Chapter 3- Resurrection

ONE YEAR AGO...

JUNE 15th, 2095.

(MEL'S POV)

I fire another shot, watching as it hits the target right in the head.

"You've got a good shot for someone with one eye, Mel."

Ray chuckles and I shoot him an annoyed glance, grumbling under my breath.

"What was that, Bronze? I couldn't hear you."

"Don't be an annoying shit like Max, Ray. The eye jokes aren't funny anymore. I can't fucking see."

He sighs.

"I'm sorry for upsetting you, Mel, I just wanted to lighten the mood. You seem upset."

"I am. But I can't bring myself to stay mad at you. You're too sweet. I forgive you for being a bastard, Levine."

He opens his mouth to say something, but then shuts it, seemingly confused.

He's too simple minded.

I hear a feminine giggle, turning around to see Max touching and flirting with an employee, who looks way too into it.

Jesus fucking Christ we can't go anywhere without him attaching himself to anyone with big boobs.

I drop the gun in my hand when my phone starts ringing, putting it to my ear.

"Hello? Wait—Iris?!"

I cover my other ear, eyebrows furrowing when I hear hear frantic cries through the phone.

"What do you mean they're coming for you?! Hold on! I'm coming, I'll be—"

I get cut off when I hear a piercing scream through the phone, then silence.

"Iris?! Iris?!"

I hang up the phone, and Ray looks at me strangely.

"What happened?"

"It's Iris. She—she said she needed help when she screamed. I'm going. Coming?"

"Yeah. Max?"

He turns around, noticing the looks on both of our faces and nodding.

He turns back to the girl, smiling.

"I'm afraid I have to go now. The fun will continue another time, Cecilia."

"My name's Amelia!"

Max hurries over to us, and we all disappear out the shooting range door and into Ray's car, where we drive all the way to Iris's house.

Iris is my younger step-sister...the only person of that damn family that doesn't make me want to gouge my other eye out.

We arrive at her house, and I immediately jump out with my knife in my hand, running to her door and banging on it.

"Iris?! Iris, can you hear me?!"

Silence.

I take a step back, before kicking the door as hard as I can and watching as it falls forwards.

I'm immediately hit with the sight of blood, on the ceiling, across the walls, all over the floor.

I take a step inside, silently panicking as I hear Ray and Max's footsteps behind me.

"Holy shit..."

"What happened here?!"

I turn to look at them, eye wide.

"Where's Iris?"

Max shakes his head.

"I don't know. It doesn't look good though..."

I turn back around, searching with my eye around the room.

I run forward when my eye catches on something in the corner, and I let out a screech when I realize it's her body, disfigured and bruised, laid against the wall in the pose of a puppet with her shirt halfway lifted up.

There's something on her stomach.

I crouch down, and I stumble backwards in fear when I see the words carved into her stomach.

You came too late, Mel. Now have you learned your lesson for being a bad girl?

Everett Black. This was him.

**********

PRESENT.

(MAX'S POV)

I sit torpidly in the prison cafeteria, thinking of how my beautiful head will be severed from my neck in at least fifteen years.

Dying when you're 33?! I find that quite embarrassing.

Prison food sucks ass.

I don't recommend committing crimes if you don't want to eat mush on a platter with a side of dry carrots and rotted milk.

I was supposed to be the one who didn't get caught?

I'm the smart one?

I have an idea.

I'll tell Ray and his three musketeers that if I tell them everything, that they get me out of prison.

I'd rather be on house arrest.

I didn't kill anyone! Well—maybe I did but I shouldn't be here.

I have my life to live, and girls to flirt with.

There aren't any girls in here.

Just men.

Chunky, old, not my type, men.

If they were hot and young enough maybe it'd be a different story, but—

"Trinidad."

My eyes snap on three older men, who are grinning and are holding kitchen knives.

Where the fuck did they get those?!

I look at the knives, then back at them.

"Hey...? Who're you again?! Forgive me, I have a bad memory. Do you want my lunch? We don't have to do this extreme middle-school bully way, I'll give it to ya for free. Here, I'll even—"

"Be quiet, Trinidad. You know who we are."

A smile spreads across my face.

"Ohhh, I remember you!"

I grab the middle one by the bottom of his shirt, dragging him closer to my level.

"You're Jack Oliver. We went to middle school together, didn't we? I believe you were in eighth grade when I was sixth. Me and Mel got you thrown in here for child exploitation, am I right? I don't like pedophiles like you. Disgusting people."

I release him, and he narrows his eyes.

"Get him."

My eyes widen slightly when the three of them charge me, throwing me off the bench and onto the floor easily.

I grin, eyes sparkling.

"Didn't know we were playing this the violent way. Count me in."

I punch one of his minions in the face, watching as he falls off of me and the knife clatters onto the floor.

I grab it, slashing the other when I get stabbed myself, wincing.

"You aren't so tough now are you, Max?"

I look at Jack, narrow my eyes, then stab him straight in the face, watching as he falls with a yell onto the floor in a growing pool of his own blood.

I cock my head to the side, a small smile spreading across my face as guards yank me off the floor and start dragging me away, yelling things I'm not paying attention to.

"Aren't so tough now, are you, Jack?"

*********

(MEL'S POV)

I make a face.

"Aster Willlows? What kind of name is that?"

"A name I made up at the top of my head. You will now refer to me as Theodore Hayes until we get back onto earth. Understand?"

"Yes."

He grins.

"Very well. Come now, sweet Aster, as we have a long journey ahead of us."

*********

Me and Lars, or Theodore, walk across the dim lit sidewalks of Town E until we enter through an archway with the sign Town F.

In the Afterlife, you can go between both of your towns freely, ours being E and F, but when you get to the next level, you have to cross a border.

It's nearly impossible to cross them, even if you're from Town A venturing down to the lower levels.

As we walk through Town F, some people stare at us as we walk by.

Either they recognize us as Town E people in nice clothes, or they think we are from Town A in the lower levels.

I snap my head around to look at one of them, and they immediately look away when they see my face.

I wasn't aware I was that terrifying with a white eyepatch.

Lars laughs and I give him the side eye, elbowing him.

"Shut. Up."

He looks at me for a moment, cocking his head to the side.

"Tell me to shut up again. See what happens, Mel."

I clench my jaw, looking away and towards the growing light of what seems to be the border into the middle class.

********

We approach the booth, where a man in a uniform is leaning against the window, clearly asleep.

Someone needs to be fired.

I tap on the window, and he jolts awake, looking around before at me, opening the window.

"How can I help you?"

Lars smiles, and I smile as well.

"We we're just hoping to get through to Town D?"

The man makes a face, and Lars sighs.

"My name is Theodore Hayes. I'm from Town A. This is my girlfriend Aster Willows."

I nod, and he looks at us strangely, before down at a stack of paper that he flips through.

He looks back at us after a few minutes.

"I don't have a Theodore Hayes or an Aster Willows on my list for Town A. Are you sure—"

I quickly produce a knife from my pocket pointing it at his throat.

My orange eye glows red, and I grin.

"We're sure. If you don't let us through right now I will decapitate you—"

I pause, looking down at his chest before back into his eyes with a smile.

"—William. I will decapitate you, William."

He nods rapidly, opening the gate when I slit his throat anyways, walking casually along with Lars through the gate before tucking the knife into my pocket.

When we're far enough away, Lars grins.

"Not gonna lie, Mel, that was hot."

I smile, before looking away.

"Of course me openly slitting someone's throat is hot to you, Lars. You're a serial killer."

Lars rolls his eyes, and after a twenty minute walk through Towns D and C, we make it to the border of Town B.

*********

(RAY'S POV)

After a solid two hours of going through Mel's files over and over again to see if I missed anything, I just about give up.

I look at Fox, who seems just as troubled.

I'm about to leave when Aaron speaks.

"Guys? I think I found something..."

We all look at him, and Devin makes a face.

"Well?"

Aaron sighs.

"There's a pattern in crime scenes of Mel and a different killer who passed ten years ago. At every crime scene, there's a weapon and a messily written note with the same exact words written each time. 'Revenge is for those who wait'. The other killer took a limb and left a note. 'Killing is for my ultimate pleasure, and you're just feeding into it'. The same pattern and killing technique is for both."

My eyes widen.

"What?! Seriously?! Aaron, show us the file. It could give us a clue."

Aaron nods, grabbing the file and pushing it towards us.

I look at the top, seeing a photo of a young man seemingly in his early twenties with teal hair and almost black eyes.

LSW, or Lars Samuel Whitman.

Serial killer, estimated total of 32 victims...man he was sick...

I look through his files, and realize that they're too similar for this to be a coincidence.

*********

(MEL'S POV)

We approach the booth, smiling at the guard.

It's my turn to do the talking.

"Hey, sir!"

He looks up from his newspaper, raising an eyebrow.

"Hello?"

"Hey. My name's Aster Willows."

His eyes almost bulge out of his head, and he pulls on his glasses, staring at me and Lars more carefully.

"Aster Willows?!"

I nod.

"Aster Willows."

"She has the same name, and matches the same description as the woman seen at the middle class border who killed that man."

I hear him mumble, and cock my head to the side.

"What was that?"

"Oh—nothing! Go on through!"

He quickly opens the gate, and I smile brightly.

"Thank you, sir. Enjoy the rest of your day."

I drag Lars with me through the gate, sighing.

"This is the last border right? I can't do this anymore."

Lars flicks my head.

"Stop being lazy, Mel. That was the last one."

I grumble something inaudible at him before stalking forwards, rolling my eye when he easily catches up.

"Could you stay back there?! I'm tired of you, Lars."

His smirk drops.

"And you think I'm not tired of you? You're irritating as fuck, Mel. You don't see me complaining. I just need a way out of this hellhole."

I shoot him a sideways glance.

"Wow. Real smooth, Whitman."

I roll my eye, and he chuckles.

"You're funny."

I smile.

"Of course I am."

*********

After another twenty minutes of straight awkwardness, we cross the area into Town A.

My eye widens in wonder, and I look around.

"Woah. This place is literally what you'd call heaven."

Tall white buildings, sparkling lights, blue skies, white marble roads, people everywhere clad in fancy clothing, the place is practically a dream.

I look at Lars, and he looks at me with a small smile.

"Looks like we made it, Mel. We should—woah!"

Someone runs straight into him, and I watch wide eyed as he falls backwards onto the floor, the person falling on top of him.

The person lifts themselves up, uttering apologies.

"I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to run into you—"

A soft female voice I immediately recognize.

Wait a minute...

Lars stands up, steadying the girl who looks like she's about to fall again.

"It's fine—are you okay?"

She picks up her bags, nodding.

Long platinum hair.

Where have I seen her?!

"I-I'm okay, thank you."

"My name's Lars, and you must be?"

She pauses.

"Lars...? I've heard that name somewhere. I'm Iris."

I gasp, and she turns around, bright blue eyes filling with recognition.

"Mel?!"

"Iris!"

She drops her stuff, hugging me tightly.

I hug her back, feeling her tears soak through my shirt.

Lars looks at us strangely, and I look at him.

"Iris is my younger sister."

He nods, and she looks at me wide eyed.

"Where did you go?! Where did you come from?! When did you die?! I haven't seen you."

"I died two weeks ago—"

I stop, not wanting to tell her more.

"We're from Town B. Lars and I. We just want to go back to earth for a little bit. Do you know how we can get there?"

Iris looks at me, then Lars, and takes both our hands, dragging us into a corner.

She narrows her eyes.

"You're lying to me, aren't you? I'd see you if you were from Town B, Mel, I go there all the time. Lars, your name, your face, you're from Town E. And if you know Mel, that must mean she's from Town E too."

Both of our eyes widen, and she frowns.

"I'll help you get back to earth if you tell me why. I don't care what you did."

I sigh.

"I want to go back to earth to get revenge, Iris. I was pushed off a roof. I was betrayed. That's why I want to go back."

Lars smiles almost creepily.

"If you know who I am and that I'm from Town E then you must know I'm a serial killer...do you not, Iris? I want to go back to get my endgame. Then I'll go right back to where I belong."

She looks at him uneasily.

"Okay. I'll take you guys back to earth with me. Come this way."

We follow her down a not so dark alleyway, where we come across a building.

She ushers us inside, and we all squeeze inside a stall like room, where she shuts the door and presses a button.

"Here we go..."

When I blink I'm in the middle of a road on earth, and I feel myself.

Solid.

I'm a human.

I look at Lars.

Human.

Iris.

Human.

We aren't ghosts anymore.

I stare at them, and they stare at me.

"Lars? Shouldn't you look thirty? You died when you were twenty two. It's been ten years."

He makes a face.

"I guess I'm staying young forever. Nice plus of dying young. You get to stay that way."

Iris makes a face, and I'm about to say something else when I hear the click of a gun.

**********

(MAX'S POV)

I stare blankly at the white walls of solitary confinement, whistling a song when u hear someone clear their throat.

"Huh?"

A guard stares at me.

"You have a call."

"From who?!"

"I don't know!"

I roll my eyes and stand up, following the guard down the hall to the phone room where I sit down at a phone, taking it from another guard.

I put it to my ear.

"Hello?"

My eyes widen almost immediately when I hear the voice.

"Max, is that you?! It's Mel...I may need your help."