Ascension by Bailey Bradford (desktop ebook reader txt) 📕

had them at Roger’s before a second had passed. The usual barrier that had held them back was gone, and they arrived to find Adela with the cellphone on the floor beside her dad as she performed CPR on him.

“Don’t, oh, Ro, help me, help him!” she pleaded, sweating as she gave Roger chest compressions.

“What do I do?” Ro asked, tears filling his eyes. At that moment, Conner saw it, the bright circular pulsing of Roger’s soul as it began to pull free of his body. It wasn’t the same brilliant glowing form Alma’s was, perhaps tinted gray by Roger’s guilt and anger. “No,” Ro howled, which made Adela scream and pound on Roger’s chest. Over the phone the emergency service dispatcher squawked out directions no one was paying attention to.

“Tell Adela to get her shit together and keep doing the CPR right,” Conner said, hoping he sounded like someone to be obeyed. He wasn’t the bossy type, but he needed them to listen.

“Don’t stop, Adela, keep working on him,” Ro got out between sobs. Conner watched Roger’s soul hover, half in and half out of his body. “In, in, in,” Ro muttered, obviously seeing it too. “Get back in there, Dad, please. I know you miss Mom, but Adela and Martin need you, too. Mom would want you to stay and take care of them.”

“Like I took care of you?” Conner heard, a faint whisper on the wind as the front door flew open.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Ro said. Conner held up a finger, pointing to the EMS workers running their way. Ro bit his lip and Roger made his departure then, his soul shooting up.

Conner was moving before he could talk himself out of it. He felt it, that tug reeling him up and up like a trout on a hook. It terrified him more than anything had, because he knew, he knew that if he went too far, he’d never be able to come back to Ro.

Roger’s soul wobbled and wasn’t as fast as Alma’s, but it was still zooming right on up. Conner forced himself to keep going, up and up until he was past the trees and could only faintly hear Ro’s shouts, calling his name.

God help me. He can’t lose both of us. But Conner couldn’t turn back, not when he could almost touch that gray-bright blob. “Roger, damn it! Don’t make Ro lose us both! Don’t be a coward and give up now!”

Conner went up further still, until there was nothing but that bright blue sky around him and Roger. He felt his form waver, as if he were changing. No, no, no, no! Not now, not now, please, God, if You’re there, please don’t take me now!

He began to fold in on himself, or perhaps he was turning inside out, Conner didn’t know. He screamed in fury and fear and lunged up, his fingers brushing Roger’s soul. The touch was like a shock, hurting him, but Conner didn’t stop. “You can’t have me yet!” he bellowed to whoever would listen. “And Roger, stop being a selfish ass!”

Whether it was luck or Roger finally listening to him, Conner didn’t know, but suddenly he and Roger both were plummeting down at a startling speed. Even already dead, Conner was scared shitless. He screamed the entire way down, Roger’s soul making an odd whistling noise as it accompanied him.

Conner fully expected pain when he hit the ground, but instead he stopped suddenly, lying right beside Roger’s body. He heard Ro’s yell but was amazed by the sight of Roger’s soul slamming back into him. Roger’s body went from a gray, lifeless thing to a living, breathing—well, coughing and gasping—man again.

Ro tackled Conner and they were gone, back into their meadow.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again!” Ro screamed at him. “I can’t lose you, Conner. Not you!”

Conner felt like his insides had been taken apart, tossed in a blender, and turned on purée before being poured back into him. And he didn’t even have insides, as far as he knew!

“Dad… Losing him would be horrible, but he’s older, and he wants to be with Mom,” Ro was babbling, waving one arm all over while clutching Conner with his other hand. “But you, Jesus Christ, Con, that would kill me all over again. I tried to follow you, but you were just gone and I couldn’t catch up no matter how fast I went. I saw it, you started to glow.” Ro’s eyes were huge, his complexion pale as he talked. “It started at your chest, then you kind of, it was like you started to shrink, and turn the same color as the sky. I’ll hate that color forever, and longer than that! What was that, Conner?”

Conner rubbed his chest, fearful he’d feel that tug again, but he didn’t. He looked into Ro’s eyes and felt a peace different from any he’d had before. He didn’t know what that place was, but he wasn’t afraid of it, not anymore.

“I think it’s the next level, what comes after this, when we’re ready for it.” Conner looked up into the bright sky for the first time in a while without the dark edges of fear peeking at him. “I think that maybe we can stay here if we’re needed, or we can go on up there and get another chance. Maybe watch over our loved ones in a different way, as a new soul on Earth. I don’t know for sure, but this is true.” He turned his focus back to Ro, loving everything about the man. “I won’t go without you, and I won’t ever have to. Whatever happens next happens for us together. If that means we’re born again and start life all over, I’ll find you, and I’ll love you until we die then, and it’ll be that way, always.”

And it would be, Conner swore, as he took Ro into his arms. There were some truths that were indisputable, and the fact