• 1. The Wheel’s on the Bus go ‘round

    “Hey, Mary! Wait up!” I yell, running to my shorter, blond-haired partner. She turns around and smiles at me, blue eyes shining from the midmorning sun. Mary Fillips was the greatest girl I had ever met. She was roughly five foot four, and thin beyond belief. She was loving, brilliant, straight A’s and all honor classes. Her faded, dark blue, skinny jeans and her white Ohio State hoodie just added to the thousands of reasons why I loved her.
    “What’s up Kyle?” she asks her melodic voice like music to my ears.
    “Nothing babe, just wanted to catch you before you head to work.” I say putting my arm around her, and kissing her on her forehead. She just giggles as we come to a crosswalk. She worked at the local Café shop.
    “You’re the best!” she says, grabbing me tight and snuggling up to my arm. The light turned to ‘Walk’ and we started to cross.
    “I don’t think I’m that great.” I say giving a half laugh. I was about five foot nine, slightly taller than her. I had long skater hair that most people would call an ‘Emo’ cut. I didn’t much care what other people thought. I was 20, 21 in two months and Mary was eighteen, running on nineteen. I was currently in school to be a physicist.
    She pushed me playfully and says “You know you are.” We stop in front of her work and she just smiles, her teeth like diamonds in the sun.
    “See you after work?” She asks in the cutest manner possible as if she didn’t already know the answer.
    “You know it.” I say kissing her on the lips. She then runs inside and I turn to the street I just came from, pull out my IPod, and turn on some Disturbed.
    “I am indestructible, determination…” I start to sing as I cross the street. I start to hear weird yells; I pull out one head phone in time to hear “Watch out!”
    I turn my head just in time to see the front of a bus slam into me. My body crashes into the pavement about two or three feet away from the bus, blood slowly leaking from the back of my head.
    People are yelling for an ambulance and two people are running over and check on me to see if I’m ok.
    I look around and realize this is the end, for I was still standing next to the bus.
    “s**t…” was all I could think to say. Soon a bright light came down as if dragging me from this world. Things started to get dark, but right before the light was completely dimmed out of my eyes I saw my girlfriend running to my body, crying hysterically, beating on the ground yelling “You can’t be dead!”
    To think, today was our anniversary…







    2. A New Outlook on Life

    The darkness was eternal. I mean I had been in the dark before, when the power went out or in the country, but this was darkness. With no way of telling anything, it was like somebody had stolen every sense from me. I started to panic, but then I saw a light.
    Was I really good enough to get into heaven? I think to myself unbelieving. Wow then I’m luc…
    I get cut off as I emerge coughing and sputtering out water.
    “What the…?” I say to myself as I clear out my eyes. All my senses soon return, I taste the salt of the water and I feel its wet slipperiness all around me. I soon smell the tinge of sea water and the coppery tang of blood. I realize that I am in a small pond, but I am not alone. All around me people are rising up and falling down. I wonder what is causing the people to all of a sudden fall; and the people rising are a concern for later. Then my hearing returns.
    Gunshots, inaudible screeches, and low guttural yells are all that could be heard.
    “Defend the catchers my brothers!” An angelic like voice yells. I feel something tug on my shirt and bring my chest above the water. I turn to see a scruffy, brown haired man holding a .870 shotgun.
    “Hold on boy.” the guy says in heavy Boston accent. I see another guy float up a few feet ahead of me; he starts to thrash around and then an arrow impales his forehead and then he goes back under, unable to learn about this new unusual world.
    Then the Boston man pulls me to his left and says “Close your ears.” Following that was a loud report from the shotgun, then a splash about four feet away. I look to find an axe bobbing slightly above the water. Right next to that was a blackish thing with bat wings and a pair of ram horns.
    “What the hell is that!?” I yell sloshing backwards slightly. Then I realize I’m standing in the water. I look down at my feet to find the water that had once engulfed my body trying to swallow it was now just barely up to my waist.
    “That was a creature of hell.” The man said, “Now come on we don’t have a lot of time.” He pulls me along when another man pops up right next to me, in the same pathetic heap I was in. I grab his wrist and drag him with us, as the water slowly got shallower and shallower.
    Next thing I know I am standing in a camp surrounded by angels and humans. My mouth drops in astonishment. “What is this place?” I say
    “Welcome, to makeshift heaven,” he says, holding out his hand. I reluctantly extend mine and we shake.
    “My names Randy. I’m a catcher.” He says with a nod. I start to snicker a little and his face turns sour.
    “What’s so funny?” he exclaims.
    “What kind of angels name is Randy?” I ask holding back from busting my gut.
    “I’m not an angel.” He said with an annoyed tone, “I’m a human, just like you, found in The Lake, just like you. We’re not much different, you know.”
    “So what is this place?” the man, whom I had saved, asked.
    “This is, I guess you would call it, purgatory. The North, which is where we are, is the angel’s territory and to the South the daemons. The Middle Ground is Earth, which is being fought over as we speak. Evil is trying to conquer Earth to make a bigger army for themselves to make sin rule while our side is trying to win earth to make goodness reign, to expel out all evil and corruption.”
    I stare blankly at him, at a loss for words.
    “Yeah, I know. A lot to take in.” he says with a smirk.
    “Well, what I don’t get is this: If we’re already dead then wouldn’t killing us just send us back to the ‘pool’?” the other survivor questioned.
    “Well… uh… I didn’t catch your name,” Randy states.
    “It’s Joshua.” Josh says.
    “Well Josh, What happens when you die in purgatory is you get sent back to Earth as a newborn and basically live in whatever time period you happen to die around. Even though that sounds all fine and dandy, your memory is erased and only small bits remain which explains the Déjà Vu some people get.” Randy looks up at the sky then back to us.
    “Well,” he states in a rushed tone, “we have to get to Arch Angel Michael so we can get your positions ready.” He gives us a reassuring smile then turns and hurries down the sandy beach and past to raggedy tents leaving behind the destruction and mayhem of The Lake.