So breathe in so deep
Breathe me in, I'm yours to keep
And hold on to your words 'cause talk is cheap
And remember me tonight when you're asleep
Secondhand Serenade, Fall for you
A splash of color, I thought, smirking inwardly. It sounded so melodramatic I just might barf.
As promised, there was a splash of color. Let me correct that. A splash of colors, to be exact.
I learned a few things in that split second of my demise. Funny thing about dying was you get to see a rainbow of colors falling from the sky, like confetti flitting slowly to the ground. You don’t feel pain, which was a bonus. To be honest, I’d expected something between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and WWF. But there was nothing, thankfully. All I could feel was the pressure of hostage-taker’s arm against my neck. And the sticky red liquid squirting from my neck, soaking my shirt. Gross, I know. But at that very moment, all I could focus on was Sarah, frozen in mid-scream, tears streaming down her face, and the smell of strawberries. Lots and lots of sweet strawberries.
In my last attempt to fight back, I bent over then, head-butted the hostage-taker. I heard him yell and curse at me.
My head throbbed like it was floating in water, about to explode. Other than that, the only thing that could ruin this epic, theatrical death was seeing Sarah cry. She’d probably keep crying for days, I thought, because I was gone. And feeling exceptionally important.
The guy’s arm loosened from my neck.
Next thing I knew, I falling sideward. There was an incredible amount of pain when my right shoulder hit the pavement, just before the side of my head bounced on concrete. And I told myself, I wasn’t dead. Yet.
How long would I have to wait until I’d lost enough blood to finally stop breathing? I should’ve listened more in Health class. Another thing I’d learned about dying—you become overly dramatic.
When I opened my eyes, I saw only black with white burning spots. Was it time?
Several footsteps came rushing towards me. Then, I felt my head being lifted and placed on something soft. Drops of water fell on my face, and I thought, tears.
“Leon?” It was Sarah’s voice. So it was true then. Hearing was the last sense to be lost. “Please… wake up,” she whispered, her voice shaking.
I wanted to. Believe me, I did. But my eyes were wide-opened and still, I couldn’t see anything but the moving lights that danced around me.
“Leon…” I could feel her face pressed on my chest. At least I’d hoped it was Sarah’s face. “Please, don’t leave me. I… I love you,” she whispered between the sobs.
If only I could move, I’d have hugged her so tight, laughing. Those were the words I really wanted to hear from her lips. But it was too late now and as much as I was willing to give everything to her, this was one of those things that I couldn’t.
I love you too, Sarah.
Fingers stroked my brow. “The only thing that scares me more than having to leave you is you leaving me. So please…”
I’m so sorry.
“Please…”
I’ll be watching over you.
I heard the hostage-taker curse again. There were more voices. Some of them, I recognized.
“Call an ambulance!” It was Reed.
“We totally screwed up, man…” I heard Ricky from my left.
The loud commotion, the sense of panic made me all the more lightheaded.
“What the hell, Chuck!” Reed yelled. “You shouldn’t have hit him so hard!”
I could hear Chuck coughing. “He head-butted be bro! I dink by dose’s broked.” He sounded like he had a bad cold.
“Get a medic in here!” Moira shouted through the noise. “Oh my goodness! Leon, are you okay?”
It was the first time I heard Moira panic. If I could speak, I would’ve told her how weird she sounded. I was dying, if I wasn’t already dead without me actually knowing it, and she just had to ask if I was okay.
“I knew this was a bad idea,” Ricky grumbled. All of a sudden he started sniveling. “Now look at him. He’s not moving. I think we really killed him! Chuck killed him!”
“You guys…” Sarah mumbled under her breath, her legs moving under my head. Her hand touched the side of my neck where I’d been stabbed. Carefully, my head was lifted by a pair of hands onto what felt like a tangle of clothes. “What stupid thing have you done now?”
No one was paying attention to Sarah as they kept arguing.
The noise of metal clanging against concrete made me open my eyes. This time, I could see fuzzy shapes moving in front of me. I blinked twice, letting my eyes adjust to the light. My whole world swayed and I had the strong urge to hurl.
My head was turned to the side, allowing me to focus on the dozens of shoes pacing about. More so, the bloodied knife just a few inches from my face.
“Shut up, Ricky!” Reed snapped. “No one killed anybody.”
“Yes. No one did,” Sarah answered under her breath, her voice small but threatening. “But I think I will!”
Ricky started to back away. I noticed he was wearing some kind of blue uniform; police uniform. There was this stupid fake moustache hanging lopsidedly over his lips. “This is so not good,” he moaned, paling.
In perfect timing, I heard a very familiar voice through what sounded to me as a megaphone. “And… cut! Okay, people! Take five.” It was none other than Nathan—some guy I was born with and who, most unfortunately, happen to look like me.
I couldn’t say I was pleased to know he was here. In fact, a bad feeling just ran down my spine, like an impending doom.
Again, I closed my eyes and breathed in. I could breathe. I tried to feel. Besides the constant throbbing in my head and the dull pain in my right shoulder, I couldn’t point out anything wrong with my body. I could feel. Then, I tried to move. My hands and legs felt weak but, all in all, I was feeling pretty good. Finally, I scooted up, gasping for air.
I looked around. No one seemed to be paying any attention to me.
Suddenly, Chuck streaked through the crowd. Then Reed. Then Ricky.
A foldable chair flew towards them, barely missing Ricky before clattering against the pavement.
“Ricky Burns!” It was Sarah, storming her way to my friends. “You can forget all about the deal! I’ll tell everyone you kept peeing your pants every time a girl talks to you back in fourth grade!”
“Oh, come on!” Ricky stopped and raised both his hands up. “I got circumcised in fourth grade. The doctor said it was normal!”
I could feel my brows furrowing. What the hell was happening? I picked up the knife from the ground while feeling for the wound at the side of my neck. There was nothing there but blood. I’d swear I saw that knife go all the way through my neck.
“Leon!” Moira called out upon seeing me.
The world seemed to have frozen. No one was moving.
With her blue-gray eyes widening, Sarah ran to me and fell to her knees. She threw her arms on me and gave me a tight embrace, like she meant it. Like she won’t ever let go.
“I thought you were gone from me forever. I thought you were—“ Her words turned into whimpers.
Tiredly, I let my head fall on the hollow of her neck, buried in the waves of her long brown hair. Hesitantly, my hands moved on their own around the back of her waist. I still had no idea what just happened, but in my mind I couldn’t help but think that everything was falling into place. Just sitting here covered in red and half out-of-my-mind with Sarah, it couldn’t have been more perfect.
Maybe, this was heaven. Or a dream I won’t want to wake up from.
Still in a daze, I breathed out “Did you mean what you said?”
“What?”
“That you love me…” It wasn’t a question.
She nodded.
“Say it,” I mumbled.
“W-what?”
“Say you love me.”
There was an expectant moment. Just a few minutes ago, she said it without blinking and now that I wasn’t dying anymore, she was hesitating. That was just so Sarah.
Just when I thought she won’t do it, she let out a long deep sigh and said, “I—I love you, Leon Walden. Even when my mind couldn’t remember anymore, I think my heart wouldn’t stop loving you”—another sigh—“Are you happy now?”
The corners of my lips pulled up involuntarily. “Not quite what I was expecting,” I chided. “But close enough.”
With an exasperated “Ugh,” Sarah tried to push me away, but I didn’t let her.
I tightened my arms around the small of her waist and pulled her closer. “Can we just... stay like this for a while?”
She stopped moving. My heart was racing like crazy I wondered if she could feel it.
A minute or so passed. It was so silent I’d forgotten that we were in an amusement park. “Question?”
Sarah answered with a “Hmm?”
“I’m not dead, am I?”
“No, you’re not.” Sarah looked at me and this time, I let her go.
“Then, why am I covered in blood?”
Chuck hunkered close to me, running a finger on my neck before licking it.
Startled, I shoved him away. “What the—Gross, man!”
He looked up, as if to ponder on the taste of my blood. “Actually, it’s strawberry syrup.”
Quickly, I looked down at myself, sniffing my clothes. It was syrup. No wonder I thought heaven smelled like strawberries.
In my near-death experience, I learned a lot of things. For one, the guy with the hoodie who took me as a hostage was Chuck; now with a bleeding nose. “Screw you, man!”
“It wasn’t my idea,” he replied in defense. Of course, it wasn’t his idea. Since when did he have an idea?
I was flustered. “But the cops—“
Reed and Ricky, in their fake-moustache-blue-uniform disguise pointed their guns at me. They said “Don’t move,” before squirting water all over my face and laughing like maniacs.
“B-but there were gunshots!” I stuttered through the water in my face, my confusion slowly turning into annoyance. “I saw—“
Ricky cut me in midsentence.
“What? This?” He drew another gun from his holster and aimed it upwards. He pulled the trigger. But instead of a bullet, an orange light shot hundreds of yards over our heads, the loud bang making him flinch. “Ow, ow, ow!” He doubled over, pressing a hand on his right ear.
Flare gun.
Now, I felt sheepish. I knew real guns don’t fire like that. At this point, I appreciated Sarah throwing a chair at them.
If I wasn’t feeling so nauseous, I’d kill them myself.
As the flare slowly disappeared from the sky, I heard several loud explosions. In a matter of seconds, colors and lights filled the evening skies, cascading the small slivers of the setting sun that slipped through the horizon.
Reed gave Ricky a nudge in the ribs. “You’re not supposed to make the signal fire until they kiss, man! Nate’s going nuts for sure.”
“What?” Ricky yelled. “I can’t hear you! I think my ear’s busted!”
A fireworks show. I groaned inwardly. Something as elaborate and as unnecessarily flashy as this had Nate written all over it.
Quietly, I snickered. Nate’s so OC, I’d bet he’d bang his head on the wall for this minor setback. Or pull his hairs out. He hates it when everything doesn’t go exactly according to his plan.
Sarah helped me up. When I staggered, she draped my arm over her shoulder and slipped her hand around my back. Together, we looked up at the explosion of lights. In the corner of my eye, I watched her smile in awe, that smile I’d always dreamed about. That smile I wished to see every morning for the rest of my life.
Without thinking, I leaned over to her. I held her chin with my fingers, noting the blush on her cheeks, the fireworks reflecting on her gray eyes. I couldn’t help but kiss her. And at that brief moment, the world stopped. All I knew was her lips pressed to mine and the pounding inside my chest. The fireworks in front of us were nothing compared to the fireworks inside my chest.
It went as Nate planned after all.
We were both laughing silently when we let go of each other to watch the last fireworks shoot up the sky. As the last sparks flickered into ashes, I said, “Now, we can cross this out of your bucket list.”
Her eyes narrowed and I could tell this was going to be a long interrogation. So, before Sarah could go ballistic at me, I reached for the small leather-bound journal from my jacket pocket, groaning in pain as I moved my shoulder. Sporting my finest don’t-get-angry-I-love-you smile, I placed the journal on her hand.
“Where… H-how?” Sarah’s face couldn’t get any redder.
It was an effort keeping a straight face when I recalled some of the things written in there—one of them being, Kiss a really cute guy (it doesn’t have to be someone I know) while watching a fireworks show.
“I have my connections,” I answered, a bit proud of myself, although, something in my gut told me I might possibly regret it later. “And look at the bright side. You get to kiss a really cute guy.”
Her mouth opened twice but it looked like she swallowed her tongue. I’d seen this cycle of hers before. Blank, surprised, worried, then furious. While we were she was still in between surprise and worry mode, I made my move to delay the progress of the cycle.
I caught both her hands and looked her in the eyes. “I told you, didn’t I? I don’t care if we only have an hour left, as long as I’m with you. Although, a lifetime sounds a lot better. Don’t you think?”
“Yes… It does.” A wistful smile painted on her face.
“We’ll do everything on this list together.”
“But—“
I placed a finger in front of her lips before she could protest. “I’m not asking, Sarah. From now on, I’m like… gum stuck in your hair. You can’t get rid of me.” I couldn’t believe how incredibly stupid I just sounded.
She laughed, that buoyant little laugh I’d always loved. “I could always cut my hair.”
“Yeah…” I thought for two seconds, hoping for a good comeback. “But if you cut your hair, your life would be… It’d be a lot more miserable.”
Long and hard, she considered that thought. “Not that miserable,” she answered cryptically. “But I like my hair long. So… I guess there’s no getting you out of my hair.”
“No, ma’am.” I tilted my head like a perfect gentleman would.
“Wait.” Her forehead creased. Suddenly, we were advancing to furious phase. “You don’t have anything to do with this… show, do you?”
“No,” I answered almost too defensively. When that just seemed to raise her suspicion, I caught my head in my hands and staggered sideways, watching her reaction from the corner of my eyes. “Ow… my head.”
“What’s wrong?” Back to worried phase, Sarah held onto me. “Does it hurt?”
I took in a few deep breaths and answered weakly. “A little… Don’t worry.”
“Did you get that close up?” Nathan appeared behind me, like an imp would, hands held behind him like old people do when they walk. He put the megaphone in front of his mouth and shouted, “That’s a wrap!”
He was talking to a camera man. Only then did I notice how many cameras were focused on us.
“Oh, did you hurt your head, brother?” He adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, smiling for all the world like he’d just recently chucked a box of Bowel Cleanse in the state’s water supply. Perhaps, you’re using your brain beyond its capacity. “Do you, by any chance, need a CAT scan or perhaps, a kiss for your boo-boo?”
“Nathan, what did you do this time?” Sarah sighed. To be frank, I couldn’t understand how she could be a lot kinder to Nate than to my other friends, knowing that he was the one who planned everything. “For god’s sake. We can get sued for… threats to public safety. Not to mention, destruction of property.”
“Nope,” Nate leered, waving a finger at Sarah. “I paid everyone here. Even rented the whole place. I always think two steps ahead.”
Sarah eyes blazed when she looked at Nate. The kind that burned a hole through your head. Like a scolded little boy, Nate looked down, pressing his lips into a thin line.
“Alright, alright. I tricked the two of you,” he confessed, apparently, with not a hint of remorse whatsoever. Seeing as Sarah was nowhere near convinced, Nate turned to me. “Please forgive me, oh brother. My dear brother, whom I care about with all my heart to such extent that I, in the middle of my shoot, had to fly all the way here from Los Angeles, fully aware, that our father shall and inevitably will ground me for the rest of the month despite my legal age and indisputable intellectual capacity which, if I might add, is far greater than yours, to orchestrate this overly complicated plot,” he recited pausing only for a single breath.
“I don’t get it,” I muttered, glaring at him.
“My point exactly,” he sneered.
“Nathan!” Sarah hissed at him.
Clearing his throat, Nate shrugged, rolling his eyes. “I’m sorry, Leon. And you’re welcome because I just reunited you with your one great love,” he mumbled monotonously, making sure that I realized he didn’t mean a word of it.
“Okaaayy…” I didn’t know what to say. “Why’d you do it then?”
“Exactly what are we talking about?”
“All these.” I looked around, gesturing at everything. “Why’d you do it?”
As if to think, he picked up the bloody knife from the ground. Then, with a finger, he pushed against the tip of the blade. It retracted into the handle. A props knife.
With a grin, he said “I thought it might be fun, seeing you die.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi, guys! I hope you didn't get too impatient waiting. What do you think of this installment? Hmm... is this the end or is there more? Tell me what you think! Check out my facebook page (Shim Simplina) and Twitter (@Simply_shim) And please, don't forget to check out my first story in booktrack.com called Aurum. I am in dire need of your help and it would mean the world to me if you could Rate and Comment on it.
thanks in advance, Shim :)