Chapter 3

A clock with birds and leaf designs goes off and coming out of the clock was a bird that popped out and made cuckooing noises. Over where the green stone fireplace was, the logs themselves burst into flames with no one there. It simply sat there as it burned.

Then the front door slowly opens with a creek. Walking inside was Gray and Juvia, who were soaking wet after their little tumble down the river. Juvia was shivering as Gray held by his body, his shirt open revealing his chest, using his body to warm her up.

Gray sighed. "Sometimes, I hate when things like this happen to us when we go on our vacation."

"I… cccc could use a really warm cup of tea," Juvia said, hanging on to Gray as she shivered.

"Anything for you, hon," Gray told her.

The three of them walk towards the living room when Juvia notices the fireplace was lit. Confused, she asked, "Was that fireplace burning before we left?"

A bit baffled himself, Gray replied, "I think so. Ugh, I can't remember." He decided to worry about that later. Right now, he needs Juvia to get warm. "How are your legs?"

"They still feel pretty cold," Juvia told him.

Both of them kneel down by the fireplace. Juvia puts her legs up front to warm them up as she stretches her arms out, feeling the warm sensation of the fire. All of a sudden, the fire burst out as they jumped back. They were shocked and knew that usually wasn't something normal to happen.

Something caught Gray's attention and pointed to his wife's hand. "Uh… Juvia, don't freak out, but…"

Looking at her hands, Juvia stared with her eyes wide open with shock. Her two fingers were on fire. However, the strangest thing was, she was not feeling any pain. She blew out the fire from her fingers and surprisingly she suffered no burns of any kind.

"Is that normal to you, dear?" Juvia asked, shocked and taken back of what just happened.

While it took a while, Gray and Juvia managed to get dry in no time. Looking outside the window, they saw the sun was beginning to set.

As they walked towards the kitchen, there was something on Gray's mind that didn't add up to him. His memory was a bit fuzzy after falling into the river.

Noticing her husband was deep in thought, Juvia asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Do you remember exactly what happened after we fell into the river?" he asked.

Thinking back on it, Juvia replied, "Now that you mentioned, I don't remember much. We fell in and we were struggling to get out. Next thing I know, we were walking towards the steps to our house."

Knowing this was getting weirder and weirder by the second, Gray said, "Something about this just doesn't add up. Why don't you make yourself some tea. I'm going back to the bridge to retrace our steps."

Gray walked out the front door and the minute he walked down the steps, something totally bizarre happened. He found himself surrounded by a blue sky, surrounded by sand and rocks and heard a growl.

All of this was starting to freak out Gray. It was like he was in a different dimension. Then he saw what looked like a snake-like creature moving towards him as sand was flying everywhere. Before anything could happen, he was pulled back up the house by Juvia.

"Juvia?" Gray said, shocked and confused. "Ah, man, you just saved me from a serious situation." Noticing tears from her eyes, he said, "Hey, what's wrong?"

"You really worried me there," Juvia told him. "Don't disappear like that for 2 hours."

Not realizing it yet, Gray turned around to his shock that it was already dark. He knew there was no way the sun could have gone down that fast. He was gone for what felt like a couple of minutes.

"2 hours?!" Gray shouted, freaked out even more. "What the heck is going on?"

Taking a deep breath, Juvia said, "While you were gone, I found something out that you're not going to believe."

"Like what?" Gray asked.

Walking towards the mirror, Gray was shocked to realize there was nothing there. Their own reflections weren't showing. Gray waved his hand and knew this was not a trick. Juvia showed him more proof when she took a small horse statue and moved it in front of the mirror. It showed the horse was floating, but there was nothing there holding it.

"Besides that strange phenomenon, I found this," Juvia said, walking towards a small table and showing him a book that he had no memory of buying or seen in his life.

It was a thick brown book that had a picture of two couples holding hands as Gray took the book to glance at it and read the title, "Handbook For the Recently Deceased."

"I honestly have no idea where it came from," Juvia told him. "I could have sworn it wasn't there when we came back and then the next it appears right there. Look at the publisher too. I haven't even heard of them."

Gray looked at the publisher's name and it said, "Handbook for the Recently Deceased Press."

Juvia didn't want to believe it, but she wondered if she was thinking what Gray was thinking. "Dear… you don't suppose we…"

"When we fell into the river… we drowned," Gray realized.

After coming to terms they were indeed fact dead, Juvia cried for a couple of minutes while Gray took time to process this. By the time Juvia gathered herself together, it was hard to imagine and comprehend. Her and Gray were only married for 2 years and there was so much she wanted to do. One of her dreams was to have a family with her husband and eventually become a teacher. Now, that could never happen.

As she sat on her bed with her husband reading through the strange book, Juvia asked, "Does it explain what we're supposed to do or how this all works with us being dead?"

"I'm not sure," Gray told her. "It explains one thing and it explains another. It's like this book is a bit off balanced? Just what exactly do you want to know?"

"Well, why did you disappear when you stepped off the porch?" Juvia asked, with so many questions on her mind. Are we heaven or hell? How long are we exactly stuck like this?"

Gray sighed. "This book doesn't really explain anything about heaven or hell. Reading this book is like reading through stereo instructions. At this rate, it could take a while to figure things out."

Juvia sighed with frustration. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take.