Chapter 2: The Wall

Nicole.

It had been a week since the entire train situation, or at least, I think it was, time seems to move differently here, damn, a year could've passed and we wouldn't even know it.

I came out of my house, Alison behind me, Brandon had explained to us a couple of things and had returned our memories, it wasn't so confusing now.

However, Alison and I were still curious about what 'Heaven' holds.

We have been exploring this foreign land for two days now, and we've been walking around the neighbourhood Brandon had made, to make the people in the afterlife feel more comfortable, he made structures we were used to.

Still, the white light was blinding everywhere we went, it was as if a was in a box, a closed box, and they glued lights all around the box making it glow, every wall, the floor, and 'ceiling' was covered in white light.

Alison and I walked around the houses, and made it to a tree far away from our own home.

"Sis, I'm gonna stay here, I'll catch up to you later" Alison said standing beside the tree.

"Okay?" I responded.

I was confused but I decided to leave it alone.

I walked farther, and farther away from the tree, always surrounded by the houses.

I then noticed something strange...

The houses had disappeared.

There was no longer houses in front of me, it was weird, we had seen this part of the neighbourhood before.

I walked besides the final house and looked at the empty slot. My body freezes, I couldn't believe what was in front of me.

Before me was a giant wall, the size was very intimidating. It looked as if it was infinite, and I could feel anger, fear, coming from the wall.

I felt as if it was glaring at me, laughing at me.

It was black, such a dark tone of Black one might of thought it was night sky, maybe, what you see when you close your eyes.

Absolutely nothing.

It was a brick wall, if it wasn't for the blinding light that is heaven, I might've never noticed the bricks.

I stepped closer to the wall examining the color and bricks.

It all looked so, normal, but how could a pitch black wall be normal in a place such as heaven?

I ran my hand through the wall, soon snatching my hand away from it, it was boiling hot, my hand had received some damage not only from the warmth of the wall but also the shard edges, leaving a cut across my hand.

I looked at my hand in shock, moving it around in the light, making sure what I was seeing was real.

Did I just find away to hurt myself, in the afterlife?!

"What are you doing here?"A stern voice asked me, as if I wasn't scared enough, I shot my body backward to look at the angel.

My wings twitched looking at him.

"I was walking and I saw, this" I said looking back at the wall.

"Don't look at it, you shouldn't even be here, you need to leave right now, Nicole" Brandon said coldly, he started walking away from the wall expecting me to follow, but I stuck in place.

"Brandon?" I said nervously.

"What else?" He said irritated.

"I cut myself with the wall" I said rubbing my hand against my lap.

I could feel Brandon's body tense up.

"You— What?" He said sternly, noticing a bit of fear in his voice.

Brandon walked towards me.

"They're not going to be happy about this, Ugh, C'mon I need to bring you to Silver." Brandon explained, getting ahold of my hand and it examining it, I could see his eyebrows furrow.

"Who's that?" I asked curiously.

"It doesn't matter, are you okay? These cuts hurt more than most" Brandon asked holding my hand and pulling me towards the infinite depths of heaven, but still walking farther away from the houses.

"I'm fine, it just came as a surprise to me" I responded.

"Good, Now, I need you to listen up, when we get there I'm gonna need you to close your eyes, and only open them when I say so, got it?" Brandon explained.

I was confused, but what was new? I just nodded in response.

I started to notice the slight burning in my hand, I looked at my hand and immediately stopped walking.

The cut was black, my blood was black and so was my veins, blood stopped pouring out, it almost looked infected, the rest was red, and looked burned and swollen.

"Oh hell, that's really bad" Brandon said in a worried tone.

He grabbed my other hand and started rushing, he soon started running.

I looked at the darkness of the wall, almost sucking me in, I thought I started hallucinating, the wall was moving, spiralling, sucking in everything, my happiness, but making me almost implode in unknown anger and sadness, the wall started feeling almost comforting.

Sadly the only comfort that came from it, was the fact I finally felt I knew something, that I figured out the wall, but that's the same thing I thought about heaven, the silver city, until this came along, this wall has surprises, and it's no surprise party.

I felt the wall become brighter, not making it easier on my eyes, but still easier than staring at the gleaming brightness of Heaven.

The wall slowly became red, but it wasn't painted, it was even more unnatural, It looked like a melting pot, becoming a bright red, almost looking orange, but the pot does not give up on remaining its position, the red looked angry, glaring, and giving out a beacon of light at my head, making it burn, it felt like a migraine, just that I would've liked a migraine better.

My brain was melting and it burned horribly.

"Nicole, I need you to close your eyes now" Brandon said.

"Don't open them until I say so" Brandon demanded.

"I will" I said barely able to spit out the words.

I closed my eyes and gripped tightly on to Brandon's hand, trying to guide myself even with my eyes closed.

I then felt a warm breeze move my hair, and Brandon suddenly stopped.

"Nicole, what you're about to experience, it's gonna feel bad, but whatever you do, don't open them." Brandon said gripping onto my hand and pulling me into a hug, one hand in my hand and the other around my back.

"Ready?" Brandon asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be" I said grinning, suddenly feeling 'the soft breeze' hit me harder almost blowing me away.

"Jump" Brandon said in a soothing voice.

And so we jumped.

Brandon was tightening the embrace, stopping me from falling farther into the rabbit hole we where falling into, but I didn't know what I was falling into, I couldn't see.

I felt the hot breeze hit my face, and my stomach being completely empty, tears escaped my eyes.

I then felt a strong cold wind around me, A loud sound shocked me making me twitch a little, I felt a certain warmth around my body, something surrounding me.

Then that shield quickly moved, and I heard a loud noise, as if it was pushing something.

I then realized what the 'shield' was, it was Brandons wings, spread out, and flapping loudly.

I wanted to open my eyes and look at his wings, sure I had seen them, but they were shrunken and seemed to be squeezed to seem smaller, he said they used to teach humans how to fly, but it was too confusing for us to handle.

We had been falling for a long time now, too long.

I had gotten used to the empty stomach and nauseas and was now falling peacefully into the unknown.

"You ok?" Brandon asked.

"I'm as good as a girl falling to infinity could be" I said chuckling.

"We are almost there Nicole" Brandon said squeezing my hand.

A couple minutes passed, but it didn't feel long, what did feel long was the impact, I finally felt ground, but the impact of finally falling against the hot hard floor was still surprising, what was most surprising was I didn't fall over, instead I fell straight with my legs numb, barely having the strength to hold up my body, feeling like a sand castle and the wave crashing against my body was cruel and merciless, making me crumble down in to the sand pile I used to be.

Out went all my air, and with that a desperate cough for air came out my mouth startling Brandon.

"Nicole don't open your eyes!" He said desperately.

"Whoa calm down, I wasn't going too" I said still regaining my breath.

"Good— Daniel?!" He yelled.

"Brandon?! Ha, ha, ha, Amber And Amy gonna laugh their asses off when they see this!" Said the man laughing, his voice sounded normal, like any other guy, which came as a surprise to me considering they all have odd voices.

"You can't!" Brandon yelled.

"Oh, but I will" said the man in a serious tone, if I wasn't incorrect his name was Daniel.

"Please, Daniel, I need help" Brandon begged, found odd considering he was kind of cold and demanding.

"Ah hell, what did you do Brandon?!" Daniel said annoyed.

Daniel and Brandon fought, that's when I started to notice I was basically melting.

The heat burned through my skin and bones, making it burn and ache, it wasn't like anything I've ever experienced, it was new kind of pain for me, odd some might say.

The floor was hot, the air was hot, damn it, even Brandon felt warm, Brandon was colder then a freezer and even him could feel the heat.

"Why should I believe you Brandon?!" Daniel yelled.

"Please, Daniel! She's hurt..." Brandon said admitting what just happened.

"You— What? You really fucked up didn't you?" Daniel asked aggressively.

"Daniel, I need Silver" Brandon pleaded, if it wasn't for my presence he would be on his knees, but I knew he wasn't foolish enough to do that, at least in front of me.

"Idiot, we told you she would be out for a week, lucky for you, she'll be back tomorrow, for now, I think what we can do is call Amy, I'll try to convince Diane to call Silver. That is all I can do for you Brandon, next time, don't be so foolish." Daniel sneered at Brandon.

I started thinking, I'm already dead, how did I get hurt?

Could I die in the afterlife?

Brandon and Daniel murmured something, so quiet for me to hear, I then felt a slight pressure in between my eyebrows making me fall over into the sizzling ground, my back burns at the feeling and my legs are frozen in place, suddenly everything begins to turn darker even with my eyes closed.

"I'm sorry" A soft voiced whispered in my ear.

It wasn't Brandon's.