Thousand Year Switch

Chapter 31

I heard the blast at the same time someone slugged me in the side of the head with all the force of a charging bull. I was aware of the earth shifting sideways, someone screaming far away, cool clean dirt under my fingers and a black and silver canvas of stars above my head. I felt warm, like someone had thrown a fuzzy blanket over me. A face blocked the stars, a vague skin-colored blur. They were talking fast and high and I just wanted them to go away and let me sleep.

Sleep came at last, and the face, the stars and the noises all faded out of existence.

I become aware. My surroundings nearly make me groan. Back in the moonlight, back in the vineyard. I looked at Sloan. He smiled, pronouncing.

"He is dead."

I am? I looked down in shock. My body was lying in the dirt, the dirt barely sucking up all the blood that surrounded me. In spite of the blood Aden was draped across me, crying.

"Aden," I said, but she doesn't look up.

I looked down at my hands. Dreading. Knowing. They appeared solid enough. I reached out and tried to touch one of the nearby grape vines and my hand passed through like there was nothing there at all. That was obvious enough.

I'm dead.

"Aden," I said again, and to my shock she looked up at me, eyes flooded with tears. Of course, I remembered now, she can see the dead.

Sloan and his suited monkeys were leaving, and Aden stared after them for a moment, as if she was thinking about going after them.

"Don't," I said, so badly wanting to touch her that I put my hand out and it passed through her knee. "Stay with me." I was scared of being alone. I was dead. What happened now?

Aden sniffed, gives me a miserable smile. "Look behind you, Lucas."

I turned, and there she is, exactly as I remembered her. Her brown curls were like an angel's halo, and she grinned at me with the slightly crooked front teeth we both inherited from Dad.

"Sara!" It takes about four seconds to close the distance between us and then I had her in my arms and I was laughing and crying at the same time, so relieved to be able to touch her, ecstatic to see her again. It was unbelievable, but she was there, solid and warm. Existing. I realized how much I'd missed her and surprised myself when I touched my face and didn't feel tears. It felt so good to have her in my arms that it was hard to pull myself back to examine her face.

'You look the same," I said, incredulously, and she smiled. "Death doesn't change you. Time doesn't touch you in the in between."

"You stayed," I said excitedly. "You've been with me the entire time, haven't you?"

Sara smiled, a little sad. "You needed me. You and mom both needed me. I've been trying to look out for you. I'm sorry I couldn't save you this time. Something wouldn't let me. At least we're together now."

My heart sank. We're both dead, and now what will Mom do? Now she has no one. Sara must have known what I was thinking, because she frowned and grabbed my hand tightly.

Behind us Aden was still holding my body. She was shaking, tears rolling down her cheeks."This isn't supposed to happen," she was saying over and over, "this can't happen. He can't win."

I looked at Sara grimly. "I won't be able to move on either. I won't leave Aden, and we can't leave Mom."

Sara nodded. "We'll stay together."

Aden suddenly glanced up sharply. "He's not gone yet."

"What?" I looked around us. "Sloan?"

Aden ignored me. "Sara?"

My sister turned to her, surprised.

"When Abbadon arrives go to Sloan, tell him he's not dead." Aden checked her watch, "it's almost time."

"What are you doing?" I said nervously, "Why would she tell him that? Aden?"

Sara slipped away, gliding between the grape vines, and I turned back to Aden. She was ignoring me, leaning over my body. She pressed her forehead to my bodies' forehead. It was bizarre, and not just a little macabre to see myself dead. It looked like me, but it wasn't. Aden placed both hands over the gunshot wound and begun muttering under her breath in a language I don't understand.

"Aden?" I said sharply, "What are you doing? Stop that."

It was obviously some kind of Malake ha-Mawet thing. Whatever it was, it rang alarm bells, and suddenly I was sure I knew exactly what it was, what she's about to do.

"Aden," I tried to pull her away, frustrated as my hands slide through her shoulders. "Aden stop! You can't do this! Please stop!"

She continued chanting, her eyes tightly shut, her face pale and pinched.

"Please don't do this! You don't have to," I begged, "Aden, stop."

At last she stopped, poised upright on quivering haunches, her eyes open for just a second, beautiful, huge and brown." This is what I was meant for, Lucas. You have to see that now. It's okay, it's worth it," she slumped down onto my body and lay still.

"No!" One minute I was frantically clawing at Aden, my hands sliding uselessly through her, the next, the world began to turn sideways again, everything went blurry and I could feel a sucking sensation pulling at my middle. I was a helpless swimmer in a rip tide, being dragged out to sea. I struggled, fighting the pull, fighting the blackness. But it only took seconds to pull me under.