His resolve finally wavered and then disappeared. “You sound like her.” He dropped his gun. “If you’re not, you can just kill me, I guess, because I can’t watch you die again.”
My eyes burned. “I’m sorry.”
He tackled me, sobbing, but after a few seconds, he pulled back, disgusted by the gel covering my body. He sniffed his hand. “What…” he gagged. “What is that?”
I looked at my glistening hand. “I have no idea. Whatever I swam through to get here.”
“Swam through?” he asked, covering his nose with his wrist.
“It’s … hard to explain.”
“Nina is at my mom’s with Jared. Ryan and Claire took Morgan to the hospital.”
“I can feel him,” I said, searching his body. He was banged up, but he would live. I sighed in relief.
Bex watched me, wary. “I don’t even have to answer, do I?”
I shook my head, then looked up at him. There were some questions I had to ask. “Why didn’t you go with them? Or go on a revenge run?”
“I couldn’t,” he said, shaking his head. He hugged me again. “I couldn’t move. I couldn’t stop hearing your voice or seeing the look in your eyes when he…” He swallowed, reliving the memory. “Revenge was the first and last thing on my mind. I wanted nothing more than to light half of Hell up, but I … just felt I should wait here. Now I know why.”
“Where’s Levi? He’s not with Dad.” I could feel everything else perfectly but him. Levi was fuzzy, cloudy, just beyond the reach of my senses.
Bex shrugged. “No. He…”
“And he didn’t follow Morgan?” I said, purposely forming it as a question, even though it was more of a statement. I just needed to think of each person I loved, and I could see their surroundings, their expressions, hear their heartbeats. Morgan was asleep at the hospital, and he was alone.
“He didn’t. But, seeing you… Levi’s pretty messed up, Eden. I don’t know what he’ll do.”
“He’ll do the right thing,” I said, confident.
Bex stood, pulling me up with him. He flung his hands, the gel flying off onto the floor. “We both need a shower, and…” He scanned me from head to toe. “You’re different.”
“You sense it?”
He nodded. “What is it?”
“I don’t know yet. I can…” I breathed out a laugh. “It sounds crazy, but I can hear everything.”
“You always could.”
“Dad is explaining how my death is permanent to Mom. She doesn’t believe it.”
“He’s going to feel stupid in an hour or so. You can hear them?”
“Grandmother is stirring. Claire and Ryan are on their way here.”
“Can you turn it off?”
“Like a television. Flip channels, make some things quiet and others louder, and turn it all off all together.”
Bex nodded slowly. “That’s kind of cool, but your mom’s going to flip.”
“Maybe we should skip that … for now.”
“Really? The girl who is all about transparency wants to omit information from the one family member who hates being in the dark?”
I shrugged one shoulder, already feeling guilty. But I knew my mother. She thought she wanted the truth, when in reality she preferred normal. The key was to keep her from knowing what she didn’t know. Mom had already been through so much, and as strong as she was, she’d just seen her daughter die. “I’ll tell her. Just … one thing at a time.”
Bex pointed at me. “Shower. I’ll tell everyone to rendezvous here.” He hugged me again. “Love you, kiddo. The whole world ended there for a minute.”
“How long?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“How long have I been gone?”
“Almost twelve hours.”
I shook my head, stunned. I touched my middle. “Nothing left behind? My body isn’t lying around here somewhere, right?”
“Your body turned to ash a few minutes after your death. Nina was hysterical.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered.
Bex raised an eyebrow. “Are you insane? I don’t want to hear that again. It’s literally written in the Bible not to do that. That one rule not left to interpretation, so maybe respect it?”
“It says not to take the Lord’s name in vain, Bex. I’m not arguing with you about the trinity again. I’ve been a resident of Heaven, remember? Jesus was literally my homeboy.”
Bex chuckled. “Shower. Whatever that shit is stinks, and your mom and dad are going to want to hold you.”
I left him to climb the stairs, my shoes squishing with each step. I pulled the glass door of my shower, twisting the handle and listening as the water surged through the pipes. The water raced over every calcification and gathered at the shower head, finally exploding out, each drop hitting the ground thundering in my ears.
I closed my eyes, blocking the sound. It was like magic, and I wasn’t sure why it was happening or why I could control it. My mind bounced between my loved ones, thinking of questions just to see if I already knew the answer.
Levi.
He was far away. He was in anguish. He was mourning. He was confused because he could sense me again.
The water coagulated the gel even more, and I had to work to keep it from clogging the drain. Getting Hell gel-free took several tries, the globs dripping to the tile floor.
Bex was waiting for me as I stepped out in fresh jeans, a white T-shirt, and Converse, drying my hair with a towel.
“Eden…” He trailed off, trying to make sense of his feelings.
“I know. I’m trying not to let it freak me out. Let’s just find someone to ask before we panic.”
“Is it because you died? Or did he make you different somehow?”
“Lucifer? No. I mean, I don’t know. All I remember is the dark. He wasn’t there. I was alone, and then I broke free.”
“That’s freakin’ wild, kid.”
“Tell me about it,” I said, sitting at the dining table.
“Grandmother is coming,” I said, tilting my ear toward the hall. “And so is a storm.”
“Well, that’s irony right there,” Bex said as rain began to pelt the roof.
A door upstairs closed, and a few moments later Grandmother’s heels were clicking on the marble floor, heading to the dining room. She didn’t look surprised to see me, instead glancing down to her watch.
“That took longer than I thought,” she said, sitting next to me. A clean bandage was taped to a small wound on her head. I could feel it throbbing, sense her head aching. She held my hands in hers. “Was it painful?”
Bex’s expression was indescribable. Every emotion was on his face. “You knew she’d come back?”
“I didn’t know,” Grandmother said, waving him away. “I assumed. It’s Heaven and Hell 101, Bex. Honestly, why didn’t you assume? And why hurt Nina so deeply if Eden was gone years rather than hours, or she didn’t come back at all?”