Romancing the Afterlife

The Last Day of Us

When Cain woke up he found that Lucy had tucked him in with a pillow and the blanket. She sat beside him looking solemn and pensive. He sat up with concern on his face but she smiled and gave him a supportive hug. He wanted to ask her what the matter was, but he felt she would tell him when she was ready. They went into the house together for breakfast and Lucy asked Mrs. Lewis if she would mind letting her make breakfast, telling her it was a special occasion. Mrs. Lewis was more than happy to let someone else cook for once. She went upstairs to get properly dressed and ready to go to the grocery store. Cain watched from the table as she cooked and hummed to herself a song he did not recognize. She served him three cinnamon pancakes with chocolate chip hearts, two breakfast sausages, half an orange and a cup of coffee, and made herself the other six breakfast sausages and a meatloafoast beef/ham sandwich.

Afterwards she had him show her the best movie she had never seen (in his opinion), it was a nonstop action movie featuring a handsome aged movie star, a crazy amount of guns and some great choreography. Since his parents were both out, when the movie ended she used the opportunity and escorted him to his bedroom. She asked had him take a bunch of sexy photos of her, posing and gesturing all over his room in different amounts of clothes, that ranged from some to none. When the impromptu photo-shoot was over she rocked his world better than she had the night/morning before, possibly better than she had rocked any guy’s before.

It was possibly the best day of his life, almost too good to be true he thought. She asked him if he wanted to go shopping to make the ultimate ice cream sundae, and he knew it really was too good. It occurred to him that he might be being setting up for a bombshell, just before the bombshell hit.

She realized she had over did it, and confessed her feelings. “It was my time to die Cain. That night was the worst, and I wish it had never happened, but it did. You brought me back, and maybe made me a better person. You need to let me go now though. Find someone just as special as me, because you DO deserve her. I love you Cain Lewis, but today is my last day.”

He wanted to tell her no, he wanted to argue with her, explain to her why she had to stay, but he couldn’t. He knew she was right, he knew it was what she really wanted and he knew he wouldn’t deny her. He silently gave her a hug and shed a few tears, for her and himself. She hugged him back, more for comfort than grief. She had already grieved enough for her first life, she might miss Cain, but she would have no regrets. This time it would be on her own terms. They held eachother for several minutes, not having to say a word. When she asked him, Cain agreed to help her say her final goodbyes to people.

First he took her to the playground in her old neighbourhood where she introduced herself to a younger version of her former self. It was awkward at first, trying to get the attention of an 11 year-old girl amongst her friends and not create suspicion. Cain waited near a walkway the back entrance to the park, he leaned his back against a tree and let Lucy and her sister have their privacy. She approached the small group of girls who were oddly discussing if women would eventually become the dominant gender, and just openly asked if she could speak to Mary Little for a few minutes. Mary broke away from her mini feminist rally and sat on a bench with her, while the other girls and one concerned parent observed. She wanted to immediately hug Mary having not seen her in over a year, but knew that would probably scare her away. Mary looked at her expectantly, waiting to hear what she wanted with her. She didn’t look nervous at all, opposed to herself who was acting like Cain inside. “Hi Mary, you don’t know me, but my name is Julie Walker.”

“Hi Julie,” Mary said polite and curtly.

“I was a close friend of your sister Lucy’s. We spoke mostly online because I live in Romero Valley, so she probably didn’t mention me much.” She saw Mary nodding along but urging her to get to the point, “I’m moving away soon, really far, for good, forever. But I realized that Lucy would want me to tell you some stuff since she’s gone, and ….I just got around to doing it now before I moved.” Mary looked at her strangely, she worried she wasn’t buying any of it but had no choice but to continue, “Mary, you were a brilliant pain in her ass. But she loved you so damn much. She wishes she could have taught you so many more things about being a girl and becoming a woman, but perhaps she didn’t know that much more either. Life is a learning curve. Just be smart and don’t let guys influence who you are, because you are awesome. There’s nothing really to worry about though is there? You would have done that anyway.” She paused, lost in thoughts of how much she had never appreciated Mary’s uniqueness. “She always thought you were a weirdo, at least that’s what she told you. The truth is she wished she was more like you, you see things more for what they are and you’re too damn stubborn to ignore the things you don’t like, your blunt, honest, smart and opinionated, and you have an amazing singing voice. She heard you once or twice when you thought you were alone. Anyway, I-I mean Lucy, will always be looking over you and be in your corner for all the bullshit.” She gave the girl a strong hug, “This is from her.”

“Thanks Lucy,” the girl in her arms said, causing her to jump away in fear and surprise.

“What?! I’m not Lucy,” she protested unconvincingly.

“Yes you are. I saw you from the window when you were at the house. Mom was too blind to tell, but it’s kind of obvious when you get over the denial. Your hair is different, and your eyes are a funny colour, and you don’t seem as happy, but you’re my sister dummy.” Mary punched her big sister in the arm, and weirdly it actually hurt.

“Oww, b***h,” she reacted quickly to her own words, “Sorry, I didn’t mean that. This is weird I didn’t think you’d know. Look I’m not technically still alive, I’m actually going to be going back really soon. Just kind of came back to fulfill some little boy’s wish and it got out of hand,” she smiled and mentally patted herself on the back for her secret tongue in cheek cleverness.

“I’ll miss you. It’s not the same without you. Mom’s around more, but she’s mom, and now I spend time with dad, but he just cares about his new baby. Oh yeah, we have a brother now, his name is Doug. He is a baby but I’ll do my best to make sure he’s not a douche.” Lucy laughed a little at her sister’s sense of humour. The things her sister told her were peeking her interest. She wanted to hear so much more but knew if she listened to more it would just get harder for her to leave it behind. It made her feel sad inside, and she shed a black tear. “I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?”

“No Mary, I’m just going to miss you too. Give mom a bit of a break okay? She’s trying. I have to go.” She gave her sister another hug and then forced herself to walk away, trying to hold it together. This was the most emotional she had felt since coming back to life.

“Hey wait, were you the zombie at the beach??” Mary marveled loudly.

“ Yup, and the tooth fairy” she replied sarcastically, not looking back. She heard her sister getting excited and exclaiming how cool that was and asking how she did it, but she kept walking. She reached Cain who took her hand and escorted her through the walkway.

The last thing she heard her sister call out to her was, “I promise I won’t tell anybody.”

Second she wrote and gave Cain sealed letters to pass onto her friend Jane and her mom, he promised he would make sure they got to them. He had no intention of snooping on the letters it was her personal business. He assumed they were apologies and confessions, things she wished she could have said before and hadn’t had the chance. He wasn’t sure why she didn’t want to stay and say the contents of the letters in person, then again her last attempt at talking to her mother didn’t go over well at all. Still any reason to stay just a little longer, it was her choice though. He had already pushed her enough and gotten more than he deserved.

Last he borrowed his dad’s car and they drove to the McRoyce cottage. Luckily no one was currently there to question them on their presence. They walked around the cottage and followed a trail through the trees that hadn’t been there the night of the infamous party. It ended at the small memorial site that had been made and dedicated to her. There were numerous flowers, cards and tree carvings left in her honor. The weirdest thing was a clothes line that had been put up between two trees, and people, most likely kids, had left their underwear hanging from it. There were even a couple boxer shorts. Lucy was not touched by this sigil, in fact she was a little offended, it wasn’t how she wanted to be remembered. She asked Cain to help her take it down, and they threw the line and underwear into the lake. They stood at her memorial site together and quietly watched the water where she had gone down. Cain had not been there then, and it made him feel sad now. After standing there for a long while, she randomly kissed Cain placing the stone in his hand. Before he could say anything in response she jumped into the water, diving under the surface.

It took him by surprise, how abrupt and with out warning her departure was. She didn’t even say goodbye he thought to himself. He waited and silently said goodbye to her after several minutes of her being gone. He started to walk away and heard the splash of her resurfacing. He turned to see her coughing and spluttering, “s**t this water is cold.” She swam over to the edge, and Cain bent down to help her climb up the short grassy ledge. She crawled over to a tree and leaned against it, still coughing and spitting.

“What happened?” he asked, hoping she’d changed her mind.

“Nothing. You know how you hold your breath and you get that desperate feeling of needing air? Well that didn’t go away, I just kept waiting to go unconscious or drift away or whatever, instead my lungs are on fire. Glad I didn’t tie a rock to my feet I’d be down there forever in torture,” she shivered from the idea, or from being wet.

“So what do you want to do now?” he asked her, somewhat afraid of the answer.

“I can’t do anything I might just heal from,” she said standing up and brushing the dirt and grass off her pants, “I think you’re going to have to kill me.”

“What? I can’t do that, that’s crazy.”

“If you loved me you would kill me” she said sweetly, as if she were asking for a special gift or favour.

They contemplated the best way to end her life. It couldn’t be a way where she might survive and be stuck broken, damaged or in pieces until some unfortunate soul came across her animated destroyed corpse, so jumping off a cliff was out. Cain also didn’t want to damage his dad’s Cavalier running her over, especially since there was a chance she would survive it. It was hard because they didn’t know exactly how the magic worked. The safest option was of course the famous one from zombie media, bashing her head in. Neither Cain nor Lucy felt quite ready for that, they made it the last resort. Cain suggested cutting her head off, but they didn’t have a sword or anything, plus she hated the idea of becoming a talking head. At one point Cain dared to throw a big rock at her when she wasn’t looking, he aimed for her head hoping one hard strike would take her out. The rock missed her head and connected right between her shoulder blades, her spine made a snapping sound as she thudded to the ground and the rock hopped to the bottom of the back of her head and rolled off.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry are you okay?!” he asked fearfully regretting the outcome.

“Oh yeah, sure, I’m fine.” She said sarcastically, “Not sure I can feel the rest of my body though. Good try, but I think you just made me an immortal quadriplegic.” He rushed over to aide her not thinking of how he might actually do that, as he got close to her face down body he saw her shoulders move, “Oh wait a second,” her head shifted and there was a loud pop that made Cain shudder, then her arms pushed the top half of her torso up while the rest lay flat. She looked like she was in a yoga pose, “Alright, I think I got this, turn,” she flipped herself over and was lying on her back. She put her hands out and he took them in his, “and pull!” He pulled her up to be sitting, but she said “keep pulling” and he did, stretching her right down towards her legs. He fell back on his bum as she came down, bent over her back made three noticeable clicks. Cain was concerned, but Lucy sprung up from her hunched over stretch, “Ahhhh, man was that a weird experience, but I feel so limber now.” She hopped on top of him like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh and he was startled, but she was smiling. She kissed him repeatedly all over his face, “You, are, so sweet, to try, and kill me, without me knowing.” Cain was at a loss for words.

It started to get a little chilly as it got later. Cain suggested they light up the McRoyce’s fire pit so at least he could be warm, and that’s when they simultaneously thought of an answer. Fire could work, if her body burned there would be nothing left to regenerate. They went back to the cottage and found the fire pit out behind the porch just before the sandy shore started. Lucy removed the cage from the McRoyce’s fire pit and Cain found a few pieces of dry wood they had stored under a tarp. They would have to get more next time they came for a visit. Cain considered them lucky to have found lighter fluid and a barbecue lighter near the McRoyce’s deluxe size barbecue. He definitely did not know how to start a fire rubbing sticks together. They made a small pile of wood in the fire pit as they debated how much of the heat she would feel. Cain thought she wouldn’t feel much at all, but Lucy thought she might feel a lot of it because ironically she claimed she felt more alive than ever. Cain found her disposition a little unsettling. Lucy sat on the small woodpile, weirdly expectant and tranquil. Cain squirted a bunch of lighter fluid on her. She closed her eyes and mouth so none of it irritated her. “Any last words?” Cain asked her.

She considered it for a second, “I feel like I met you for a second time, and now I hope I’m going to meet Angel for a second time. Enjoy your life Cain.” He handed her the barbecue lighter and backed up a few steps, biting his lip nervously. He watched horrified as she flicked on the lighter and quickly was a blaze of fire. She was no longer tranquil about it, cursing and screaming about how much it hurt. What was more disturbing was that as she burned, she kept bitching and did not collapse. Minutes passed and she was still growling, “I f*****g hate this.” Cain tried to help by spraying a bit more lighter fluid on her but there wasn’t much left and most of it burnt off in one burst. She was a black charred meat skeleton as the flames were dying. He wanted to vomit, but he was afraid of offending her. “I’m going to cool off I think, this is incredibly uncomfortable.”

It was like a horror comedy as the body of burnt matchsticks got up and walked casually down to the water, and laid in the sand letting the little waves wash in over her. He followed after her, walking down to the water where her body steamed on the beach letting out sighs of relief. He looked down at her smiling up at him with what remained of her lips, shocked because her body was already turning into dried tissues and muscles. She splashed some water up on to her face, and when she removed her hands she had thin pink eyelids covering her eyes. He chose not to comment, it seemed like she was already aware how miraculous her body was being. He sat down beside her, in the wet sand and held her stringy bony hand until it was a fully fleshed hand with grooves and fingernails. She sat up beside him looking out over the water, completely back to normal perfection, and completely naked.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

With his other hand he brushed through his dark thick hair, wetting it from the thin amount of water underneath him. “I guess,” he said sounding unconvincing, “How are you recovering so quickly?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty wild, huh? Honestly I’m getting pretty tired,” she yawned, “and I could eat a horse, oh my god I would actually eat a horse if it were here. It’s scary. I think it’s you though.”

“What does that mean?”

“The whole thing, it works better now because we’re so together.”

“It’s the stone,” he said flatly, acknowledging that as the source.

“Yup, can we smash it?”

“Sure,” he said defeated, “You know you’re naked right?”

She laughed, “Yeah, I survived the fire and came out naked like the Khaleesi” she jumped up and cried with amusement, throwing her hands in the air in celebratory pose.

He got up and walked back to the house with a wet bum to look for something strong enough to break the stone. Lucy went with him outlandishly teasing him with her nakedness by posing sexy and saying exaggerated seductive things to get his attention. She knew he was enjoying it, she could see him trying not to react. He found a hatchet the McRoyce’s likely used to cut wood for their fires. Picking it up he turned it around in his hand, holding the blunt side out front. He put the Anasazi stone down on the ground, knelt down and brought the back of the axe down on the stone. It didn’t break. Frustrated he raised it up again, and slammed it down with all his might, clenching his teeth and breathing exhaustedly. A small crack appeared.

“Cain, what’s the matter?” she asked him concerned, she knelt down and put her hand on his shoulder. Cain let go of the hatchet and it fell to the ground. He lowered his head and covered his face with his hand, trying to hide the fact that he was crying. She hugged him from behind.

“I just don’t get it,” he said to her trying to compose himself, “You love me now, and now you want to leave me. What was the point?”

“The point was to be loved. You gave me what I dreamed of with Angel, and you got your dream with me, but dreams end. You saved my soul my sweet Cain, but we’re not supposed to be. As much as it sucks, I’m supposed to be dead, and you’re supposed to find someone else who isn’t going to literally fall to pieces when you have a fight or lose interest. She probably won’t be as hot as all this,” she gestured to her naked body, “but you’ll be even stronger together if you love her like you did me.”

“Okay, you’re right.” He picked up the hatchet again, and hit the stone again with less intensity than he had before, but several cracks spider webbed across it. He took a last look at her, “it’s hard to do this when you’re so naked,” he said laughing at himself.

She laughed too, “yeah I know, a part of me just wants to go nuts on you right now for the fun of it, but then it would just prolong this whole thing and make it harder.” He raised the hatchet up and looked at her with sad puppy eyes. “Oh kiss me you tool.” He kissed her with everything he had, trying to show her everything she had meant to him. When it was over he let out a breath of ecstasy and smashed the stone with the hatchet, not taking his eyes off Lucy. Within seconds Lucy evaporated into the air, leaving only a scent of the most pleasing things he could imagine, like the mist of freshness, love and cinnamon. He knelt on the ground alone again, like she was never even there

“So she had to choose between a second life with you and death, and she chose death?” Jonas asked him a week later.

“Yeah sorta.”

“You know, normally I would say you’re full of it and you sent her off into hiding, but this is the sort of awkwardly depressing stuff that seems to define your life! So where’s the stone now?”

“I smashed it, I told you that. It was the only way to let her go.”

“Yeah, still kind of a waste though, don’t you think?”

“Death shouldn’t be meddled with.”

“You really believe that?”

“No, but it helps the rejection.” That and the pictures she left on his phone, but those were a secret. Jonas gave Cain a pat on the shoulder and stood up in his black suit. He headed out to attend Janice’s funeral. When it was determined that there would be no saving her from being catatonic with a bullet permanently logged in her brain, Janice’s parents let the doctors remove the bullet from her head causing her to hemorrhage and die. The bullet apparently was the final piece of evidence needed to put Bruce away for involuntary manslaughter. Somehow it still retained Amber Ackles fingerprint, which when revealed, led Amber to immediately confess to lending Bruce her dad’s gun because of intimidation. None of this redeemed the Ackles’ loss.

Cain stood on the same doorstep he had a week ago holding a big plastic bag and waiting for someone to answer the doorbell. He had one last surprising request to fulfill for Lucy. Mrs. Ackles answered the door. “Hi can I help you?” she asked him.

“Uh yeah, I’m here for Amber.”

“She is resting in bed fighting off an infection.”

“Her bite is infected?

“No, it’s her v****a again.”

“Oh.” Amber’s mom was a little too forthcoming with personal details. He handed her the bag, “Please give Amber this, it’s a bunch of clothes and a pair of shoes. Tell her Jul- Tell her Lucy says she’s sorry.”

Meanwhile Jonas was sitting at his home computer browsing through collectible rocks on Ebay. There were a surprising amount of rock nerds out there hosting a whole bunch of odd rocks, crystals and various formations. Eventually he came across a particular intriguing offer for an otherwise overlooked piece. It was a shiny black stone with a mystic sheen barely caught by the camera, labeled ‘weird vortex stone’ and being sold by online screen handle Columbus at the affordable price of $7.77. He thought of Janice and their relationship together, the good times and the bad. He thought about the unjust way in which she taken from this world. He thought about Cain’s recent experience with Lucy’s resurrection. He thought about how seldom he and Janice had been intimate, after she had made him wait four months. He searched for the graphic novel ‘Revival’.

The End