"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Aftermath
(The Battle Of Starcourt, Pt. 9)
***
"What do you mean you think you did?" Lucas demanded as Alistair sat up, a hand over his wound—a wound now fully healed. "Al?"
"I mean... I did die," Alistair said, forcing the words out, sticking like the last remnants of blood in his throat and mouth. "I... I was dead."
Shock fell like a bomb as everyone stared at him.
"Uh, are we sure? Because last time I checked, dead people don't wake up and move around," Robin said, her voice growing a octave higher.
"Apparently they do if they're me," Alistair muttered, wiping the blood off his mouth and getting to his feet. He wobbled as something sloshed inside his chest, and Cami and Will were instantly there, supporting him. He sent them a grateful smile.
"Yeah, but maybe you went unconscious or—"
"There was a fucking hole in his chest, Robs. And... and I couldn't feel his heartbeat," Rowan interrupted, still staring at Alistair, but standing close to him, almost protectively.
"What happened, Al?" Nancy asked, voice soft but steely.
"I... I stood in front of El. The Mind Flayer was going to get her and I couldn't let it," Alistair began, ignoring the glare Cami shot at him. "It impaled me—I felt it. I... I felt it when I died."
His hand ghosted his chest, feeling the bump of scar tissue where the fatal wound had been. Alistair clenched his jaw before he went on, "I woke up in what I assumed was the afterlife. I... I saw the Flayed."
"Did you see Billy?" Max asked, and that was when Alistair looked at her—and saw Billy on the ground. Black blood stained his shirt from multiple wounds, but the most spilled from a hole in his chest—near identical to the one that had been in Alistair's.
"No, I didn't," he answered, staring at Billy before looking at his friends and sister. "I... I met Heather, though. She was scared, but she was okay, I think. And... and I met Mom, Rowan."
Rowan froze, her eyes wide. "You did?"
"Yeah. She... she kinda told me that apparently death doesn't stick for me," Alistair revealed. "I can die, but... I can come back. That it's a power I have. And... and now I'm back. Alive. Again."
Silence filled the mall as they all digested the new information. Alistair bit his lip, trying to find comfort in his heartbeat, strong and steady and like it never stopped at all, before he said, "Rowan, Mom wanted me to tell you that she's proud of us. Her and... and Dad. That they love us."
Something wet shone in Rowan's eyes as she swallowed, Steve coming to stand beside her, wrapping an arm around her in comfort. A million questions seemed to fill the air, but no one asked them—especially since Alistair was done talking, the weight of what had happened to him falling back on him.
