Too Broke For Afterlife

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When I am being shaken awake, I can feel that last night's events caused my sleep to be anything but relaxing. I am more tired than I was before going to bed, my neck hurts, kindly creating a migraine and I am in an awful mood.

Luckily this time the person shaking my shoulders is Parker and not my ex. I try to get him off of me but without success.

"Just five more minutes, please."

"No, we have to talk while the others are gone."

I sluggishly open my eyes to peek around the basement. Walter and Isa are nowhere to be seen.

"Where are they?"

"Checking on the body. Judy, I have to ask you something."

The memory of the dead man presses itself back into my head and I bury my face into the pillow.

So far this whole adventure was pretty pacifistic, except for Isabella beating up her ex. We didn't have to hurt a single soul.

But now, a human had to die. And I feel awful.

Sure, he was sort of crazy but that doesn't take away his right to live!

"Judy, seriously. This is important."

I groan. "What?" My voice is sharp, I'm really in no mood for any conversations. I'd rather fall into a dreamless sleep and take a break from thinking for a second.

Parker clears his throat.

"Do you ever...talk to people in your dreams? I mean, when you know that you're dreaming and they are fake but they talk back to you?"

I quickly drop the pillow and sit up. Did I hear that right?

I lean forward.

"Are you talking about...DREAMS?"

"Yes? In my dreams, I just told you."

"No, no!" I grab his shoulders.

"The project? You have to pay KP and…"

I stop talking when I see how Parker's confusion keeps growing.

"What are you talking about? You pay someone KP and then…?"

Shit. "What? No! Not me. I just...heard about that. From someone."

"Ah." Parker sighs and gets up. "Nevermind then."

"No! Tell me, who did you talk to?"

I hurry after him. Parker grabs a water bottle and takes a big sip. Then he turns back around.

"Okay, so when I was looking for Walter in that graveyard I stumbled over a ghost. She was like a crazy Mozart fan and mad that somebody had removed the gold coin from his grave. She told me to go find it. I sort of forgot about it but last night I saw her in my dreams and she was really pissed."

"Okay?" So Parker is dreaming about crazy fangirls. Maybe he is just sad that he doesn't have fans of his own.

"And I feel like...I have to go back and talk to her."

"But-"

"Yes, she is dead and I can't give her the coin but leaving without a word just seems...wrong?"

"Oh my god."

A smile sneaks onto my face and I playfully hit his arm.

"You feel bad? What is this? Empathy?"

"Shut up!" He pushes me away. "I shouldn't have told you."

"Oh, come on. Does showing some emotion really hurt your masculinity that much?" I cheekily roll my eyes but Parker does not seem amused by my comment.

"Not my masculinity. I'm just not...like that. Okay? And I hate it. She is dead, why do I break my head over whether I owe her something or not? I'm acting irrationally and that's unacceptable."

Suddenly, the door to the basement opens and our missing team members step through. Walter goes straight to his backpack, Isa smiles at us.

"Good morning, sleepyheads."

"Isa!" I practically jump at her and she flinches.

"What?"

"Parker dreamed something and you guys should help him decide what to do."

"Shut up, cunt!"

Parker crosses his arms, his eyes are iron and he stares against the wall. He is embarrassed. How cute.

"Oh, what dream?"

The man doesn't say anything so I grab his shoulder. "Come on, dude. Tell them."

"No, thanks. Why don't you? Since you love getting involved in everything."

I sigh and turn back to Isabella and Walter who both look at us curiously.

"So?" Isa wants to know.

"Basically, Parker had a dream about that ghost with the gold coin and now feels an urge to go back and talk to her."

"The gold coin?" Walter steps forward. "This might be a sign."

"What sign? It was just a stupid dream. Can we stop talking about it now?"

But Walter's mind has already entered another sphere. 

"I doubt that this is a coincidence. What if she has valuable information for us? Maybe we should go back and talk to her."

"Great." Parker throws a death glare at me. "Thank you very much, Judy."

"You're welcome?"

<<<

Before we can work out a plan, I decide to get some drinks from the nearest snack machine.

It doesn't matter whether I'm a robot or not, I will always need coke to function.

Coke as in Coca Calo. Obviously.

With two cans in my hand, I push open the door to the basement, whisteling a happy tune. Finally, my mood is lifting.

"I'm back!" I sing. But I don't get a response.

Instead, the rest of my team is standing together, looking at me with piercing eyes. Parker seems annoyed, Walter sad and Isabella angry.

I hesitate. "Did something happen?"

I put down the coke and walk over to them.

"I don't know. Is there anything you'd like to tell us?"

Isabella folds her arms and oh god, the last time I've seen her this mad was when she had to pick me up from the carnival.

"Uhm, no?"

"No? Don't you want to share what you did last night?"

Oh my god.

They can't possibly mean...how could they have found out?

This is awful, Isa must hate me now for playing with her like that.

"I'm sorry! It's not what it looks like!"

"Then what is this?"

Walter lifts his hand. He is holding the crystal.

"What the-"

"We found it under your blanket. Care to explain where you got it from?"

"Uh…"

Okay, they don't know about DREAMS. But how do I explain the crystal without telling them about how I got into that situation in the first place?

"I got it from...uhm…"

"Judy." Walter's voice is calm. Too calm.

"You do realize that all we need to go to Heaven is this crystal, right? We have wasted a lot of time."

"But-"

"What makes you think that you can hide it from us?" Isabella yells, her face is red and I almost expect her to slap me. "Are you trying to sabotage this mission?"

"What? No! Why would I- Nox gave it to me!"

Isabella snorts. "Nox. Right. So you also kept from us that you met Nox?"

"No, it happened last night. She was in my dreams. She told me that Clemens and her are waiting for us and that we need to go to Heaven. Then she gave me the crystal."

The three stare at me, obviously not believing a single word.

"Guys…"

"But Nox and Clemens decided to work against us. Why would they try to help?" Parker wants to know but I don't have the answer.

"Maybe…" Walter looks at the crystal in his hand. "They need us."

"Right. Are we seriously going to believe this bullshit?"

I stare at Isa. "Do you not trust me? Why would I lie?"

"I don't know! Maybe because-"

"Shut up."

Walter steps between us, emitting something that almost feels like...authority?

"We don't know whether Judy is telling the truth or not but either way, we've got the crystal. Here is the plan: First we will prepare for our mission, then we will go to Austria and after that-"

A loud siren interrupts him.

We all stare at each other as an unknown voice talks over the speakers spread throughout the hotel but we are too far away to understand anything.

"Let's get in the hallway."

I run over to the heavy door and open it. The motion sensor activates the light in the stairwell. 

The others follow.

"I repeat: The hotel is being evacuated. All guests and staff members please gather in the parking lot."

"What? Evacuated? Is there a fire?" I sniff but can't smell anything unusual.

"No. I think they found the body."

Isabella shoos us back into the basement. 

"What? Did you not get rid of it?"

"No, where do you expect us to put it? The dumpster? Throw it in the sea?"

Oh my god. 

They found the man we killed.

I can imagine what happened, a cleaning lady probably unlocked the door and stumbled over the corpse. F*ck. She'll be traumatized for life.

"Okay, everyone stay calm."

Walter lifts his arms and takes a deep breath, almost as if he is about to meditate.

"We are no longer safe here. So scratch the first part of our plan, we have no time to prepare. Let's pack our things and then we'll leave."

"And go where?"

He smiles.

"Our new outpost, of course."