An Anthology of Blacks and Reds (One-shots)

Fight It

Breathe in. Breathe out. Work, lungs. Work.

"Come on, Tori. You can make it." The voice called out to me, wavering yet firm. I am moving, I can feel it. Are those wheels I hear? Where am I? The darkness, it's so calm and welcoming. But I need to stay here with that voice. I can make it.

I need to rest, first. My body demands sleep. Just a little bit, then.

"Tori, God damn it, you are NOT LEAVING ME! Not now, not ever! Breathe!"

The same voice is calling me, now frantic. It tugs at my heart, tugs even deeper to my very soul's core. Reality strikes me now.

I am dying.

I struggle to breathe, to open my heavy eyelids, to move and comfort the voice. I need to see him. Simple. Difficult. I push as hard as I can against this barrier keeping me away from him.

Then, all of a sudden, I am in the middle of a circular room, walls integrated with pieces of mirrors that are uneven, different at some areas, jagged even. Like my entire life. I've been living knowing who I am, what I want to do and yet, I can never do any of it fully. I'm just like this room. Confusing, jagged and cyclic: boring and flawed. I don't understand why I kept fighting.

I take time to look at myself, not through the mirrors but my own eyes. I'm wearing my favorite t-shirt which shows all my book fandoms from Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter to Percy Jackson to Divergent. I'm in my casual Bobson jeans and my favorite city-lined Skechers. I'm dressed fine. But my hands, they're shaking. I stare at my reflections, they stare back, some are emotionless, others are smiling while the rest look either grim or scared.  They point towards a door behind me and speak as one in voices with different tones,

"Go through it. Leave here."

Where is here exactly? Where does that door open to?

That's when it hit me. I am here, at the same time, somewhere else. I am not really here at all. I sweep a look at my reflections. I swear I just saw one of them smile creepily at me with a gleam in its eyes. I look away.

Where is the light coming from? I turn my head up and just see pure white. I feel my hand being squeezed but when I check on it, nothing is touching it.

Strange.

"Tori."

I can hear someone calling me from the light. It's faint. More like a subconscious whisper. I reach out to it but the floor is sinking, farther away from the light. The reflections are angry. The door appears right in front of me, bigger. It's bubbling with red goo that wasn't there before. The doorknob, rattling.

Get in. Get in and leave. Now. Open it.

The whispers in my head keep telling me, overlapping each other: violent and angry. No. I don't want to open it. I need to go back. The door is getting nearer to me. It's going to force me inside once I hit the wall.

"Tori! Fight it! Damn you! Come back! Tori, we need you." His voice. He's sobbing. Oh God. What do I do? I have to go back. I need to get out of here. Where? Where do I go now?

The room is a cylinder with one way out: Up. How do I get back up?

I hear faint muffling. I only make out, "1, 2, 3. Clear." Then a jolt rushes through me. "Again." The muffled voice says.
Behind that, I hear a sniff and a broken voice.

"Please, please, please. You can't leave me. Tori."

I snap. I can't take it anymore. I push the door back with all my might. It budged. I make my escape. I climb the jagged mirrors, scraping my knees and bloodied my hands. My angry reflections are fighting me. I climb up. Up. Up. Up. That's my goal.

"We have a heartbeat!" An unfamiliar voice shouts.

Mirrors and glass begin to fall. No! I have to make it. I'm almost there. Pieces slip from under my body. My footing lost. I am holding the edge of this cylinder with scratched, bloody hands. White light is dimming. More pieces rain down from these walls, slicing at me, hurting me.

Then, finally, I fall into the darkness.

No!!!!

What happens after death? Nobody really knows. I guess you just leave certain people behind, that's for sure. People you love, people who love you. If there are any. What happens when you're on the brink of death, when you're dying?  Most of us try to fight. That's what I did. And, boy, did I fight. Was I alone? It felt like it but I don't really think I was. I'm not sure. Can we ever come back?  Right now, I don't know. I'm separate, alone here in the darkness, waiting.

"Oh, thank God. Tori, can you hear me?"

That beautiful voice pierced through the dark blanket. It brought light with it. I'm lying down on a bed with steel railings and I see him.

Tears in his eyes, he leans over and kisses me and we both smile into it.
I made it. I'm here. He's here. We did it.