Hello there! This is my entry for the #JustDoItChallenge. I wrote this in about 57 minutes and meagrely edited it in 5 minutes to preserve the original piece as much as possible. It was a lot of fun to do and I definitely recommend it to everyone.
Aaron got shot and it wasn’t my fault. When we had entered the building he insisted that we’d split up. Citing that it would be easier to find Skylar if we’d separate so that we could cover more ground. Of course, I just did as he said because I wasn’t thinking straight. We just had a goal in mind and he came with the first idea. With no concrete plan whatsoever we rushed into the building, thinking we’d find Skylar there somewhere. But how would you even go about finding an angel with powers you couldn’t even understand? For all, we knew she could have flown away. Regardless both of us went in and I decided to take the left stairs since the elevators were broken. Apparently, some boy had gotten stuck in them earlier and they were in the middle of fixing some issue. Aaron took the stairwell on the right and screamed Skylar’s name at the top of his lungs. I figured we’d better use the element of surprise to try to catch her. She’d run off but I wasn’t even sure why she’d run off. For all I knew, she could be trying to get away from us.
She had been rather discontent with helping Aaron. He might have prayed to God which directly led to her revival, but she wasn’t obligated to help him in any way, shape, or form. Aaron figured it would be a good idea to threaten to send her to hell, saying that he had read about it and that she’d go to hell for not doing her divine duty. A very smart move, which ittedly worked in persuading her, but which also helped to antagonize her. If I were Skylar I’d run away from him as well.
With a lot of questions left unanswered, they tried to figure things out together. Of course, they would need the help of a master nerd for that, enter me; Michael. I had had my fair share of encounters with the supernatural and even with divine intervention, so it was only logical for them to come running to me. In the span of a week, we figured out that Skylar could heal and could teleport. In the span of a month, we figured out that our friendly neighborhood angel was super strong and could slow time to the extent that she would basically be invisible. That was all nice and dandy when she was still helping both of us.
Our lives had improved since she had chosen to help us and even though it wasn’t always fair, she did really help us with several other things. Like an understanding of life and the world and our place in it. She gave us an appreciation of what we had and made us generally value our lives more. She”d had a tragic life and she didn’t wish that on anybody. In death, it was even worse. There was nothing, as she had cried, nothing to feel, nothing to see, nothing to do, absolutely nothing. Pure insufferable loneliness. It was utterly terrifying to hear but Aaron, as a man of faith, clung to his belief that heaven and hell were real and that Skylar had to have been placed there for a reason. The two of them had their differences but for her to run away was completely unexpected.
I scaled floor after floor and saw no trace of her. She might even have left the building already. Maybe she had jumped off of the roof or out of a window. Maybe she’d discovered she could fly or maybe she just didn’t want to go on anymore. I checked the busy business floors and I made my way through spas and pools. Some shops even. It was a very weird building. I bumped into a few people who gave me varying degrees of disapproving faces as I apologized profusely. At last, my phone rang. Aaron was calling.
“Where are you?” He asked out of breath.
“On the forty-eighth floor,” I responded aptly.
“She’s up top.” He paused to take a deep breath. “I heard her.” Without a word I hung up and walked back up the flight of stairs. The sun was setting and it shone through the large windows. If I'd had more time I would have ired the bright orange city but I had a job to do.
“Skylar!” I yelled as I slammed open the doors to get on the roof. Only a handful of people littered the roof as they looked out over the beautiful scenery down below. The wind played with their hand and hushed their words. I was sweating and my glasses nearly slipped off of my head. On the other side of the roof, I saw Aaron frantically looking around.
“Where is she?” I asked as we approached each other. Both clearly exhausted and out of breath.
“I don’t know.” His voice sounded defeated and almost broken. Despite, or perhaps because of, their differences Aaron had come to appreciate her deeply. Perhaps he even cared for her. Perhaps… words left unsaid. “There!” he called out as he pointed to a lonely girl wearing a red coat. Her auburn hair seemed golden in the sunlight as the wind pulled at it while she looked down over the railing.
“Skylar!” both of us called out as we approached her. She didn’t seem to hear us as we drew closer. Simultaneously we put a hand on her shoulder and suddenly we weren’t on the roof anymore. It was no longer bright and orange but dark and gloomy. I couldn’t see a thing. Until I saw Aaron, clear as day as if a spotlight had been set on him, with Skylar right in front of him.
“Where are we?” I somewhat asked as the voice came from deep down in my throat.
“This is it,” Skylar announced as she theatrically waved her arms around. “Welcome to heaven.” Everything was black all around. There was no wind, no light. It wasn’t cold or hot and the air felt strange.
“Why have you brought us here?” Aaron asked as his eyes were fixed on Skylar. Her bright blue eyes peering at him with malicious intent.
“This is real,” she said. “This is what’s waiting for you and it’s what’s waiting for me.”
“You don’t mean that-”
“It doesn’t matter,” she interrupted him. “None of it matters, we will all end up here.”
“But how are we here?” I asked. “Did we…?”
“You’re not dead yet,” she explained. “You’re dying.” She looked straight at Aaron as she forced the words to slip from her lips.
“What?!” Aaron and I yelled out in unison. Skylar’s eyes began to water.
“I’’m so sorry,” she said. “You startled me and before I knew it I-” she fell to her knees as her head fell into her hands and she began to sob.
“No, this can’t be real!” Aaron yelled out as tears began to stream down from his face.
“Then, what are we doing here?” I inquired.
“It’s the place you go to when you’re dying. Dying or dead are essentially the same. It’s just a matter of time,” Skylar explained in between breaths.
“Can’t you... save me?” Aaron asked as he bowed down to Skylar.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“Then it’s okay,” he smiled. “You’ve helped me tremendously, you’ve lit up my life in these few months. So if this is my last, I’m grateful.” He raised her head with his hand and planted a kiss on her cheek.
“Thank you,” he whispered. I came in to hug both of them as my vision began to blur.
“And thank you, Michael, you’ve been a great best friend,” he chuckled as he held both of us in his arms. Tears strolling down our faces. Sobs to fill the empty void.
When our tears had dried and we’d ceased sobbing, we all looked at each other with conflicting emotions. It was the last time I’d ever get to see them. It was a terrifying reality and somehow I made it peace with the final moments we shared. Only one question remained.
“So… Skylar, did you kill the both of us?” I asked with a timid smile. She merely returned a smile as the black began to fade and made way for the bright orange of the sun beneath the blue sky. I blinked and before I knew it I held Aaron in my arms with Skylar nowhere to be seen. Blood flowed from his mouth and he struggled to breathe. I suppressed my tears as I tried to comfort him.
“It’ll be okay,” I tried. “We’ll see each other again,” I lied. The wind played with his dark hair and it seemed to pull the color from his pale skin. His bright eyes faded and he stopped moving. People had gathered and some had scattered. Some were crying and others were already on the phone but I didn’t hear them. All I could think of was their smile as we parted ways for the last time.
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