Paradise Among Metal

Chapter 18

CONTENT WARNING: This chapter contains homophobic slurs and mentions of suicide and drug abuse.

Cora sat on a bench outside the Paradise Library, soaking in the sun and licking a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone.

After the Persephonite left, she wandered into the city, with the intention of finding information about her father. After asking around, she found out that the Paradise Library has almost every book that existed in the land of the living, and that if she needed information, the library had it. Plus, she learned that if she searched the internet for information, it would be tracked and Cora had a feeling she'd get into some trouble if she got caught. It could have just been her paranoia of being sent back to Metal, but she didn't want to take any chances.

Right next to the library, Cora noticed an ice cream place. It had a unique, eclectic look to it, and the sign on its storefront said it had every ice cream flavor known to man. Cora could not remember the last time she had a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone, her favorite, so she decided to go in. Five minutes later, she had one in her hand.

As she licked it, a drop of ice cream fell onto her gray hoodie. Within a few seconds, it had disappeared. Cora watched it disappear with curiosity, savoring the minty sweetness of the ice cream in her mouth. She found it odd how things in Paradise were so imperfect in a perfect way. She liked it, though. Life, or rather, the afterlife would be boring if everything remained perfect all the time.

As Cora ate her ice cream cone, she took a few moments to admire the beauty of Paradise. In this city, the capital city, according to asking a Persephonite if Paradise had any other cities, most of the buildings were made of a crystalline glass that glistened in a non-irritating way in the sun. The colors of the glass varied, from teal to lavender to lime green and just about any shade Cora could think of.

Flat concrete roads connected the buildings, with no sidewalks. In fact, people walked and rode bikes and various small flying vehicles on and above the roads. Artists painted murals on the roads, and if they got in the way of any pedestrians or cyclists, the pedestrian or cyclist would just walk right through the artist as if the artist didn't exist. The people riding flying vehicles, ranging in design from a flying motorcycle or a compact car, flew over everyone's heads.

Greener, natural spaces also existed in the city. Every block there'd be a square lot, grown wild and beautiful. Lots of exotic flora existed within these gardens, some Cora didn't even think existed on Earth.

In fact, Cora had noticed that in this dimension, lots of people existed that weren't human. At first, she had thought it was just Metal people who looked strange, but when she arrived in Paradise, she realized that many different species of people existed within this dimension. She asked a Persephonite about it, and it told her that the Paradise-Metal afterlife dimension served many land of the livings.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two boys walking down the road, hand in hand. One had a black baseball cap on his head, backwards, and fluffy brown bangs. The other had slicked-back brown hair and wore khaki shorts and a button-down top.

Cora's eyes widened and she smiled.

"Jacob! Emerson!"

Her two friends' heads snapped in her direction. She waved, and they ran over to her, big smiles on their faces. They all had a group hug, before pulling away.

"Mara! You made it!" Emerson exclaimed, patting her on the back.

Cora smiled. "Actually, it's Cora. Cora Abbey."

"Oh, you remembered your real name," Jacob said, sitting down next to her. "When we were sent to Metal, they gave me the name Henry and him the name Galen, but we went by our real names regardless. Screw the rules."