Death Becomes Us

Chapter Fourteen (Pt. 2)

The sun is warm on my face, glowing white against my eyelids. It eases sore limbs, allows me to forget the bruises, the earthquake, and the nightmares. I can feel the sun rays slowly stretch my skin taut as a light breeze causes the grass I lay on to dance. I hear the steady whoosh of cars zooming by on a nearby freeway and the splashing of water against hard ground. A single breath welcomes in the murky smell of the Potomac and, at the same time, the subtle scent of cheese, bread, and apples. My mouth waters in response and I lazily reach to my side, blindly selecting a wedge of cheese and dropping it on my tongue.

Something soft and feathery is trailed along my jaw and up towards my cheek, leaving behind a path of goose bumps. I screw my lips to the side, refusing to open my eyes and give Elizabeth the satisfaction. Instead I catch her fingers in mine and feel around for her chosen torture device, tracing the thin membrane of a leaf.

"You'll burn if you lay there any longer," she tells me.

"Then I'll burn," I sigh. "As long as I don't move, I won't be sore."

"You're pathetic," she teases.

"So I've been told."

I keep her hand for a second longer, tracing a circle on her warm skin with my thumb. She shivers and I release her to do as she wills. The gentle touch of the leaf returns, drawing careful patterns across my face and I begin to doze.

"James, you shouldn't be here."

Blearily I open my eyes and squint past the afternoon sun, locating the tall shadow standing above and just beneath the reaching branches of the tree our bikes rest against. Marcus regards me with a rigid expression, his lips pressed into a thin line and a look in his eyes that is unreadable.

He glances to the left and I turn my attention to Elizabeth, wondering if she senses his presence. She is asleep beside me, my arm a pillow beneath her head as dappled patterns from the tree shift across her face. Soft waves of her hair blanket my skin, warm and filled with the scent of her perfume.

A strange sensation wrenches in my chest when I look at her, like my heart is expanding with something it cannot contain. I press my hand to my left breast and feel it thump rapidly with unexplained excitement.

Marcus crouches beside me, resting his elbows on his bent knees. He shakes his head and runs his hands through his hair, tossing his bright locks in frustration.

"Of all the people and all the girls in the world, you had to run into her," he says.

"This isn't real," he tells me. "You're not really human. That heart you have is only temporary and when your time runs out, where does that leave her? She's connected to you now, to Death, and everything that comes with it. I told you not to go through with this, James. I told you to leave her alone. Why can't you stay away?"

"I don't know," I snap, tired of the same old lecture, "Maybe because she sees me. Or because she makes me feel normal—like I could really be human." I look over at her still asleep and feel my growing irritation soften as I gently lift a wisp of hair from her face. "Maybe because whenever I'm around her it's like I finally know what it is to be alive or—Or because I think I'm falling in love with her."

"You're falling in love with the idea of her," Marcus corrects harshly. "Elizabeth represents a life that you can never have. James, you need to realize this now before-"

"Before what, Marcus?" I question.

Marcus sighs wearily and the ground rumbles as a hot wind rolls across us. I sit up and face the burning wind, coughing when I inhale the sharp smell of sulfur. The earth groans like a tortured beast and a sharp crack echoes over the park.

"Too late," he whispers.

The ground splits and tosses, great chasms opening wide through the park and bringing down the surrounding buildings. People scream and bodies fall all around me, dead or dying. It isn't long before I hear the ticking of their clocks running out and I cringe away from them, from their pain.

"No," I moan, covering my ears, but I can still hear the ticking. "I don't want this. I don't want their suffering!"

I stumble to my feet, spreading my stance when the ground shifts violently and falls away into blazing pits. A cloud of ash and black smoke whips around us and obscures everything else until we are alone. Tears streak through the dirt on my cheeks when I hear the humans' cries in the smoke and I round on Marcus, knowing he cannot really be here.

"Marcus!" I shout. "Why am I dreaming of this?"

"Because this is how it ends!" he shouts, his face now a mask of grime. "All of us; you, me, everything we know...it all ends. We can't change it now."

"Why can't we change it? Why can't we run?"

Flames roar up from the chasms closing in and their blazing heat tightens my skin as I wheeze with every inhale of the black smoke. I dive towards Elizabeth, shielding her from another blast of fire and recoiling from chunks of rock raining around us. Sharp pieces tear into my back and I drop to my knees as the ground beneath me bucks with another quake.

The sky turns red, allowing ugly shadows to consume my world. Marcus is by my side even as the ground we stand on begins to fall apart. The dirt dissolves beneath me and I fall backwards into an opening crater. Marcus catches hold of my wrist, but I can't catch Elizabeth. She is wrenched from my arms and she falls lifelessly into the abyss below, the fire and darkness devouring her.

I scream, struggling to go after her, but Marcus continues to hold on as silent tears track down his face.

"I will fight with you!" he shouts. "Until the end, James!"

There is a thundering explosion and a billow of fire engulfs Marcus. His flesh peels away and his eyes smolder with the flames. Below his skin there is nothing except darkness, oblivion, and then I see that it is no longer Marcus. I look into my disintegrating face and feel myself burn.