The Black-Hearted Ninja (The Dark Triangle #1)

Death

Nya slowly drifted into consciousness. She was laying on something soft, she felt so calm and content, and then- excruciating pain ripped through her body. Gasping, Nya's eyes fluttered open. She heard sobs and her brother's voice. Blinking, she squinted as the room came in to focus. She was in the infirmary on the Destiny's Bounty. Kai was standing over her bed, worriedly. Lloyd stood next to him, looking green as his suit as he stared at something on Nya's chest. Skylor sat at the end of Nya's bed, solemn faced. Pixal and Zane talked quietly in a corner. Nya caught the words "stab wound" and "almost died". Cole was unsteadily standing in the corner near the door, paler than usual. Then Nya saw the source of the crying. Sitting hunched in a chair on the right side of her bed, Jay was flowing tears into his "crying pillow". It was an air travel neck pillow that Jay would put over his eyes whenever he had a crying fit. It absorbed his tears and the fact it only covered his eyes kept him from hyperventilating. It seemed like the thing was soaked.
"She's gonna die, and then-we'll never get married- and, and, have three and a half kids-" Jay said between sobs. Nya laughed a little but it hurt her stomach. Jay had gotten it into his head that they were going to have three and a half kids together. Nya had no idea what that even meant.
"Jay, Jay!" She said hoarsely. Startled, he looked up. "I'm fine! I'm not gonna die!" She smiled. "Sis!" Kai exclaimed. "You're okay!" "Nya!" Jay practically screamed and they both have her a huge hug.
"What happened?" Nya asked to no one in particular. Lloyd spoke up. "Kai and Jay got captured-" he started. "I remember that part!" Nya said. "I mean, why were you staring nauseously at my stomach and why am I in the infirmary?" That time Jay broke in. "You were fighting the serpentine general and he,he-" Kai finished the sentence. "Nya, he stabbed you with a fangblade." Jay burst into tears again into his pillow as Nya looked down at the bloody bandage wrapped around her abdomen. She turned her head to look at Jay. "Maybe you'd better leave and calm down." She said weakly. Skylor, who had been silent and scarily calm for the whole time, nodded. "Jay, how about you go get some sleep. You've had an awful scare." Jay slowly raised his head and gave a sign of agreement. Drawing the almost dripping crying pillow to his chest, he unsteadily walked to the door, not even noticing that he passed straight through Cole. Jay then shut the door.
Nya opened her mouth to ask Skylor something when movement caught her eye. Looking straight up, she saw Cole, swaying as if he was about to fall. In the middle of his chest, there was a hole. A hole shaped exactly like the crying pillow. Nya gasped. "Cole!" She cried out. Looking around, Kai and Lloyd saw the hole and ran over to Cole, supporting him. They brought him over to the floor next to Nya's bed and laid him down. Not hearing the protests of her doctors Zane and Pixal, Nya got out the strength to leap out of bed. She then knelt at Cole's side.
"There was water in the pillow," Nya said to herself. Some sort of dark liquid with the texture of blood was oozing out of Cole's chest and he was taking rasping breaths. "He's dying!"Nya realized. "Don't just stand there, do something!" She screamed at the horrified onlookers. She was crying now. Every tear that fell hurt Cole more. "Save him!" She sobbed to Zane, whose normally calm demeanor was broken. "I-I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do," Pixal spoke for both of them. "Stay alive, Cole, you're a ghost! You can't die again!" Nya said in desperation, shaking Cole's grayish face, begging him to survive. "Nya," Cole coughed. He was starting to disintegrate. "I'm fine. I knew I was going to die anyway. I always knew." "But Jay killed you!" Nya said. "He didn't mean to, but he did!" "Nya, I-" Cole started. But just then he slipped through her fingers and was gone. Cole was dead.
"No!" Nya screamed and completely broke down. Cole had been a constant in her life for years and now he was just-gone? With no warning? Someone hugged Nya and she looked up to find Skylor. Everyone else was backed away in shock. "He's gone forever!" Nya told Skylor hysterically. "There's no way to ever get him back!" Skylor stroked Nya's hair. "There may be a way." Her friend said. "But it won't be easy." Surprised, Nya looked up. "What?" She asked. "We must travel into the cursed realm." Skylor told Nya grimly.