Resident Black

Abandon Ship Part Three

This, ladies and gentleman, is where I leave you. I trust you could make it to the end on your own. This final mile, documented, and left in a closed file in the darkest of rooms in the most cluttered offices in all of seatle. A police report with two completely different stories. One a triumphant explosive mess, the other a heart trending waste of time that leaves you feeling empty. Either way... A captain is to go down with his ship. That's where you'll find me... among the debris. Sunk down at the bottom of the ocean with the good, the bad, and the immoral.

I'll see you in the end.

Kevin Rolls over to look at the clock on the wall. It reads eight PM, but to Kevin it seems almost cruel, like it's there for show and it doesn't actually exist. A lie told with every tic and every toc. The sun had gone down by now, had it ever risen? He pulls himself up to a seated position and looks around in the dark. His guitar beside him on the chair and a dead silence through the whole building that shook his core. His eyes centered on a figure in the darkness. A man stepping forward into the dim almost non existent light of the room.

"Hey Kevin." He said. "My name is Denny Duquette." He had such a warm smile. A gentle spirit among the beasts that roam these halls. "I died right there." The end of his pointer finger was directed at Kevin. The bed rather... "Waiting for a heart. The girl I loved cut my L-Vad wire in an attempt to save my life. She was never the same.

"Any way... I know what they've been up to down in those so called labs. Let me just say I would never have accepted that thing they want to give you, that thing they call a heart." His calliced hands rested against the window sill as he stared at the world outside. "We both know how vile and cruel what they're doing is..."

"I've tried to reject it..." Kevin's eyes on the floor, he had not enough courage to look this being in the eye. Out of all the other's, this was truly the strongest of them all. "What happened to her?"

"Who? Izzy?" The man asked taking a seat. "My little Isabel Stephens?

She was the universe." He took a deep breath. "She gave me a reason to fight... a reason to hold on. A reason to roam these halls long after she left."

"She died?"

"Oh I don't know maybe... last I heard she quit working here shortly after getting cancer. There's a chance she beat it... that she's off in some distant country living her dream of saving lives. You..." He shot his glance back at the kid on the bed. "You could save lives kid... no matter what you choose to do fate is in your hands today." What could he possibly mean?

"Any moment now, a woman is going to burst through that door, one of your doctors is going to be at the end of her rope. You're going to have to convince her to let you go if you're going to save any lives. For if you accept that heart... eternity will vanish for us souls and every life in here. Except one... I have taken the liberty of reserving the safest spot in this entire building for a single soul that will continue on after this place goes down. If you figure out a way to prevent yourself from undergoing this procedure... you will die. Everything will go back to normal. No one else has to get hurt."

Kevin finally decided to respect the man enough to make eye contact. "I was supposed to die in that arena wasn't I?" His soft whisper didn't throw the man off, it only encouraged his warmth.

Like the beating glow of the sun it's self he knelt down before the kid lying against the soft bed sheets in which he took his very last breath and in a deep low father like voice said; "You are supposed to die in this one." Like an ocean rising to cool the singed white sand shores.

With that the man faded away like a beautiful dream.

The lights from the halls outside screaming at him as the curtain was pulled back. Calliope Torres standing at them shutting the door behind her and sliding her back down the wood to hide herself from the world outside. Tucking her fingers in through her hair she took in a deep breath, and another, until she was finally able to calm down.