Page 4 of In Between Death and the Devil

It’s a calling. Not a choice. In my head, I repeated the words the judge had said to me at my sentencing, just as I’d done every time I doubted myself since. They settled me enough to let two sisters lead me to the remaining platform and roughly strip off my overdress and boots. The stone floor was gritty beneath my bare feet, and my body shook as my hair was yanked back into a braid and tied off at the middle of my back.

A hush fell over the crowd. All eyes turned to the podium standing next to the altar and the large stack of paper that sat atop it. We didn’t have to wait long before words blossomed on the page in large looping letters. A message from the In Between.

It is time.

My heart started to race as a sister stepped towards me.

“Do you embark on this journey of your own free will?” she asked.

“I do.” I fought to keep the tremble from my voice.

She held out a silver tray.

A blood-red pomegranate seed, glistening like a small ruby, sat in the middle. It almost looked normal, but I knew it wasn’t. Each year the tree in the cloisters produced one fruit for this Ritual. The seed was as hard as glass and warm to the touch as I brought it to my lips and swallowed.

I heard the other initiates whimper, moan, and gag as they did the same.

The seed burned as it went down, and I couldn’t suppress a wince. I felt it come to rest in my stomach like a piece of hot coal. For a moment I doubted I could go through with it. This was only the beginning, a taste of what was to come. But I shoved my doubts away. I had to atone.

I resisted the urge to vomit. The seed was the anchor. A marker. Without it the Ritual wouldn’t be successful. Instead of entering the In Between as a resident, we’d just die and continue the cycle of reincarnation. I grabbed the jeweled cup being offered and chugged the contents, slapping a hand over my mouth as I struggled to swallow the poison.

My knees buckled and two sets of hands held me up. They helped me onto the platform and laid me down. A tremor worked its way through my limbs as the poison clawed through my veins. My throat closed and I fought for every breath. Spots appeared in my vision, and the room closed in. I felt my eyelids close and open, but saw nothing.

Panic drowned me.

The poison spread and an animal instinct took over my limbs, fighting, resisting. I couldn’t stop myself from screaming and clawing at my skin, trying to make it stop. It only made it worse. Hands held me down so that all I could do was convulse.

Breathing was near impossible. I had to force the heavy muscles in my chest to expand and contract.

I clutched the sliver of me that remembered why I was doing this. Where I was going. The In Between awaited me. Death’s castle, where I would train to be a Judge and atone for my family’s death, and for my previous transgressions. All I had to do was stop fighting. And pray I ended up where I was supposed to.

I felt the thread of my life unraveling, but I couldn’t let go. No matter how much I wanted to. All I could do was wait for death to take me. The pain paused. For a moment everything was suspended. My life slipped through my fingers, and there was nothing except the cold black void.

I didn’t know how much time passed, could have been minutes, could have been years. One moment there was nothing, the next nothing but pain. It went on and on, setting every nerve aflame. The darkness surrounding me was tinged red, and my heart seized as if someone was squeezing it. Something hooked deep into my heart and tried to pull it from my chest, yanking my entire being forward. I thrashed, trying to free myself, but whatever had snared me only sank deeper.

A scream built in my throat, but I couldn’t voice it. My body didn’t respond, only my mind, which flailed about, wondering if this was what happened to souls lost during the transfer. Panic clutched me tight as I considered this might be my fate, trapped somewhere in the void, a prisoner in my own body.

Just as I decided I was lost, a vision unfurled in the darkness—a man hunched over a desk, large hands clenched on the wooden surface. His head rose, his eyes screwed shut, and he let out a strangled moan that turned into a roar. Fury radiated from him, so intense I almost flinched. Then, his shoulders slumped and his face relaxed, as if whatever he’d been struggling with had passed. Relief poured off of him as his hands shook. I took in his dark curly hair, short, scruffy beard framing a strong jaw, and the way his sleeveless tunic stretched over his torso and showed off his muscled arms. Gods, he was handsome. I couldn’t look away. Especially when he opened his eyes and looked straight at me.

Shock ran through me. His eyes were brown, with gold flecks that swirled like wheeling stars in his irises, mesmerizing. I thought I saw a hint of recognition. Then he was gone. The vision winked out as if it had never happened, replaced by darkness, and all I was left with was the pain.

Slowly, it began to subside. Like the tide going out, it receded a bit at a time until it finally released its grip. I gasped and sat up. All sensation returned at once and I blinked against the bright light.

CHAPTER 2

My eyes darted around, taking in my new surroundings. The room I was in looked like the one I’d come from, except that it was ten times bigger and filled with rows and rows of platforms like the one I lay on. As I watched, a body materialized on the one to my right, hazy edges filling in until suddenly it solidified. People in sharply tailored green and tan tunics and dresses wove their way through the room, stopping to steady people on the platforms as they came to their senses. I caught sight of a gold pin on someone’s lapel, a set of scales on top of a pomegranate, Death’s symbol.

A shaky breath left my lips and my shoulders sagged. I’d arrived in the In Between.

My skin was clammy with sweat as my breathing slowed, and my limbs twitched and trembled like I’d run for miles, making me grateful I was sitting.

I scanned the room again, looking for familiar faces, but I didn’t see either of the others from my convent. Someone with a stack of papers walked by, shaking their head at the two empty platforms to my left as they crossed two things off their list. Names. I shivered, realizing that I was the only one who’d made it. Another two candles would be added to the altar in the chapel back home. I blinked back tears. They didn’t deserve that fate. It should have been me that was lost, not them.

My chest ached. I could still feel where whatever it was had hooked into me. Whether it was a normal part of the transfer, I didn’t know. The sisters had given us some idea of what to expect, but they hadn’t mentioned that. Or the man I’d seen.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I wondered who he was. Was he here in the In Between? My eyes skated over the people around me, looking for his face, but I didn’t see him. I shook my head. If he was in the In Between, our paths would cross at some point. What mattered now was that I had arrived and could put my plan to atone into action. Except, I felt like death warmed over.

Everything hurt, and it felt like I’d left the contents of my stomach back in the World of the Living. All I wanted to do was lie down and close my eyes until I felt normal again.