate to bring herself back to life.

Desperate to save her baby.

But it hadn't worked. And Julie couldn't think that she wasn't somehow coming back, because... that meant the little life inside her would...

No. I'm coming back. I am. So... hold on... please.

Her gaze drifted down to the terrible cuts across her throat and chest.

"Jesus," she whispered.

She had no idea the wounds were that bad. The jagged gashes gaped at her through her bloodied shirt, still seeping a thick, dark blood, and her eyes grew wide as she looked into the deepest cut. God... is that bone?

"ROWAN!" her father roared suddenly, his voice choked with tears, and Julie jerked back, startled, as he twisted up from the ground. And she reached for him again, and let her hand fall again, as she failed to affect the world in any way.

A calm feeling fell over her then, and she settled into watching what unfolded. After all, this wasn't new. She'd stood beside her body before, back when Caleb had killed her.

But then, there'd been a voice, pulling her from the terrible sight of Rowan, destroyed by what Caleb had done. The voice of...

"Mom?" she said quietly, turning in place, suddenly hopeful. God, it'd be wonderful to hear her again. Her gaze swept over the circle of wavering dead surrounding them, Mark's shuddering form curled newly naked where'd he'd been torn apart, and settled on the family of crazy people circled around their asshole of a patriarch, one of them in the stolen body of her Rowan.

But her mom wasn't here.

So why hadn't she moved on?

Not that I want to go.. I don't want to go.. I can't go... I have to save-

"ROWAN YOU GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!"

As she jumped for the second time, it suddenly clicked, why her dad was yelling so urgently for Rowan, and she smiled, feeling a little bloom of hope.

"It might work dad," she said to no effect, and then frowned as the hope fell away.

Because Rowan wasn't Rowan anymore... he was Caleb, and what was weird was that she could see that now. See the weird flicker of the man she loved overlapping his body, like a projection someone had aimed wrong.

"I'm not... Rowan," Caleb muttered irritably, trying to stem the blood from Samuel's ruined forearm as Joshua ripped a strip of his own shirt for a tourniquet.

"S-son.. I.." Samuel mumbled brokenly, "I.. I did wrong.. by.. you..." Slowly, his eyes pulled from Caleb's to stare up at the sky, growing glazed and wide. "Y-you're... his wrath... come.. f-for me.."

Joshua's gaze darkened at his father's words. Twisting around, he saw the Colonel, roaring from Julie's still body once more, and turned quickly back to his brother.

"I'll.. take care of him Caleb, you go help her now."

Caleb shook his head sloppily, staring down at his dad's ashen face. "No.. he.. needs me."

Joshua released a heavy sigh.

"Brother, look at me."

Caleb looked up, and Joshua held his brother's eye, his mouth twisted by a deep sadness.

"Rowan," he said firmly, "Julie needs you now."

As soon as Joshua spoke those words, the weird flicker snapped suddenly into place, and Julie's mouth fell open in wonder.

He'd come back for her, again.

Rowan blinked. For the briefest moment, he stared at Joshua, his brow folding in confusion. Then his gaze fell to the mangled mess of an arm he was holding, and he almost threw it away from himself, the confusion jumping to shock. Joshua stopped him, taking Samuel's arm carefully, and looking past the soldier, Rowan rose slowly, frowning at his friend, at John, and...

Julie felt his stirring dread, his rising fear swimming through the air in waves, as he suddenly staggered forward in horror at the sight of her body slumped in John's arms.

It broke her heart, and Julie reached out to him, wanting to ease the anguish she could feel spiking from him as he rushed to her body's side. But his arm swung through her own, cold and insubstantial, and her gaze fell with a heavy sigh.

And that's when she noticed something dark and twisted, something huge, pulsing thickly under the ground. And in recognizing it, in truly seeing it, she finally saw something that filled her with horror - a dark squirming worm of a cord, chaining her to the pulsing thing, hooked straight into her chest.

Jesus!

With a panicked cry, Julie tried to wrench it from herself, but let go with a sharp gasp - it was hideously cold. As she stood there, skin crawling at the sight of the thing twisting through her, she slowly traced another... linked to Rowan. And another to Marcus. Even one to Mark... and finally realized she could see a writhing cord connected to every corpse standing around them, silently watching them all.

And Julie knew why she hadn't moved on.

She was tethered. She was caught. She'd been... taken. The thing hadn't bitten her, but it had killed her, and claimed her soul as its own.

But.. why was she still here? Why hadn't she been dragged down?

And slowly, she saw it. Another cord. Bright, filled with a dancing light that made her smile, even in the midst of the growing, swelling darkness under the earth.

A cord to her dead body, connecting her to the little infant within. Whose heart still beat, whose soul flickered strong and sure.

"Oh my god," she whispered. Tears sprang to her eyes as she saw the little life, the little soul, within her still body. And the hope rose up in her again, even as Rowan dropped beside her with a horrible moan, and gathered her bleeding body in his arms.

"Julie?" he whispered, and his pale hand closed in hers, bringing their clasped hands to his heart. "Julie.. come back. I'm here... I'm.. waiting.."

He closed his eyes tight, and she felt a soft wave of something incredibly warm and bright.

"I love you Julie."

And Julie felt a tug of something, and looked down at herself, and saw.. another cord. A beautiful shimmering golden light, stretching, reaching out from herself...

..to Rowan.

As she stared at it in wonder, starting to feel a strange pull towards her body, the very air seemed to shudder. Everything shifted around her, the black cords pulsing, shifting, twisting, as something dark started to come up Rowan's chain, something heavy and cold and foul, and he stiffened, and started to stretch, his body cracking and breaking as it grew into something hideous.

And suddenly, she was pulled towards him, yanked sideways with such force her phantom body felt snapped in two.

And everything went utterly dark.

Save for the stars.

Julie stared about herself, not understanding what had just happened.

There were a thousand.. a million... a billion stars? More than she could ever hope to count, a tapestry of little lights, circling, spinning, blinking weakly in the smothering dark void she'd suddenly found herself in.

And when she looked down at herself, expecting to see her phantom body again, and didn't... she suddenly understood.

Because she was one of those lights. Wonderfully, beautifully bright. And she was lost, just like they were, stuck drifting in this dark, empty place.

A place.. behind...

...a wall?

Hi folks. Managed to get this one done. I can't promise a nightly schedule of updates anymore, just can't seem to get the stuff done as quickly as I'd like, and I'm still writing a little further down the line. Regardless, hope you enjoyed this chapter. As you can see, we're dancing into some interesting territory here. I've played before with the concept of the afterlife, how the dead might feel emotions coming off of others, reconnect with loved ones, and the like. You might find this hilarious if you're an atheist, and I don't mind. It might not fit your particularly view of an afterlife either, and that just fine. Just hope you stick it out with me and see where it goes. ;) Can anyone guess where she is? :D Thanks for reading, leave a review if you can. G'night.