After Life Read online

  After Life

  Jacquie Underdown

  After Life

  Copyright © 2017 by Jacquie Underdown

  Cover by Mi Graphics

  All rights reserved.

  By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Jacquie Underdown.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  After Life

  Jacquie Underdown

  She can see the dead, but that’s the least of her problems ...

  All Zoe wants is to be normal and feel accepted. But that is an impossible goal for a girl who can see spirits. Maybe if she hides her dead-seeing abilities and pretends to be like any other seventeen-year-old girl, she can, at best, appear to be ordinary. That’s her hope when she moves to a new town for high school, but it all depends on keeping her secrets concealed.

  But the dead have different plans, and they expose her for who she truly is. As her reputation around school as the resident freak show grows, her world crumbles. And she soon learns that she can’t trust anyone, living or dead.

  When Zoe believes all is lost, the truth is finally revealed—not only about who she is but what she is. She is shown glimpses of a world after life and her place within it. But with this new knowledge, comes responsibility, and she will be forced to make the most painful and difficult decision of her life.

  Will Zoe choose the safety and comfort of the human life she knows? Or will she be courageous enough to venture into the world that comes after death? A world that may just hold the answers she has been seeking all along.

  Content warning: contains adult language, violence, and suicide.

  Contents

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  About the Author

  Jacquie resides in Central Queensland, Australia. On permanent hiatus from a profession she no longer loves, she now spends her time wrapped up in her imagination, creating characters and exploring alternative realities.

  Jacquie has a business degree, has studied post-graduate writing, editing and publishing at The University of Queensland and earned a Master of Letters from Central Queensland University. She is an author of many romance novels, novellas and short stories.

  After Life is her first novel written for a young-adult audience. You can find out more on her website at http://www.jacquieunderdown.com/

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to Lea Darragh and Nikki Davies for being the perfect sounding boards during the writing phase of After Life. I miss our small writing group!

  And extra thanks to Lea Darragh, Liz Mckewin and Maggie Darragh for beta-reading the earlier drafts and offering advice to enhance the story. I wish to acknowledge Cheree Hawking, Jayde Hawking and Maddy Boyle for reading the earlier drafts and offering feedback.

  Thank you to Tracey O’Brien of Mi Graphics for creating the incredible cover for this book, so that it encapsulates perfectly the mood and genre of the story. And to Liz McKewin, thank you for doing a final proof read for me.

  I must acknowledge Seth Underdown for his input with the ‘dangling ghost feet’ scene—the story came alive from there. And thanks, Braith Underdown, for your input whenever I needed help with word choice as well as your input with the cover drafts.

  Thanks to circumstance, hardship, and rejection, without you all, I would never have taken the leap to self-publish.

  Dedication

  For Nan

  May your afterlife be full of splendour

  Chapter 1

  Zoe stood face to face with her mother in the dormitory corridor. Other students walked past, entered rooms, or flocked outside the long line of doors, some with their parents, some on their own.

  Every student seemed perfectly normal but as it went, Zoe was fated to share a room here at Hampshire Co-Ed College with someone a little left of centre.

  Okay, very left.

  But that wasn’t such a bad thing because Zoe wasn’t even close to normal herself.

  “Zoe Louise Mason, I am not leaving you here with that girl,” Zoe’s Mum hissed in her ear.

  “Mum—”

  “We’ll find another roommate. I’m sure the school will understand if we ask for you to be paired with someone else.”

  Barely ten seconds ago, Mum had pulled hard on Zoe’s elbow and shuffled her out into the hall. She had shut the door quietly behind them, locking Asher, Zoe’s new roommate, inside the dormitory out of listening reach.

  Sure, what Asher had said within five seconds of meeting Zoe and her parents was…strange, but Zoe could see it was a light-hearted joke.

  “Asher is a student like me. Just dressed a little differently,” Zoe said. “You’ve got to expect some level of weirdness in a city boarding school.”

  Mum’s eyes widened, her breaths were shallow. “Weirdness? She has a bull ring in her nose. And purple eyes.”

  Zoe thought she’d quite like pretty purple eyes herself rather than the ordinary brownness of her own. In another life perhaps, when she didn’t already stand out for other reasons. “They’re contact lenses—”

  “I know what they are. The question is why? Who does that? What parent would let their daughter—”

  “Oh my god, Mum. She’s a goth. She only looks weird to you because you’re old.” Though, this wasn’t entirely true. Zoe had to admit that her own jaw hinged open a fraction when she first saw Asher.

  Dad opened the door a margin and poked his head through before slipping out into the hall to join them.

  He shook his head, and his nostrils flared as he looked at Zoe. “I can’t in good conscience leave you alone with her. I’m sorry, but what type of young girl says to her new roommate, whom she has never laid eyes on before, ‘Welcome to my den of depravity’? Den. Of. Depravity. What does that even mean?”

  Z
oe threw her hands up in exasperation, stepped closer, and lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. “Too late. It’s already arranged that she be my roommate. We all agreed to this, remember?” She pressed her hands to her hips. “You’re both over-reacting. Like always. Now, can you please help me unpack because I think it’s a little too obvious that we are gathered out here to whisper about Asher?”

  Her father sounded like a bull with the way he was sucking air through his nostrils. “Don’t you try and manage your mother and me. We’ve some serious concerns.”

  Zoe hunched as she sighed. “Mum, Dad, I’m seventeen. I’m going to be here on my own, and I’m going to have to make my own decisions. I choose to stay here with Asher. I’ll be fine.”

  Mum and Dad passed a look between each other. Zoe knew that look—it meant they were considering surrendering.

  “You’ve always told me not to judge a book by its cover. Imagine if people did that to me…” Zoe trailed off, knowing that was a sore point for all of them. Especially with her history.

  Mum huffed. “You’re right. Let me talk to her a little longer. Just to make sure we’re not leaving you with a … a serial killer.”

  Zoe coughed as she almost choked on her shock. “Seriously, you’re so overdramatic.”

  “I’m with your mother on this one,” Dad said.

  Zoe gestured at the door. “Fine. Talk your brains out. I’ll start unpacking.”

  What more did she expect? The last few months trying to convince her parents that it would be better for her to attend her final year at a boarding school in a new town had been mental.

  But there were too many lingering memories and faces at home. A new start with people who didn’t know her past was the only option.

  Eventually, her parents were able to see that a fresh start was vital for Zoe.

  Inside the dormitory was small, but Zoe and Asher had their own bedrooms adjacent one another. Each room was big enough for a single bed, a small cupboard and bedside table.

  The narrow living space between the bedrooms was jammed with two small couches, a few bookshelves, study nook and a TV.

  As Zoe carried her favourite pillow and linen through to her room, she could hear her parents peppering Asher with heavily loaded questions.

  What do your parents do?

  How are your grades?

  What subjects are you studying?

  What are your plans when you finish school?

  She rolled her eyes and smiled at Asher on her way past. Asher conspiratorially smiled back, and Zoe knew despite her parents’ concern and reluctance to set her free upon the world, it was the right decision coming here.

  ◆◆◆

  “Heavy-duty parents you’ve got there,” Asher said as she shut the dorm’s door.

  Zoe, seated on the threadbare grey couch, shook her head. “Don’t I know it.”

  “I didn’t think they were going to leave, let alone leave without you.”

  “Sorry about that.”

  “Occupational hazard,” Asher said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Some folks see piercings and think serial killer.”

  Zoe covered her mouth to hide her giggle. “Nice to know they’re not the first then.”

  Asher wore black ripped tights and heavily buckled boots that came up to her mid-shin. Her hair was liquorice black and her skin was pale. She grinned and sat next to Zoe, pulling her leg up under her. “And they won’t be the last.”

  “It doesn’t bother you?”

  Asher shook her head as her grin grew wicked. “I love it. Love to shock the straitlaced. Give them a little spark up their arses.”

  “You definitely did that,” Zoe said, laughing. “They’ll be talking about you all the way home. All night. Probably every night for the next week.”

  “Then my work here is done,” Asher said with a high-pitched chuckle and held out her hand. Zoe gripped Asher’s long fingers, fingernails dark blood red, and shook her hand firmly. “Nice to meet you, Zoe Mason. Welcome to my lair. Our lair.”

  “Good to meet you, too. And it’s great to be here.”

  Chapter 2

  The week before Zoe had arrived at Hampshire Co-Ed, she had dragged her mum around the shops for hours to buy clothes that mirrored what other girls might wear to school here. And every item seemed fine before this morning.

  After pulling out most of the clothes she had neatly hung in her cupboard yesterday, Zoe finally decided she’d blend in most by wearing denim jeans and a pale pink T-shirt.

  She tied her light brown hair into a ponytail and applied two coats of mascara to highlight her eyes. Nothing too extravagant because Zoe knew that beauty for a girl was the fastest way to stand out from the crowd.

  And standing out was the last thing she needed.

  Zoe had never attended a school that didn’t require students to wear uniforms, but Hampshire Co-Ed College pushed the boundaries in many areas, not just dress.

  The classes operated more like an open-planned office might. There were no walled classrooms, just a series of open spaces with designated learning zones over four three-level buildings.

  The teachers were to be called by their first names, and Zoe would be learning real-world skills along with the required subjects.

  The only routine that was familiar to Zoe was that all the students were assigned to different form classes, and they had to meet with that class each morning before the official start of the school day.

  “She finally emerges,” Asher said from the cramped kitchenette as she sipped on freshly brewed coffee. She wore black ripped fishnets under a knee-length black skirt and a loose fitting shirt, buttoned up with safety pins, in the colour of ... yep, you guessed it, black.

  Asher pointed to the percolator that took up almost all the space on the thumb-sized bench. “Want a cup?”

  Zoe shook her head, changed her mind half way through and nodded instead. Her parents didn’t think it was good for her to drink coffee, but, what the hell, they weren’t here to tell her otherwise.

  She smiled goofily as the realisation sunk in—no one was here to say otherwise.

  “Is that a yes-no? Some new answer I’m yet to hear about?”

  Zoe laughed. “It’s a yes.”

  Still grinning, Asher poured her a mug of black coffee.

  Zoe sipped at the hot, bitter brew. Her nose wrinkled. She glared down at the murky contents deciding it must be an acquired taste.

  “Not good?” Asher asked, tilting her head to the side.

  Zoe swallowed another small mouthful and fought away a cringe. “It’s fine. Thank you.”

  Asher arched a black sculpted brow. “So, do you sleep with the light on every night?”

  Zoe lowered her gaze to her coffee cup and had another sip of this drink that could not have been born in any other place than Hell. But, to answer Asher’s question, yes, she did sleep with her light on every night, but she wasn’t about to admit to that. “I must have forgotten to turn it off.”

  Asher shrugged. “I slept with a light on until I was thirteen. Probs why I noticed. The dark can be scary for imaginative minds. Do you have an imaginative mind?”

  More than you could believe. “Not really.”

  “Want to have breakfast with me today?” Challenge was present in Asher’s eyes—a test that would prove if Zoe was afraid of that which was different.

  Little did Asher know, Zoe was a bigger weirdo than her. Zoe was just more willing to hide it.

  Meeting Asher’s gaze head on, Zoe said, “Sure.”

  ◆◆◆

  Asher could certainly turn heads but only with newbies like Zoe. Not quite the low-key entrance Zoe was hoping for, but, at least, it was Asher they were looking at, not her.

  In a way, Zoe melted into the walls of the dining hall like she had hoped.

  All meals were catered, buffet style, and were to be eaten here—an expansive room filled with row upon row of tables and chairs.

  Zoe sat with Asher at the end of one ro
w, keeping to themselves. She used the time, while she ate cereal and fruit, to look at the other students with whom she would be sharing the school year.

  A group of girls, younger than Zoe, sat at a table to the right, chatting and laughing as they ate their breakfast. One girl had her blonde hair in a ponytail, a couple of others had shorter cuts, and another left her long brown strands to hang out around her shoulders. They wore skirts, some wore jeans, and some knee-length shorts.

  A table of boys boisterously chattered to her left. They were no different to any other boys she had gone to school with in the past—all completely normal.

  At a glance, no one here was any different to Zoe (present company not included), and this realisation filled her with a renewed sense of confidence that she’d be able to blend in.

  After breakfast, Asher walked Zoe to the building where she would meet with her form class each morning.

  Thankfully, today was only a half day where all the students learned who their teachers were, where the classes were located, followed by a Welcome Lunch to get reacquainted (or acquainted in her case) with the other students.

  Then, she had the weekend to recover before classes started for real on Monday morning. Her fragile mind quite liked how the school was easing them all into their final senior year, rather than thrusting them head first.

  Asher was assigned to a different form class to Zoe, in a different building, which sucked; it would have been nice to have one familiar face.

  Zoe’s heart beat faster as they strode across the grassy courtyard flanked on every side by enormous buildings. The school was old, built from russet brick, and stood like a sprawling remnant from the olden days.

  She spun a full circle to take it all in, breathed in the fresh air, the scent of grass, and powdery perfumes as students went past. Chatter buzzed. Friendly laughter and the occasional excited shout echoed when someone saw a friend across the courtyard.