* * * * * * *

~Limbo~

Any other day, he would have taken it immediately as the invitation he knew it was.

But not today.

Not today.

Sometimes, he wondered if she knew.

Knew how lonely he was.

Knew how badly he wanted someone who could understand long hours, late dinners and missed PTA meetings.

Sam could.

It was that simple.

Which of course made it infinitely complicated.

With Sam there were never fights about priorities.

Never arguments about whether a life saved cancelled out a birthday missed.

With Sam there was no equivocating.

Lives before Life.

Their's before yours.

And no judgment was passed.

But away from the cut and dried world of Missing Persons, it was different.

This was a world where saving someone else's child did not redeem you from missing your own's school concert.

Where helping a frantic husband find his wife did not bring you any closer to yours.

He was caught between two worlds.

One was full of tradition and stability.

The other was dangerous and exciting.

She was the girl next door, the high school sweetheart.

Sam was the forbidden fruit.

He couldn't choose between them.

They were both perfect.

He was the one flawed.

Wanting both.

Having neither.

It was killing him.

He could see it was killing Sam too.

For all he knew, it was even killing her.

It was his fault.

There was so much he should have done but hadn't.

So much he had done and shouldn't have.

Not all the dead go to Heaven, Hell or Purgatory.

There was a fourth destination.

A place for unbaptized children.

Where the innocents awaited the end of Time.

Nowadays, the term implied a beach, and sand, and a bamboo pole. . . like him, everything but innocent.

But originally, it had meant Nothing.

Limbo.

The waiting place.

Where the lost souls drift.

Denied the pleasures of Heaven, the ability to wait in Purgatory, even the agonies of Hell.

Unfeeling

Uncaring

For Eternity

He wondered how he had been the one to end up in Limbo.

He had helped families from Hell to Heaven.

Seen them taken from Heaven to Hell

Tonight he had sent a couple to wait in Purgatory, to try and pick up the pieces.

But he had never seen another in Limbo.

He stood now on the sidewalk, and looked up at the familiar house.

His oft used keys were in his hand, but he felt he owed her the courtesy of knocking first.

It took her all of two seconds to open the door.

She knew.

She always did.

That why she let him and no one else call her Sam.

It wasn't Heaven.

It wasn't Hell.

It was Limbo.

And all he could do was wait for Judgment Day.