Existence 02 - Predestined

and I didn’t want to let him go. Didn’t Dank see that?
    “Wyatt, please baby, please, open your eyes for me,” Miranda sobbed brokenly as they placed the two paddles on his chest the same way I’d seen them do to people on Grey’s Anatomy . Wyatt’s chest rose and fell in a quick jerk as they all seemed to be hovering over him begging him to respond. But nothing. I watched them do it again and with the same results. Nothing was happening. Then I watched as Wyatt’s soul lifted from his body and went directly to Dank. Wyatt never looked back as a transporter I’d never met stepped forward and in an instant they were gone. Wyatt was gone.
    The horror of what I’d just witnessed felt like a knife in my chest. He’d taken Wyatt from me. How could he take someone from me so easily? Miranda crumpled to the ground as the paramedics stated the time of death as 8:02. I couldn’t bring myself to see if Dank was still here watching as our world fell apart. Instead, I walked over to Miranda and joined her on the dewymorning grass. Wrapping my arms around her body I let myself give into the pain.

    The paramedics on the scene believed it was a brain aneurysm but no one would know for sure until after the autopsy. Seeing Wyatt’s body zipped up in a body bag had been the most bizarre moment in my life. Although I knew he wasn’t in there any longer it was still an odd moment. I’d fought the urge to jump up and run over to them and demand they let him go. He wouldn’t be able to breathe in that bag. He hated enclosed spaces. Once I’d shut him up in my closet and locked the door and by the time I let him out he’d gone into a full anxiety attack. Now they were zipping him up in a bag and soon he’d be underground. We’d see him lying in a casket then he’d be lost to us forever. No basketball scholarship. No NBA. Wyatt was gone.
    Miranda hadn’t spoken or eaten since her mother had shown up after getting a call from the school. Miranda and I hadn’t moved from our huddle on the ground when her mother arrived. I’d managed to coax Miranda to get up and we’d both ridden in the back of her mother’s Cadillac to her house. Now she lay curled up in a ball on her pink fluffy bed with the stuffed animal Wyatt had given her for Valentine’s Day last year. It’d had a necklace around its neck with a small heart shaped diamond. He’d saved up for almost a year to buy it for her. For twelve months he’d stop me in the hall at least twice a week and whisper how much closer to his goal he was. I’d smile and shake my head because they really were sickeningly sweet.
    “How long you plan on staying here?” Gee asked and I jumped, startled by her arrival. I hadn’t expected her to show up here. Frowning, I glanced over at Miranda and I wondered if she was asleep. I knew the pill her mother had given her as soon as we arrived had been to help her sleep.
    “She’s sleeping but she can’t see or hear me anyway. I’m incognito,” Gee explained.
    I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to leave her. And truthfully I didn’t want to see Dank. I was confused and hurt and Death wasn’t really who I wanted to see at the moment. Miranda’s room was safer.
    “I’m staying the night. I’m not leaving until she’s better,” I replied in a clipped tone. Part of me was angry with Gee too. This was their job after all. Had they not considered I’d like to know about Wyatt’s death? Maybe I could have stopped it. If I’d known he had an aneurysm I could have done something.
    “You’re mad at him, aren’t you,” Gee said matter of factly.
    I only nodded.
    “This was bound to happen sooner or later. You can’t love Death, Pagan, and not accept him. It’s what he was created for. He’s not just some sexy guy who can sing and play the guitar.”
    I knew this, of course, but right now I didn’t want to talk about it. Not with her and not with him. “Just tell him I need time. I don’t want him showing up here. I don’t want to deal with talking it out with him right now. I need to grieve, alone.”
    Gee opened her mouth to argue but closed it when I glared at her coldly.
    “Okay, fine. If that’s how you feel.”
    “It is.”

    Dank

    “To say that she is pissed would be putting it mildly,” Gee said as she stepped into Miranda’s backyard where I’d been waiting since she went in to talk to Pagan. I hadn’t felt comfortable barging in on Pagan while she was in Miranda’s room. So instead,