Evelyn

Chapter 13: Evelyn

Water.

It's everywhere.

Looks up.

Panic.

Beneath ice.

Open mouth for breath.

No air.

Drowning.

Conscious fading.

This is the end.

Darkness.

Welcome.

Goodbye.

Max.

There he was like an Angel. Descending into the frigid abyss that would take us both in its arctic claws. I closed my eyes, happy to hallucinate his beautiful being one more time. I could die happy knowing the one man I had ever felt something for had been the last thing I saw.

Darkness.

Fading.

I gasped for air shaking. No, no, no. I was gasping, gasping for air, I couldn't drown. My eyes shot open and they were met with gelid ones. Ice-capped mountains of eyes that I would recognize anywhere.

"Shh, shh, shh," he rubbed my back, "You're safe, Evelyn. Your okay. I'm here," he whispered softly. His arms were wrapped around me, and I was in a cocoon of warmth and safety. It contrasted so greatly with the deathly grasp of cold I had felt just moments before.

I was dead. That was the only explanation.

"I-is this thé a-afterlife," I choked. My eyes welled with tears.

"No, no, angel, it's not the afterlife. You're alive. This is real."

I shook my head furiously as hot tears poured down my face.

It isn't possible. This can't be real. Maximus couldn't, wouldn't, possibly hold me.

"No, no, no, it c-can't- it can't be," I sobbed as I began to hyperventilate. I felt our seating shift as Maximus sat up with me in his arms. He grabbed my hand which clung to the blanket around me and moved it to my chest.

"Ev, Evelyn, feel that. Do you feel it?" he asks me in desperation.

I felt where he placed my hand.

Bump-bump. Bump-bump. Bump-bump.

I felt it and nodded.

"You're real. You're alive," he exasperated.

"No, no, y-you, y-y-you can't be real. M-m-max w-wouldn't b-be he-here."

I watched his face grow weary as he sighed. He grabbed my hand and shifted the blanket so half of his chest was exposed. He grabbed my hand and placed it on his chest whispering, "Do you feel that Evelyn? Do you feel that?"