Acid

Chapter Twenty Two: Death Waited For Me

I THOUGHT THAT after all this time, I had almost truly escaped death. I had died so many times in every different way, from my soul to my heart. I never thought that one day I'd actually die. I thought that after so many close calls, so many mistakes, that death didn't want me, or that I had escaped him. The truth was he was just waiting for me. Nobody can escape death nor cheat him. Everyone's time stops eventually, unfortunately for me my time had ended. It was cut short by a dumb girl with a stupid gun. Everything I ever could've been, any love I ever could've had, any hope for a family of my own one day. Gone. It broke my heart knowing I was dying this way, I hoped to go out fighting or saving someones life, like the hero's from every story. But no, I'm going to die lying in a cold alleyway being used as bait so someone else could escape death just a little longer. 

Suddenly everything seemed so cold. I was loosing everything. My body was numbing and anything I wanted to say wasn't coming out right. All that would escape my mouth was staggered breaths and gasps that somehow mustered the courage to come out. Death is a lonely place, or so I thought. Suddenly my brothers hand slammed hard on my chest pushing down on my wound.

"Dane just stay with me okay!"

I heard his crying but I couldn't see him. I felt his presence on my right, along with someone else's warm hands on my left. I could feel strands of my hair being tucked behind my left ear repeatedly. If I was going to die the last thing I wanted to see was him... my brother, the one person who had been there since the moment I was conceived. The one who held my hand as we both were lifted into the air by the doctors who'd cutten us out of our mothers stomach. The one who let me sleep in his bed when I was scared as a child. The one who would stay sober enough to drive us home after a party, but not sober enough to jump off a two story house into a pool. Now I guess he's going to be the one who holds me when I go... one last memory that death will taunt me with for eternity. 

"Dane, your going to be okay..." said the person on my left.

That sweet tone... I know it all to well. I'm glad to have met you Alaska, I'm glad to have watched your daughter grow into the crime fighting toddler she is today. I hope she remembers what I was like. I'll never have a daughter unfortunately but I'm glad to have part in raising yours. I'm trying to muster the strength to tell you that I got something for Poppy. It's in my bag please look. Please somehow find it.

"You let her run off?" Darrin screamed.

"She was gone by the time I looked behind me, I'm sorry!" Lilith said.

"I'm going to kill her!" Darrin yelled.

Kill her? You're so dumb we both know you're to much of a coward to do that. Don't say something you don't mean butter fingers... I wasn't such a great influence to make you grow to be a liar.

"That's Rae!" Darrin paused "Someone help us move him!"

A sudden wave of hands lifted my poor excuse of a body into the air. Am I flying? I swear I feel like I'm flying. I felt my body tumble into something hard. Now I'm falling, dammit. My hands rubbed the rough carpet that I installed into the van at least two months ago. Greatest upgrade I've ever, properly, been able to install.

I felt someone pry each of my eyes open, flashing a bright light straight into them. I saw that frail doctor that always seemed to be getting in the way. Hey man... how's it going? Do I still look like a hot piece of bacon? Suddenly my eyes soon slammed shut. You could've just said no...

"I'm sorry Darrin theirs nothing I can do, I lost all of my supplies back at that apartment. I have nothing." 

"You're a doctor for crying out loud, there must be something!"

"As I said we have nothing for the wounds he has, I'm sorry, but I think you should start saying goodbye" He paused "I don't think he has much time..."

"What the hell does that mean? NO! He's not going to die, someone please help me!" Darrin pleaded for assistance in the crowded van, applying pressure to the bullet wound on my chest. "You are not going to die! You hear me? Just... Just, stay with me okay"

I tried to lift my hand up to his face, to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. Maybe not now but soon. I wanted him to know I was still here, but by the time my hand was half way, it came tumbling back down. The weird part was, I never felt it hit the ground. I felt like I was falling through the ground, to the center of the earth. My breath started to get slower and slower, soon my chest wouldn't even lift to allow anymore air in.

"He's gone..." Lilith said.

"You know what has to happen... Darrin" Liam said coldly.

"No! I won't let you-"

BANG