Fade

A Chapter by adampegg8

Xander falls into the beginning of the story.

Tobias. Tobias Scott. The name had always sounded odd to him, but as he laid there, shaking, it sounded good. Why had he thought it was a bad name? He was so silly about it too; he hated when people called him Tobias. Instead, he went by his middle name, Alexander, but he didn’t abbreviate it like everyone else. His name was Xander. Xander Scott. But, as he lay there, the names began to slip away from him. Flashes occurred inside his mind, but he knew that it wasn’t what was really in front of him. He was reliving his past. This was Xander’s death, and he knew it.

He could feel his brain pumping, harder and more painful than usual. His brain was bleeding inside, but that could be expected. For a second he shifted his good eye and saw a crimson blood splotch on the table. “Ah, that’s what happened,” he thought to himself; the table was the cause of the bleeding. Tearing up, he realized that after this, he’d just be another patient on the slab; another accident and and product of SUDEP.

Xander didn’t want to die of such a stupid cause, taken out by a table during a fall. He always thought that he’d be stabbed in a valiant effort to save someone’s life, shot in a hail of gunfire as he took out a crew of organized criminals, or blown to smithereens by a bomb that would’ve killed a throng of civilians. He was supposed to die from something real and courageous or brave, but here he was, bleeding out on the floor because of a seizure and a damned table.

Suddenly his mind flashed to that of something that he couldn’t help but smile about. There, clearly in his mind he saw her, his wife. Elizabeth Scott, the most perfect woman on the Earth to him. Xander reached out to her tan arms, seeing her beautiful brown, long hair flow towards him. Her face had some minor imperfections, but he had always seen past them, she was perfect. Elizabeth’s shining green eyes focused on him and sparkled brightly in that way that they always did when she laid her eyes on him. Her medium-thick lips parted, she was going to kiss him. He smiled as she moved closer to him, but as her hands passed through him, he realized that she was only a figment of his imagination.

Xander began to cry, he could feel the tears on his cheeks, stinging his eyes. He started to try and call out to Elizabeth in case she was really there, near him, hiding where he couldn’t see.The shadows stayed there, and she wasn’t present, no noise followed. It was silent. But then Xander realized that he hadn’t called her name at all. He felt with his tongue around in his damp mouth and realized that his mouth was full of a thick substance now. He swallowed hard, but it just wouldn’t go down; he was beginning to choke on it. What was the liquid? He tried to taste it, but there was too much of it to even have a taste. Then, he thought about his predicament. Xander was choking on his own blood, it was filling his lungs.

This is around the point where most people would give up, but Xander was determined to see Elizabeth, even just one more time, before he died. He needed to feel her warmth before he passed himself into the cold. The only thing that would make his transition peaceful was her hand in his, and her head on his chest listening to his heartbeat like she always did. What would she think when she laid her head there and suddenly heard the rhythm wilt and slowly die, with her loved one? He didn’t care what she would think, he just wanted to feel her head and hair draped across him one more time. When she laid with him, it was the only time when he would ever truly feel calm and at peace. She had that effect on him, she was the only one that had ever truly cared about him and showed him love. That’s all he had ever asked from her, was love, but she always went the extra mile to make him feel good about himself. Xander knew that Elizabeth was always aware of his feelings, as they both had come from very fragile beginnings. They had survived everything together, but now she would have to continue without him.

Xander slowly, gruelingly, allowed his eye’s shutters to close. Knowing it was his time, he smiled and accepted his end. He choked up one last gulp of blood from his lungs and his body took one last violent shake that he had lived with his whole life. He imagined and wondered if people truly had their whole life flash as they died, and he hoped he could relive it all again and feel the love of his beautiful Elizabeth. He just wanted to feel her warmth one last time...