Death Becomes Us

Chapter Twenty (Pt. 3)

I curse and lunge after him, scaling the hoods of cars and running above to head off the angel before he can reach the bus. Ahead, Elizabeth quickly speaks with the bus occupants through cracked windows, reassuring them before attempting to wrench open the bus's back doors. A pick-up truck prevents the doors from opening more than a fraction and she stops forcing it when the bus tips further towards the opening gap in the bridge.

She cringes away, startled when I land next to her and then grabs my arm, pointing inside.

"There's a school group stuck inside," she gasps.

"We'll get them out," I promise, freeing her from between the cars

I search for another way inside, but the bus is completely blocked off. We could smash the windows, but we wouldn't have enough time to get everyone out safely before Marcus gets here. My gaze lands on the pick-up blocking the back doors and I quickly climb into its cab, finding the keys still in the ignition and deftly turning on the engine.

In the rearview mirror I see Marcus land on the hood of a Semi three cars back. He glares at me through the reflection, the burn marks on his skin shifting and growing to scale his corded neck.

'This isn't really him,' I try to convince myself, but it is hard to believe when I see what he has done. He had chosen to become this.

"What are you doing?" Elizabeth shouts, skidding to a stop next to the open door.

"I'm making room so you can open their door," I explain grimly.

"How the hell do you expect to drive a car if you couldn't even ride bike?"

Elizabeth climbs into the cab and shoves me into the passenger seat, wrenching the truck into reverse. She braces herself and, before I can do the same, she stomps on the gas pedal. We rocket back and ram into the car behind us, our bodies snapping violently forward against the dashboard. My head feels like it has been bashed inward and I swallow against the urge to vomit as Elizabeth groans over the steering wheel, a trickle of blood flowing from the gash in her forehead.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

Wincing, she rights herself and nods. "That had more power than I thought it would." She looks over at the gap between the truck and bus, "Just one more time. Hang on."

Pulling away from the crunched car behind us, she again throws the truck in reverse, but keeps her foot on the breaks, revving the engine. I crane around in my seat and catch sight of Marcus landing in the bed of the truck. He punches through the back window and Elizabeth releases the breaks so that we violently collide with the rear car. The impact smashes Marcus's head into the metal cab and he collapses, sprawling out in the back of the truck.

"Got it!" Elizabeth shouts, parking and darting for the back of the bus.

This time she is able to open the doors and the children scamper from the teetering bus, their chaperones and the driver filing out from behind. With a groan, the bus tips over and crashes through the bridge and is devoured by the river.

The children and their chaperones race for the median, the only path now open across the bridge. Elizabeth hands the smaller ones over to the outstretched arms of the waiting adults and I step out of the truck, using its support when another quake violently rips through the bridge. A strangled yell erupts from behind me and I turn in time to catch the brunt of Marcus's shoulder as he rams into me. He tackles me to the ground and we wrestle for control of the watch.

"Just let it end," he cries, his angelic face contorted. "Just let it end—Let it end."

Kicking him in the stomach, I drag the fallen angel down beside me and hold him face first on the street.

"Wake up, Marcus!" I shout, my voice shaking. "Donovan is no longer here to control you!"

"If that were true then why can I still feel him—playing—inside my head?" Marcus pants, grinding his forehead into the asphalt and grimacing. "Can't you see, James? There's nothing you can do to stop it. I will be fighting with you—until the end."

"I won't fight you!" I bellow. "I won't let it end this way! You are my friend!"

"NO!"

The ground pitches beneath us and Marcus wrenches from my grasp, pinning me on my back with a knee to my chest.

"Death doesn't have friends," he snarls.

He lunges for the watch and in the last second, governed by the desperation to keep it from his grasp, I smash it against the street. The air around us explodes, throwing us to the side as a multitude of silvery lights fly from the shattered pocket watch and escape into the sky. They stop the rain and melt the clouds so that sunlight streaks bronze through the fires and smog. Marcus crouches over the pocket watch, handfuls of gears slipping through shaking fingers, and I watch him. For a moment my world is quiet.

"JAMES!"

I roll onto my hands and knees and search for Elizabeth at the sound of her cry, my limbs going weak when I see her slipping into an opening abyss. She scrambles to hold on to the road falling out from under her, the edges of the new crater dissolving into gravel and slithering from beneath her fingers. Geysers of water spring up from where the rubble has landed in the frothing Potomac and she screams, her feet falling off the brink.

Shoving aside the weariness dragging in my bones, I battle my way across the lanes to reach Elizabeth, diving to catch her wrist just as she swings over open air. She latches onto me. I pull her into my arms amidst the deluge of water and debris spraying up from the river and hold her to my chest. I will never let go.

"It's okay," I whisper, absorbing her fears and feeling her grip on me strengthen. "You're okay. I've got you."

Suddenly I feel the ground shift beneath us and I throw Elizabeth away from where I stand. She collapses on solid ground, far from me and the trembling asphalt. The road crumbles and I fall backwards, plummeting through the gaping hole with nothing to catch me but the wind whistling past.

Elizabeth appears above, safe for the moment, her hand outstretched to bring me back and just brushing my fingers, but I'm already gone.

The fall is short, the pain crippling, and the darkness sluggish. A build-up of twisted steel and slabs of rock catch me on the way down, battering every inch of my body before throwing me to the river. The water swallows me, sweet and briny in my mouth, and all sounds of devastation become muffled, leaving only the feathery gulps of bubbles spiraling up from the chunks of rubble sinking down around me.

What little air I have left is stolen by the river and I drift to its murky bottom, unable to scream or cry out as agonizing darkness devours me. Elizabeth's image shimmers through the dark layers falling over me like suffocating blankets and I wish...I wish—