||F E A R||

||SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE||

"Dread... your father, Dzai... he's gone." Charge softly said as she stroked his short hair. "Remember Dread?" He strained and squinted intensely at her.
     "No. He's right in front of me. Look I-" he laughs out as he struggles to sit up. "Pops c'mon tell 'em." His old accent comes out. His ancestors were from somewhere in a state, a state called New York... Queen somethin. "Tell them" he says over and over, each time louder and than the time before.
     It's not long before hems screaming it, managing to force himself an inch forward more with each statement. There's veins swelling in his neck, the tint has seeped into the skin, turning it purplish grey. His hands are gripping the metal bars of the bed's rails. He's pinched and twisted the welded material into jagged zags.
     "Dread, look at me. LOOK AT ME." I annunciate and pushed my hand against his cheek, his glassy eyes bearing my soul.
     "Fear, he's right there. You gotta believe me. You believe me... right?" His voice... this strong person I've grown so used to and love so dearly was coming apart. He was withdrawing.
     "He's there baby, he's there baby. Honestly, I was waiting for you to notice him actually. We bet me 60 units against how long it'd take you. He won obviously" I forced myself to laugh. Comfort him. Angeline's words echoed. I squeezed his hand lightly as he began to lay back, chuckling softly to himself.
     "Of course he did. Pops always had a nack for things, didn't ya old man?" He chuckles to himself. I gave a look to the girls. Comfort him. Indulge him. He won't make it through the night I silently told them. Blu forced a smile and a huff of air as she ran her knuckles delicately against his cheek. Dread began a one sided conversation with her. I watched as Charge's lips were pressed in a firm line, occasionally sucking her lips in between her teeth and clenching her jaw every time she was about to cry.
     "I see him now. Old man still thinks it's funny to make me jump as often as possible. Cocky bastard."

     He couldn't form words now, couldn't lift his arms, barely had the strength to blink.
     "Dread?" I whispered. He wheezed out a harsh breath and slowly looked at me. The noise he made, the gurgle, he made to let me know he heard me, he acknowledged me, urged me to continue. "Sleep handsome. We'll be here when you wake up I promise. All of us." One of my hands held his, lazily dragging my thumb across the back of his hand, the other gently resting on his rising and falling chest. I looked at the girls nestled into the two chairs against the wall. Finally asleep.
     "Oh Dread..." I closed my eyes and took a breath before looking at him again. He's one step closer to shaking Death's boney hand every time I look at him. I exhaled and opened my eyes, mine locking with his. One shade away."Oh Dread..." I repeated quietly, losing my words. With what strength he had, which wasn't much, he placed the hand I had been holding against my cheek. I wrapped my hand around his once more and held it there. For once, my hands are warm.
     He wiped away a tear I didn't know had fallen away with his thumb and weakly smiled. He tried to say something, but it ended up being jumbled grunts. I shook my head and wrapped my free hand around his forearm, nuzzling my cheek into the rough skin of his palm and squeezed my eyes shut, committing his warmth to the deepest part of my memory. I inhaled a shaky breath. It wasn't long before the monitor emitted that fateful note, screaming out that he had left me.