Chapter 412: The End... or the Beginning?
"I died."
James’ voice came quietly as he stood in the darkness. It was not complete darkness, but something strange, a kind of shadow where he could still see. He could feel his body, he could think, he could speak, yet around him there was nothing. Only darkness and a thin layer of fog.
"James... how long has it been?" A voice came from behind him as he turned around, and there he was.
"Lucian?" he asked. "I knew I would meet you if I died. But this is Hell? I thought there would be fire and demons."
"Oh, why would there be demons here?" Lucian said as he walked closer. "When you have your own demons."
"My own demons?" James asked with a smile. "You mean you are a demon of mine?"
"Yeah, I might be one, but I prefer ’bestie’ over demon." Lucian laughed.
"Bestie, huh?" James laughed as he reached out his hand, but passed through Lucian’s hand, as if he was nothing but fog, as if he was not really there.
"Yeah, bestie, but your demons are them," Lucian said as he slowly walked through James’ body as if he wasn’t even there.
And as James turned back they were all there.
Rafael. Hans. The journalists he killed at Marco’s house. Even Marco himself. Isabella. Victor. The police chief. Everyone who left something dark inside him.
"Torment, even after my death, huh, Lucian?"
"Not really," Lucian said as he turned back. "To be honest, I don’t know what this is. Maybe it’s your mind. Maybe this is something you cannot accept. He paused. "Maybe this is the beginning and the end. But one thing is sure, James... this is you. And you need to make peace with yourself, because this," Lucian pointed to his own head. " will go wild. Even wilder than mine."
"I blew my brain out with a gun, Lucian," James said with a laugh. "I think there is nothing left in there to make peace with."
Lucian laughed too and shook his head. "Well, yeah, you did blow your mind out... in your mind." He smiled wider. "I think you have already gone crazy, because you are talking to me. No... more like you are making me talk to you. How crazy is that?"
"What are you talking about, Lucian? I died when I—"
"James!" A shout came and in that moment the darkness faded out, just like Lucian and everybody who was standing there. "You good, don’t worry, I got you! Mike, come here!" The shout came again, and James could clearly hear a familiar voice, not just familiar, he knew the voice, but it was impossible that he was hearing it.
Because that voice belonged to the same person who got a bullet to his head.
He was hearing Hector’s voice.
"You good, don’t worry, James!" His voice came again as his hand was pushing to James’ side. "Mike!"
"I am here!" Now came Mike’s voice, and what James saw as his eyes opened was Mike putting on gloves, getting a bandage from his bag and pushing it to his side, but he didn’t understand what was happening, he didn’t understand that it was reality.
"It’s too much blood... we need to get him out now!" Mike’s voice came, but still James had no idea of it, had no idea until the point his body was raised by Hector and Mike and his head fell to the side.
He was seeing a woman, with a huge amount of blood under her body. A woman who was no other than Sophia herself.
"What... w-what is this."
"Don’t worry, James! I am here, we’re going to get you to the hospital, just focus on your breathing!"
The moment Hector said it was the exact moment James passed out. There was nothing holding him back to life, and more, he didn’t even know what was happening at all.
James himself pulled the trigger, he remembered it, he saw Hector’s dead body, he was pushing his hand to his neck trying to save him. He saw the reaction of Ramirez, of Linda, of everyone, he saw their eyes, he could feel what they were thinking.
"Stop!" Mike shouted again as they got close to the car. "I need to stop the bleeding! Put him on the ground!"
"What?! We need to—"
"He’s losing too much blood, Hector!" Mike shouted as he looked into Hector’s eyes, who seemed to realize in that moment that it was worse than he thought, because the eyes of Mike were just too telling. "If we put him in the car, he dies on the way there!"
Mike shouted and then turned around and ran to his own car and pulled out a big medical bag from it, opening it and it was full with medical equipment.
IVs, scalpel in sterile containers, a whole bunch of different bandages, even a small oxygen tank was in there.
But Hector still didn’t seem to understand what was happening or what Mike was saying, but when Mike cut off James’s clothes, when he revealed his upper body and Hector’s gaze fell on it, he froze.
The amount of blood that was gushing out of James was so much that it seemed impossible. He saw the three bullet wounds, one near the heart, one in the lower abdomen and the third one just under James’ right breast.
What he was seeing was death. There was no doubt about it, there was no way of him surviving it, it was just too much blood, too much to be able to recover from.
"Hector!" Mike shouted, pulling him out from his thoughts. "The IV, put it into his vein on his arm!" Mike said as he reached out the IV line and the needle toward Hector, but he was just too frozen, he was just looking helplessly back at Mike.
"I’m here!" Linda’s voice suddenly joined in as she knelt down, grabbed the line and immediately put it into James’ arm. "Tell me what I need to do!"
The fear was heard in her voice, not just that but her whole being was shekking but she knew that if James died right there, it would mean the end.
The end of what they have worked for.
