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"Move on where?" he asked finally, his eyes flitting to the funhouse looming in the distance. Its lights blinked in the darkness, and faint carnival music drifted from the shadowed open doorway.
"That's just it," I said with a shrug. "No one knows for sure where we go when we move on from here—not even those gray faces. I don't even know if Bael or Theo—I mean Met Kalfou, knows."
He quirked a confused brow at me. "Met who?"
I smiled. There was no reason for him to recognize the name. He was a pale kid, dressed in sandals and board shorts, so I didn't think he was from around here, much less a practitioner of Vodou.
"Met Kalfou. He's the Vodou spirit that presides over purgatory."
"Voodoo is real?" he asked, his eyes widening. "My parents were Catholic."
I chuckled, shaking my head. "That's a really good question, actually, but I think it's less about who is right or wrong and more of a circumstantial thing."
Liam's confusion only deepened, and I couldn't help but feel a little amused by his naivety. If he only knew how much weirder things were going to get.
"Let me explain," I said with a sigh. "You're dead now, right? And you're in purgatory." He nodded slowly, still staring at the carnival funhouse as if afraid it might jump out and attack him. "Purgatory exists somewhere between life and death," I continued. "It's where people go after they die but before they move on to whatever comes next. Think of it as a crossroads."
His eyes flicked back to me again, his expression searching for answers that even I didn't have. "But why am I here and not in heaven?" he asked finally. "What even happened to me?"
I hesitated for a moment before deciding there was no harm in telling him what little information I had so far. "I don't know what happened to you," I said carefully. "But something went wrong when you died—a glitch in the system maybe—and instead of moving on like you were supposed to, well, here we are. You're not in heaven because I think you have a choice to make. You're not quite dead yet, but you might be soon."
What I didn't say, because I wasn't even positive myself, was that there was a good chance heaven didn't exist at all. At least not in the way he was imagining. I had a working theory that I was too embarrassed to run by Bael. I wondered if maybe every religion was the right religion, and where you ended up after your death depended on your interpretation of the afterlife.
The crossroads came in many forms, and although I never personally dreamed up a crazy carnival in the middle of the dark, swampy Bayou, it wasn't so far outside the realm of my beliefs as one might think.
Liam's face twisted into an expression of horror mixed with disbelief. "So what happens now?" he asked nervously.
I shrugged again. The truth was that nobody knew for sure, but Liam deserved some kind of answer after being thrust into this bizarre world without any warning or explanation.
"Well, for starters, we need to visit the fun house." I gestured toward the entrance. He hesitated, looking unsure, and I didn't blame him one bit. I squeezed his shoulder again, reassuringly. "I'll be with you the whole time, but it's better that it's me with you rather than Bael."
"Bael?" he asked.
"Don't ask," I mumbled before gently ushering Liam forward.
"So why would anyone choose to stay behind then?" Liam asked doubtfully as we finally entered the first hallway.
Mirrors lined the walls in every shape and size. Some had ornate frames, while others were crusty, dusty, or cracked. It was dark, lit only by dangling Edison bulbs every ten feet or so. It still smelled like sawdust and popcorn.
"Some people aren't ready to let go of their lives back in the living world..." My voice trailed off as memories flooded my mind—memories of all the things that were keeping me clinging desperately to life. Maybe I was the last person that Liam should be listening to.
Liam nodded understandingly but remained silent for several moments afterward. I kept my eyes trained on the wooden beams crisscrossing overhead, looking for a dangling pair of legs and those fancy leather boots. Even though I was sneaking, I had a feeling that there was nothing that happened in this place that Bael and Theodore didn't know about. They probably knew exactly where I was right now.
As we turned a corner, the mirrors distorted our reflections into twisted caricatures of ourselves. Liam gulped audibly as we passed by one that made him look like he had a giant head and tiny arms. I chuckled at his horrified expression before sobering up again at the thought of Bael's watchful eye. "Come on, we're not far."
"Where are we going?" he asked as I dragged him further into the maze of mirrors.
"You'll see," I said ominously, feeling bad that there was no logical way for me to tell him the truth.
A black shape dropped from the wooden beams overhead, and I yelped, skidding to a sudden stop. Liam slammed into my back with a curse. With my heart in my throat, I glared down at the little black cat that now sat casually at my feet, licking one paw leisurely as if he hadn't scared me to death for a second time.
"Damnit, Lafayette," I muttered, trying to catch my breath. "I'm starting to think this is a game for you.” He blinked his bright eyes up at me, and I almost imagined him grinning in triumph. I sighed as I was able to catch my bearings. "You might as well take us to the...uh." I cleared my throat, wondering what to even call the strange room.
He didn't give me time to come up with a name before he took off running in the other direction. With a curse, I grabbed Liam's hand and pulled him after me as I tried to stay on Lafayette's tail. The little bastard was fast and slippery, but I was starting to get a feel for the fun house, and I had a vague sense of direction now.
Finally, after what felt like twenty-minutes of aimless wandering, we came to a familiar room just off a random hallway. It opened up onto a cavernous blackness that felt like it went on forever. But in the very center of the room were three massive free standing mirrors.
I stopped just inside the door and let Liam go around me. Lafayette made his way over to the first mirror and was rubbing his face against the frame.
