Heaven’s Tales: Leila’s Story

Walking through the gates of heaven, where my grandmother and passed on family resides, I feel somewhat uneasy. Heaven is a place where those who have passed on and have earned the right to live there for eternity reside, but it is also for those spirits who have not had a chance to live on earth yet. The descendants of the living, watching and waiting for their chance to finally be with their family that they will come to know in their living life. Of course, when they finally get that life they will never remember anything about living in heaven with my grandmother, the goddess of heaven herself. If I am really related to the goddess, I honestly don’t know. But all who live in this world refer to the goddess as our grandmother. Those who visit this world and eventually stay, do the same.

Only a few have a chance to go to heaven while they are still living, and it is only if they have a strong role to participate in, and if fate so desires it. Those who come while they are still living, only get one visit, one day, to become fully healed in the fount of restoration and to meet with those they have missed. Afterward, the only way to return to heaven is if that person passes into the afterlife. Those who are descendants, their form in heaven depends on what moment would be the most important of their lives when they have to make a choice to seal their fate.

The clouds around me, so crisp and white, gives an air of grace, yet a feeling of comfort as well. Slowly yet surely, I begin to remember memories of my time here, 20 years ago, I stood here before my birth in the body of a ten year old girl, since that is when my fate was sealed and when I had to make my biggest choice: fight for my life to escape hell, give into my temptation to free myself from his bonds the only way I knew how, or let myself become the emotionless puppet he desired, and be trapped there for eternity, with him. If I hadn’t been captured by him, I would have possibly been here in heaven for all these years or been resurrected if my death was unjust, which it was. I close my eyes as I am walking, letting my body guide me to the palace of heaven, and as I remember those memories of before I was born.

“Grandmother, what's out there?” I say looking out the window at the world below me, my eyes looking at the land and people that I have never seen before. My grandmother is silent, only looking at me with care and compassion as if she's wondering if she should tell me the truth about what I want to know.

“Out there is a land where you will eventually reside. After you leave this home of heaven and join your true family, Leila.” My grandmother replies looking down at me as I look at the window with curiosity. A small hand eventually envelops around mine and I know exactly who it is, my little sister Morgan only 4 years old.

“Whose family are we?” My little sister asks, the curiosity in her eyes matching mine her voice matching the quiet tone of my own.

“We are the last three children of the first generation of the Keegan family,” someone says, walking towards us, and I completely recognize the voice.

“Leon!” I yell to my twin brother, who walks over to our side.

“How did you know that?” Morgan says to him as she runs over and he picks her up.

“Well, I asked grandmother for information about our family earlier since it'll be our time soon to join them. She told me that our siblings and us are the first generation after our family joined together” he says looking at me. The news doesn’t really shock me, I’ve had that feeling for a long time. The only thing I'm worried about is leaving Morgan alone here without us.

“Don’t worry Leila, Morgan will not be lonely here in heaven with you and Leon being gone.” Grandmother replies as if she knew exactly what I was thinking. I nod in response, somewhat relieved of the fact that she will be okay. Something catches my eye as I am watching the family, someone outside the door whom I have never seen before, casting a spell with blood-red symbols.

“A reality-alteration spell” I find myself saying, as I watch what the man is doing.

“Dorian Luciano, from the mafia? What does he have to do with our family?”

“That’s not what we should be asking, what we should be asking is: What is he doing there?” I reply sharply, getting the urge of rising fear inside of me.

This man is bad news, I’m sure of it. Even if he wasn’t mafia, the demeanor he gives off is one of evil and malice. Suddenly, outside of the house, a portal opens up to another world. Our father stands outside the home to protect our mother and siblings yet for some reason he seems to be injured. He is somehow forced into the portal by something that only I could see, but can’t describe, and the portal closes behind him. Dorian then heads inside the house, walking straight up to our mother who has our siblings hidden behind her. The red symbols of the spell are surrounding Dorian as he walks up to her, and they enter her heart, making her pass out. The same happens to all of our older siblings and each of them pass out except for one. The girl with brown hair and royal blue eyes, her eyes suddenly turn red as she stands up and yells at Dorian.

“You are not my father! And you never will be! You are a murderer and a liar!” she yells, making Dorian’s face contort with anger as he lashes out at the girl with the daggers on his side, her stomach heavily bleeding as she passes out.

The four of us are silent as we watch what happened to our family, not knowing what to say or do. Morgan suddenly starts crying in Leon’s arms and he hugs her tightly, trying to comfort her. The only thing I am thinking in my mind is why, why would someone be so evil as to do this to a family that was happy. At that moment, I silently make a vow, to defeat Dorian and to save my siblings when I enter that world. Even if I don’t remember my time here in heaven, I will work together with Leon and that sister who stood against Dorian and wasn’t affected by his spell to defeat him.

I open my eyes again as the memory finally finishes, my breathing slow and steady as I finally make it up the stairs to the doors of heaven. My life completely mirrors that of my mother’s, which in a way annoys me. I disregarded Lyra as my birth name because I wanted to be my own person, not the daughter of Lyra that is the inheritor of her powers. But I cannot deny the similarities between our lives.

Dorian for her was a man she never trusted, he was the older brother of a girl she was close to. He asked her to marry him and she rejected, her life suddenly becoming a nightmare. For me, it was Scar instead of Dorian. Scar was the evil side of my friend Jacob, who has no recollection of what he has done since they were separated at birth. He was the “older brother” of my friend Silver and wanted to be my husband in the future. I firmly rejected that fact and with Dorian’s help, he murdered me.

Shaking my head at the memory of when I was “alive”, I open the doors to heaven and enter the main hall. I am finally back. Back to the place where I was once from, to make my one visit to heaven count the most. And to finally become the seraphim I was meant to be, the right that Dorian took away from me.