The Night

Chapter Eight

        My eyes were glazed over when I finally opened them.  Not moving my head resting on the pillow, I glanced around to see white sheets pulled up over my legs, my wrist hooked up to an IV, and a heart monitor to my right.  I supposed that I wasn’t dead after all and I smiled, very much relieved.  My mother wept in a chair beside me.  Her head was wrung in her hands as she   muttered all of these things to herself that were mostly incoherent except for “I’ll never forgive myself,” and “my poor baby girl.” 

            “Mom,” I gently spoke.

            She didn’t look up.

            “Mom!” I enunciated.

            She still didn’t look up.

            “She can’t hear you,” a gaunt man limped into the room.  Tall and thin, his face was shaped like a fish.  He was older with slicked-back grey hair falling behind his neck.  He wore a black suit and held a twisted cane with a skull at the top.

            “Who are you?” My voice sounded as if I were trying to talk underwater.  In a surprised confusion, I touched my throat.  The man had the faintest crooked smile on his thinly stretched lips.

            “My name is Death,” he replied calmly.

            “Death?  Am I dead?”  I couldn’t be.

            “Not yet.  But you will be.  Unfortunately you’ve lost too much blood from your bullet wound.  Quite a noble thing that you did for your mother.” 

            My heart sank.  I don’t want to die.  Not yet…

            “Is she going to be okay?”  I finally replied.

            “She’s keeping your last wish, you know.”

            “She won’t kill herself after all?”

            He smiled. “She isn’t on my list for any time soon, so I don’t think so.”

             Good.  Maybe she’ll finally be the mother she needed to be even if I won’t be here.

            “So…why exactly are you here?” I asked. “Are you going to kill me?

            “Yes.  But first I have something for you.”

            “What?”

            “A wish!  I get to grant you your dying wish.  You can wish for almost anything you want except of course there are some exceptions. You can’t bring the dead back to life, including of course yourself, you cannot kill anybody.  And you cannot reverse anything else that has permanently been done.

            “So I can’t end Night’s curse?  I can’t give him back his humanity and mortality?  He never actually died.”

            “My dear, I’m afraid I cannot.  Nyx cursed him forever and I do not have the power to fix him.”

              Another blow to my heart.  “What happened to her, by the way?”

            “Nyx?  Oh, I sent my reapers after her immediately.  She broke the laws of magic and she manipulated and cursed an innocent man. Nyx had to pay for what she did.”

            “So the reapers killed her?”

            “Yes of course they did.  We tried to break Victor’s curse long ago but we could not.  Her curse was irreversible: she used the darkest magic to make sure that it could not be broken. It is quite rare for fairies to turn against the Code; usually they are good-natured and extremely loyal.  Oh, and I forgot to mention: for your wish, you are allowed to choose your role in the afterlife.”

            “My afterlife?”

            “Yes! You can be a fairy if you like.  Or you can stay here and haunt this world as a ghost where no one can see you.  You could join the rest of the dead or you could decide to end your existence altogether…here,” he handed me a brochure entitled “Your Plan for the Afterlife”, as if it were an advertisement for a retirement home or something like that.  “Why don’t you have a look at this,” he continued.

            If I couldn’t end Victor’s curse I would suffer it with him; except it would not be suffering because we would be together forever.

            I cast the paper aside and spoke up. “Can I be like Victor?”

            “The Night?  You want to share his curse?  You’ll be dead during the day, you know.”

            “I’m already dead,” I chuckled. “But I will live every night.  And Victor won’t have to be alone anymore.”

            “Is that really what you want?”

            “Yes…I…I love him.” I’d never told Victor how I felt about him, but I think now was when I realized that I truly loved him.    

            He smirked and looked as if he were suppressing a laugh. “I’ll see what I can do.”

            He came closer to me. “Are you ready?”

            “To die?”

            “Yes, and start your new life.”

            “Wait.  Let me say goodbye to my mom.”

            “But she can’t hear you,” he rolled his eyes.  Maybe he was behind schedule today.

            I gave him an annoyed look. “I know that.”  I turned to look at her anguished face one last time. “Mom, I know I didn’t show or tell you this very much, but I love you.  Even though you can’t hear me right now I want you to know that.  And I want you to live.  For me.  Please, enjoy the rest of your life and be happy.  Goodbye.” 

            “All done?” He asked sarcastically.

            “Yes.”

            “Alright.” He leaned over me, closed his eyes, and put his wrinkled hand on my forehead.

           

Immediately I felt a surge go through my entire body as if I had been electrocuted.  I could feel the dullness of my heart’s beating slowly stop completely.  My throat closed up until I could no longer breathe.   All went black, the only farewell I received from this world was Death whispering “Goodbye.”

            I slipped into oblivion once again.