The bell tolls once for each year she's lived, and with each peal Agnes' spirit rises. But when the bell ringer stops at sixty-five, the almost #angel floats downward. "I shouldn't have lied about my age," Agnes mutters. #vss365

Cluny's only hat was a cloche and she wore strand earrings every day. When her baby brother clutched at the golden threads, Cluny bobbed her head up and down, and sang ding dong. She had a bell ringer's #aesthetic. #vss365

The bell is a #pachyderm, its trailing rope a proboscis, a shadow its ear. But the darkness lingers after Cluny turns on the light. Not a shadow, but a shade: Agnes the deflated spirit waiting for five more tolls to send her to heaven. #vss365

They stare at each other. Agnes speaks, but her words are #orphans; Cluny can't hear them. She gestures, but all Cluny sees are spiderweb threads drifting through the air. #vss365

What Agnes lacks in intelligibility, she makes up for with #charisma. Cluny's eyes follow the lost soul as she descends. The cold tap of Agnes' finger on her face feels like a drop of water. Cluny looks up to check for a leak, but all she sees is the bell. #vss365

The touch repeats four more times. The drops turn into an #ocean. Cluny doesn't know the why, but she knows the what. She releases the bell and lets it toll. Agnes has no breath to hold, but she clasps her essence closer together, revealing her form at last. #vss365

The bell's clapper is a #sycophant. It runs to and from the lip like a gossip spreading tales. It loves to stir up trouble. Chloe stops after five pulls, but it makes one last journey. The sixth peal mewls like a new born kitten. #vss365

The #chronicle of Agnes’s ascent to heaven ends abruptly when a toll too many strikes her in mid-flight. Stunned, she hurtles earthward. #vss365

Agnes lands on the bell tower with a thump: her corporealness is an #anathema. She moans, one hand clutching the spire, and the other exploring her unfamiliar limbs. Attracted by the noise, Cluny looks out the window. "Does this body make me look fat?" Agnes asks. #vss365

"No," Cluny says, tossing a rope. Agnes ties it around her waist and creeps down the side of the steeple. When she slips, she dangles in the air, squealing, swaying back and forth like the clapper that brought her back to life. "A #pandemic of bell imagery," she sighs. #vss365

Cluny hauls Agnes into the bell tower. She lands on the floor in a heap. #Ostracized from her hopes of heaven, she ponders what to do next. "Is there any way to ring a bell backwards?" she asks hopefully.
#vss365

With a bell ringer's #empathy, Cluny recognizes Agnes inside the unfamiliar body. "That extra toll brought you back to life? No way to reverse it, but we'll have another chance to get it right when you're buried."
"I always wanted to go to my own funeral," Agnes says. #vss365

Agnes' new body is too tight in some places and too loose in others. She's afraid to look into a mirror-the #schism between how she sees herself and how others see her has never been greater. But if she wants to go to her funeral, she needs to know who she's wearing. #vss365

Her face is a #poem, each feature a syllable.
Her fingers count each one, from forehead to chin. "A haiku," Agnes says. #vss365

Cluny waits, wondering. Could the ring of a bell bring back the dodo? Or the #dinosaurs? Would they want to come back to the world as it is now? Agnes looks completely lost, and she's just been dead a day. #vss365

Agnes is disappointed and relieved her body's previous occupant is a stranger: "Feels like I have bats in my belfry."
"Shh! You'll wake them!" Cluny points up.
A #galaxy of dust motes swirls between walls dotted with brown furred bodies tucked tight their wing blankets. #vss365

When Agnes starts screaming, Cluny invites her home so the bats can get some rest.
"Wonderful! I need to make a dish to bring to the funeral. Maybe ambrosia salad?"
Cluny makes a face.
"It's the #nectar of the gods!"
"Hades, maybe," Cluny mutters. #vss365

While Agnes makes Jello, Cluny surfs the net. She ignores the entries on #exorcism. "Agnes may be possessing someone else's body, but she's not evil...Death bell, also known as lych bell. That sounds promising..." #vss365

Agnes' loaner body is handy in the kitchen. The unmolding of the ambrosia salad goes flawlessly, but Cluny refuses to come see it.
"You don't have to eat it!"
"It's not that, I have a marshamallow #phobia."
"Really?"
"A traumatic smores related incident at summer camp" #vss365

"The Lych bell will send me to heaven?" Agnes sighed.
"I hope so, unless you've changed your mind?"
"Of course not. Heaven or bust! But being in a body makes me #nostalgic for my own. I wonder what mine is doing right now?"
In a coffin, a corpse screams. #vss365

#vss365

Elaine had never imagined a lag between heart stoppage and heaven. That was for unhappy spirits or those with unfinished business. She saw #iridescence in every oil puddle and each glass as half full. "Oh no! The marshmallows!" She banged on the coffin. "Let me out!" #vss365

Horror movies were clear on the consequences of solitary visits to basements, but offered no guidance on shouting coffins. If someone needed help, should it matter whether they were alive or dead? Cluny had a #hero's spirit. She opened the casket. #vss365

Cluny had fled Agnes and her ambrosia salad to find a quiet spot in her family's funeral parlor to finish her term #paper. The reanimated corpse's words sent a chill down her spine- she couldn't get away from marshmallows wherever she went. #vss365

"It's a birthday present. Promise me you give it to her. Then I can rest in peace."
Elaine the undead's #agape battled with Cluny's fear. Love won.
"I will."
#vss365

The marshmallow's stare triggered a wave of panic. It started in Cluny's toes and swept upward. She began to count, imagined numbers dancing to a waltz, forming equations she solved in her head. #Math always soothed her. #vss365

Cluny walks in a self-induced trance, counting each footstep, being sure to end on an odd #number. She places the sacrifice on the altar. A raccoon goddess ascends the stump and slays it with her teeth. The marshmallow, diminished by each bite, erodes to nothingness. #vss365

Finding the safest place to stow Agnes overnight requires a complex #calculus: Cluny's parents have predictable migratory patterns, but her baby brother has an erratic orbit. The attic is the solution. Agnes rummages happily through cast off toys and clothing. #vss365

Cluny stares anxiously at the poker face of the tracking history on her lych bell purchase. It claims her package is in transit and expected to arrive on time, but it's still several states away. If it's delayed by an #epsilon, it will be too late. #vss365

Cluny studies the lych bell #theorem, pondering how to change the spirit expulsion polarity from evil to good, and falls asleep to the chimes of midnight. She dreams of formula covered blackboards and a marshmallow eraser that changes all the plus signs to minuses. #vss365

Agnes dithers from one outfit to another. There's no #logic to her selections. A cheerleader's uniform lies next to a tuxedo. A pirate costume snuggles with a fringed flapper dress. The funeral will be her last outing in her borrowed body, and she wants to go out in style. #vss365

The no contact delivery person is gone before the buzzer fades, the package left on the doorstep is a single footprint. In a Schrodinger moment, Cluny imagines a bell swinging in and out of existence inside the box. Today Agnes will become a spirit #iff she loses her body. #vss365

Cluny learns the lych bell, reading its engravings like braille, while Agnes creates a #topology of heaven, dolloping whipped cream on top of her Ambrosia salad. #vss365 *

*Re-posting because forgot to make it part of the thread...

It's time for the funeral. Unable to choose between her #manifold wardrobe options, Agnes wears them all. A cummerbund belts flapper dress. She drapes the cheerleader sweater over her shoulders and ties the pirate bandana around her neck. "Ready to ascend!" she cries. #vss365

The ambrosia salad looks regal amid the other funeral reception dishes. She wishes she could wear it as a crown. If all goes well, she won't get a chance to taste it. She almost sneaks a bite when a #torus shape catches her eye. Grabbing a donut, she rearranges the plate. #vss365