The Afterlife Story

There was a place – called the Afterlife by some, Underworld, Netherworld, Realm of the Dead by others – and Dinah imagined that was where she had gone. The Afterlife a cold and barren Other World that could not be reached by the living. That is how she felt – cold and barren. She must be dead. Fitting that the Kaw brought her here considering all the crossing over water to the place of the dead myths there were Before.
Gradually she grew warmer and the air snapped and crackled near her. She opened her eyes. The first thing she saw were jagged glass teeth that lined the windows where panes once rested. Beneath the window a rusted steam heater sat. Oddly she did not think there should be windows or steam heaters in the Afterlife.
Dinah turned
her head toward the warmth. The fire next to her blazed too meager for Hellfire. And the man who sat next to the flames seemed too alive to be dead. He did seem god-like with his dark looks though she imagined it only through the haze of one who has been unconscious a very long time. Gray-streaked hair and beard hid his features. He wore no shirt and his massive chest still looked firm beneath the hair speckled black and gray across it. Firm in the way of man who knows heavy labor.
Her head pounded. She brought a hand up to her face and the cloth that covered her body fell away leaving her bare. The man's hand reached to place it back and she flinched.