My Love Will Laugh With Me (Before Morning Comes)

Naked and Afraid

Lelah chokes on her screams.

Her eyes are wide as vainly clutches at her throat. She digs into the hand she finds: tearing skin and breaking nails. He doesn't let up. He stands over her with one hand around her neck and the other in her hair. He wraps his fist around her hair pushing her deeper into the murky Nile.

She opens her eyes, desperate, kicking her legs at the black ones in front of her.

"Give in."

It takes her a moment to realize it's not English.

"Die, Meritamen," he says impassively. Lelah's vision starts to blur. She takes in the black cloth tied around his neck and the dark eyes that emptily gaze at her. "Don't make this harder on herself."

Her lungs burn.

Her body won't move.

She feels her eyes roll back.

Lelah bursts out of the body bag wet and silently screaming.

She tears at the bag ripping the clear plastic from her skin. Lelah pulls at her arms, at her legs, and holds herself in the dark of the morgue. She trembles on the cold metal slab huddled in a ball. Lelah closes her eyes burying her face in her arms.

She stays there, quiet and small, under the fluorescent lights.

The lights flicker.

Lelah opens her eyes slowly. She takes in the dull gray of the morgue. The room is bleak: all metals and whites. She ignores the white sheets on the tables like hers. She makes it out heads, arms, feet...

Lelah bites her cheek until she tastes metal.

She tugs on the little strip of paper on her big toe making out 'UNKNOWN' in all caps.

The hair on the back of her neck stands up. Like a chill, it travels up her spine gnawing at her senses. Her fingers tremble slightly as she feels for something sharp. She grabs the scalpel holding it tight.

Lelah stills before looking behind her.

Nothing.

Still paranoid, she turns forward.

Lelah throws the scalpel, eyes the size of planets, as it passes through him.

Chris Vail.

Her stomach rolls at what's left of Nick's best friend.

He is a mottled gray. There is dark bruising on his temples and arms like someone threw him. Already, one eye is a milky ball but it focuses on Lelah. The other eye, still brown, stares into Lelah intently. She tries to ignore the three bloodstains on the white tee. She still remembers those gunshots.

"You were with Nick Morton," Lelah says stammering."I watched you die."

The creature in front of her watches her impassive.

"We need to talk."

Lelah scoffs tucking her hair behind her ears.

"We don't have much to talk about at all. We've met once," she struggles for words. "You shouldn't even be here. What is even going on?"

"You know what's going on," he says leaning forward.

Lelah recoiling.

"We died on the plane, didn't we?"

Chris Vail laughs. It's dark and twisted: a mockery of a laugh. He walks closer to Lelah holding onto the metal slab. He's still smiling, the teeth surprisingly still white, when he answers.