Judy Hale's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Judy walks through streets that glow like neon signs, looking for a girl who died thirty years before she did. The afterlife looks nothing like she expected — all sharp angles and bright colors instead of clouds or darkness. She doesn't know where to start. She turns a corner onto a street marked by a glowing sign that reads ANUBIS ST. The letters burn warm against the dark buildings. A thin black lion sits beneath it, ribs showing through patchy fur. Orange and pink light pulses under its skin like a heartbeat. It watches her with eyes that shouldn't be able to see anything at all. The lion stands when Judy stops walking. It crosses the cracked pavement and presses its shoulder against her leg, warm and solid despite looking half-starved. She touches its mane and feels the static buzz of neon. The creature turns and walks three steps toward a cluster of glowing sunflowers growing through broken concrete. It sits beside them and looks back at her. Judy kneels by the flowers. Their petals are too bright, edges traced in colors that don't belong in nature. The lion nudges one stem with its nose and a single bloom falls into her hands. She stares at the sunflower — Rayne's favorite — and knows with absolute certainty that someone left this here for her to find. The lion rubs its head against her arm like it's been waiting a long time to bring her this far. She doesn't know who sent it, but she's not walking blind anymore.