And They Lived Happily Never After

"What did I tell you, Matthew? You visit the living too often for your own good." I could feel Avery's breath against my neck as my fists clenched tighter, turning my knuckles a pasty shade of white. My room was an absolute fucking mess. Photos were shattered everywhere, the feathers from every piece of bedding were strewn around on the floor, and none of it made me feel the least bit better.

I watched as Avery sauntered towards the destroyed bed and made a space for himself to sit, obviously very pleased that I was in so much pain. What the fuck is he thinking? Making fucking heart eyes towards my girl...he's supposed to be my best fucking friend! I used to see him look at her in a way that made me feel uncomfortable at times but at least I was there with her to keep him at bay. What? Now I've kicked the bucket and he thinks it's time to slide into home base with her? Fuck that!

My blood was boiling in my veins and I couldn't see straight. There were not enough rooms that I could destroy to make me calm down about any of this. He doesn't even show remorse for God's sake! Fuck, the timing of my death was so god damned ironic, maybe he put a hit out on me and it wasn't a drunk driver at all! Except he wouldn't, he's too chicken shit to pull of a gig like that.

"This is why I don't visit my wife anymore," Avery began, examining his fingernails without a care in the world, "I know I wouldn't be able to stand seeing her with her new husband, so I choose to ignore him. She thinks about me when she's with him anyway." He smirked.

"Maybe you don't visit her anymore because you have plenty of stand-ins with you up here like Evan." I spat.

His eyes narrowed and he stood up from his sitting place, walking towards me like he was going to pummel me to the ground. God, how I wish he would. I've needed a good excuse to hit him since I got to this fucking place.

"I have told you, time and time again, that Evangeline is not just a piece of meat to me. She's-"

"Avery do you actually believe that somewhere in your minuscule brain that she reciprocates the feelings you have for her? I watch her string you along time and time again every single day. It's pathetic." I chuckled, watching the anger inside of him rise. Come on, old man. Fucking hit me.

"It isn't worth fighting with you over, you immature child! I know how I feel about her and I know how she feels about me. You just bought yourself a one way ticket to zero privileges. Congratulations, Sanders." He chuckled as he turned on his heels to walk out of my door.

"Forty-seven." I hissed.

He paused, turning back around slowly to face me just in time to see the perfect scowl spreading across my face.

"Excuse me?"

"The amount of women you've fucked since I made my debut here. Forty-seven women, out of wedlock. One of our top rules. If you dare so even mumble to the boss that you want my privileges revoked, I will storm in there so damn fast that your head will spin, and I will tell him every single sin that you've committed since you've been assigned to me. Your ass will go where you belong in a fucking heartbeat. Try me, old man." I seethed.

His expression went from anger to fear. He knew that he would be booted if any of his shenanigans were exposed to those in charge, and I was not afraid to be the one who got him in that situation. I wanted it more than anything. He didn't deserve to be here with his hateful heart.

"I think that's enough conversation for today, Matthew. Start cleaning this mess up." He balled his fists and shoved them into his pockets, his jaw clenching so he could avoid getting himself into further trouble. For a stupid man, sometimes he makes smart decisions.

I turned off the screen that was previously showing the faces of my betraying family and headed out to get supplies to clean up the cabin. My mind was overcrowded with thoughts as I stared at the ground, letting my feet guide me instead of my brain to the small cabin full of clean linens and extra necessities. I grabbed as many new items as my arms could hold before carefully closing the door and heading back to my home.

"Watch out!" I heard a scream before I collided with someone, the sheets and various objects falling from my arms onto the ground along with myself. I groaned, grabbing my lower back as I crawled around to pick everything back up.

"I tried to warn you." A high pitched voice flowed around me as I saw someone helping to pick up my items.

"Oh...Evan I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention, my mind is kind of...vacant at the moment." I mumbled, grabbing the items from her hands.

"Do you want some help? It wouldn't hurt to make sure you don't pummel anyone else to the ground like a brick wall."

"Sure, I think I could use some right now."

We walked in silence most of the way back to my cabin before she spoke up.

"Do you know what's wrong with Avery today? I passed him up just a bit ago and he was seething. I don't think I've ever seen him that angry before." She chuckled slightly, pushing a strand of her ginger hair behind her ear.

"We may have had a small fight a few minutes ago. He may have threatened to have my privileges revoked, and I may have threatened to mention every unlawful thing he's done in the last year. He uh...didn't like that last part too much." I pushed my door open, throwing everything in my arms onto the floor. I looked over at Evan who had the widest eyes I have ever seen as she looked around the destruction caused by hurricane Matthew.

"Jesus Christ, did you almost kill each other in here?" She started picking up pieces of broken glass from the plethora of photographs I smashed.

"I wish, but sadly no...this was all me." I sighed.

"Is there a good reason why you destroyed everything?"

"There's multiple, but I should maybe start with the fact that my supposed best friend wants to fuck my wife." I hissed.

"Ah...that reason. I know it well." She smiled slightly and continued to pick up debris.

"You?"

"Many of us had lives before we ended up here, Matthew. I was married before I was forced into this place. I had a husband, a daughter, a beautiful house...I had everything." Her face fell into sadness as she sunk to the floor, making sure not to sit on any of the surrounding glass. I cleared off a space on the corner of my bed to sit in front of her.

"Let's hear it then. I've barely spoken a word to you for the last year, but you're always around. You know my story, it's only fair." My elbows rested on my knees as my hands hung between my legs. She took a deep breath, preparing to carry on.

"I was born and raised in South Wales, Australia. I had an amazing life that I never took for granted. I married my childhood best friend at nineteen, bought a house by twenty, had our daughter at twenty two, and about a year later I started having the symptoms. I was always exhausted, I bruised and bled without much effort, and I always had a feeling of being generally ill, but I couldn't explain it to anyone. I wrote it off as postpartum depression, took over the counter pain medicine almost daily, and tried to power through it. I was a new mother, and I had to power through it. Lilly needed me as much as I needed her. My husband, Oliver, finally convinced me to go to my physician for a proper check up to make sure everything was okay and--" She stopped, taking in a sharp breath as her eyes began to gloss over, "and it wasn't. I was diagnosed with stage three leukemia...I couldn't believe it. I still don't. How could someone be handed everything, only to have it taken away in an instant--...though, I suppose I am talking to the king of knowing that feeling." She frowned, sending sympathy my way before continuing.

"They started pumping me with everything under the kitchen sink hoping that something would work. They tried every possible treatment before determining that I needed to undergo a bone marrow transplant. By the time they found a matching donor, I was so deep into the disease that I decided to tell the donor to give to someone else, someone with a better fighting chance. I survived five more days after making that decision."

"What if the transplant worked? What if it even gave you another year or two with your family? You don't regret declining it?" I furrowed my brows, knowing I would have done anything to stay with Ivy and the boys longer.

"They say when you're dying, you just...know when it's your time. I felt it. That bone marrow transplant ended up going to a nine year old boy who ended up going into remission. He still had an entire life to live. I created so many amazing memories during my time on earth, and I was happy to know that the transplant I rejected went to someone who truly deserved a life." Her bottom lip quivered as some of the tears began to flow. My heart was broken for her.

"I'm really sorry, Evangeline. I had no idea. You always looked so--"

"Bitchy?" She grinned and sniffled, wiping away the tears that fell onto her cheeks.

"I had a different word choice...but, essentially, yes. You just walk around with Avery like you two are the king and queen of hell instead of heaven."

"When I arrived here, Avery was my assigned angel as well. I was a permanent twenty four year old and scared out of my damn mind for what the afterlife had in store for me. The first time he saw me, I swear his knees were weak. He started practically worshiping me and I figured if I could have someone in charge on my side that I would feel safe and protected. Not that you need that up here, but...I wanted to know that I would be taken care of in some form so I just sort of...stuck around." She shrugged.

"I guess I can understand that."

"Back to my point, though. Like you, I watch and visit my family almost every day. I've been dead for almost seven years now, and it never gets easier...watching the ones you love carry on without you there. You have to remember that you aren't left behind, though. They think of you every single day. Oliver vowed to me on our wedding day that he would never stop loving me, and I know he meant that even though he's married to Chloe now...my best friend." She looked at me with a small smirk, waiting for my reaction.

"How, though? How can you walk around being okay with that? Doesn't it make you upset knowing that two people you trusted could just turn around and betray you?"

"It made me upset for a short while in the start of things. The way I see it...right before I died, Chloe did so much to take care of Lilly for me when I couldn't. She was just as heartbroken as Oliver when I knew I wasn't going to survive. The people I trusted most with my life relied on each other for comfort when I passed away because they knew me better than anyone. The found that comfort in each other, and if they could have the chance of a normal life together without constant grief, I wanted that for them. They deserved that. Just because they got married, doesn't mean that Oliver's love for me faded into nothing. He still wears his ring that I gave him every single day around his neck. I am still a huge part of his life, even if I am stuck up here. One day, we will be reunited, but for now I want nothing more than for him to be happy on earth, even if it is without me."

I took a deep breath, knowing that she was trying to convince me that I was overreacting.

"I don't know, Evan. I am not trying to invalidate your illness in any way, but I envy you for at least knowing death was coming. You were able to say goodbye to your loved ones before you left them. My death was instant, and I would give anything to have been able to hug everyone and tell them goodbye. Especially my boys." I looked away quickly as I felt tears begin to sting my eyes.

"Avery told you about visitation didn't he?" She stood up, continuing to clean around her before helping me make the bed with the new sheets and pillows.

"Yeah, he told me. I told him he was fucking insane if he thought I would go for it. After all of this--" I gestured broadly around the mess, "He's tripled in his insanity."

"Yeah well, if you want it bad enough--"

"A conduit. Who needs to be someone who knows everything about me. Someone I trust with my afterlife. You wanna know who that would have been before today? MY BEST FUCKING FRIEND!" I fell back onto the bed, helplessly, not wanting to move.

"Okay?"

"Evan I cannot and will not allow my spirit to be transferred into the man I hate right now more than anything just so I can visit Ivy and sleep with her. That isn't fucking worth it. I don't understand why I can't stay in my body and just be able to hold her."

"Yes, every wife wants to hold the dead, rotting corpse of their late husbands. Trust me." She smirked, receiving a small hit from me on her arm with a pillow. "That isn't how it works, Matthew. I know the technicalities are undesirable, but you have to work with what you're given. I know you have other friends that you could use, but you have to remember that the body you transfer to also has to be close with Ivy. While you hate to realize it, I think Brian is the only person who would work."

"No. Absolutely fucking not. I don't want to make love to her with his hands or his body. It isn't worth it. I'll stick with what I know." I huffed.

"Fine, but don't say we never tried to give you options. You know what you have to work with, Matthew. While the cards may not be the ones you wished were dealt, you can't cheat the system. That's how it works. If it were me, I would put all of the bullshit aside, man up, and do what I needed to do so I could hold my wife one last time." She walked towards the door, pausing to look at me with her hand on the handle, "You're going to do what is right to you. No one can convince you it's a good idea, but I will say that you should take the opportunity while you still can. The pain of everyone moving on subsides, I promise. For some, it takes longer than others, but there is only a small window where this opportunity is given, and you're almost past it." She sighed and opened the door, walking out swiftly leaving me with my thoughts.

I don't need it that badly. I don't need it that badly. I cannot and I will not. If I would have known my options sooner, I could have already used Brian and this would all be over but now...now I can't imagine his hands on my wife, tracing every curve of her body as I would. His eyes staring into her soul while we made love instead of mine. It isn't fuckingfair!

I don't need it that badly. I've lost my wife, and now I've lost my best friend. As far as I'm concerned, he's dead to me. He may as well take Avery's place up here since he wants to play Satan. Thinking of him started to make my heart race, enough to want to destroy everything I just replaced.

Notes

I know it took me a few days longer than normal to post this, and I apologize! The first week of my last semester of college began last week, and while I was hoping we would ease into everything, we have jumped head on into every syllabus assignment there is. I cannot count the amount of chapters I have to read for each course I am taking! This week, I have 42 chapters of reading spread between three books for three courses. However, I set aside an hour tonight to crank out this chapter for you guys, and I hope you enjoy it. I have seen all of your comments and feedback, and from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU! To those who have made suggestions, don't think they have gone unnoticed! Who knows, you may be surprised to see one or two of them! I am currently sitting in a quite nook of my university and the internet connection is being slightly dodgy, so I cannot go back to get the names of each author who commented to thank you all, but you know who you are! As always, let me know what you think, and I appreciate every single one of you! (110 days left until graduation and I can fully submerge myself into writing and create all of the wild ideas floating around in my brain!)

xxoo,
Leagh