To him, it was the most surreal experience. William could see a transparent version of himself in his business suit standing next to the bloody heap of dead corpses from the accident. As if moving in slow motion, people rushed to form a circle around them with phones ready to live stream the scene and snap photos. Surveying the scene with preternatural calm, he noticed a transparent version of the girl who fell on him next to himself. She was young, barely eighteen if much, and was totally scared. Guilty, he would guess if he had to. She was gawking at the scene, livid as a ghost. Well...

“Hello?” He called with a wavering voice. The experience was so surreal William wasn’t sure of what was going to happen.

The girl snapped out of her stupor and looked up. They made eye contact and she shivered as if it were the dead of winter. William, on the other hand, felt some warmth. The discrepancies added up and increased the uncanny feeling. It was as if they were leagues away instead of side-by-side. Some flashes came from the phones, surveying the scene like a carrion of vultures.

“He-hello, there. What happened? Didn’t I fall?”

William pointed down at the carnage before them, “Yes, you did. On top of me, to be precise. William, by the way.”

She blinked several times, sighed deeply, and replied, “I’m Catherine...” before she looked down at the carnage. The girl finally realized what happened and their current predicament. She screamed her soul out. Or, like, it was already out.

William was pretty sure they were dead and currently looking at their dead bodies. Somehow it felt right to think that way. On closer examination, he could see his suit getting soaked by their blood. And oh, boy, how much blood. Gallons of it. Despite the scene and their privacy being invaded by the dastardly devices, he was oddly at peace even though he should be angry, afraid, or despairing like the wailing and keening ghostly young woman in front of him.

She was still screaming and crying. Her despair wrenched his lifeblood out. Like, if he had any the pavement hadn’t claimed yet.

He looked up. If things went like depicted in fiction, he should see a ray of sunlight shining down on them to take them to heaven. Or not. Maybe shadows and demons would crawl out of the sewer grate and drag them to hell. William wasn’t a bad person but he was no saint. He was guilty at least of a few sins. He worked at Wall Street, for crying out loud. Yet he feared not his fate. He found it odd he wasn’t even longing for his beloved fiancée who would be bereaved by his demise. Somehow his emotions were muted and detached from the physical realm. He was ready to step into said beam of sunlight and go away into the afterlife.

Emotionless but for the girl keening and kneeling before the dead bodies. Her despair cut and chilled him like sharp shards of ice. “Calm down, Catherine. Do you remember jumping from the building’s roof?”

She stopped her shrieking and looked up at him. “Oh, God, I did jump, didn’t I? This is real, isn’t it? I’m dead ain’t I?” She tittered in rapid succession as she tried to hyperventilate without lungs. William wasn’t even breathing anymore. Extending a helping hand, he helped her back on her feet. When he grasped her hand, he felt as if warmth was drained from his body. But somehow he felt he had to help her.

What made the girl attempt to jump? William could only wonder and make some educated guesses. She looked rich from the expensive purse strapped to her shoulder and jewelry on her body. Like some jumpers back at the Wall, she could’ve lost everything but even so, it was too early in her life.

“Sounds like you did. And you fell on me. We’re probably dead. I think I’m dead. See? My shoes are right there, poking out from under your torso. And those shirt cufflinks, they are definitely mine.”

Her chest rose and fell without rhythm. Instead of answering, her gaze shifted from him as she screamed and pointed at something behind and above him. Catherine crouched again and kept screaming as William turned around to see what was going on.

What he saw baffled him. An angel was lazily gliding down toward them. The feeling of peace in William’s spectral chest soared. A handsome face, muscular build, pure white wings behind him. The angel wore a white toga with golden trim and a blue sash fastening it to its waist.

“Hello?” William tried to greet the celestial figure. His greeting was drowned by Catherine’s screams and wails. William sighed and turned to look at the poor suicidal girl.

The truth was, while William was seeing an angel, Catherine saw the grim reaper. A legless skeleton clad in a rotten moldy robe frayed and flowing at the bottom, with evil glowing red pinpricks in the empty eye sockets and a rusty scythe covered in bloodstains. While William felt warmth and peace, she felt cold and despair from the same figure. The stench of carrion and death assaulted her senses and the chill she felt now was arctic ice. Without global warming.

William tried to shield her but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t even look away from the angelic being who probably came to take them. He couldn’t understand why she was staring and screaming at such a celestial creature.

“Silence, woman,” the angel commanded. As if it’d pressed the mute button, Catherine stopped making any sound. Gawking, she just stared with wide frightened eyes at the otherworldly emissary. She still moved as the silent scream remained stamped on her face. Disinterested in the girl, the creature shifted to face William.

“Hello, Mr. angel? May I ask what is happening?” William tried to start a conversation now that the creature proved capable of speech.

The angel stared coldly into William’s eyes. “You died. Before your time,” it ruefully shook its head, causing the locks of golden hair to sway. “Now it is my duty to sort the situation and take you both to your final destinations.”

“Heaven?” William’s voice broke as he suggested without a sliver of certainty.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“No. Purgatory for you, Hell for the lady.”

“Hell?” He gasped.

The angel pointed at the bodies. Nobody had approached them yet. The phones were still devouring the scene with their cameras. One daring bystander was reaching for the girl’s purse with a knife, probably to cut the strap and abscond with its ill-gotten loot. The man moved as if through molasses.

“She committed suicide and murdered you as well as condemning the child in her womb. The child is still alive but is not for long in this world. That’s enough sin to warrant eternal damnation,” the creature stated without emotion.

He once again thought he should be angry but he couldn’t find the will to feel it or any other strong emotions. He just felt peace and calm flowing under a deep-rooted desire to save the girl. He couldn’t deny the feeling. William still felt sorry for the girl. It wasn’t like she intended to fall on top of him. It was more like an accident than actual murder. He felt no anger, just warming compassion.

“It was an accident,” he spoke out loud. “Can’t anything be done for her?”

“She has until the day of the final judgment to repent for her sins as she is punished in the land of the damned. Only then she’ll find salvation.”

The droning voice of the angel ignited a spark of anger in William’s heart. More like righteous fury.

“She’s a child!” He protested. “I am the victim here and I say you should forgive her on my account. And if my hunch is right, she’d probably have an abortion anyway. There’s no way a pregnant woman would kill herself if she intended to have the kid. No. This is too fucked up,” he intentionally cursed and tried to read the angel’s reaction. When his blasphemous words didn’t condemn him or elicit even a raised eyebrow from the celestial, or grim reaper as he reckoned the entity later, he went on.

“There must be something that can be done to save her! She might be an even greater victim here than me!” He shouted at the celestial.

Not answering William’s question, the angel knelt next to the bodies and touched dead-Catherine’s belly. Ghost-Catherine watched their exchange quivering and shaking like a newborn fawn. Then the celestial stood and stared into William’s soul.

“There is one thing I can do. You died before your time. The child is still alive, but without a living mother to nurture it, the boy is as good as dead. Fortunately, he’ll never draw his first breath and waste a soul from the Guf. If you want to redeem the woman, you’ll have to do it in her body.”

“What?” They both asked at the same time. Catherine was still under the angel’s silence spell so she just moved her mouth ineffectively. It was the only hint William had that she was listening to their conversation.

“You are granted a new chance at life,” The angel explained slowly. “I can use the lifeforce of the unborn child to revive and heal the woman’s body. But a living person needs a soul. I cannot bring a sinner destined to hell back to life, but I can bring you back since you are not yet due to the afterlife.”

William scratched his chin. “Bring me back to life in her body? That’s… not right. Can’t you bring me back to life?”

“No,” the celestial replied adamantly. “The unborn’s lifeforce is inside her body. It would be impossible for me to transfer that vitality to another body. What I can do for you is to grant you a minor boon in your new life. I’ll combine all three lifespans and gift them to you. Your remaining life, the one squandered by the girl, and the lifeforce of the soulless baby. Your new body won’t age for eighteen years, then age at half the normal rate for another twenty-four until it is physically thirty years old. From then on, it will age at a third of the normal rate until all three life-forces are spent. You’ll also be blessed with faster healing and resistance to disease and toxins.”

“What about her?” William demanded, imperious. The angel’s uncaring attitude toward the cowing girl annoyed and enraged him so much he was about to hit the celestial. How can I redeem her soul? Just by living in her body?”

“No. To do so, you have to take her along. I can bind her soul into the body along with yours. However, she’ll be but a passenger and never more than that. She’ll see, hear, and feel all you do but control of the body will be yours alone. You’ll only hear her voice in your mind when she speaks to you and you alone.”

A frightened Catherine stared at him. William waved awkwardly. He knelt next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Once more, his warmth drained into her. He didn’t mind.

“Catherine. Did you hear what the angel said?”

She scrunched her face in sheer confusion. William pointed at the celestial behind him. She screamed silently again and grasped his arm with both hands, trying to hide behind him. When the angel circled around them, Catherine whimpered soundlessly and scuttled backward.

William shook his head. “Why is she scared of you?”

“Each one of you sees me as your soul’s fate dictates. You see me as a divine emissary, she sees me as the reaper. The really wicked see me as the devil,” he mechanically explained.

“I need to talk to her. Can you… sorry, would you release her from whatever you did to her and step away?”

“Yes but make haste. The unborn’s lifeforce fades with each moment we waste,” the angel said as it vanished.

Without the looming presence of the reaper, Catherine stood up and backed away but she bounced back on an invisible barrier when she tried to go through the crowd. Puzzled, William reached out and touched a person. It felt solid but too solid as if the person was made of rock instead of flesh. He put on his business smile and tried to calm her down.

“Can you talk to me? We have a big decision to make, Catherine,” he said.

“I don’ want to go to hell,” she finally admitted.

“Quite reasonable. We have a rather important choice here. Did you hear what the… entity said? What do you think?” He asked her. “I feel bad taking over your body without your permission, Catherine.” She timidly nodded. “I won’t take over your body if you don’t let me. And it seems I’ll have to take you along for the ride. Or we don’t and accept our fates.”

The entity approached them again. “You might also improve your standing before the heavens, William.” the angel added but it didn’t feel like it was enticing William to choose either way. “Shall she proves to be too much of a nuisance, you can eject her from the body into her fated punishment.”

At the thought of going to hell and the sight of the reaper, the girl clung to William and desperately shouted, “NO! Please no! I’ll do anything but keep the grim reaper away from me!” She shouted.

“Calm down,” he moved forward and held her arms. “Catherine, it is an important decision--”

“Take it!” She snapped as she rudely interrupted him. William didn’t resent her as Catherine seemed quite distressed. “If it is what keeps me away from hell, take it. It’s not like I have much use for it now. Please… erm...” She fished for his name.

“William,” William offered.

Her eyes sidled back and forth, trying to find something in his face, “Please, William. Save me!” She hid her face in his chest and clung to him. “Please, save me from hell. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

He rubbed the crown of her head. “Good. Partners then?” He asked as he pushed her away just a little. Catherine nodded rapidly. “Sir angel, we made our decision. Bring us back to life!”

The angel reappeared next to them, causing Catherine to jump and cling even more to William’s spectral form.

“I’ll bring you back to life. Remember, she’ll just be a ghost possessing you. A passenger, as I stated before. Make no mistake, William Theodore Cooper. You are the one in charge of your new body and your own fate. Her life is over and that’s a mandate from an authority beyond mine.”

Catherine whimpered again. William squeezed her back. “Are you ready?” He asked her. The ghostly girl nodded as she rubbed her face against his chest. “Let’s do it, partner.”

The angel waved his hand and everything went dark. When William next opened his… her eyes, she found herself in a hospital bed.