Dying Wish

[24]

I threw out my left hand as fast as I could. My palm made a popping noise against her wrist, I clasped her so tight. One tug swung her around. Her feet landed between mine. My hand on her lower back, I pressed her body into me. I watched the rubble bounce to the bottom. Rather, it tried. It was dust within seconds. Bone would probably handle the fall better, but not by much. I was glad to have caught her. Now was a bad time to show off her immortality.

Alice looked down, as well.

"T-Thanks."

"I owe you a save or two, Alice."

She smiled.

If there was more time, I would've added something to this reply. Something cool and heroic. But there was this cracking noise. We looked to my left. Tiny fissures from the gap Alice made were heading this way. They ran under our ankles. I sighed, "Oh, no."

The next thing I knew, we were falling, screaming toward the sun.

I felt Alice's arm sliding away from mine. Without thinking, I squeezed as hard as I could to keep this from happening. There was another popping noise. Well, two, actually. This shut my eyes. I braced myself.

KA-BOOM!

BAM!

"Ahh," was the dried-up, pained sound I made. My spine slammed against something harder than steel. Of all the places for her to pick, why would she...? But that peaceful whooshing sound? My eyes opened to a place where the clouds swirled like globs of cotton candy; yeah, it's true, dying suns can turn water vapor purplish. Look it up later. Right now, I want to tell you about this soft, salty breeze; about this cool, grainy mineral around my neck; about the silence.

I pushed off my elbow to sit up, we were on the shore of a sandy white beach. Seagulls cawed over this shimmering orange ocean; this was the perfect place for God to place a million tiny diamonds and no one would ever know. I never knew a peace like this. For the first time in my life, I was speechless in my spirit. 

There was a shuffle next to me. Alice rose to my side.

"Whew, talk about close..."

I felt her eyes on my cheek.

"You know," she said softer, "this is what the entrance to AfterLife looks like. Every soul comes to our world on a beach just like this. That's why ocean sounds relax people so much. The sound waves make. The soul thinks it's reached AfterLife. Only real difference is the sand. There, it's green."

"And you're dead," I reminded her.

"That too. Killjoy."

I chuckled. Then I said, "Hey— Alice."

"Yeah? What is it, Gray?"

"Your secret wish to God." I turned to her. "You want to die, don't you?"

"You figured me out, huh?" she said, smiling. "I've never actually been alive, Gray. Even now, this body, this soul, everything I am, was created in AfterLife. Immortal. And that, I don't know, it's always bugged me. I want to know what it actually feels like to be alive. To feel things fully. Where everything matters more because tomorrow isn't promised." She reached out for the sky. "That's my wish, God. I can't fail."

"Hmm... Can't say I'm holding my breath," I joked.

"What?! You jerk!"

Two hands shoved me and my laughter into the sand. Before I could try to recover, this soft pressure straddled my hips. Pinned, those same shoving hands slammed around my ears. Above me was a laughing body.