Ember X (Death Collectors) - By Jessica Sorensen Page 0,66

stem, bends down, and tucks it in my hair. “Take the life.”

My eyes shut and I listen to my heart fading away, dying inside my chest. My breath submits to the wind and my heart gives its concluding beat. My life leaves my body, like leaves drifting from the trees, and every ounce of pain goes with it.

Suddenly, I don’t want to wake up.

Chapter 14

Some people believe that right before death, a person reaches a point of comfort and numbness and it allows them to see images of every blissful, delighted, ecstatic moment they’ve ever experienced in their lifetime. I’ve died twice, and each time I see the Reaper. So is that supposed to be my happy moment?

“Wake up.” Someone pats my face. “Em, open your fucking eyes. You’re scaring the shit out of me.”

My eyes roll open to the grey sky, Raven’s sapphire eyes, and a thousand wilting roses covering the ground, charred, the once soft petals now ash upon the singed grass.

I gradually sit up and rub the dirt from my skin, then twist my arms and stretch my legs out.

Raven sighs and leans back to give me breathing room. “Holy shit, Em. What happened?”

Every single tree within a quarter mile radius is dead, dried out, stripped of leaves and the dirt is cracked out like desert sand.

Did I do this?

“I have no idea…” I press my hand over my beating heart. “How did you find me?”

She holds up the necklace and points back at the hill. “This was lying on the side of the road up there.” She hands it to me and I clip it back around my neck, then she grabs my arm and helps me to my feet.

Her death is as dusky as the sky, but I can feel her life pumping through her veins.

“I was hit by a car… I think.” My brain is hazy, but I remember tumbling down the hill, bones breaking, skin rupturing open. “I’m not sure… Can you just take me home?”

She studies me with uneasiness in her eyes. “I think we should take you to a doctor.”

I shake my arms, checking for pain, but everything feels all right, mended, healed. “No doctors. I just want to go home.”

She wraps her arm around my lower back. Her death is silent, but her life whispers to me: Take me, take me, take me.

It takes a while, but we accomplish the walk back and make it to the top of the hill where the trees are thriving with life again. Her car is parked on the side of the road with the engine running and the driver’s door open.

I wiggle from her arms, feeling strangely liberated. “Maybe I should walk home.”

“Get in the car,” she orders sternly, but there’s a hint of exhaustion in her expression. “You need to go back home. There’s officially a town curfew in affect now that Farrah’s body was found.”

Maybe the same person who killed her is trying to kill me.

“Okay.” I hop in the car and slam the door.

She climbs into the driver’s seat and buckles her seatbelt, then she leans over the console and clips mine, before pulling the car out onto the road. “I really, really think you should go see a doctor. You look like shit.”

“I’m fine.” I pluck a rose from my hair and run my fingers along the dried petals, fascinated with its lack of luster. “A car just bumped me a little and I tripped down the hill.”

“Yeah, right.” She shifts her car and speeds down the highway, the tires squealing. “You don’t just trip after a car bumps into you. It ran you over.”

“I’m not going to the doctor,” I insist. “So take me home.”

She flinches at my hostile tone and doesn’t say a word for the rest of the drive.

***

I’ve calmed down by the time we pull up to my house. It’s still early but the sky is bleak with clouds. The lights are on in the living room and my mom’s car is parked in the driveway.

I unbuckle my seatbelt and wrap my fingers around the door handle. “I’m sorry for snapping at you. I don’t know what’s wrong with me… I just feel so… confused.”

Raven presses her lips together and eyes my house. “It’s okay. You were still my friend through my little meltdown.”

“About Laden?” I brush the dirt off the front of my legs.

She nods slowly. “I’m not ready to talk about what happened yet, but I promise you, I had nothing to do