Traveler - The Price (Book 3)
Chapter 4

Black. We associate bad things with black. We associate sadness with black. Losses. Death. Fear. The unknown. But what is black? It’s something mysterious. It’s something that makes you curious, something that makes you look for that light at the end of the tunnel. It makes you curious to replace the things sometimes hidden too close to you, those things you don’t see because it’s too dark around you. Then, the only option you have is to learn to see through the dark, to become one with it, to reborn. Only when you understand this, you can say that you got rid of the fear and you can see the road you haven’t seen before. To learn not to be afraid of the dark, we need to learn to play hide and seek in it.

After black it was white. A bright white. Then it was gray. That was what I saw when I opened my eyes. I looked around me. I was on my back, in the middle of the road, and the sky was above me. Careless people were passing by me. So reckless they didn’t even notice me on the ground. I stood up. Nothing was hurting. Everything was white, black and gray. I got on my feet, and I noticed I was in a town. Was it Heaven? Hell? What was this place where I could see only in black and white? I started running among the people who were walking like robots.

“Hey!” I shouted.

No one answered me. Some of them looked at me, but they continued walking.

“What’s happening? What is this place? Why is no one answering me?!”

I was desperate. I continued running among them, without a specified destination. I couldn’t tell if it was day or night. It was like a town from the black and white movies. After a few hours when I wandered around that place, without getting any answer from someone, I wanted to sit down. I was about to burst into tears when I heard footsteps behind me.

“Jo?”

I turned around, and I saw a familiar face. I felt goosebumps, my eyes got wet of joy, a joy that didn’t belong there, and my thoughts were telling me that I wasn’t alone anymore.

“Kate! Oh my God! Is it really you?”

She jumped into my arms. I could touch her, a thing that I thought very odd. From what I knew, I had died.

Some things are, most of the times, beyond our understanding. No one knows what is after death, but everyone replaces out when they face it. I was somewhere in the Universe, standing in front of my sister. The feelings weren’t gone, and that was extraordinary. I felt an intense energy between us.

“Kate, what are you doing here? What is this place?”

“Jo, we’re dead…”

“What? You too? No!”

“I felt a strong pain in the head, then nothing. I woke up here. Jo… I’m sorry! I saw what I was doing, but I couldn’t control any of it! I was praying for someone to stop me, but they did it too late…”

“Kate, it’s not your fault! That was how it was supposed to happen! I was meant to die, not you with me!”

“I don’t know who stopped me, but he did the right thing.”

Even if I remembered vaguely that I saw Andy with the gun in his hands, I couldn’t remember for sure who had shot Kate. I couldn’t believe that Andy was able to do something like that, and how my memories were still foggy I couldn’t give her an answer. However, I had a feeling that Andy wasn’t the one who pulled that trigger.

“No… Aaron? I told him not to do this! He was right there… He was near… but it has to be another explanation!”

“He did what was needed to be done, but he hesitated too much…”

“No… Kate…”

This conversation was very strange, considering the fact we didn’t know where we were or what was happening to us. If that was the Hell, it wasn’t so bad as I imagined. When the balance had inclined, my sins weighted more than my good deeds? I was feeling released but in the same time insecure. I was angry because Aaron didn’t listen to me. I could have sworn he was the one who had killed Kate. For nothing. That was the thing that hurt me the most. He couldn’t listen to me, and he had taken her life in vain because he couldn’t save me.

“Is this Hell?” asks Kate. “I’m supposed to be in Hell, after all I’ve done, not you!”

“You’re not in Hell” says a woman who was approaching us.

“Who are you?” I ask. “Why are you different from the others? Why are we different?”

“I am Joana, and you have to come with me now! I will explain everything when we get somewhere safe. Try not to draw too much attention.”

The irony was that I had never believed in Heaven or Hell, and I was expecting a logic explanation, even if I felt I had passed a long time ago the logic limit of my existence. Kate and I looked at each other lost, and then we followed Joana. We were already dead, so what could have possibly gone more wrong than that? We walked on some narrow streets, and we arrived at a cabin on the shore of a lake. Joana walked in first, and she waved at us to follow her.

“I suppose you have a lot of questions” she says calmly.

“You guessed!” says Kate. “What is this place?”

“We are in the Underworld. This is the place where the spirits come after they leave the body. From here, they can go in two places: Heaven and Hell. They can also stay here if they are not ready to move forward. If they can’t adapt in here, and they don’t want to go on either, the spirits either go mad, or they react like robots, like the ones you saw earlier, or they can arrive in the Levitation, another place from where they can leave when they are finally at peace with themselves.”

“So, we are spirits” I say.

“Only Kate is a spirit” says Joana.

I googled my eyes, and I waited for her to continue. I wanted to ask her if there was a God, if anything of what people believed in our world was true, but I was too shocked at the moment. Anyway, nothing was as I had learned, so it was a huge probability that everything was a thousand times weirder than I even imagined.

“You are a Traveler.”

“Damn it! I was called like that all my life, until the moment I died! I need to know what the hell I am!”

“I am a Traveler. Joana, Josephine… See?”

I was staring at her, and I was waiting for something more. That name was given to me by my parents so that I couldn’t replace any connection between I and that woman.

“I have waited here for you a very long time, but it seems like you stubborn to remain there longer. If haven’t arrived here so many people who tried to save you, you would have known much more by now.”

“Oh, God!” I said trying to understand the information.

“Jo, you’re here for a reason, and that is to give you this, for you to stop in madness up there” she says giving me a little key.

“What is a Traveler?” Kate interrupts her.

“Jo is a creature who can travel between worlds. From there comes the name. Jo, if we are close to death, our Protector has to open a portal for us, and we have to get in it in order not to remain blocked between worlds. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been there, but there’s a way out, only it’s harder. From that portal, we arrive here. This repeats every time we die in the world up there until we stop what’s happening. Then everything is back to normal, and so are we. The point is that your Protector didn’t know she had to open a portal for you when you fell off that cliff, so I did all my best from here to open it. Next time she must open it because I can’t do it from here anymore.”

“I can’t believe I had to die to replace out what I am!” I said irritated.

“You didn’t die” she says. “You traveled in the Underworld. You will arrive here every single time you are in danger of dying, but you must fall through a portal.”

“I think it’s a lot of information to process” I said lost.

“Focus! You don’t have much time! I heard you messed up things up there and all the ones you killed are here now. They found out you will arrive here and they’re looking for you. You are lucky they haven’t found you. You need to focus. I agitated things around here because I opened that portal for you. I won’t be able to do that, so make sure to pass this information to your Protector!”

“What do I need to do?”

“I will show you how you can go back. When you arrive up there, you will land exactly where your heart will take you, so be careful not to have contradictory feelings. I don’t know what happens if you don’t understand how you feel. When you travel through the portal back, you will keep the key in your hand, and it will become one with your little finger. In this way, Aura won’t be able to replace it.”

“So, I’m going back to my world? What about Kate?”

“Oh, no! Even if I can go back, I don’t want to! I messed things up so bad! We have to accept the balance of the world. After what I did to you…”

“Kate, it’s not your fault!”

Joana was looking at us unpleased. She put her hand through her long and black hair, and then she put it behind the ear.

“Girls, who told you that you both could go back?”

“Well…” I whispered.

“I fulfilled my destiny there” says Kate. “I had all I ever wanted. I had Andy and a sister like you. More than that, I had a family! All I want now is to go further without regrets. I trust you will finish the mission.”

I looked at her disapproving, and I didn’t want to go back alone. It wasn’t fair.

“Why do I have this chance?” I ask.

“Because you deserve it. You have a mission to end. Just tell Andy I moved on, that I am at peace and I love him.”

“I will tell him” I said sadly. “What’s beyond this?”

“No one knows because no one who traveled there ever came back to tell us. It is said it’s peace” explains Joana.

I hugged Kate for one last time. I found it so hard to let her go from my arms.

“Don’t screw things up” she says. “Did I promise you I will replace you? Here I am! I kept my word.”

“But I…”

“You kept yours too. You promised me that as long as you’re alive, no one will harm me. I was killed just after I did the most stupid thing of my life…”

“We will see each other again” I say.

“I will watch over you. Don’t forget you have a mission. Do what you need to do! And don’t forget that I love you.”

I hugged her so tight. It was so hard to let her go, but I finally found the strength to do that. Joana showed her where she needed to go to complete the process. I needed a couple of minutes to see things clear again. Kate had found her peace, but the madness in my life was just beginning.

“Now, the important part” she says.

“There’s more?” I asked shocked.

“Yes. When you arrive up, you will be drawn somewhere near the people you love or near your deepest wishes. I tell you one more time, be careful what you wish for before you leave!”

“Ok, but I…”

“Now, problem number two. We can be killed as long as we are between worlds too, but with one single weapon. This weapon is something sharp, carved from monkey bread wood. There’s only one up, for each of us, and it’s hidden. No one besides you will replace it, but be careful when you replace it, don’t let it out of your side because anyone can use it against you. When everything is over, and we die, we arrive here, and we don’t move on, not until the next Traveler comes here. We pass the key to her. The key will be waiting for you here, on the table, after you will be dead for good. It can pass a year or two hundred until the history repeats itself. Everything depends on what you’re going to do.”

“How do I replace it? The weapon?”

“You will be drawn to it. Only you can replace it. When you do, you will just know what it is.”

“Fine” I said lost.

“You need to open the box, to take the spell and the map, then you go where it says to, and your Protector does the spell. She will use only your blood. Otherwise, it won’t work. After this, everything will be back to normal.”

“I have a lot of friends who ended up here… I want to see them” I said.

“My dear, I met your friends. I explained to them all they couldn’t understand. Crista and Stefan chose to move on together. Julia stayed for a while, and then she used some witchcraft to help you with Liana. After that, she moved on. She was happy and pleased.”

“Adam?” I asked sadly.

Joana had a moment of silence, she sighed and looked into my eyes.

“Adam loved you so much, but he saw how happy you were up there, and he moved on.”

I felt sad. I wanted to ask about George, Sabrina, Nadia and Robert, but Joana explained to me that they all had chosen to move on. They all saw what was happening up there. I felt released because they knew they were missed and we had made everything that was in our power to save them. I didn’t know from what moment they could see what was happening upstairs, and neither Joana knew that. She thought it was something different from person to person. I couldn’t see what was happening to my friends so that it could have been a while until that. Anyway, it was something.

“Are you ready?” she asks me.

“No, but I can do this! I have to!”

“Fine. Look what you have to do. Go on the back door, climb that path, until you see the first waterfall. You go in it, and you will replace there the portal that will get you home. I don’t know if I will be here when you get back, so listen carefully to what I’m saying. This is the house where you will be safe. Only you and the people you allow to see it will see it. And to get to the portal, you must walk out to that door. If you go on the other and walk by the house, you will replace only a meadow with trees. Ok?”

“Too much information… too fast…” I grumble.

“Josephine! Are you ready or not?”

“Yes!” I said quickly.

“Then what are you waiting for?”

I looked at her confused. I didn’t know what to tell her, if I needed to thank her, to hug her or not to say anything at all. Finally, I thanked her with a gesture of my head, and I opened the door. I followed her indications until I arrived at the waterfall. I went inside it, and I saw a bright light. The only person I could think about was Aaron. I walked into the portal thinking of him.

I was thinking about what could I say to the others. I was wondering how they felt when they had lost both me and Kate, but mostly I was thinking about what was inside Aaron’s soul. I was excited to see them again. I was curious how were they going to react. I was still shocked about the turning of the events, so I couldn’t expect them to understand it too soon. Then, my thoughts went crazy. It appeared all kind of weird questions. What if they wouldn’t take me back? What if they didn’t believe it was me? What if they would send me back where I came from? What if I couldn’t replace them? Only “if, if, if,” then it was black. Black again.

When your life is not under your control anymore, when something bigger than your little soul keeps spinning you around the Universe, you wonder if what you do, feel or think is controlled by you. What if each of us has a written destiny somewhere that is waiting to be fulfilled? But what if it’s not like that? What if we make our destiny, and each step, word, and feeling write down our future? When you don’t know what’s coming next, it’s easy to do whatever you want to. You will arrive on your path anyway, sooner or later. One thing was sure: my mission hadn’t ended suddenly and tragic as I thought. It was only the beginning. The beginning of a better life this time, I hoped.