Page 103 of Dream Lake

“If you would just shut your piehole long enough for me to hear them, I’ll—” His attention returned to the sky. “Okay, I get it. Yes. Uh-huh. Right.” After a moment, he looked at Alex. “They’re letting me help you.”

“Who’s they?”

“Not sure. But they said we only have about fifteen seconds left before it’s too late.”

“Too late for what?”

“Quiet.They just told me how to fix this, and I’m trying to remember everything.”

“Fix what? Fix me?”

“Don’t distract me. Shut up and go stand next to the body.”

The body.Hisbody. Alex wanted so damn badly to be alive, to inhabit that broken carbon shell even for a few moments. Just long enough to tell her what she meant to him. Standing over the prone form, he saw his own still face. Zoë’s hand caressed his motionless jaw, her fingers trembling against his parted lips. The sounds she made were like the fabric of a soul being torn apart. He would never have dreamed anyone could feel such grief for him.

Precious seconds were ticking away.

“Tom,” he said desperately, his gaze locked on Zoë. “Nothing’s happening.”

“I’ll take care of my part of this.” The ghost was at his side. “You do your part.”

“Which is?”

“Focus on Zoë. Tell her what you’d say if you had a couple of extra minutes with her. Pretend she can hear you.”

Alex knelt over her, longing to stroke her hair and dry her tears. But he couldn’t hold her. He couldn’t feel or smell or kiss her. All he could do was love her. “I’m so sorry,” he said urgently. “I don’t want to leave you. I love you, Zoë. You were the one miracle I believed in. You made up for all the rest of it. I wish you could hear me. I wish you could know that.” He felt dizzy, felt himself fragmenting, the bonds of spiritual matter dissolving. The remnants of consciousness slipped between the blurred margins of life and afterlife. His last few seconds were slipping away. Words were no longer possible. Only thoughts were left, moving outward like a row of toppling dominoes.No matter what I become…I will love you. No force of heaven or hell could stop me, and damn anyone who tries. I will love you forever.

Everything went dark, the stars extinguished as the sky collapsed and the world folded in on itself.

***

“Blaspheming to the end,” Alex heard someone say dryly. “Can’t say I was surprised.”

Alex recognized Tom’s voice. He felt like he’d been encased in lead, his limbs too heavy to move. And then it hit him: he was in a body. He had a physical form.

“Wasn’t easy to get you in there,” Tom informed him. “Like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.”

Gathering sensations in a frantic rush, Alex perceived that he was lying on asphalt, his neck angled uncomfortably because of the way Zoë was clutching his head against her chest. His lungs felt like they were about to burst.

“Try breathing,” Tom suggested.

Alex pulled in a rush of cool, blessed air, blinked his eyes open, and began to move.

Zoë let out a startled cry. “Alex!” Her shaking hands moved over him. “But… you were… your chest was all… there was no way you could have…” Overcome, she covered her mouth with one hand, staring at him in terrified wonder.

With effort, Alex levered himself to a sitting position. He grasped Zoë’s wrist and pulled it away, and crushed a hard kiss against her lips. He tasted the salt of her tears. “I love you,” he said hoarsely.

Breathing in sobs, Zoë stared at him with streaming eyes.

Tom spoke to him urgently. “Help Emma. She needs to go inside the house.”

Emma was kneeling nearby, watching them blearily, the breeze blowing locks of silvery hair across her face.

Alex struggled to his feet and pulled Zoë up with him.

“Maybe you shouldn’t try to walk,” Zoë protested.

“I’m fine.”

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