The Drazen World: Purgatory (Kindle Worlds Novella)

Table of Contents
Purgatory
Prologue
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~ Hunter
Chapter 17~ Gabby
Epilogue ~ Gabby
THE END
Author's Note


Text copyright ©2017 by the Author.
This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Flip City Media Inc.. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original The Drazen World remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Flip City Media Inc., or their affiliates or licensors.
For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds


copyright ©2017 by Eva LeNoir.
All characters, scenes, events, plots and  related elements appearing in the original works comprising the Drazen World remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Flip City Media, Inc., or their affiliates or licensees.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Purgatory
by
Eva LeNoir
To Christine Reiss aka #BookCrackGoddess.
You broke my heart when you killed Gabby. So, I brought her back to life.
Thank you for creating her.
Prologue
Tonight, I walked off the end of the Santa Monica pier.
I purposefully placed myself in a situation that created a devastating ripple effect, affecting the lives of many and yet, too few for my liking. I know I'm no longer alive, but somehow, I don't feel as though I'm dead. I’m in the middle of the nowhere-in-particular. In the eye of the hurricane or the crater of a dormant volcano. It's quiet, but I know deep down in my gut that the turmoil is just around the bend. This limbo is the story of my life and the reason for my death. I'm always just out of reach of happiness, of fulfillment, but at the same time not completely in the depths of Hell.
I had wanted it all to end, but...nothing had truly begun.
I had wanted to be happy, but...my mind would never allow it.
I had wanted to dive into the darkness, but...I was too afraid of succeeding.
I had wanted to live but...life was just a series of disappointments that I could no longer endure.
So, I created a circumstance where, ultimately, the decision was not my own. The consequences not mine to bear. The guilt...oh the fucking guilt, was not mine to carry.
I stopped my medication, I drank and then I walked off the end of the pier.
But like the story of my life, the epilogue is just as fucked up.
My name is Gabby and I'm in Purgatory. Unfortunately, this is not a euphemism. This is the story of my death and then some.
Chapter 1
"Do you understand, Gabby, why you are here?"
It was the third time the old man had asked me that question. All I heard was blah blah fucking blah. I was too distracted by my surroundings to focus on details of conversation. The fact that he creepily resembled a cross between Santa Claus and God himself, was mildly destabilizing but that wasn't the worst of it all. No, what kept my mind wandering to anything except his words was the decor.
We were sitting in an office of sorts. The walls were bookshelves without a single book inside. It reminded me of an old piano I had once seen, the black and white keys had been removed so they could be restored to their original beauty. I remembered thinking that a soundless instrument was an abomination. These bookshelves were much the same.
The sadness slithered from my chest and radiated out toward my extremities until even my fingers and toes were bathed in a painless agony. Somehow, I had convinced myself that dying would be the sole cure for my ailment. The magic pill against the darkness that controlled my every move, thought and opinion. I ardently believed crossing over to ‘the other side’ would lead to a brightly lit tunnel with angelic music guiding my way into immediate happiness. Just one more fuck-up on my long, inexhaustible list of them.
"Gabby?" Oh, him again.
"Yes."
"Yes, you understand?"
"Why is everything charcoal gray?" I needed answers before I could continue, longed for the familiarity of knowledge
"Why do you think it's charcoal gray, Gabby?" His even, calm voice never fluctuated. The pitch annoyingly stable and yet not necessarily monotone. How did he do that? It was painful to my musical ear. My mind was spinning in ten different directions, trying to understand how the sound coming from his mouth could have no variations. By definition, sounds had their own pitch, their own scales. This was insanely unnatural.
"Why are the bookshelves empty? It's a waste of space." And immeasurably sad.
"Why do you think the bookshelves are empty, Gabby?" Jesus All-Fucking-Mighty.
"Are you fucking kidding me right now? I didn't die just so I could be analyzed by some after life ‘death shrink’. Trust me, I've had my share of the living kind. I don't fucking know why the room is completely gray. I don't know why the bookshelves are devoid of books. I don't know why your desk is completely bare. Why are you sitting there looking like you just stepped out of the freaking Bible and yet wearing a three-piece suit that looks like it cost more money than all the Kardashian's asses put together? Who are you? Are you God?"
I watched the man throughout my tirade. Not a flinch, not a frown, not a single reaction. At that moment, I wished I had my laptop so I could do a thorough web search for his man. Find out everything about him. Cross-reference him with all the Biblical characters I'd heard of throughout my life. But then, I supposed there wasn't a Purgatoryclassified.com for me to actually get these deets.
He sat back on his office chair, his mouth in an honest smile, his eyes never leaving mine. "No, Gabby. I'm not God. I'm his personal assistant."
It took me a second, but then