Free The Afterlife series Box Set (Books 1-3) by Willow Rose Page B

friends with humans?” I asked.
    He nodded. “Well in theory, yes, but it is highly unlikely. I don’t think it has ever happened before. Plus you need to remember that they can’t know all that we know. So you would have to keep quiet about a lot of things.”
    “If they are in trouble, can we help them?”
    “Sure we do that all the time. You know, we watch over our loved ones. Sometimes we even try to help them make the right decisions.”
    “But can we help people who are not our family?”
    He nodded again. “Yeah, sure…” Then he stopped and looked at me. “We can, but you can’t. You are still a student, remember?”
    “Yeah, I remember,” I sighed.
    “Have you been messing with humans?”
    I was a terrible liar even when I had been alive so I just didn’t answer him. Instead I used an old trick: to avoid answering a question, you divert the conversation by asking another question.
    “So when do we get to help the humans? How long do we have to be at this school?”
    “About three years. You have a lot of things to learn. But you won’t graduate if your teachers and Salathiel don’t think you are ready for what comes next. You don’t fail at this school; you just get to take the classes again. … You didn’t answer my question. Have you been outside the Academy’s premises?”
    “No.”
    I felt like I blushed. It wasn’t all a lie; I mean we sort of stayed at the school. We just left through a mirror, but we didn’t exactly leave the Academy, so I didn’t feel like I lied. Not so much, that is.
    He looked at me suspiciously. “Good. Because you will get in really serious trouble if you do.”
    I nodded. I knew that. “So what does come next?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You said the teachers and Salathiel have to decide if a student is ready for what comes next. But what is it exactly?”
    “I can’t tell you that. You will see it for yourself soon enough,” he said with a small smile.
     
    As time went by the more I worried about Jason. What if his step-dad had done something horrible to him after I left? That purple bruise on his head, could his step-dad have given it to him? Was that why he didn’t want to talk about it?
    In class I didn’t listen anymore and when Abhik or Mick talked to me I answered in short sentences, not really thinking about what I was saying. I was really worried. I hated the fact that Jason could be in trouble because of me.
    Then one night I had enough. I had been awake several nights in a row and, remembering what Mick said about not really needing sleep, I got out of bed and found my way down to the cellar again.
    The mirror was still there, beautiful and bright although there was no light in the room. I approached it, taking in a couple of deep breaths and preparing myself for the fact that I might end up somewhere completely else.
    I put both my palms on the mirror and pressed myself through, this time with no resistance and not much exhaustion. I had gotten much better at this. Maybe it was the fact that I had my mind somewhere else, maybe I just really wanted to go through, but I landed on the same bathroom floor in Jason’s house. I immediately recognized the white tiles.
    I opened the broken and repaired bathroom door and stuck my head out in the hall. The house seemed quiet.
    Everyone must be asleep, I thought.
    I found Jason’s door and opened it, trying to make as little noise as possible. There he was, sound asleep in his bed. I approached him and blew some air carefully in his hair. Then he opened his eyes and smiled at me. I froze for a second. His face was badly beaten up. His one arm sticking out under the t-shirt was filled with bruises as well.
    “I knew you would come back,” he said and sat up. “I have been waiting for you every night, checking the bathroom.”
    “What happened to your face?”
    “Nothing. I was in a fight.” He got up from his bed and started looking for his pants on the floor.
    “With your step-dad?”
    He