• “Hello?” Bree called out tentatively. The angel that had led her into the training academy and then through the swinging doors that led to this blackness was now gone. Maybe she hadn’t followed Bree through the door. Maybe she had disappeared. As far as Bree was concerned, anything was possible in this strange place the angel had called Heaven.
    All Bree was sure of was that the angel was now gone, that it was dark, and that she was scared. “Hello?” she called out again, a little of the fear leaking into her voice as alarm. She began to become frantic, searching the pitch blackness for any sign of anything. She couldn’t even see the door she had used to enter this infinite blackness. “Hello!”
    “Calm, young one.” The voice was the same one that had called her into the room, gruff and male. “All will soon be explained.”
    “Who are you?” Bree called out, circling, trying to find the source of the voice to face it. “Why am I here? What do you want from me? Am I in trouble?”
    “Slow down, young one.” It sounded as though a chuckle emitted from all around her in the pitch. “As I said before, all will soon be explained.”
    Bree took a deep breath and got into the state of mind she used for when her teacher was telling her something important. The voice from nowhere sighed and began to explain. “I believe Angelica already told you that you are in Heaven. That means that you are dead, obviously. Now, do you remember anything of your death? Anything at all?”
    “I... I was on the monkey bars at school.” Bree began, thinking back to her last moment on Earth. “I was playing with my friend Max. Mrs. Goldfish, that’s my kindergarten teacher, was calling us in for story time. I tried to get down and I think I missed the step or something. No, no, I remember. Max fell on me, and I hit my head really hard on the steps. Then... I remember... my head hurt, and there were lights everywhere. Then I just remember going to sleep and waking up in the meadow outside.”
    Bree tried to remember more, but that was all there was. “Hmm,” said the voice thoughtfully. “It sounds like your injury shouldn’t have killed you. Maybe my call has finally been answered.”
    “Wait, wait, hold on.” Bree paused for effect. “You killed me?” It wasn’t quite the word she was looking for, but her minute vocabulary didn’t include the one she needed.
    “It’s not really that I killed you, Bree.” Bree started slightly at the use of her name. She hadn’t said it, had she? “I just called out for more recruits, and here you are.”
    “Recruits for what?” Bree asked skeptically.
    “The war, Bree.” The voice was serious and somber. “Heaven is not the happy paradise everyone dreams of. It is constantly fighting for freedom, and at the moment, it is losing.”
    “So, you need me to help fight for the freedom of a place that I wouldn’t even live in if it wasn’t in so much trouble in the first place?” Bree asked, trying to wrap her little mind around the situation.
    “Yes, something like that.”
    “Okay, so just who are we fighting? The bad people on Earth? The monsters under the bed? Who?”
    “None of those, Bree,” the voice said. “We are fighting for our freedom from Hell.”