Unbreakable (Shadow Falls: After Dark 0.5)(16)

He was dying. He thought hearing it would have caused him to react. He didn’t. He thought of the light tunnel where he’d seen his family. He wanted to go there.

Chase opened his eyes to tell them it was okay. He couldn’t speak but he stared at the blurry figures. One of the men passed something to the other.

Chase blinked the ice from his lashes and saw the man in the white lab coat holding a knife. Chase’s heart thumped once in fear. Then he watched as the man turned the knife on himself. He put the knife to his palm and gripped it. Blood, one drop at a time, dripped from his clenched fist.

Chase didn’t react to it because somehow it didn’t seem to matter. He was dying and he was going to go to the light.

As Chase stared, the guy dropped the knife in the snow. Then he pressed his bleeding palm to Chase’s arm, to an open wound he had there. The touch wasn’t nearly as warm as he’d thought it would be. Then suddenly it was. It was so warm it stung.

“Hot,” he tried to say, but wasn’t sure he’d managed it.

A burning sensation started flowing inside him. He heard himself moan.

“Come on, kid. Hang in there. I owe your dad that much.”

Chase choked on his next intake of air.

“Damn it! Don’t you die on me!”

Die on me. Die on me. Die on me.

The words echoed in his head and he saw the light again. Peaceful, pure, bright but somehow soft. It didn’t hurt to look at it. As a matter of fact it was beautiful.

All of a sudden his dad and mom appeared beside him. “No,” his mom said. “Go back.”

“Live, son,” his dad said. “Live for us.”

“I don’t want to,” he said. “I … I don’t want to be alone.”

“Take him back, damn it!” his father roared, staring back into the tunnel of light as if someone else was there. “Please, it’s not fair.”

Something started pulling him away again. “No,” he begged. “I like it here.”

He stopped moving. He heard the bark again. Baxter.

Turning in circles, he looked for his dog. “Come here, boy. Come here.”

“Chase?”

The fine voice had him swinging back around.

Tami.

She looked even more beautiful than he remembered. Her dark hair glistened with the light. Her smile lit up her face. Angelic. That’s how he would describe her.

She moved to him. Her presence so sweet his chest ached.

All of a sudden she looked back over her shoulder as if someone called her. “It’s my brother,” she said when she turned around. “He’s here. And he looks so good. He runs and can play ball like he loved to do before he got sick.”

Chase tried to look over her shoulder to see him, but he couldn’t. He could only see her. He let his gaze fall back on her face. On her eyes that seemed honestly happy.

But then her smiled faded. “You have to go back, Chase. Don’t you remember what she said?”

“What who said?”

“You can’t turn your back on a challenge, Chase. That’s what the palm reader said. I bought the dog collar with the saying on it, remember? It’s in your pocket. In your jacket. You have to face this challenge.”

“No, I don’t want to go back. I’d be alone. It would be unbearable.”

“You’ll be sad for a while, but not forever. It’s not like it will go away, you just learn to go on and then you realize that life hasn’t ended. I did it with my brother. And you’ll do it, too. Go, Chase, go face the challenge.”

He shook his head. “You were my challenge.”

She grinned. “Are you kidding? I wasn’t a challenge. You had me in the palm of your hand the first time I saw you playing baseball. You looked so good in the uniform.” She glanced back again as if she was being called. “Go back.”

“No,” he said.

She looked sad. “Look, I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you this, but you can see things up here. Glimpses of the future. And I know for a fact that you’re going to be okay. You’re going to meet someone.” She laughed. “You only thought I was a challenge. This other girl you’ll meet is the real thing.” She sighed. “Oh, Chase. You have so much life to live. And you can do it. Don’t turn away from it.” She looked back one more time. “I have to go. My brother is calling.”

She faded. Disappeared right in front of him. The place where she’d stood held snowflakes and tiny pieces of frozen ice. Slowly it all floated to the ground.

“I’m not going back!” he muttered.

November 1, 7 p.m.

News Flash: Update

All five bodies have been recovered from the crash of the Cessna 210 in the Jasper Mountain Range

The Search and Rescue (SAR) crew found the last victim of the fatal crash among the charred remains of the Cessna 210. Family and friends of both the Tallmans and the Collinses are waiting for the bodies to be released from the morgue after autopsies so they can be taken back to Texas for burial.

Tom Phillips, Search and Rescue volunteer, was quoted saying it was “still too early to speculate as to what caused the crash, but weather could have played a part in the accident.” Phillips added he “could not imagine the heartbreak of the families involved.”