Chapter 1

It was a dark and stormy night.

Yes, again.

Really!

I'm not kidding.

It WAS!!!

Like I recanted the at the beginning of first part of my story, lots of authors, including Charlie Brown's Snoopy, have envisioned starting a story in that manner. Secretly, I too have always been drawn to that phrase. There's something mystical about it.

Right now I have a clear crisp vision of Snoopy sitting atop his dog house, typewriter nestled on his lap, typing: "It was a dark and stormy night."

As I said at the beginning of my first installment of this "Hereafter" tale, I repeat here, "Me too!"

Yes, I've wanted to use that well worn phrase. Yet as this part of my story starts, it was another, Dark and Stormy Night!

Yes, as I already repeated, it was a Dark and Stormy Night.

AGAIN!

Really!

I'm seriously not kidding.

It WAS!!!

The first part of my story began and had an ending of sorts on the same night. This time things are different. I'm already dead. For me four days ago, as you must know now, it was "An ending." An ending of the ultimate type, for me at least.

You must remember that Bullet, traveling at the speed of sound, released from a trigger pull, parted not only my hair but me from my life.

It definitely ended my life. There's no doubt about that. It was just four mere days ago as I said.

I've learned a lot since I met my fate last Friday night with that well aimed Bullet. Plus, as strange as it might sound, I've made a few new and, at the least, one Old Friend too.

Interesting what the 'After' part of life can bring.

This time too my story begins with arrival of a storm. Well, like life, there's more than one type of storm and it just so happens this time it was TWO that blew into my life at the same time.

Tom Blake and I had just seen off our Spirit friends. You know, they'd gone back to be with their hosts. Being the "Really Dead" kind of spirits, we had no Host to be with. So we were each settled into one of the executive chairs. Both of us were leaning back with our feet lifted onto the mahogany conference table, while we watched the remnants of our friends' vapors disappear.

For us it was time to bond again, this time in our new state of being. We were starting to relax so we could get to know each other in this new existence we'd both fallen into.

My new Spirit friends, Valerie Gibbons, Tammy Chase and Marilyn Star had just faded into a mist mere seconds ago when the Conference Room lit up with a blinding light. It was as if a nuclear explosion had gone off nearby.

Before either Tom and I could react, the room sizzled and cracked with electricity. Following that a split second later it reverberated with lightning's bone rattling sonic boom. There's nothing like the aftershocks of such a jolt to scare the begeezus out of anyone. Even the dead.

Both of us jumped and I swear, I bounced off the ceiling from the little surprise. As I've admitted before in such an unexpected happening, I was spooked!

Yeah!

Go ahead.

Laugh at me.

Me, a ghost, being spooked.

Well, I admit I was terribly surprised. You would have been too! Luckily I was already dead because that type of an event will stop your heart.

So again the start of this part of this story had turned into a Dark And Stormy Night. But what happened next, pardon the expression, is what really 'Spooked' me. I know I heard it as much as I felt it.

As the resounding thunder clap subsided there was a terrible sound. It shook me to the core. I turned and looked over at Tom. He had frozen in his face exactly what I was feeling. A mixture of dread, fear and extreme grave concern.

What we had both heard was a "Cry In The Night." It was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. It was the sound of utter despair. A lost soul.

To make things worse ... it was sounded clearly like the cry of a very young child. The cry sent shivers up and down my spine! I know I didn't have to ask Tom, but I did anyway.