Excerpt Wednesday: The Cross Over Chronicles

Some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed. This is one of those days.

            My day started with being woke at 3:00 am to my bed shaking. Yes, you read right, the bed was shaking. Not an auspicious way to start my day let me tell you.

            I opened one eye and then glared at the glowing figure standing at the foot of my bed. “Goddammit, Gabe!” I snarled. “It’s the middle of the fucking night, what now?”

            “Good evening to you too, Angel.” His voice was mellow, too mellow for 3:00 am in my opinion.

            “I repeat, what now?” The damned Ascended had woke me up the last three nights, always at 3:00 am. I had a good mind to kick his translucent ass for doing it yet again.

            I groaned and rolled over on one side before forcing myself to sit up. I pushed my hair out of my face and waited for Gabe to tell me what he needed my help with now. He wouldn’t be here unless it was important and I knew that, but I was becoming seriously sleep deprived.

            “There’s a child spirit trapped on the East Side. She won’t let any of us help her, and I’m hoping that maybe you can convince her.”

            I sat up straight. Children could be the worst to cross over, especially if they’ve been trapped for a long time, and or didn’t want to believe they’d died. “How long has she been trapped?”

            Gabe gave me a sheepish look. “She died in 1880.”

            “You’ve tried everything?”

            “Yes. We think she needs a woman’s touch.”

            “And you don’t have any female Ascended that could fit that description?”

            “You know we do.”

            “Then why aren’t you using one of them?” Yeah, I was grumpy.

            “We’ve tried but the child is not responding well.”

            “What makes you think she’s going to respond any better to me, Gabe?” There had to be a catch, a reason, Gabe was coming to me instead of one of the female Ascended.

            Gabe sighed and his glittering light dimmed just a bit. “She doesn’t believe she is dead, and no amount of proof on the part of any of the Ascended seems to be enough to convince her otherwise.”

            I took a deep breath while my exhausted mind worked things out. “So…what? You want me to convince her she’s dead? Can’t it wait until tomorrow? I haven’t had a decent nights sleep in three days.”

            “I know you’re tired Angel, I do, but this can’t wait, it comes from higher up.”

            “Shit.” I said quietly as I rubbed my eyes. Then I looked at him. “How high up?” I wanted to know if we were talking about Angels who were some of the closest to the Creator, or just his superiors, Ascended who were higher up in the chain of command.

            “The highest.”

            “So are we talking Angel high?”

            “Higher.”

            “Okay, higher, like the Creator higher or like between the Angels and the Creator higher?” There was a group for which I wasn’t even allowed to know the name of that was between the Angels and the Creator. If they wanted something you couldn’t say no because it came straight from the highest level of the afterlife.

            I watched as Gabe appeared to take a breath, keep in mind he was already dead so breathing was out, the Ascended just liked to keep up appearances. “Does it matter?” He finally asked.

            Still feeling grumpy, I muttered, “Not really. I just wanted to know.”

            “You mean you wanted me to clarify just who made the request?”

            I knew that this was probably not for me to know, especially if it came from that unnamed group I mentioned earlier. Humans like me were only allowed to know so much before the whole system sort of shut down and no one would talk anymore, and that included my personal Ascended, Gabe.

            “Fine.” I stood up in a less than smooth motion, and tipped slightly sideways before I got my feet under me. “Let me get some coffee so I can at least think.”

            I stalked into the bathroom stood in front of the sink and stared blearily at myself in the mirror. I had dark circles under my eyes and there was a pallor beneath my dark skin. In a few words, I looked like hell.

            I leaned down and turned the cold water on and then cupped my hands under the free flowing stream until my hands were overflowing before lifting them and splashing the cold water onto my face. It took a few seconds but I began to feel more alert.

            “I’m sorry, Angel.”

            I didn’t respond right away just grabbed the towel and wiped my face dry before turning to look at Gabe who had followed me into the bathroom.

            “Not your fault.” I said finally. “We all have to do what we’re asked to, and they don’t give us more than we can handle. That’s the theory anyway.” I ended wryly.

            “I hate seeing you this tired.” This wasn’t Gabe my Ascended talking, but Gabe my lover, and husband from several past lives that I now only remember bits and pieces of.

            “Yeah, well we both knew what we were getting into when we signed on for this gig.”

            “That doesn’t make it any easier for me, Angel.”

            Gabe’s countenance was sad, and I tried to cheer him up. “Hey, it’s only for another seventy years or so!” I joked.

            Unfortunately, it was clear from the fact that his eyes didn’t clear that he didn’t think my joke was that funny.

            “C’mon, Gabe, seventy or eighty years is a drop in the bucket for an Ascended. It’ll be over before you know it. And who knows with my line of work I may be back with you sooner than you think.”

            “Don’t talk like that!” He scolded me. He hated the thought of my dying even if it meant I’d be with him sooner rather than later.

            I took a deep breath, rolled my eyes at him and reminded him, “I was joking, Gabe. I have no intention of dying anytime soon. I still have too much to do on this plane of existence.”

            “Oh.” Now he looked hurt and I figured I just couldn’t win. The whole thing just made me cross again.

            “Look, Gabe, you can’t have it both ways. As long as I’m here and in a physical body then we’re never going to be anything more than Ascended and Student. You know that. You’ve always known that, and you’ve reminded me of it on more than one occasion.”

            “I don’t have to like it though.” He said softly.

            I softened. “No you don’t. I don’t like it either Gabe, but it is what it is. As I said we both knew what we were getting into, we both volunteered. You to stay behind, me to be reborn. Of course this whole ability to see and communicate with ghosts thing, I think if I knew what that was going to be like, I might’ve changed my mind.” I rolled my eyes at him before heading to the kitchen.

            “Coffee, I need gallons and gallons of coffee.” I muttered to no one in particular.

            I grabbed the coffee pot from the coffee maker and filled it with water, lifted the lid and poured the clear liquid in.

            Just as I leaned up to reach into the cabinet to get a filter, I banged my toe on the lower cabinet door. “God damn it!” I yelled, dropping the filter and lifting my foot and shaking it, hoping that and the cuss words and the shaking would somehow make the pain zinging up my ankle stop.

            I looked up to see Gabe with a little smirk on his face as though he found the whole situation humorous. Well, at least I made him feel better. 

Copyright (c) 2013 by Regina Paul. All Rights Reserved.