Haven't seen you in a while, Coachie! Just for you:
Requiem for ThreeI wake up choking.
"We're losing her," mutters a distant voice above me.
It's low. A man's voice.
"Stop being so dramatic. She's just coughing," says another voice.
A woman's voice.
I cough and hack and clear my throat, massive amounts of phlegm piling up in my mouth. I flip onto my side and spit.
"She's spitting on the floor. Get her a bucket," the man orders.
I continue to cough and spit as a yellow basin is placed under me. I spit into that. When I'm done, I lie on my back, close my eyes, and fall asleep.
And that's the last mistake I will ever make. Some time later - who knows how long - my windpipe becomes clogged up with phlegm. I cough in my sleep, but I don't wake up to clear my throat. The phlegm sits there, blocking air from coming to my lungs. It's all very painless because I'm asleep. One minute I'm living and breathing, the next I'm dead.
Dead.
I have died.
I know this because once I've passed through that black tunnel and stepped into the white light, I'm hovering above my body, looking down at it. I feel great. Ethereal, but not sick. I have perfectly clear vision. I can see myself lying on the bed, a thin line of drool running down from the corner of my mouth. My eyes are closed. I look peaceful.
I float up and look at the room. It's Aya's room. I make my way to the door. I'm half flying, half hovering, half bouncing. It's weird. I float out of the door and see two people sitting in the living room. One is Aya. The other is Hiroshi. I move in close to them. I know that they can't hear me. I'm dead.
The strange thing about being dead is that once you're in that state, you know it and you accept it. It's not like that movie
Ghost that my cousin has forced me to watch three times. There's no crazy "oh dear, what's going on?" moment. You simply know that you're dead. I am one hundred percent dead.
"I hope she's okay," Aya says.
She's sitting on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest.
"She'll be fine," Hiroshi says, perhaps a little gruffly.
He's got to be pretty mad at Aya for stealing his girlfriend away from him. What is he doing in her apartment?
"I'm going to go check on her," Aya says nervously, starting to get up.
Hiroshi reaches out and puts a firm hand on Aya's shoulder to stop her. Then feeling awkward, he takes it away. Aya sits back down.
"She's fine. Let her rest."
Oh, Aya. Don't go into that room. You're going to get such a shock... I think.
I start to cry a little. Ghosts can cry.
I'm going to miss her.
Hiroshi crosses his arms and clears his throat.
I'm going to miss him, too. I'm going to miss them both. Two people that I love.
I hope neither of them ever go into that room.They sit in silence, and I hover and watch.
Finally, Aya gets up again.
"I'm going to go and check up on her."
Hiroshi doesn't try to stop her this time. I float in front of her.
"Don't go," I whisper. "Don't go into that room, Aya. Please don't."
But of course she can't hear me. She can't feel me. I can't move pennies to inform her of my presence. Whoopi Goldberg's not going to come and help me out.
Aya walks into the room. I can hardly stand to follow, biting my lip the whole time.
She doesn't notice anything strange at first. The lighting in the room is dim. She looks down at my body's face, even snickers at the drool, and wipes it away with my own pyjama shirt.
Ew. Is that what she's always done? Wiped my drool away with my own clothes? She could at least find a cloth...
Then she notices something.
"Miki?" she asks.
My body, of course, does not reply.
"Miki??"
She puts her hand on my chest. She puts her ear to my mouth.
"Hiroshi!!" she screams.
Hiroshi races into the room as Aya starts shaking my body.
"She's not breathing!"
Hiroshi pushes Aya aside and checks for my pulse and my breath. He looks terrified when he can't find either.
"Call the paramedics!" he yells.
He starts to yell in my body's ear as Aya, frozen with fear, stares.
"Call an ambulance!!" he yells angrily, making Aya snap to attention.
She runs to the phone and makes the call. I watch Hiroshi work on my body. He's checking my mouth, clearing it out, giving me artificial respiration...
It's not going to work, I think sadly.
I'm already out.
He doesn't stop, and I go to kneel by him, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Thank you for trying, though. I'll always love you for that."
He doesn't feel or hear me.
He continues to work, trying every possible trick he's learned to revive me.
Aya comes back into the room. She's in hysterics.
"What's happening? Why isn't she breathing? How did this happen? We only left her for a minute. I knew I should've checked on her befo-"
"Shut up," Hiroshi mutters.
I get up and go over to Aya, hugging her.
"Just go and sit in the living room. Don't watch this. I don't want you to see it."
She doesn't feel or hear me.
She continues to watch, tears starting to form in her eyes.
Stop watching. I love you too much to let you see this.
An eternity passes and a knock comes at the door. Aya rushes to it, and the paramedics run in. They force Hiroshi and Aya out of the room and start to do the exact same thing Hiroshi just did.
To no avail.
Hiroshi and Aya stand at the doorway trying to peer in, but they're shut out.
"Please, have a seat," says one paramedic.
Offering Aya a seat in her own home. Now that's funny.
Time passes. I don't watch the resuscitation attempts. I watch Hiroshi and Aya. I reminisce over the memories we have together. I hope that they can reconcile whatever differences they may have between them. I wonder how Hiroshi got into contact with Aya, although I guess there are lots of ways to come across people. He must've come to Tokyo to search for me. Well, he found me.
I watch them as one of the paramedics comes and tells them I didn't make it. I start to cry as they both cry. I watch my body being wheeled away. Aya tries to follow me, but Hiroshi holds her back, and she turns and sobs into his chest.
Hey, watch it there, buddy.He'd better not be trying to make a move on her.
I sigh and laugh it off. Death has given me quite the attitude. I can laugh at my death and make light of the reactions of my friends. Cold, but what else can I do? I can't go back to life. I have to make death easier for myself with humour and jokes.
They spend the day together. They don't say a word. They just sit there. I sit in between them on the couch. There's just enough room for the three of us. I look from one to the other and I wonder for the billionth time how I can love two people who are so different.
Hiroshi finally gets up to leave.
"Where are you going?" Aya asks desperately.
"I have to go," he mumbles blankly. "I need to go back home and tell everyone."
Where is he going to get a plane ticket at this hour? Silly boy. He should spend the night and go back tomorrow. But he's not thinking straight, and that's understandable.
"Don't go," Aya begs him, but he's made up his mind.
"I have to."
"But I don't want to be alone," Aya whispers in a terrified voice.
He gives her a look. A kind of "well, that's life" look. Maybe he's thinking that she doesn't deserve his help. After all, she took me away from him and left him all alone. Although that's a little different. There was no death involved in that.
"Thank you. Goodbye," Hiroshi says, and he walks out.
At least he's polite. Saying thank you for the stay.
Aya sits back down and hugs a pillow, crying softly.
I know what's going to happen before the idea even starts to form in her mind.
"No, don't," I mutter, but it's too late.
She gets up and rummages around her closet. She finds painkillers and alcohol.
"Don't be an idiot, Aya. Don't be an idiot. Don't don't don't don't..."
She tips a bottle of painkillers into her mouth and chases it down with whiskey.
I don't know why Aya has whiskey in her apartment. She doesn't even like it. Maybe it was a gift.
She rummages around for more pills while looking like she's going to be sick. She finds other sorts of medicines and takes all of them. She grimaces as they go down, and soon enough, she's consumed the entire fifth of whiskey.
"You idiot. This isn't going to solve anything. Don't do this."
I start to cry a little. I can't help her. If she dies, all I can do is watch.
She starts to sway around.
"Miki... if I... you can't be alive... then in death... we're together... yeah..."
She falls over, hitting her head on the corner of a table. She's out cold. I kneel down beside her and cry.
"Why'd you do this, Aya? Why?"
In death, we are also given knowledge. Knowledge about the workings of death. My knowledge is this: Aya and I won't meet in death. Because she has willingly taken her own life, she - or her ghost, if you prefer - will exist in a different plane. In short, we'll wander the same places, but we'll be invisible to each other. No psychics. No pennies. No communication.
I sit and wait. I listen for Aya's breathing. I can't hear any.
I sigh and touch her forehead.
"Stupid," I say gently. "But at least you loved with all your heart."
I sit on the floor and wait. In death, I've turned into a patient person. I wait a day and a half before someone notices that Aya's incapacitated.
Fittingly, it's Shibata that makes the discovery. She comes to the door one day and eventually gets in. I guess that means she has the other spare key.
She sees Aya lying on the floor and freaks out. She can tell, though, right away that Aya's not alive. She calls the police, and the same process is repeated. They come in, poke and prod at her body, and then announce to Shibata that there's nothing they can do. There are lots of questions, and I feel sorry for Shibata to have gotten involved in all this. I decide to follow her out.
Shibata has a good, smart head screwed onto her shoulders. She doesn't off herself. A truck takes care of that for her. As she's walking home from the police station in a daze, she doesn't pay attention to the streets, and she walks right through a red light and right into a speeding truck.
I gasp and yell out her name, but of course she doesn't hear me.
The rules of death dictate that victims of car accidents will not meet those that die in the throes of sickness. I will never speak to Shibata again.
Chaos ensues, and the next day, the three of us make headline news.
Three girls dead in series of tragic accidents.
Aya's death is not labelled a suicide. Someone must've paid a lot of money to get information like that concealed. I'm glad, though. Nobody would understand that she did it because she loved me so much. Also because she was stupid and crazy. But mostly for love.
And so I'm left alone in Tokyo. The rest of my death I shall spend all alone.
That is why we dead need a sense of humour. For if you don't have one, you go insane.
Why?
Because death lasts slightly longer than your average life.
Death lasts for eternity.
===
I don't make empty threats. I wrote this story because you were all asking for it.
But this chapter has absolutely no weight in this story. Please forget it happened. I repeat, it is not part of my story.
Topic: Restart (Love x ∞ Part II) (Read 83858 times)