Life and Death: Part 3

Okay I know it's been a while, but in my defense, this is a longer chapter! :) Sorry. School's starting and life is chaos. Hopefully, it'll settle down soon, but until then…

Anyway, here you go! This is definitely not the last chapter. I'll probably either have one or two more for this story.


     My mind went blank, and I nearly dropped the phone. What? My beautiful, beautiful Abbie was…dead? That wasn’t possible! She was too wonderful to die! I could vaguely feel warm, fat tears dripping from my eyes, but I made no attempt to wipe them away. I couldn’t move. My body was in shock.

    Horrible images of her mangled, twisted, bloody body suddenly ambushed my mind. My lip began to quiver. No! It wasn’t true. The hospital had made a mistake. Abbie was too wonderful to die. She couldn’t be dead.

    I pulled myself from the gruesome thoughts that tormented me and tried to listen to what was going on on the other side of the phone.

    “Mr. Winston? Are you there? Are you alright?”

    “Yeah…” I mumbled, not trusting my voice enough to say any more than that.

    “Okay, good. I’m going to have to leave now. I hope that you’re alright.”

    I dazedly acknowledged a faint click, signaling that the line had been cut, and I put away my phone.

    Abbie was…dead…How could this happen? Abbie had believed in a wonderful, generous God that would provide for His children, but even her religion hadn’t been able to save her. How could any God that cared even remotely for His creations harm something so precious, so perfect? How could he let so innocent a creature suffer from such a horrible fate?

    I gasped as it hit me that my Abbie, my graceful, exquisite, loving Abbie, was dead. I would never see her again. I felt my knees buckle beneath me, and my limp arms failed to catch my numb body. Sharp pain sprouted on my forehead, but I paid no heed, even when a warm, sticky substance pooled under my head. Abbie was gone. Nothing mattered anymore.

    An alarmed scream echoed somewhere in the back of my mind. I faintly registered warm, shaking hands wrapping around my torso and pulling me off of the ground. Hot, thick liquid spouted from my forehead and drizzled into my mouth, choking me, but my mind was far too busy to bother with petty things such as possible death.

    Abigail…

    My beautiful Abigail would never smile again, or laugh at my cheesy jokes, or blush when I complimented her lovely looks. She would never again tell me how much she loved me…

    My chest constricted at the thought, and I was glad when I slipped into unconsciousness.



    I stirred groggily, blinking in the stark bright light that overwhelmed my eyes. Something thick and scratchy was pressed to my forehead, and I suspected the irritating feeling was what had pulled me from my deep, dream-filled slumber.

    Echoes of my nightmares, faint images that rippled unsteadily in my newfound consciousness, summoned a leaden, melancholy feeling that rested heavily on my chest. Slowly dissolving in the yellow daylight, bloodthirsty shadows with intentions of my destruction swirled and howled around my bed. I shook myself awake and away from the demons and tried to discern where I was.

    At my bedside sat a heart monitor, which was connected to my left arm by way of several thick wires. I was strapped down by a thick piece of cloth to a metal bed with a slightly lumpy mattress, under several layers of blindingly white sheets. Something moaned behind a thick divider, which separated the room in two, I supposed.

    Something was nagging at me in the back of my mind. I felt as if I should be acting about something, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what…

    I jumped, or as well as I could being strapped to the bed, as the door to the room burst open and a slightly pudgy nurse, clad in white, bustled into the room. For a moment I just watched in half-interest as she busied around, apparently not realizing that she had a small audience. When she turned, syringe in hand, and realized that I was awake, she squealed and almost dropped the needle.

    “Oh, Mr. Winston! I, er, didn’t realize you were awake.” She laughed nervously and bent over to retrieve the needle, which I watched with some interest due to the fact that her weight made her topple precariously on her plump legs.

    As she stood, I noted that she pressed something on her shoulder and mumbled into it, too quietly for me to hear. Wondering when I had become so perceptive, I brushed it off as unimportant.

    “So, Mr. Winston, are you feeling better? You suffered from quite the head injury a couple days ago. Does your head hurt?”

    I shook my head, unsure of what she was talking about. I hit my head? When? What day was it? Where exactly was I, and why?

    “I hope you’re out of this place soon. The hospital is no place for people so young…”

    My eyes widened. The hospital? I tuned out her rambling and considered my hazy memories.

    Let’s see…I told Abbie I love her, and then asked her out, and then SHE SAID YES(the very prospect still caused me to squirm with inner euphoria), I went home and went to bed, even though I couldn’t sleep…OK, I remember that week fairly well, I can skip a couple days…On Friday, I finished work early and got ready for the date, and then…oh right. Abbie didn’t show up. And that’s where my memory ends…

    I still felt as if I was missing a crucial piece to the puzzle, but I couldn’t remember what it was I was forgetting. I decided to listen to the chunky nurse’s chatter again, to see if I could pick up any clues.

    “…We’ve already called your family, they just left to get some lunch and should be back any minute. Or hour…Northside Hospital is so far away from any decent restaurants…”

    Northside Hospital?

    “This is the Northside Hospital calling. We regret to inform you that Ms. Abigail Williams, who we are told was supposed to meet with you tonight, has been in the receiving end of a serious car accident. She was gone before the paramedics could arrive. We’re so sorry.”

    As the memory returned, I felt my heart plummet and crash again.

    “Mr. Winston! Mr. Winston, are you alright?”

    I ignored the nurse’s alarmed voice and returned to my turbulent thoughts, an odd sense of deja vu washing over me.

    Abbie is dead! Abbie is dead! She’s dead and will never come back! Nasal voices cawed at me from inside my brain, and I felt my own shaking fingers tear at my skin in fear and anger.

    “Mr. Winston!”

    Snapped out of my trance, I looked down to see that I had pinned the terrified nurse to the wall, and my white, bloodless hands were gripping her throat. Shocked, I let go and backed away, horrified that I had subconsciously done such a thing, and found firm hands grasping my shoulders. I didn’t even resist as cold, metal handcuffs locked around my wrists and I was escorted from the room by trained officers.




Yes, I know that this is a Christian website and I put an anti-Christian statement in there, toward the beginning, but it'll even out in the next chapter. Or maybe the one after.

By the way, how do y'all like the idea of me writing a chapter at a time of a longer story? Do you prefer it to normal, solo single-chapter short stories? Leave a comment please :)