DEADMAN'S PASS PART 2: BACK TO EARTH-ISH

Eli laughed, poking at the glowing watch on his wrist. Man, my imagination is getting really detailed; it's scary.

Cass groaned, spitting her gum on the floor. “Freaking unbelievable… of all the cases...”

She stopped, turning so abruptly that Eli nearly face-planted into her.

“...You just ruined my entire day, " she hissed, her eyes narrowing, "Here I was planning my off-shift in the next twenty minutes and now I'm stuck babysitting."

Eli rolled his eyes, a smirk playing on his lips. “Relax, tracksuit. Once the meds wear off, you’ll just evaporate back into my subconscious.”

She stared at him for a long while before moving on.

“Fine, Einstein,” she said, her voice dropping low. “I see you’re the type who only believes in what you can see. You want to wake up? Just follow me.”

Ahead was a door that looked like a janitor's closet, smelling of lemon bleach.

“Whatever you say….”

“Keep your mouth closed for a second, okay?” Cass kicked the door wide.

The cramped space slowly stretched and warped, the walls shimmering into brushed copper until it became an elevator with transparent floors. As soon as Eli stepped in, he felt a violent lurch. Then the drop hit him—a sickening, free-fall plunge that ended in an explosion of sound.

The screech of sirens, rhythmic chop-chop-chop of a helicopter overhead, followed by overlapping murmurs of a crowd. They were standing on the sidewalk of 5th Avenue. It was raining—a grey, miserable drizzle that Eli could see splashing against the pavement, yet his skin remained dry.

“There’s your reality, Einstein,” Cass said, pointing toward the center of the intersection.

A crowd was gathered around a white delivery truck, its windshield shattered on the ground. There, pinned beneath the front tire like a discarded rag doll, was a man in a rumpled suit, clutching a cracked smartphone in one hand.

Eli’s breath hitched. He recognized that shitty suit.

“Is...is that ?” The words died in his throat, replaced by a drumbeat of pure panic. No, no, no, no. That can’t be. It’s …It’s a prop. A…a..very high budget prank. It has to. It has to….

He sprinted toward the crime scene with a strange gliding lightness, his feet barely touching the concrete. He pushed through the wall of onlookers, recording with their phones.

"Hey! Move!" Eli screamed at a paramedic kneeling over the body. "Stop touching him.....stop touching me!"

He reached out to grab the paramedic’s shoulder, but his fingers passed through the uniform like a gust of smoke. 

“Still think you’re dreaming?” Cass’s voice cut through the sirens. She was suddenly right at his ear, her breath smelling of strawberries.

"I'm not dead!" Eli spun around, his eyes teary. "I am right here! If I were…. Everything would….No, it’s not possible. It's just a hologram…look at the way his arm is bent...no human arm bends like that."

"Come on, Einstein. What more proof do you want?" Cass nodded toward the gurney. "Your body is currently being loaded into a 1-800-JESUS van. Just accept it."

As the paramedics hoisted his body, the sight hit Eli with the force of the truck all over again. The memory of the impact made his vision swim and in that instant saw his shoes— the designer Oxfords he’d spent too much money on last month— now torn to shreds.

"Oh god," he choked out, falling to his knees. He slammed his hands trying to feel the wet pavement, but his hands simply hovered an inch above.

 "I'm... I'm really..."

“Yep. Dead. Kaput. Expired,” Cass sighed, her voice softening just a bit. She knelt down beside him, her tracksuit crinkling loudly. As she moved, several packs of gum fell to the ground, landing between Eli’s legs.

“Ah, dammit.” She leaned in without a second thought. “Just…let me get in there right quick. Don’t mind me.” 

She snatched the packs, peeled one open and popped a piece into her mouth. She stood back up, working her jaw casually as the ambulance doors slammed shut. 

Eli looked up, his face a mask of pale shock. Even in the middle of his own existential collapse, the sheer mundanity of this girl was baffling. It was like his feelings were an inconvenience to her. She just didnt look indifferent; she had a faint, stupid grin on her lips, like she was enjoying the show.

Grin?

“The pass,” Eli whispered, looking at his wrist. 

He suddenly remembered Grin's words. Seven days. There was still a way out, but was that even possible?

“You seem pretty relaxed,” Cass remarked. “Hmm?"

Eli stood up, his legs feeling numb. "I'll admit I don't know much about the afterlife," he said, his voice shaking. "But Limbo is between life and death, right? If that's true, then I'm not dead.... yet. Otherwise, why would you show me this?" 

Cass stared at him for a long beat, her expression unreadable. She blew another bubble, larger this time, until it obscured half her face.

“I don’t know where you’re getting all….that,” she muttered. “But…. you are right about Limbo....”

Pop!

The bubble burst and she sucked the remains back into her mouth with a flick of her tongue.

"...Anyway, let's go find out your fate."

The fluorescent hum of the Bureau was a physical weight, a B-flat in frequency that vibrated in Eli’s teeth. Or maybe that was just his teeth rattling. They stepped into a hallway where the world simply flipped; the floor was now the ceiling beneath their feet. Cass marched through without missing a beat, but Eli felt a surge of vomit in his throat. He couldn't expunge it but he could taste the acidic burn that irritated him.

“Almost there,” she muttered, more to herself than him.

Inside a door labeled WAITING ROOM, the space was even crazier. Rows of orange plastic chairs were bolted to the walls and ceiling. Eli looked at a man in a Victorian top hat, looking more like a dusty fossil than a human, who sat calmly, reading a newspaper. 

“This is…insane,” Eli whispered. He slapped himself twice.

“Hey,” Cass snapped her fingers in front of him. “Relax. Grab a seat on the ceiling. Hopefully, the paperwork will clear and you’ll be on a one-ticket from Limbo.”

She said it with a terrifying level of conviction. It wasn't just an assurance; she needed him to be dead. To anyone else, it would be cruel but for her, she knew what it meant to be in this situation.

All too well.

After yanking a ticket from the dispenserm they sat. 

That was Eli saw him.

Steve the Headless Prosecutor was leaning over a woman who looked like she’d just stepped out of a yoga class, her leggings pristine but she was shivering.

“Don’t despair,” Steve’s voice broadcast from his chest cavity, sounding like a warm, trustworthy radio host from the 90s. “Just a tiny squiggle of ink. Think of it as a VIP pass to the front of the line." 

Eli nudged Cass, his eyes fixed on the jagged stump of Steve’s neck. 

“Cass? That guy... what’s his deal with the scroll thing?”

Cass was staring at the ceiling tiles, her jaw moving in a slow, rhythmic chew. She didn’t even turn her head. “He’s harvesting.”

“What does that mean?”

She sighed. “He’s trying to buy his life back. Or, more accurately, his death.”

“His death?”

“Is there an echo here?" she asked softly, finally looking at him. "You do know why souls come to Limbo, right? I mean, other than in-betweeners like yourself....those who work here are specifically chosen."

“Chosen by who? God?”

“I wish,” she chuckled but there was no humour in it. “Just some dick-head in a suit. I don’t know why he does it but I’d like to think it’s some form of cruel karma. Those of us…the worst of the worst… are brought here to torture each other for eternity. Who knows? Maybe this place is Hell in disguise…”

Pop!

She sucked the gum back in.“…Idiots like Steve have come to believe in a crazy fairytale. That if you ‘harvest’ enough souls by getting signatures... Thanny himself will release you from this dump, as it were.”

"Is that true?" Eli asked, his eyes tracking Steve and the girl.

Cass’s gaze hardened. “I don’t believe in fairytales, and much less Thanny. Honestly, I don’t mind this place that much. Don’t get me wrong… It’s a dump but I can think of worse ways to spend eternity.”

Before Eli could respond, a voice echoed through the chamber.

“NOW SERVING: PENDING CASE 142533.”

"That's us," she said, grabbing Eli by the sleeve and pulling him away from the sight of Steve successfully guiding the girl’s hand to the scroll.