Shoot Me Down

Part 33

Officer Holt is dragging Caleb away, her face is almost white enough to match my mother's. Love hunkers down beside my parents, and I hover behind him, chewing on my nails anxiously. This can't happen, she can't die. I love her too much. I wish I'd realized that sooner. I'd thought my parents didn't care, but I couldn't have been more wrong. They'd been fighting for me all this time. What's that saying about not knowing what you have? I don't want her to die, even if it means she comes with me. She has to stay with my dad. They have to take care of one another.

"Please mom..." My voice cracks and I can barely speak past the tears that rise up to choke me. "You have to be okay. I love you so much, but you can't come with me."

"I'm going to take your hands away and check the wound," Love says soothingly. "Just try to relax now. See, ah. It just clipped you. I know it feels like you're dying, but you're not. Here, Mr. Morgan. Let's have your sweatshirt to stop that bleeding. I've already got the paramedics on their way. How do you feel? Mrs. Morgan?"

But mom isn't looking at him anymore. She's looking past him, a huge smile on her face. For a second I wonder if she's delirious, and then she says joyfully,

"Breanne, my little girl."

Dad's eyes flicker up and grow huge and round. His mouth falls open.

Hope surges through me. They can see me. They're looking right at me.

"Hey." I drift forward, so happy I could burst. "It's me."

My mother takes a shuddering breath. "Oh Bree..."

"It's okay. You're going to be okay. And so am I. I'm going to be okay. I'm going with Sam, remember Sam?" She nods, eyes wide and shell shocked, and I continue, "He's taking me to the other side with him. There's nothing to be afraid of. Life after death isn't much different than life, so far." I reach out and brush her arm, delighted that her skin feels solid under my fingers, I touch dad's shoulder, and his eyes fill with tears. "I love you both so much."

She can hardly talk, tears are flowing down both cheeks. "I love you too."

Dad only nods, apparently speechless.

I turn to see Officer Love. His mouth is hanging open so wide that he almost looks comical, and I give him a big smile. "You did really well. I knew I had a good feeling about you."

He only sputters, shaking his head, eyes as wide as saucers.

I turn to Bree then. She's shaking and sobbing. Her knees finally give out and she crumples to the deck. "I'm so sorry," she mumbles over and over. "Bree, I'm sorry."

"I forgive you." I feel strange. Heavy and light at the same time.

Something inside me, that twisting alien feeling, is growing smaller, weaker. Gradually it crumbles to pieces, washed away by tears. The darkness is gone.

It's finally over, I can go. It hurts to leave my parents behind, but I think of Sam waiting for me at the river, and my heart thrums with energy. I have to get back to him. "I have to go now. " I give Mom's arm one last squeeze, and then I turn and run as fast as I can into the forest.

I run. Lungs burning, wind rushing through my hair, heart thundering. I run as fast as I can. My thoughts are churning as fast as my legs are pumping. What if I arrive too late? What if Sam is gone by the time I get there? What if, what if, what if?

My heart is about to burst. Rocks and dirt slide under my feet. It doesn't make sense, but I'm completely here now. I'm tangible. Branches whip past me, stinging my skin. My feet beat out a steady rhythm on the forest floor. I should be gliding right now. I should be moving through the trees like smoke. Instead I'm crashing through the forest, clumsy and full of panic.

The sound of the river reaches me, urging me to put on speed. At last I'm there, and I skid to a stop, feet sliding on the river bank, nearly taking me over the side. Rocks shoot over and splash into the water below. There is no one here.

"Sam?" My voice is high, frantic. "Sam? Where are you?"

I stay perfectly still, holding my breath. There is only silence, and a lone bird call in the distant trees. "Sam? Oh please, Sam! Where are you?" There's a thousand pounds on my chest, crushing me. Tears are threatening, prickling my eyes. "Sam?"

I'm shouting now, turning in slow circles, desperate to spot a sign of movement in the forest around me. "Sam?"

"Bree?"

I whirl around. Sam is upriver. We are both ghosts, I know that, but there's nothing similar about us. I'm real and solid, and he is just a memory, almost gone. His skin is translucent, there's hardly anything left to see. I can see the forest behind him through his body.

He holds a hand out to me, and even though he's less than twenty feet away his voice reaches me faintly, as if he's speaking from the end of a long tunnel. He's almost gone.

For a second I'm frozen, my heart is frozen. I'm too late. Then a burst of fierce determination sets me in motion. I didn't go through all of this crap just to lose him. I can't lose him. I won't survive it.

My lungs burn as I sprint towards him. Sam stands with one arm outstretched, calling to me in a faint, desperate voice. He's fading from the ground up, his body's dissolving a little bit at a time.

I'll never make it. I'm sobbing as I run, panting and crying for him to wait for me. My foot strikes a root and I nearly go down, but I force my body to keep going. I can see more of the forest now than Sam. His face is gone, his beautiful features have dissolved. There is only a man-shaped outline, and it's disappearing too fast.

I lunge the last two feet, calling his name, hand outstretched for his. For a moment there is nothing, I'm falling, my hand sweeps through him and my heart drops. And then the figure moves. He darts an arm out toward my hand. It is nothing more then a flutter of sensation, a butterfly kiss on the back of my hand. Then a shock goes through me. A hundred volts hits me square in the chest. I gasp, reeling backwards, sprawling on the dirt.

The world is spinning in circles around me. I hold my breath in terror as the trees fade in and out, blurring into one another in a green and brown blob. The rush of the river fades out, replaced by the rhythm of my own heart. What's happening?

I shut my eyes to stop everything from spinning.

"Bree."

My heart stutters at the sound of his voice, and my eyes fly open. The forest is still blurred and undefined, like it doesn't exist in the same world I do. But the person standing in front of me is as real as I am. Sam. His face is radiant, glowing with happiness. His brown eyes shine, and he reaches a hand out toward me.

"You did it. You did it Bree."

I reach for his hand and clasp it, and something courses through me, a tingle of connection. His hand is warm over mine, and he pulls me into his arms and holds me so tightly I can hardly breath. I gasp, pressing my face into the side of his neck. Breathing in his scent, feeling the warmth of his skin, tasting it beneath my lips,

" I almost didn't make it..."

"But you did." He says, and I can hear the joy in his voice." Now, shut your eyes and hold onto me. It's time to go home."

THE END

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