Andrew takes my hand and in the blink of an eye, we are standing next to my body in the emergency room. The room is crowded with nurses and doctors doing everything to save me. They are shouting a blood order for me, with as pale as I look, I don't think blood is going to help.
I turn towards the hallway just as Ben is being wheeled into the room next to me. Without looking back to Andrew or my body, I follow the staff into Ben's room. His shirt has been completely removed, they are turning his muscular body to find out if the bullet has exited his body.
The doctors start shouting instructions around the room. While I watch, I move to his head and whisper into his ear to fight. I want him to fight for me.
Alarms start ringing next door, my room. I look up and see a bunch of faceless bodies coming for me. It is beyond freighting. What the hell are these things?
Andrew runs into the room and looks at me with wide eyes. "ALLYSON, YOU HAVE TO FIGHT. FIGHT THEM OFF." He screams at me.
"What?" I whip my head towards him.
"You have to fight them off. These bodies are your internal fight to live or die. If you beat them, you live. If they beat you..."
"I die." I interrupt him.
Looking down at my dress and shoes, I don't have time to worry about being a lady. If fighting these bodies is my way to live then I was going to do it.
I grab the closet body around the neck area and flip it to its back, it vanishes into the floor. I stand and kick the next one as hard as I could, then I punch it hard in the center of the chest area.
The body and I move through the living bodies in the room and it's a very creepy feeling. After a couple more punches and kicks it vanishes.
Breathing heavy, I turn to the last faceless body and it's hand comes around my neck. I can't breathe, it's squeezing me too tight. I charge at it, we fly through the wall into my room. I see people frantically trying to save me.
My heart monitor is decreasing rapidly.
I reach for my heel, slip it off, and lunge it into the back of this freaking thing. "NOT TODAY." I yell as I hit it again.
The pressure on my throat gives and I take a deep breath.
The figure is gone.
My body collapses to the floor. All my energy and fight is gone. I'm tired and weak.
Andrew appears next to me on the floor. The alarms have stopped, and my heart rate is slowly climbing to normal.
I'm still alive.
"I had to wear out heels tonight." I mutter with a half laugh to Andrew.
"Seems to have worked out with the last body." He laughs and grabs my hand.
The two of us walk back to Ben's room, I see him standing next to his bed, looking down at himself with questions. He looks up when he hears motion at the door, he smiles when he sees me. I hurry to his waiting arms.
The feeling is incredible and strong. I don't want him to let go of me.
"Are we dead?"
"Not yet."
Andrew clears his throat behind us, I open my eyes to glare at him. I just wanted a couple minutes with Ben, but that was ruined by this stranger.
"I'm Andrew, your guide." He introduces himself to Ben. "Like Allyson told you, you aren't dead – you are stuck in the middle of life and death."
I feel one of Ben's heavy arms leave my back to shake Andrew's extended hand. Again, I listen while he explains this strange world we are stuck in.
"You can move anywhere in New York, you just need to think about it and you're there. Or, if you want to kill time, you can walk too. I didn't tell Allyson earlier, but you can change into different clothing too."
I look up at my boyfriend, "but if faceless bodies show up, you have to fight them. I just did, and I'm going to brag forever about how awesome I was."
"She did." Andrew agrees.
Our guide explains for Ben, that the freaky bodies are the path to life and death. He brings us to a small waiting room and find it filled with our loved ones.
"How? We just came in?" I ask.
"Actually, you've been here for hours. Time moves different on this side."
Ben wraps me tight in his arms, he can feel their emotions for the first time. We forgot to mention that. I put my head back into his chest. "We can feel everything the living are going through...it sucked while watching you hold my body." I frown at him.
He gives me a quick kiss.
"Oh wow." He looks at me with big eyes.
"That's how much I love you."
"Can this come back with us?" Ben asks Andrew, he ignores us.
Ben and I look at our families. Megan and Peter are sitting on one couch, towards the back of the small room, he is holding her while she sobs. I hear her mumbling something about how she should be in the hospital too, but I was the reason she was still alive.
"So we have to watch as our family and friends grieve for us. We have to feel their pain?" I ask angry.
My body is shaking with Megan's pain. I didn't want her to be sad for staying alive – that was what I wanted the whole time.
Andrew turns to look at me. "Where else were you planning on going?"
"This is awful." Ben finally speaks.
I pull away from Ben's tight grip and move to the table in front of Megan. I try to grab her hands, but mine go right through here. I want her to feel better, to be happy to be alive.
"Why did you jump in front of me?" Ben sounds angry behind me.
Turning to look at him, his face is tight with anger. "Was I supposed to stand back and watch you die before my eyes?"
He nods. "Yes. If that was the plan then you should have."
"And...you would have done that? Watched me get shot?"
"ALLY, YOU'D STILL BE ALIVE." He shouts.
Biting my bottom lip, I shake my head at him. I stand from the table and walk back over to him. Ben is shaking with rage, I touch his face for comfort.
"No. I wouldn't be alive. Allen wasn't going to stop until the both of us were dead. He told me. His plan was to take me from you, make you suffer. You know that is true, neither of us stood a chance of walking out of that bar."
"I had it under control." He argues.
"Did you? That's why the both of us are standing here? Ben, no matter how much planning you did...it was only going to end this way." I tell him with a shaky voice.
"She is right." Andrew chimes in. "The both of you have been fighting this fight for centuries."
"WHAT?" We both turn to him.
YOU ARE READING
Heartlines
Romance*** Complete Story *** Allyson Sicard was in her final year at Harvard and while her roommates were trying to get their Ivy League boyfriends to propose, Ally was trying to figure out which law school she wanted to graduate from. Columbia had always...
