Chapter 27

(Chapter song ‘You Were Good To Me’ by Jeremy Zucker, ‘What’s Coming To Me' by Dorothy)

JESSE I can’t hear anything except my thumping heart.

I can’t feel anything except Penelope’s touch on my skin. Her lips on mine. Her warmth in my arms.

Caliel is fighting Artemis who has him wrapped in the body of a thick snake. The angel screams while Satan slowly tries to kill him. This is why.

I look up to the sky and the moon is prettiest blue I’ve ever seen. My eyes meet hers and I know I have to do this, but I don’t want to. Can’t I have this? Please.

I’m entranced by her stare and I feel the world disappear even more. She’s crying and every tear is like a dagger to my chest.

“I’m sorry.” I shake my head to her. “So fucking sorry.”

Her mouth falls and confusion sets in.

Dakota puts several bullets into Artemis which makes him shift and drop Caliel. Caliel grabs him and places fingers on his chest. Lightning comes from his fingers and Artemis screams in pain.

Caliel holds him down. He whips his head to me. “JESSE! END THIS!” He growls loud.

Penelope looks between Caliel and me. “What?”

“I have to go, baby.” Tears fall down my face as I stare at hers.

“No.” She shakes her. “No. What do you…Jesse…No…” Her cheeks soak and I wipe my eyes.

“It’s for the best, Sweet Pea. I wanted to give you everything and this is the only way I can do it.” My breath is shaky and my body sweats.

“Jesse, what are you saying? I don’t understand?” She stood a distance from me as I stood at the edge of the cliff. Her cheeks were flushed and her tear filled eyes were so desperate for answers.

“You will, baby. Maybe not at first, but ya will. I promise. Just know that I’m doin’ this to keep you safe and givin’ you yer best life. Remember that.” I choke on my words as they leave my lips.

“Jesse…NO! YOU CAN'T! PLEASE!!” She starts to fight and panic against Justice.

“Stop, little girl. It’s OK. It’s fine. I promise.” I tilt my head and my face pains. “I have to. I’m sorry…”

I swallow as I turn my attention to Artemis bleeding under Caliel. “I spent my entire life runnin’ from you. The runnin’ stops now.”

“Don’t you dare!!” Artemis yells as he tries to break from Caliels pin.

“You will never get what ya want from me. I should have done this centuries ago.” I sniff and wipe my nose. I turn to look down at the bottom of the cliff.

“JESSE!” Penelope sobs and fights even more.

Dakota walks up. “What are ya doin’?”

I slowly turn back and face my long time friend. “Makin’ things right.” I laugh. “Savin’ the world, I guess. Imagine that. Me a hero.”

“You were always a hero in my book.” Dakota says.

I chuckle. “We both know that’s a goddamn lie.”

“Yeah, it is.” He laughs and wipes his nose. “You sure there ain’t no other way?”

I try to stifle my cry and shake my head. “As long as I’m alive, my blood will always be a threat.”

Dakota takes a few more steps and puts his thumbs in his hem. “I will say, I have never been the same since I met you. It was an honor. It truly was.” He bites his bottom lip and tries to smile.

“NO! LET ME GO!! JESSE, PLEASE!! I LOVE YOU! NO!!” Penelope screams.

My heart shatters even more.

“Caliel, you protect her with your life, understand me.” I nod to him.

“Of course, my friend. Godspeed.” He says as he holds Artemis down.

“NOOO!!”

I look into her devastated face. “Sweet Pea. I want ya to know, you were the best damn thing to happen to me. Don’t think you didn’t save me, ya did. In more ways than one. There was not one minute I regretted being with you. Remember that. Remember me, baby. Please don’t forget me. Remember how happy you made me, ok. Don’t think I didn’t….” I look down to the ground. Even right now I can’t say it because I’ll stop myself if I do.

I pull out my peacemaker and cock the hammer.

“NOOO! PLEASE!” She fights justice. “JESSSEE”

I hold the gun in my shaking hand. “I’m sorry. It’s just…the wrong time…” I say low as my hand squeezes the barrel.

She cries and struggles in Justices arms. “DON’T LEAVE ME!! PLEASE!”

I look at Artemis. “I’m not scared of you anymore. You will never get what you want. Not from me.”

The moon peaks above my head as I raise the barrel and place it on my chest to my heart.

“NOOOO!” Artemis breaks from Caliel and runs at me.

In slow motion, my eyes meet hers. “Penelope…I…I lo…”

I pull the trigger and the I feel the mercury bullet enter my heart.

Everything stops. My face fills with shock. My eyes stare off into the distance as my arms fall and my gun falls from hand to the ground. I feel myself start to fall backwards.

Dakota jolts and his face also fills with shock and pain.

“JESSSSSEEEEE!”

My body falls off the cliff from the impact just as Artemis reaches out.

My arms and legs are pushed up by the wind that surrounds my body. As I fall through it, it gets this intense electric feeling. I watch the moon as I plummet.

The mercury enters my system and first the weakness comes that will lead me to death and the freedom from my existence. The pain fades. I’m filled with a huge wave of emotions I’ve never felt before. Everything I had in me for Penelope was like I couldn’t love her enough. As I drift to my watery grave, something happens that I wasn’t expecting. Like she roped my heart, it snaps my body in mid flight and I smile.

The rock walls surround me and the light gets darker as I get closer to the black bottom and my final end.

Penelope’s smile. The way she danced. The way she kissed all went through my mind as I fell. I felt a peace as I lay with her, just touching her skin and feeling her in my soul.

My heart was dying, but I felt the bond. I felt the love I should have had on the day my life started. It’s funny how I get that when my life ends. I don’t regret anything I ever did, I just wish I had more time. If there’s a life after this, I will cherish Penelope for how ever long that life lasts.

My body impacts into the creek on the bottom. I feel my it slam and several bones break against the unforgiving rock. My lungs explode and my skull cracks on the rocks. My head settles to the side and my mouth sits half in the water trickling across the bottom.

My open eyes search for Penelope as her visions fade. All my memories of her float in and out as I try to hang on to it all for just one moment.

I take shallow last breaths.

“I…love…you…” I push out the very last words to the universe that I was too cowardly to say because they hurt so damn much.

I feel the bond snap less and less.

Don’t go…Please let me have at least this.

It snaps once…twice…then nothing. It disappeared. The pain of my broken bond is the only pain I feel in my last second before death and I felt alone again. My bond was broken the way we planned, but my love for her will never die.

I hear the faint call of an eagle as I take my last breath.

My heart beats one last, hesitant beat then stops.

Penelope.

My gaping mouth, throat and lungs fill with water and the moon moves on.

Her beautiful face is my last thought in this world as my life is ends. Her laughter is the last thing I hear and her love is the last thing I feel before the cold, dark void of death consumes me.

I’m done. Take me away. I had a good run.

I’m ready.

****

Silence. So much quiet.

My pupil stares at nothing.

My outstretched arms feel nothing.

The air around me is still.

In darkness of the void I hear a small sound off in the black.

Da-dump My mind floats to it. What is that?

Da-dump It’s growing.

My insides start to push the cold away and I feel a warmth blowing in like a far off rain storm.

I feel?

My mind fills with a gold glow.

Da-dump…Da-dump…

I feel my muscles jolt, my body siezes violently as the gold light punches my gut over and over. I’m being attacked inside and out by a storm so loud and horrendous, I don’t even realize I’m screaming in my head.

The gold light grows even more intense as I’m pulled back with a force that only God himself could command.

The water in my system boils and the light invades it as it’s power attacks from within.

The power wraps around me like a cocoon and the ravine my body died in lights up like day.

I’m forced into an arch as it explodes out of my skin.

The water clears itself out and I scream bloody murder to the echoes of the rock walls.

Chaos fills my head as I try to make sense of the storm raging in my now flowing blood.

My back falls back down on the rocks and I cough hard as I roll to my side. My hair and face are soaked and my head is pounding. I slam my eyes shut as I spit and choke water.

I roll back to my back and try to make sense of what happened.

“What in the hell?” I say as I wince at the coarseness of my throat.

I scrub a hand down my face and blink my eyes several times.

I focus my vision on where I am. I don’t really remember much except that I just shouldn’t be here. I’m feeling outta sorts and completely bewildered.

I feel my chest. The hole in my shirt is there, but the hole in my chest is gone. I search myself and everything seems intact and in good standing though I feel like I was run over by a stampede. I look up to see the cliff top and the pale blue color of the night.

I look around and see a small spring coming out of the rock wall that fuels the creek.

I sit up and look around.

“Good. You’re awake.”

I whip my head and see a small woman in a white dress, showing too much leg in my opinion. Her hair is short and flaming red. She has this look on her face that seems like she’s a smug easterner.

“I am?” I take another look around. “Who are you?”

Her narrow eyes look me over. “Fate.”

“Fate?”

“Yes. What do you remember?” She asks in a monotone snobbish tone.

I look down at the ground and search my mind. “Not much. What’s goin’ on?”

“You died and were brought back.” She put her hands behind her back.

I shakily stand up. My oilskin runs with water. My boots are soaked. I cock my head and narrow my eyes. “Why?”

“Your fate line’s not over. I’m sorry I had to interrupt it this way, but the protocols have changed and we can’t have you here at the present moment.” She speaks like one of the business owners in town.

“Protocols? What are ya playin’ at?” I step to her. My boots splashing in the shallow water.

“You have a job to do, Jesse. You need to tell them, but only when it’s time. No earlier. If you do, the threat of another will not be stopped.” She looks me over.

“What are you talkin’ about?” I cross my arms.

“You’ll understand. For now, keep it all to yourself. Do not seek your past. You’re important to world and cannot remain stuck here. You’re job’s not done yet.” She closes the gap. “When they ask you…tell them. Only when that happens do you utter a single word about what you lived in this life. When they ask you, you tell them everything. You tell them what you know. You warn them about what’s coming.”

“What’s that?” I furrow my brow.

Just like that she blinks out into thin air. I drop my arms and look around. I rub my neck and look up.

It took a spell, but I climbed out of the ravine and stood on the edge.

I see nothing around. I look over my shoulder at the cliff, trying to piece this together.

“Jesse!”

My head turns to the voice in my head. My eyes float across the desert coated in pale blue light. I raise my head to the blue moon that hangs in the sky.

I look beside me on the ground and find my gun. I pick it up and stare at it. I open the wheel and a bullet’s missing. I chew my cheek as I try to remember.

‘Sweet Pea…’

The words drift across my mind.

I raise my head and run a hand through my wet hair. “I need a hat.” I grumble.

I holster my gun and turn to walk along the edge of the ravine into an unsure existence. I don’t know what I’m walking into, but I don’t know what I’m leaving behind either. It feels like I should, but for the life of me, it’s not coming back.

The only thing I got is what the red head said. I guess I hold onto that.

As I walk, my eyes glow yellow and my body melts to a black haired, older man who’s about my size.

I follow the moon as it moves toward the horizon, leaving my grave behind me.

The only thing that crosses my mind…

Just walk.