Read AfterLife for Free Online Page B

dead.
    “Don’t worry; you’ll have plenty of time to figure out who
you are, and what you want to do. Try to think of this time as a Mortui as
bonus time.”
    “I don’t deserve bonus time,” Wes said, kicking at the sand.
“I had time and I threw it away when I stupidly thought about killing myself.”
    “You did kill yourself.”
    “I know, so why am I still stuck inside my dead body?”
    “Don’t focus on that so much right now.” Emily’s voice
remained calm. “It may seem horrible, being stuck to your body when you know
you’re dead, but there are thousands of people just like you.” Emily stopped
walking to look into his eyes. “The real question is, how will you deal with
it?”
    Wes nodded thoughtfully. His eyes scanned along the horizon
where the water seemed to disappear into the sky and then over at the pier that
never seemed to get any closer. The only evidence they were moving at all was
the footprints they were leaving in the sand.
    “Where are we?” Wes asked again after reassessing their
progress down the beach.
    “We’ve soul-synced. I’ve brought you into my mind to
entertain you while the others take care of your body. It’s a long process
where you lay in tubs of fluid while they rebuild and preserve your body. It
can be a lengthy process, and as you’ve discovered anesthesia won’t work for your
body anymore.”
    “So I’m in your mind?”
    “Sort of. We’re in a place where both our minds exist. It’s
kind of hard to explain. We’re both in control only you don’t realize it yet.
You’ve never been able to experience this before. It’s similar to lucid dreaming.
Now that you’re dead, you can learn to fully enjoy it.”
    “So, how do I put myself in control?”
    Emily’s face lit up. “I just love soul-syncing with
newcomers. I get to teach you all about it. Okay, this beach, that pier, and
everything you see was created by my mind. That’s because you didn’t know you
could have an influence on these surroundings, but you can if you want. How
would you change what you see?”
    “I don’t know. It’s beautiful here.”
    “I know it is. I made it and I don’t make ugly things.” She
smiled. “I may have died on this beach, but I’ve always loved it, and I still
do. When I was a young girl, I used to walk along it just to enjoy nature and
play in the sand. As I got older it was my place of escape. It still is, and I
can always visit it in my mind.
    “This is my world, my creation. But since you’re here, you
have the ability to influence it if you want. All you have to do is visualize
in your mind whatever you want to add to the scene. Is there anything you would
change?”
    Wes looked around. What would he change? He wasn’t really a
beach person and as far as he could tell this beach was perfect. He glanced at
the water with the fish glowing just beneath the surface leaving swirls of
colored light in the shallows. Waves might make it harder to see the fish. He
thought for a few minutes and then observed the sky. It would be nice to see
some shooting stars to wish on, he thought. Wes stared at the sky and waited to
see a shooting star. Nothing happened.
    “You have to visualize it,” Emily said, interrupting his
thoughts. “Don’t just think about what you want to change. See what you want to
change. Oh, don’t tell me either, I want to see if I can guess what you’re
doing.”
    Wes stared at the sky and saw a shooting star in his mind.
Suddenly, one shot across the sky. Emily was still looking around and missed it
so he tried it a second time and added a few more stars.
    “Shooting stars!” Emily lightly rubbed Wes’s arm. “Very
good. Use some imagination now. What else can you do with the sky?”
    Wes continued watching the shooting stars he sent streaking
across the sky. He began adding color to different stars, and the sky lit up
with an array of colored lights. How could he make the scene bigger? Almost as
soon as the idea came to him, a