Suicide Girls In The AfterLife Read Online Free Page A

says, his voice beside my ear now.
   “How can you stay on this floor? You should definitely ask to be moved someplace else.”
   Ago chuckles. “I wish. But this is Purgatory.”
   “Purga—wait. What?”
   And it’s as if the word being spoken aloud has triggered some kind of limbo switch, because my body flattens and stretches and twists in a way that the human body is definitely not meant to do. Or maybe it’s the darkness that is actually changing shape, but if that’s the case then that would mean that I have become part of the darkness and the thought—in addition to the ceaseless shape-shifting—suddenly makes me feel like vomiting, which I almost certainly would have done if I’d been able to determine where my stomach was or if it was even still part of my body.
   “Are you guys okay?” Katina. From very far away. “Guys?”
   I try to respond that I’m most definitely not okay but I have no words. I’m not even sure if I have a mouth or vocal cords. I decide that if I ever get out of here, the hotel management is going to get an earful. They’ll wish they’d never even heard the name Pogue Eldritch. Maybe they’ll even realize that this whole Purgatory thing was a bad idea. A very bad idea.
   I’m just starting to compose a letter of complaint in my mind when I feel something like a boot plant itself firmly in what I suspect is my ass, but I can’t really be sure. It’s more of a mental push than a physical one and the next thing I know I’m falling down into light.
   I crash with a grunt and look up to see Katina looking down at me. “How was it?” she asks, snapping a new piece of gum, her expression bored.
   For the second time, I pick myself up off the elevator floor and say, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
   Katina gives me a snotty look and says, “Whatev. Help me get this stupid door closed.”
   
     

Chapter 8
       Together we manage to close the elevator door and then we’re rising again, but only for a few seconds. Then the door whooshes open and we’re looking out into what appears to be an average hotel hallway.
   “Fifth floor,” Katina says, watching me expectantly.
   “I see that! Don’t you think I see that?”
   Katina waves towards the hall. “Well, fucking go.”
   I clear my throat. Take a deep breath. Gingerly stick my foot outside the elevator and test the floor of the hallway. Seems solid, so I step out and then turn back just as the elevator door is sliding closed. I raise my hand to wave goodbye to Katina but then she reaches out, stopping the door from closing. “Fuck this,” she says, getting off the elevator to stand beside me. “I don’t want to do this shit alone.”
   Who can blame her? She’s just a kid after all.
   I pull my keycard out of my pocket and say, “Room 735. That’s funny. I could have sworn it was a different number before.”
   “Isn’t 735 kind of high too?” Katina asks. “This place doesn’t seem big enough to have that many rooms.”
   We consider this for a moment and then shrug in unison. “Oh, well,” I say, looking up and down the hall. The nearest room is numbered 737. “I guess we’re pretty much here already.”
   At 735, I slip the keycard into its slot and a little green light flashes. I open the door cautiously, unsure of what to expect.
   When I flip the light switch, however, the room appears to be completely normal. A carbon copy of a million other hotel rooms across the globe.
   There is a double bed, a floral pastel bedspread across it, a small desk, a lavender lounge chair, a little table with two straight-backed chairs tucked neatly beneath it. A closet with a wooden sliding door. A night table with a white ceramic lamp and that’s it.
   “This is so not how I pictured Heaven to be,” Katina says.
   “It’s not Heaven,” I remind her. “Heaven is under construction,