Beyond (Afterlife book 1) Read Online Free PDF

earthly things we
enjoy. We can live without it, but it was such a big part of when
we were humans, so we still do it in the Afterlife. Some Ru’achs
stop eventually, but some keep eating and sleeping. But most
Ru’achs don’t dream.”
    “ I did.”
    “ That is strange. I haven’t had
a dream since I got here. Maybe you are different. Like people, no
two spirits are alike. We all have different skills and
gifts.”
    “ Like you—you make illusions.
That is a cool gift.”
    Mick smiled. “I guess it is what you would
call cool,” he said.
    “ What about the pictures
in that book?” I asked after a short silence.
    He looked at me. “What
pictures?”
    “ The pictures of people
dying. I found them in a huge book in a room somewhere when I was
lost earlier today.”
    “ That is not something you
are supposed to be looking at.”
    “ Well I did. I was lost
and the door wasn’t locked. If they didn’t want me to go in there
the least they could do is to lock the door.”
    Mick looked at me and smiled. “You mean
they should lock a door in a castle filled with spirits who walk
through walls?” He burst into laughter.
    “ Okay, I hadn’t thought of that.
But anyway, I saw them and they scared the crap out of
me.”
    “ Well if you really must know,
those are the ‘meant-to-be’ pictures. They show the people who are
supposed to go to this academy when they die. They show how they
will die.”
    “ How they will die? Are
you kidding me? Does that mean I just saw how several people on
earth are supposed to go?”
    The very thought made my stomach lurch. I
thought the pictures were of people already dead. This was really
horrible.
    “ When will this
happen?”
    “ If you noticed, underneath each
picture there was a date. It is so we know when it is time to go
get them. The pictures prepare us for the situation, so the Ru’achs
who are assigned to go to these people and accompany their spirits
here know what they will meet there.”
    I had noticed a lot of numbers underneath
the pictures but hadn’t thought much of it. Now I understood, but
that also meant the boy would die by the hands of that horrible
man. Knowing that made me shiver.

Chapter 5
     
     
     
     
    Professor Grangé, my teacher in
Metamorphosis, was really cool. He died during the French
revolution and had his head chopped off in the guillotine. He told
us all about how he used to be a French aristocrat, how he had
eaten with the French King Louis the sixteenth, and how he used to
dance at the king’s many balls at the mighty castle of
Versailles.
    The professor walked around with
his head under his arm. When he was teaching, he put it on the
table while he spoke. In the beginning we didn’t hear much of what
he was saying; everybody just stared at the talking head on top of
the desk. He was used to that reaction from newcomers, he
said.
    “ We call this class
Metamorphosis, since that is exactly what you are going through
now. On earth people talk about metamorphosis in the animal world .
It is a biological process by which an animal physically develops
after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively
abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth
and differentiation, such as when a butterfly comes out of its
cocoon. That is what has happened to you now. You have been trapped
in that horrible earthly body for years and now it is time to
fly.”
    I got the chills. I had been waiting for
this. But being afraid of heights I was also a little scared.
    “ You already have the
ability to fly, but you just haven’t developed it yet. You still
think as humans and therefore you don’t believe that you can
actually fly. Once I have taught you how to do it, you will never
have to walk or run anymore.”
    “ Cool,” said the chubby Frederic
Cornwell with a smirk. Alexandra nodded and smiled as well. For
once he and his sister found something they could agree
about.
     
    After a short theory lesson, we went
outside