Until Death Do Us Part? (Completed)

Chapter Sixteen: Suri

Suri rushed up to the bridge, where Alex and I were starting at her with identical expressions of shock, and engulfed me into a hug.

"I knew it!" She exclaimed, hugging me so tightly, I was sure that if I'd been human, I would've squeezed to death. "I knew that it was you!"

For a few seconds I didn't move, standing as still as a dummy, before finally realizing that I was supposed to hug her back and raised my hands, putting them around my sister, my moments still sluggish with shock. She was solid in my arms, even warm, I realized with growing shock and horror.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Alex looking at us with an unfamiliar emotion on his face, before he realized that I was staring at him, and his expressions went blank again.

"I told mom that you were there, but she wouldn't listen to me! I knew that there was a spirit somewhere around, but I brushed it off. I mean, spirits are always around, right? But I never could've guessed that it was you! Oh, I told—" Suri was talking so fast, her voice was nothing but a high pitched-trill, something which she did when she was either very excited or nervous. I knew that if I concentrated hard enough, I'd be able to make out what exactly she was trying to say, but in my current state of shock, even that seemed like too much.

I didn't understand what was happening. How was she here?

"Suri, Suri, stop." I took a step away from my sister and put my hands on her shoulder, partly to assure myself that she was really there and I was not dreaming, and partly because I couldn't get over the fact that I could still touch her. Suri, my little sister. Someone I thought I'd never be able to have a conversation with again. "What are you talking about? How did you know that I was there? How are you here?" A second later, the answer dawned up on me, and I started at my sister with rapidly increasing horror, looking her up and down to check for injuries. I didn't know if there were any physical scars left over from your previous lifetime. I couldn't remember if I'd asked Alex about it or not. My thoughts were too jumbled up right now. I couldn't think straight. "Are you—are you—you're not—I mean—you're--" I broke off, unable to say dead.

I could handle myself dying. I could handle myself being stuck in the in-between. Those were the things which happened to me. Things which I could control. Well, maybe not the dying part, but I could control me staying in the in-between, at least.

But Suri? No. I couldn't handle the fact that she was dead. It was too much. My little sister didn't deserve all this. She didn't deserve not going to heaven, not when seeing the all mighty was something she'd been dreaming of since she was little. She didn't deserve being stuck here like me

.

Speaking of which, I didn't understand why she was stuck here. Even if she was—I stuttered mentally over the word dead—she should've been in heaven by now? What was she doing here? How had she gotten here? What was holding her back?

Those—and a thousand other—questions buzzed in my head as I stared at my sister, unable to hide the horror on my face.

"Dead?" Suri demanded, and I couldn't help but flinch. She waited for me to nod, before continuing with a laugh. I couldn't help but gape at her in surprise. There wasn't a single thing which could've struck me as funny at the moment. But then again, my sister was the kind of person who could laugh in the middle of an uncomfortable situation and evaporate all the awkwardness. She was just like that. "Oh no, no I'm not dead."