After the laughter died down, I propped myself on my elbows and surveyed my surroundings.

  To my left, the land was dusty and cracked, unobstructed to the horizon. To my right was a similar landscape, however ? of a kilometre away, was a ledge. I rolled to my feet and lumbered over to Gloria offering her a hand, a gesture she cocked her head at. She reached out towards me but instead of clasping my hand, her ethereal body slid through my solid form. She gave me a cheeky smile.

  “As a Shade, I have no physical form. We forgo the physical for stronger psychic powers.”

  “So, are you a ghost then?” I asked

  Gloria floated into a standing position, “There are many types of ghosts. You spend the first year of The Academy learning the different faculties of ghosting. After discovering your suitable paths, you spend the next two years building up the skills to transform into a “specialised” ghost. There are Shades, like myself, Wraiths, Poltergeists, Zombies, Possessors, and a multitude of others.”

  “There are differences between them?” I asked incredulously

  She nodded knowingly, “It's a lot to wrap your head around, I mean, who knew there were different types of ghosts. You don’t even want to begin learning the demon faculties, there are like thousands!”

  Gloria scanned our surroundings and then smirked when she saw the distant ledge. “This way” she beckoned.

  As we approached the ledge, my breath caught as a sweeping view of Hell revealed itself.

  “It’s something ain’t it?” Gloria asked rhetorically.

  We were perched atop a cliff wall stretching infinitely on either side of me, but several kilometres below me lay a valley.

  Unlike in tales from my previous life, there were no pits of magma or blazing infernos. Instead, the ground was slightly translucent which gave way to contorted faces of the condemned screaming from beneath the opaque floor. The collage of skin tones creating a patchwork of tan and brown, not dissimilar to dirt. There were rolling hills, rivers that ran scarlet, and flowers that grew in halos, like funeral wreaths. The entire realm was a living graveyard.

  Occasionally, from discrete cracks in the terrain, geysers gushed out a stream of souls that would immediately be swarmed with flying demons, a blend of a pterodactyl and a harpy.

  “The Valkyrie” Gloria whispered, also watching the flying demons.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Valkyrie…” I echoed, stunned by the outlandish world before me.

  After a few minutes, Gloria pointed down toward the cliff face.

  It was dotted with hundreds of cave entrances of varying sizes, the largest hole at least a kilometre in diameter.

  The largest hole, Gloria informed me, was The Academy’s location. “Prime real estate” she joked. Even from this far away, I could make out a massive jetty that protruded from the wall beside The Academy. There were several gondolas afloat, mist churning beneath the hull. As if the floating boat was not ludicrous enough, a towering robed figure, similar to my imaginations of a grim reaper, stood at the stern, a paddle held aloft.

  As if it noticed my gaze, it turned in my direction, revealing its face to be a void. My un-beating heart froze in terror. Gloria responded similarly under the reapers scrutiny and pulled me away from the ledge.

  “Do NOT mess with the Guides.” Her tone was severe. “They are the eldest in Hell, and take ghosts and demons back into the cycle of reincarnation. They are, in a sense, the judges of Hell. Even the God of Hell defers to their judgement in everything related to The Cycle.”

  “The Cycle?” I asked.

  “In a nutshell, the reason for Hell’s existence. The Cycle is the flow of karma - and we are the guardians who exact justice and balance as needed, so that souls can repent and move on… or something like that.” It was an oversimplified answer, given she seemed unsatisfied with her own summary. “Reincarnationology is not my forté” she finished.

  “I better start taking notes” I joked

  “Oh, you have noooo idea”

  We started to walk in the direction of The Academy, along the cliff side, and Gloria beguiled me with stories of her first year in The Academy. Most were stories of last minute panic as deadlines approached and celebrations with peers when subsequently passing by the skin on their teeth.

  It was a pleasant chat, but Gloria’s seemingly human experiences in the setting of Hell struck me as a farce. The dead playing pretend, as if the after-life were the same as the living. Even now, I felt disassociated with my circumstances.

  “A ghost? Reincarnated into Hell? Why?” the questions repeated in my subconscious.

  The walk was neither long nor short, it was as though time was amorphous in Hell. There was a diffused light from the sky but with no clear origin. Instead of a sunset, the light became pixelated, a shadow gradually spreading from thousands of small spots to an encompassing darkness. The light faded from the sky, and the valley began to glow purple. As though the Earth was taking the mantel of light from the sky. The faces that were opaque in the day now became clear as they were backlit and exposed. The shadows outlining their features darkened to black, and the over exposed flesh turned from beige to white. The ground resembled a chessboard tiled in screams and sorrow. It was a haunting beauty, and a vigilant reminder that I was far from the Earth I called home.

  As we approached the section of cliff directly above the academy, Gloria pointed inland to a town that was a few kilometres away - visible only by lit windows.

  “You are still low on Soul right?” she asked

  My Soul bar had recovered a measly two points since embarking on the walk.

  “Yah, no more phasing through the floor, sorry…” I admitted

  “It’s normal, don’t worry. We can descend from the elevators in UpTown” she replied, mimicking the action of patting me on the back, despite there being no physical touch. “Let’s get a bite while we are there.” She offered.

  I nodded in agreement and we headed towards the town. There was an aching in my belly that resembled hunger, but not entirely – it made me wonder, do ghosts eat?

  The answer, I soon found out, was “yah, kinda?”