Beholder

Chapter 2

 It took only a second until the grave digger noticed an explosion of deep red stains on the bouquets of white flowers surrounding the pit where Hallie’s coffin lay.

His deep suffering breaths were very audible from where the people stood. The top of the coffin is sprayed and blotted with the red of his blood gushing and spurting from his leg, stomach and arms.

Jeremy’s blue plaid hoodie is now wet with blood but he tried his best to support his lean, muscular body. Something in him knows that he should move himself and open the lid of the coffin and avoid being an obstruction despite the difficulty bestowed upon him by his wounds.

At his first attempt, he was dipped into the soil and got smothered with its redness.

He groaned.

After a few agonizing trials, he finally opened the lid fully. He ungracefully bended down, his muscles letting go.

When he stared at her pale face and the wounds on her body, he can’t help the tears running down his cheeks from both side of his eyes as if racing each other until it fell on Hallie’s bony, pale arms. Tears that are hard to tell if they came from the pain of the wounds or the feeling he got from the sight of the girl he loved being dead.

He hauled her body up to his arms.

Everybody up the pit held their breath.

And he pressed his lips on hers.

For  a toughie like him, to do that was an unbelievable sight. When he gained the knowledge of her death,  it was as if his demons came back to life, came running back, if not reproduced, to haunt him. And among the population, there is one juvenile demon in him gave him a blind, deceiving hope that somehow she will open her eyes and tell him she loves him as soon as their lips touched like what happens on a fairy tale book page.

But no.

He didn’t kiss her. He kissed it.

It isn’t Hallie anymore. It now felt like a cold accumulation of cells refusing to transform into a new disgusting form due to the shortness of days.

It was cold. She isn’t here anymore. It’s emptiness.

He knew this was coming. He worried he might be too late.

Then, the gravity has taken much effect on him with all the blood he’s losing.  9.8 Newton seemed more.

Because there’s only a few inches excess to the coffin, he winced and fell down on his side. His blood continued to flow out of the wounds and mix with the earth.

I’m sorry, Hallie. But you should know that I love you and I’ll never even liked her. It wasn’t my fault. I love you…I love you…

“Hurry, call the ambulance!” yelled a woman who was peeping through the pit.

Though he was accused of taking someone’s life, their morality could not take judging one for that accusation, especially there is nothing against but an evidence less speculation.

He continued to say this until his last breath came out of him and he looked up smiling. Maybe he saw Hallie smiling at him telling him that he is forgiven and that she loves him back so much and that they’re now together again.

Five minutes later, the sound of the sirens flooded the place. Allen grabbed  Lauren  by the arm as a short male nurse dressed in white with a shrill male voice called them out of the way.

Another nurse jumped down the pit to check Jeremy for signs of life.

He put two fingers  stuck together on the side of his neck.