Chapter 26 #2
I hold my hand out to her, and she takes it, “No matter your decision, I will always be with you. Till death can we live.” She takes in a deep breath, and as she is calming herself, I take my last shot, “Dove, I was wrong for keeping all of this from you. I just wanted to know what it was like to feel again.” My chest begins to tighten.
“I’ve always protected you from the moment you took your first breath.
I was tethered to your family since before you were born.
” I fight to keep my voice steady, “Not a moment in my afterlife did I ever believe that I could be there for you, or with the relationship we have built, after you took your last breath.” Breathe in.
Breathe out, “I’m not proud of the night I failed you, but I don’t regret anything that came after. Please... stay with me.”
The walls are closing in on me. “Please choose me. We can watch over her... protect her from beyond the grave. We can help try to keep her on the straight and narrow.” I fall to my knees before her.
I beg for nothing, but I am about to lose the only thing that makes me feel whole, “I would have never had a chance to woo you in life, and before I was ok with that.”
Please look at me, why won’t she look at me?
She is sitting there staring at her sister’s sleeping body, “Please let me fight for you in death. Emory Evangeline Selby, will you please spend eternity with me?”
Still no answer, she hasn’t even budged, then Evelyn cried out her name. That attention seeking—wait, no, I am being the attention seeker with my pathetic pleading.
For once, Evelyn was right—she must be the center of attention, and I need to respect that.
Then Emory speaks, her voice is soft and angelic.
∞∞∞
Evelyn
The lights are so bright that a headache from hell has my eyes glued shut. I know I heard her voice, though, and I would be ok with just her voice, “Emory?” I call out, praying for a response as I listen:
Evelyn,
My beautiful sister.
I love you so much. I need you to hear me. I need you to know—this was not your fault. Not even a little. I didn’t get to say goodbye, and I know that silence haunts you. But I am at peace. I promise.
We had our moments, didn’t we? Like when you told Mom I ate all the Halloween candy, knowing full well it was that stray cat you snuck into the house.
Or when we used her gardening gloves to wash dishes because the water burned our hands.
We got in trouble, sure—but even then, we were laughing. We were always laughing.
The whirlpools. The secret tea parties. The way we made magic out of nothing. Those memories will find you when you least expect them. Let them. Let yourself cry. I’ll be crying with you.
You’ll feel it forever—that space where I used to be. Like something was torn from you. Because it was. You’ll feel lost. Like the darkness never ends. And maybe it doesn’t. But the light will start to flicker again. Slowly. Gently.
You’ll want to scream. Curse the world. Curse me. Do it. I’ll be right there beside you, screaming too. But don’t forget this:
You are strong.
You are brave.
You are wanted.
You. Will. Survive.
There will come a time when you’ll need to talk to me. And I’ll be there. In the quiet. In the stillness. Whenever you see a dove—that’s me. Just checking in. Just reminding you: I never left.
I want you to live. To love. To grow. To build a life so full it spills over. Have a family. Dance in the kitchen. Get old. Laugh until your ribs ache.
And when the time is right, I’ll be waiting—Always.
The image of an intricate bench flashes before me and I focus on the etching:
My Dove,
Not till death can you be mine
Emory Evangeline Selby
1992-2021
My eyes spring open—my face is drenched, and her voice echoes one last time:
“Find me in the garden after winter”
Blooming after hardship.
As the thought runs through my head, I look down at Christian lying in my lap. I place my hand on his head, entangling my fingers in his luscious red locks. He lifts his face. The crimson in his cheeks and the white of his eyes is a stark contrast to Jade. “Why the long face?”
He sniffles, “Sugar, I thought I lost you.”
I scoff. “I am too stubborn to die, remember.”
His face only gets more serious. “Evelyn?”
“Yes, Christian?” I rebut.
“Will you marry me?”
WOW, that was unexpected. What do I say to that?
I say the first thing that comes to mind, “And what would my last name be?” I shake my head. What a stupid question, but it worked.
He laughs, “Downey.”
Oliver
I am still in awe of the words so elegantly spoken by my Dove to her sister. They were moving. Earth shifting. It wasn’t the best thing I heard her say, though. No, the best thing was when she turned to me and said, “Yes.
My heart melted.
I don’t even give her a second to rethink her answer before I grab her around the waist and spin her, kissing her as I tell her, “Hold tight, Dove.” I know that her choice for what is coming isn’t going to be pretty. “This is going to hurt—please know I have you.”
She watches as her mother walks in, and they gather around her. Christian helps Evelyn sit, then they all nod simultaneously. Evelyn’s monitor beeps… the doctor switches off the machine, and everyone waits. Tears flow as it flatlines. “Here it comes—are you ready?”
Emory looks at me with fear in her eyes, “Is it going to hurt?”
The world begins to move just a little too fast around us. “Yes, my Dove.” She buries her face in my chest. I know what she is feeling, because I’ve been there:
It's like your body has become a battleground. Every nerve is a live wire, every breath a razor. It’s not sharp like a knife or dull like a bruise—it’s both, and more at the same time. It pulses, burns, and crushes.
Like molten metal poured into your bones, or a vice tightening around your spine, inch by inch, with no release.
It hijacks your mind, causing your thoughts to scatter like leaves in a storm.
You can’t focus, nor speak. Crying feels like acid, falling from your eyes, burning your skin on contact.
Time distorts—seconds stretch into eternities.
You become hyper-aware of every heartbeat, every twitch, and tremor. Even the silence hurts.
Emotionally, it isolates you, makes you feel trapped in your own flesh, screaming inwardly while the world moves on. There’s fear—of it never ending, and of losing control, and being reduced to nothing but suffering. It’s not just pain. Its despair wrapped in fire.
I watch the doctors come and go as she falls limp in my arms. To you, the reader, it may feel like nothing, but her suffering is far from that. To take my mind off the pain I can’t save her from, I allow my mind to wander.
Then the previous events come rushing back of Christian running into the room. Crying as he spouts his undying love for her, as I watch her wake up and place her hand on his head.
They exchange a few words, blah, blah, blah—then I hear it. That cursed name Downey.
Emory is having her spiritual awakening, as she painfully meets the being of the beyond. When I told her we could protect Evelyn, this is not what I had in mind. When I told her we could be here with her, to watch over and protect her, I wasn’t expecting that would include—him.
I vow to do everything in my power to rid them of the Downey line and forever save them from this ancient curse. She isn’t safe so long as he has his hooks of false love sunk deep into her, self-righteous heart.
So, for the time being, I will enjoy my gift from the universe. Allowing karma to whisper her poison and enact the punishment fit for his family’s wrongdoings. As for me, I have been saved.
Dark, cold, weightless.... found in a stygian ethereal realm.