Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
Mercy
The stench of blood was acrid and I could almost taste it in my mouth. It was only broken up by the strong cut of antiseptic and bleach.
The world around me dimmed and brightened, like a pulsating sonar of day and night.
Voices surrounded me, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. The edges of my vision were hazy as I tried to focus. Miles’s hand hung lifelessly off the side of a gurney, his lithe fingers so still, his bracelets sliding off his wrist. Every bone in my body hurt, but the pain was nothing compared to the ache I felt in my heart.
“Stay with me, Miles...” I cried, but no one could hear me. It took all of my strength to grab his hand.
It was cold, but I didn’t let go.
I couldn’t let go...
The darkness called me. It wasn’t vicious or angry or possessive.
It was soft. Like a whisper on my skin that beckoned me to give in. To let go.
There was a faint glow around where my hand connected with his. He didn’t answer or squeeze back, and the lumbering body of a paramedic broke our contact. They gave me their back, shouting clear , and the zaps of shocks caused another flux of pain to ricochet through me.
Adrenaline coursed through me, infusing me with a shot of energy as I rose from my gurney, reaching out for him. I screamed, I think, but the words were silent. Energy ran through me in vibrant waves, the feeling so much more than I’d ever felt before.
It was like a spirit had forged its way into my body, infiltrating my mouth, my eyes, and every pore of my skin. The glow was unmistakable, the small space bathed in bright, white light. But there was a darkness that hovered over Miles. Like a shadow.
I wanted to move, but I couldn’t.
“Sedate her!” one of the paramedics yelled, and I felt the prick of a needle on my skin. I thrashed in their grasp, and the doors opened, and Miles was pulled away.
“No!” I cried as I tried to fight my captor, but suddenly, everything felt heavy and the light became blinding.
It bled into me, my limbs softening and relaxing of their own accord, and I felt the moment I slipped away.
The light captured me, like the tentacles of a Kraken taking down a ship.
Like the jaws of a werewolf ensnaring its prey.
I watched myself, my disentangled soul, hovering above my body. Watched as the doctors told my weeping father that they were not sure if I would ever wake up.
“What about the boy?” he asked, his eyes watery, his beard overgrown.
Flowers sat on the edge of my counter by my bedside.
“He was much the same. There is no telling if...”
If I would ever wake up.
If Miles would ever wake up.
And just like that, the force pulled me back.
I was awakened by shaking. I blinked as the vision dissolved around me. It was like traveling through a wormhole, I’d imagine. The same force that pulled me under, forced me back to the surface.
To the warm arms of a demon with tears in his eyes.
Endor...
One look broke me into a thousand pieces as I set my sight on Miles, cradled by Valory.
He looked spent. His pale skin made the bags under his eyes stand out, but those eyes...
Those deep, warm, amber eyes were my everything.
I glanced up at Endor, understanding dawning on me.
“You can’t let him die,” I pleaded with the demon. “You can’t...”
“Mercy...”
“You have to save him!” I said, flashing my gaze at Valory, who helped Miles to stand.
“I can’t. He made a deal. His soul is bound. He?—”
I pushed against Endor’s chest. “No, there has to be a way!”
Endor let me go, and I hated it.
Miles swallowed, his gaze catching mine. “I’d do it again,” he said, his voice stronger than he looked.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. I ran to Valory, the distance not far. I was acutely aware that I must look like an absolute basket case at the moment, in the busy train station.
But I didn’t care. Let me look like a lunatic.
If it meant I could save Miles...
I tried to call my soul energy, like before with the wolves, but it did not come.
My hands shook along with my body, sobs wracking me.
Why wouldn’t it come?
What good was this power if I couldn’t save him?
“Oh, Mercedes...” Valory’s voice dropped, the judgment more brutal than anything.
“Come on!” I said as I shook my hands, but nothing happened.
I felt helpless.
Powerless.
“Do something,” I cried, pleading with her, but she looked at Endor.
“There is nothing she can do,” he said.
“Endor, I can?—”
“No!” he yelled. “There. Is. Nothing. You. Can. Do.”
His words are heavy. Heavy as the look in her eyes.
I thought back to my time in Heaven. To everything Matthew and that pretty demon said about lost souls.
How finding my body would give me a choice.
What if... what if Miles found his body?
Could he make a different choice?
It was a long shot, but I had to try.
I couldn’t give up on him. Not now, not ever.
My power festered within me as I grabbed him.
“Fine, I’ll do it myself,” I said, and with that, I ran.
I pulled Miles through the crowd of people, Valory and Endor calling out to us, and then the strangest thing happened.
The light within me connected to Miles, and the world became so bright it was almost blinding. The train station, the throngs of people... they all disappeared.
They all faded like ghosts, even the giant columns and structures.
That smell, the antiseptic and bleach smell, hit me first.
Miles crashed against me as we stopped, nearly toppling over as a paramedic rushed past us into the emergency room.
I stared up at the hospital as Miles buried his face in my hair.
“I’m sorry, baby,” he said. “I didn’t want this to happen. I?—”
“No,” I answered harshly, wrapping his arms around me. “No, you don’t get to be sorry,” I told him. Tears formed in my eyes again. “You don’t get to be sorry.”
I turned in his grasp, looking up into his eyes. Despite his pale coloring and the dark circles under his eyes, he still looked adorable. Young, sweet.
My Miles.
My boyfriend.
The love of my life.
I knew then that was who he was, even if I couldn’t comprehend it before.
I kissed him, and the peace I found was indescribable. It warmed my soul, and I grabbed his face, trying to push whatever power I could into him.
“No,” he said as he pushed my hands off of him. “I can’t let you do that, baby.”
“Why not?” I cried.
He held my face in his hands. “Because you have so much left to live for.”
The tears fell like rain, fast and brutal.
“I don’t want to live if it means you have to die.”
Miles kissed my forehead, his fingers sliding through my hair.
“I would gladly die a hundred deaths, Mercedes, if it meant you would live just as you are supposed to.”
“And what about you?” I asked.
Sirens blared in the distance, a memory bleeding into the present.
“What about us ?” I asked, my voice shaking. “Don’t we deserve a chance to live, too?”
Miles held me close, his lips at my ear. “Come with me.”
His words were soft. Delicate. He slid his hand into mine and squeezed. His touch was ice cold.
I swallowed harshly as I followed him through the halls to a room. When he opened it, I gasped at the sight.
There I lay.
The flowers on my bedside were fresh. The machines in the room beeped steadily, and my chest rose and fell in time.
“I made my choice, Mercy,” he said. “But I couldn’t rest until I found you.”
His words were like knives to my heart.
The love in them was undeniable, but it was the love in them that broke my heart.
“And I found you.”