Status: Complete - February 22, 2018

Haunting Grey

Sixteen

"What the fuck is this?" I snap. "This isn't right. Natalie, please."

It's a plea—for me to wake up, to stop all of this, to give me back my life. But she doesn't seem to hear me, and if she does, she's choosing not to tell me anything.

She moves toward the version of me in the bed, and touches my arm.

"Stop," I say. "What are you doing?"

"I'm here for you," she whispers, turning her head. She's speaking to both of us now, her voice soft and soothingly.

"You're taking my soul," I mutter, the realization leaving me cold. Then I remember that I'm not gone yet, and I reach out to grip her arm, pulling it away from my bedridden body. "Stop," I demand, narrowing my eyes. "You're not taking me anywhere."

She looks at me, her face crestfallen. "I don't have a choice," she tells me. "You don't have much time left, Travis. And where do you think you'll go once you flatline? You'll be stuck—like me—but I can help you in your transition."

"You're going to help me with my transition to where? Heaven?" I almost laugh. "This is unbelievable. Impossible, even."

"Don't you get it?"

Her voice turns harsh, and this is not the Natalie I know anymore. This is someone else.

"You don't have a choice," she says firmly. "I've been trying to tell you that all along, but you refused to see it. Sometimes, Grey, shitty things happen—look at me, I'm the victim of some phantom psychopath who smashed my face in with a rock—and I am never going to get justice. But your death will be understood, accepted."

"I want to live," I say, dragging a hand through my hair. "Please let me live, Nat. This isn't fair. I know that. I'm so sorry for what happened to you, but you can't justify your loneliness by taking me away too."

"I don't want to be alone," she whispers, turning into my chest. "Not without you."

I bury my face in her hair. "I will always be with you, Natalie. But you can't do this. I'm begging you."

She breaks away from me, her eyes shining with tears. Then she smiles sadly, presses her hands into my chest. I stumble back, and before I can even blink, she puts her hands on my body—the one in the bed—and everything around me fades away.