Beautiful Eyes (Hanson)

Chapter 17

Taylor had been watching Melanie, for how long he didn't know. He heard her as she begged him to come back; saw her endless tears. When she wasn't visiting him in the hospital, she was crying at home. He ached to tell her he was alright. That he'd be okay. Even though he'd seen her cry a thousand tears, he still refused to go back to earth.

"I wish I could let her see me, just to talk to her," he whispered.

"Wish granted," the voice of the angel floated around him.

Suddenly Taylor felt his surroundings change and he found himself in Melanie's bedroom. He walked over to her bed and looked at her sleeping figure. He sensed that no one else was in the house.

"Melanie," he said almost inaudibly. But she heard him. Her eyes fluttered open. Confused at where she was at first, then her eyes focused on him. She gasped and sat straight up in bed.

"Taylor! But...but you're in a coma!"

"In body I am, but in spirit I'm free," he was strangely calm.

"Are you dead? And the machines are just keeping you alive?"

"Well...no. I'm between life and death." Then he told her what the angel had told him.

"So, you're coming back?" she asked excitedly.

"Uh...no. I'm gonna find a way to die. I just can't stand my life anymore."

Melanie's eyes filled with tears. "No Taylor! You HAVE to come back," she sobbed,"I don't wanna...I WON'T...lose you again!" She buried her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook with her sobs.

"Melanie...please understand. I...I just can't deal with life anymore."

She lifted her head up, tears streaming down her face,"So you're going to die because life seems unbearable? Taylor, I won't let you do that. If you do, I"ll kill myself. I'd rather be dead than live without you. You're my best friend!" A fresh flood of tears started.

"NO! You won't."

"Yes I will. I can't live without you!"

Taylor was stunned. He never realized how much Melanie cared about him. She'd give up her own life if Taylor chose to die just so she wouldn't have to live without him.

What am I going to do, he thought.

He sensed that he had to leave.

"Melanie, I have to go."

"NO. I won't let you die."

"I'll be back. I'll visit you again." Then he faded out.

Once he arrived back at "his place in the clouds" he did some heavy thinking.
"If I die, Melanie will kill herself. I'll be the cause of her death," he whispered.

"Yes Taylor," the angel's voice floated around him,"YOU'LL be the cause of your best friend's death."