Short Stories

Obituary

This is a continuation of the "Unlikely Friends"  short story. 

~Scar

"She was my best friend. I don't know how I'll go on without her." Marie Thomas was a twenty-seven-year-old scientist who taught her surviving "friend," Heva, how to read. Heva is a Jarrix, the lowest of the low. Heva began reading while Marie was aboard the Ryddyx, a research vessel. Marie was researching wormholes when she first met Heva. She taught the Jarrix how to read and write, knowing full well that it was highly illegal. Heva only revealed Marie's whole story when she wrote the woman's Eulogy (enclosed below). The Jarrix is undergoing a lot of questioning and the beast will surely be imprisoned.

My friend Marie was a good friend. She taught me how to read and write, even though it is illegal. She told me so, if only because she needed me to be careful. But her husband found out. He was mad because she wouldn't go home. She just wanted to complete her research before she settled down. I wonder sometimes if she even loved him. She mentioned once that her dad had set up their marriage, I didn't even know that could happen until Marie told me.

What am I going to do without her? She was my best friend. I don't know how I'm going to go on without her. She was always so kind to me. I've been told that I'm not capable of having emotion, but I don't know how to explain the feeling other than there is a deep ache in my heart. I believe the emotion is sadness.

Out of all the people I've ever met, she was by far the kindest. She rarely ever got frustrated. She was patient with me. She never yelled at me. We sat together on the ship. She always gave me a piece of her dessert. She was endlessly kind. I think her only mistake was being too trusting. She told her husband about teaching me how to read and write, and her mom. Either one could have ratted us out.

But why she did what she did the last day I saw her alive I will never understand. They came for me; they were going to kill me, you see? But... but she stepped in front of me when they started firing at me. She took those bullets, the pain, for me. I'm a lowly Jarrix and she took bullets for me.

I caught her as she collapsed. She was bleeding so badly. I tried so hard to stop the bleeding but it was too much she took her last breath in my arms. Her last words will be burned into my mind forever. "I love you, Heva. I'm so sorry I had to leave you like this." I think I loved her too.