Dying Wish

[9]

Terrified, my captors had turned around. In front of them was a girl in satin pajamas. Barefooted. Hair pinned back. "Hi," Alice said. "I, uh, I know I'm interrupting. It's just, ughh—" she palmed her forehead— "I'm pretty sure I said, if I ever saw either of you again, you'd regret it. I think that's what I said. Ringing any bells?" Her fingers curled near her cheek. There it was. "You want the Death Coin?" They tensed in its presence.

"We are so screwed," Randy quivered.

"WELL, HERE IT IS," Alice shouted.

She snatched the object into her fist and lunged. Maybe it was just me, I was low on blood after all, but she was an absolute blur. I think it was a punch. Yeah, that's how Randy slammed to the floor. A roundhouse kick took Maria down. There was the bang of the gun, but the bullet flew into the ceiling.

"Aahhh, Godddd!" Randy was already scrambling to the door. Already fidgeting with the handle. "I can't see! Ahhh!" Nothing mystic impaired his vision. It was the stress of knowing something was coming after him.

"Not this time," Alice said, snatching the empty glass of water. "HEY!" Her body was going into a throwing motion. The timing was perfect. Randy turned his frightened face down the hall. There was a crash.

Three immediate effects followed: first— Randy's neck snapped back, second— blood drained down the bridge of his nose, and third— he tipped backward. The trauma was enough to knock him out. Alice was far from done.

Still in a lunging position, she curled her right fingers. This froze the falling shards of glass around Randy's collarbone. Each piece shook. Then shot upward. Everyone heard the flesh-shredding and body-thumping. Nothing slid down the door but a lifeless, bloodied, butchered thing.

Horror was on Maria's face.

Alice had this cold calmness about her. The same was true about her voice. "So, how was this supposed to work, huh? I kill your boy, you kill mine. Not the brightest idea in the world." She watched Maria twist her eyes around the room. For a second. Maria's hand went out. "Touch the gun, you die very painfully." The hand stopped. The tremors started as Alice added, "Answer my question, you die less painfully. It's your call. I doubt coming after the Death Coin was your idea. It's not your typical spur of the moment thing. It's not like taking the family to Hawaii. How do you know about it? Who from AfterLife are you working for?"

My nostrils detected a smell. A burning something coming from somewhere nearby. But it was hard to distinguish. The adrenaline keeping me conscious was fading. Everything was coming at me in intermittent waves of fuzziness.

Maria had her choice. She chose wrong.

Body thrown toward the gun, the floorboards gave out. It looked like some kind of freak accident, but Alice was responsible. She corroded the wood with nothing but a snarl. A howl followed, something too shrill to forget. It grew more distant. The crash of metal and the exploding oven shook the house. Muddy brown smoke rose through the hole. Maria died instantly. Still, that had to be painful.

I was ready to be rescued.

Here's the thing about my pillowcase restraints. At this point, they were about the only thing keeping me upright. So, when they withered from around my wrists, my chest fell forward, helplessly. The floor enlarged. Closer, closer, closer. I braced for a cruel crash.

Instead, a soft frame blunted the blow. The sweet smell of perfume— or was it shampoo— my face was too deep into her silky hair to distinguish the source. Could've been a mixture of both. Didn't matter. Anything was better than the musky choke of smoke.

"Honestly, Gray," Alice huffed, "I can't leave you alone for a second."

"This, mmm—" pain stabbed my knee— "this... is my fault?"

"I'm going to transpose us now. God, I really hope this doesn't kill you."

"W... What?" I said.

"Your body," she said. "It's different than mine. Weaker. We'll either end up at the house or you, or, uh, you'll get ripped apart. Not the best options, I know. But we can't stay here. The fire. It's starting to spread. And your knee. You're losing a lot of blood. Like I said, not the best options. Ok, here goes. One—"

"Oh, not this again," I said.

"Two..."

"Wait, wait!"

"Wait? Gray—"

"...In case this does kill me. Thank you. For coming."

Her body twitched.

"We... We have a deal," she said.

"We do, don't we?" I said sleepily in her arms.

"Here we go." Those were the final words I heard before it happened. Before her fingers dug into my back and pulled me close. Our bodies rolled. Everything shifted around me. All the heat. All the light and smoke. Gone.

This came with a deafening noise. Wind beating against my body. The blast of a cannon to the face. So loud my eyes should've popped from my skull. Or my skull from my shoulders. What did I see during the transpose? Very little. We'd spun so fast it was all a great big blur. I also suffered the awful feeling of falling. Had we tumble off the edge of the world?

Although we crashed onto something soft, the momentum split us apart. Alice thumped off the side of what had to be a queen-sized mattress. I bounced to a stop. The walls continued to sway. That was my smaller problem.

My knee... This wetness...

Alice reached onto the mattress, that's what made her tense. The wetness met her palm.

She pulled down a sopping red glove. She gasped. As her hand snatched a sheet and her knees splashed through the muck, I knew time was running out. Alice did, too. I saw it on her face. The fright. Blood on her cheeks from plucking loose hair strands behind her ear. My blood. Both hands mashed balled up fabrics against my wound, but they turned red in seconds. In a weak voice I forced out, "...pital. Hos... pital..."

"It's too far," Alice said. "Your body never would've made it! T-The blood, it's coming out too fast. I- I can't stop it. You— hey! Gray! Gray!"

My eyes were too heavy to keep open. A coldness crawled up my arms. This was the end. Had to be. What else would explain this floating sensation? And the repeated chimes... DING-DONG! DING-DONG! A bell? I knew what that meant. I thought I did, anyway.

My final memory of that night was the patter of feet from the room. She left me.

Dying alone. It's not as bad as you might imagine.

It's worse. Much, much worse.

HOPE YOU ENJOYED!!

I THINK THESE TWO COULD USE A VOTE! ALICE DID HER THING!!! LOOOOOL

MORE TOMORROW!