When Writers Bleed On Paper

I Cheated Death And He Wants A Divorce

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Characters: Jack Harkness x Ianto Jones

Setting: After Life

Romantic: Yes

Story Type: Angst/Fluff

Inspired by: Arms tonight (Mother Mother)

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"A thousand years' time... you won't remember me..."

He couldn't hear what Jack responded. There was a high-pitched beep in his ears as his vision started to go dark around the edges, and then it was pitch black.

Ianto felt like he was falling into an endless hole, he wanted to scream, wanted to move, he wanted to do anything, but all he could do was wait for the fall to end. And god, he waited a long time for it to end. It almost felt like an eternity, his vision kept shifting from pitch black nothingness back to a blurry view of Jack leaning over his body. He saw tears falling onto his face and waited for the cool water to run down his face or the salty taste on his lips, but neither of those things happened.

It was an unexpected and sharp pain that floated his body, the numbness he had felt during his fall was all gone and replaced with a burning sensation in his lungs. It felt like his lungs were filled up with petrol that burned its way up his throat until Ianto felt like he would choke on his own air. He tried desperately to breath in oxygen to calm the terror in his lungs, but every rapid breath he took only seemed to feed the flames and made them burn hotter until it felt like his body was going to burst into flames, and then it all stopped.

The pain was gone as quickly as it came and finally Ianto opened his eyes that he had kept squeezed painfully shut, but instead of being met with Jacks face or even bright hospital light his eyes were met with nothing but darkness that seemed to stretch endlessly in any direction he looked. Ianto tried again to take in a deep breath, however just like the times before he just choked on his attempt and caught at the sting in his lungs.

As Ianto tried to stand up, he felt every muscle in his body ache like he stood up for the first time in years. His vision started to spin as his feet tried to hold the weight of his body that was swinging like he was drunk. When his eyes finally focused on the sheer nothing in front of him, Ianto slowly stretched out his arm to see if there was really nothing or if he was just locked in a tiny dark room but when he reached into emptiness, he felt his heart sink. Not even the ground he was standing on felt solid as if he was still supposed to fall. As if to test his theory that he had just fallen onto some kind of platform Ianto took a careful step forwards. He felt his feet shake when the tip of his shoe made contact with the non-existing ground, he sat down the rest of his shoe and almost fell over as his knee threatened to buckle under his weight. He wanted to feel relieved by having solid ground under him, but the dreading thought of him being actually dead kept him from relaxing.

Abruptly, the stabbing pain in his lungs started again and Ianto fell to his knees, clutching his arms around his chest. His vision going blurry as tears spilled out of his tightly shut eyes as he screamed in agony. If even possible the pain was worst then before letting him see white behind his eyelids. When the torture ended, it immediately left a throbbing pain behind Ianto's temples. His first instinct when Ianto was able to think straight again was to curl in on himself, just like he used to do when he was still a child. It had helped him back then to escape the world around him, so who said it wouldn't help now. Ianto pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapped his arms around them and tightened his grip around his calves as he laid his forehead onto his knees. He rocked his own body back and forth in hope to calm his mind.

If this was indeed afterlife, then it was nothing like Ianto had pictured it. He had never believed in heaven and hell, or god forbid, purgatory but still he had always hoped there was more to it than endless darkness. Jack had always said there was nothing and still Ianto had hoped he was just being dramatic, yet here he was surrounded by endless darkness. The silent was deafening and Ianto had already lost tract of time, it made him nervous, his hand started to shake when he saw his clock had stopped the exact time he had presumably died. Who was Ianto without his perfect time management. Maybe he had been sitting here for five minutes, maybe it has already been five hours or five days, he couldn't tell. It didn't matter either way, he was dead.