Embers & Ice

Chapter Eleven

I’m dead.

Holy shit, I’m dead. No matter how many times I repeat that in my mind, it still doesn’t seem real.

This is what death feels like: stiff limbs, stinging skin, rasping breath and interminable cold. The world is black, so I’m either passing through to the ‘Great Beyond’, or I’m waiting to be cast into hell.

So what will it be, Eli? Eternal darkness or burning?

Darkness, definitely. Burning would be horribly painful. But then… would the loneliness be more tormenting?

Eli lay there, battling with his conscience about which choice to make, when a blinding pain slashed through his body from the tip of his head down the length of his spine. He would surely cry out in agony, but his throat was so dry that only a gasp escaped.

Wait a minute. Did I just gasp? Am I breathing? Is this still death?

Eli listened, his body throbbing with pain as though he were bleeding through his skin, and prayed for release. He much preferred lying in cold blackness than this new writhing. Perhaps he didn’t get a choice, and he was already in hell. Stars of red danced in the blackness, making his head throb. After a few more moments, the pain started to dissipate and Eli almost smiled. Well, that wasn’t so bad. Actually, that wasn’t terrible at all. Hell is quite nice and warm if you-

Eli stopped thinking at once when he noticed something strange through the darkness. A light was blinking just out of reach, very soft and in the shape of a… wait, a human? There was a man, but Eli couldn’t make out a proper form or even a face. And it flickered, like a candle about to burn out.

Eli lifted a shaking hand and reached out to the man when a shocking jolt exploded in his chest. Suddenly Eli was gasping for breath as if he’d just surfaced from the bottom of the ocean. White light blazed around him and he blinked – yes, blinked – against the rays that threatened to blind him. His chest ached, his body stung like sunburn and his throat begged for water. But despite the agony, he was alive. And being alive was better than ten years of torture in whatever hellish place he’d been lying in.

For a moment, nothing but the sound of his thumping heart could be heard. Eli heaved in air and waited for his hearing and sight to return. Shapes danced around him like alien blobs from his comic books. He heard a woman’s voice, then a man’s voice, and it was all he could do not to squeal in delight.

Finally the pain subsided and a tube-like object was placed in his mouth. Blissful water dribbled down his throat and he coughed and spluttered in his haste to consume it. Get me to a lake, I’ll drink it all, he thought. The tube was taken from him and an eerie voice said, “More later.”

Eli’s vision came back slowly and the blurred shapes fused together into actual objects. The first thing he noticed was that the blinding white light came from everywhere he looked. He was in a small room made of some kind of shiny steel, with fluorescent tubes lining the walls and ceilings. Strange technology surrounded him; machines he’d never seen before with complicated dials and wires and blinking lights. He lay on a frozen steel table encased in some kind of clear sheet attached to more tubes. Eli forced himself into a sitting position and bravely looked down at his body.

Oh thank God, he breathed in relief. I still have legs. I thought they’d been ripped off.

He wore a thin white hospital gown, and the rest of his body was flawlessly pale. Usually this would alarm Eli – who was used to the olive tone of his skin – but he was too thankful that his body was all in one piece to care.

“Eli?”

The soft voice of a woman startled him and Eli’s head whipped to the left where two people stood guardedly watching. The woman was younger than the man, with brown wavy hair and eyes wide and concerned. She bit the corner of her lip nervously and moved an inch closer to the man. He didn’t seem to notice.

The person beside her was tall and quite thin, wearing a creased, buttoned-down shirt. He had hair as black as a raven, slicked back like a Hollywood actor. His eyes were so pale, they were almost frightening. He had sharp bone structure and a cautious expression.

They were both watching him as though they expected him to explode, but Eli wasn’t even sure he had a voice at all.

The woman tried again. “How do you feel Eli?”

He said nothing, his mind completely jumbled. Am I in a hospital?

“How did you feel?” the man asked the woman and she shot him a harsh glance.

“I felt like I’d been thrown into an icebox and chartered off to Japan, no thanks to you.” She rolled her eyes and stepped around the empty table, cautiously approaching Eli. He was too frozen in shock to move. “Eli, I know you must have so many questions for us. Let me first assure you that your vitals are completely in check and your tissues have healed miraculously well.”

What? What the hell is this?

“We just need to know if you feel like yourself. Can you tell me that?”

Her eyes were so warm that Eli felt almost compelled to answer her. He shot a nervous glance at the man standing against the wall, his pale skeleton fingers touching the cuffs of his shirt, his eyes narrowed and waiting. So he tried to remember where he was before he woke up. Maybe it would explain who these people were.

Suddenly, he was drawn back into a memory. He wore a tuxedo his father had ordered for him. Sounds of clinking glass and loud chatter blared around him. The world was tinted golden and glimmering with faces. Somewhere in the distance, a violin was playing. He recognized the piece and longed for the instrument he’d played almost all his life. He attended the benefit for his father’s sake, but he didn’t want to be there. He’d rather be anywhere else, in fact.

Through the haze of glamorous people, he saw her: The girl with the red hair. She passed him, her arm looped through another man’s. Eli stared closer at the man with the pale eyes and realized it was him; he was the one she came with. The girl locked eyes with him and his whole body tingled. Her eyes were golden like a glowing flame. Then, she was swallowed by the crowd.

Eli breathed in slowly, stared at the man and woman, and suddenly felt a terrible fear rake through him. What had happened at the benefit?

“Eli,” the woman pressed. She hesitated, her frown deepening, before she asked another question. “Do you know who I am Eli?”

He shook his head. “No. I don’t know either of you.” The man and woman exchanged worried glances, causing Eli’s heart to thump. “Wait, should I? Who are you?”

“He doesn’t remember us,” said the woman. Her voice wavered. “Did something happen to his memory during the revival? What did you do, Joshua?!”

The man called Joshua moved not an inch, his pale eyes wide as he gazed down at Eli. A chill spread through the room. He opened his mouth and closed it again. An eternity seemed to pass before he spoke.

“Tell me, Eli, what is the last thing you remember? Can you recall Prom?”

“Prom?” he hissed, and started coughing. “That’s – months – away. It’s still January, right?”

Joshua pursed his lips. “Answer my first question.”

Eli thought back for a moment. “I… I went to my father’s benefit for Colombia University. It’s like… a week before school goes back.”

The woman put a hand to her mouth, her eyes glistening with shock. “Oh God…”

“What? Where am I? What day is it? What did you do to me?”

Joshua pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh. “If he doesn’t remember who we are, Jenny,” he whispered, “and his last memory is the benefit… you know what that means, right?”

The woman nodded. She looked about to burst into tears.

“He doesn’t remember Hunter,” she said.