poison ivy - the boys

epilogue

Ben ran two miles in two minutes. He ran through the scorched red Earth. He saw two blackened and burned bodies that looked like they'd fall to ashes if they were even touched.

And then he saw Jane, lying there, perfectly still. Blood coated her face as it ran down from her nose and from her ears. He fell to his knees next to her and held her face delicately.

"Jane, Jane," he kept calling out her name, trying to get her to wake up.

He felt for her pulse but he didn't feel one. He started to cry as he leaned down to listen for a heartbeat but he couldn't hear one either.

                "You don't get to die on me," he cried as he started to do chest compressions.

               He would listen for a heartbeat after every few compressions but there still was none. But he kept at it and he might have even broke a few ribs before he cried out, "Come on!"

                "Please," he begged as his lips trembled and he listened once more; this time, he could hear a faint beat. But it was so, so slow.

                "Stay alive. Please, stay alive for me, angel," he picked her up immediately and started to carry her out of the woods to take her to a hospital. But they weren't truly out of the woods.

ONE MONTH LATER

             Her broken bones were mended and her heart still beat. But she was in a coma. There was faint brain activity and the doctors didn't know if she would wake up.

              Ben didn't know what to do and he couldn't watch her like that. It was partly his fault; her heart was only beating because he made it so.

                 But he thought that if their forever was waiting then she'd wake up. So he worked on the house like crazy; he put all his focus into it and not on the girl that might not wake up.

                   He worked day and night. Day and night. All alone. But it kept his hope alive. Every single nail he hammered in, he was working towards the hope that she'd wake up just to see the house she'd always wanted.

                  And he finished it.

               Then he stood in the hallway of everything she wanted and his chest ached so badly like it was filled with a black hole as tears fell down his face. And he finally started to weep.

              He weeped for the smiles and laughter that weren't there. He weeped for everything that made it home. But it was just an empty house without her and nothing had ever made him cry so hard.

               Love hurt as he knew all too well but it had never hurt with her...until now. He wanted to curse her for making him love her but he could never curse the best thing he ever had.

                  Then he went to her hospital room and he sat there next to her. He grabbed her hand gently.

                       "It's done," he confessed as he pleaded. "You can come home now."

                  But she stayed silent and unmoving. He clutched her hand more tightly as he brought it to his lips. He kissed the back of it as tears fell down his face, "I love you."

               Then he sat back in his chair as he put his head in his hands. He cried as he accepted the truth: she was never waking up.

ONE YEAR LATER