An Untimely Death
"Put down the telephone, Lieutenant."
Turning, I saw Maria Ross standing behind me, with a gun pointed to my head. No, not Maria.
"Who are you?" I questioned.
"I'm Maria Ross. We've met at the hospital a few times-"
"No, Maria Ross has a mole under her left eye."
"Oh, really?" the supposed Ross replied.
"Ross" reached up with her free hand and touched the cheekbone below her eye. A sizzling sound and a small flash of light later, a mole appeared.
"Better?"
I swung out with my arm, slicing the thing across the neck. It fell back, spurting blood.
"Sorry, I have a wife and kid waiting at home."
I turned my back to the practically dead creature and started for home. Behind me, there was another sizzling sound and I turned to face it, dagger in hand. The image of my wife stood before me, gun pointed at me. Although it wasn't her. I would've known it without seeing it transform in front of me. The evil smirk that played across her face was one Gracia would never wear.
"You wouldn't stab your wife, would you?" it taunted.
It's not Gracia. It's not Gracia. I know it's not. Stab it. Kill it before it kills you first. It's not Gracia. It's not her. It's not-
BANG!
The revolver in my "wife's" hand went off, the trajectory hitting its mark, piercing my skin. It slipped between two of my ribs and punctured the right lung. I lost my balance and fell back in shock and crashed back into the telephone booth. Half propped up, I gasped for breath, but found that through the excruciating pain, air wouldn't go into my lungs. The dark stain on my coat began to spread rather quickly. With each drop of blood absorbed into the fabric, I felt my consciousness and energy ebbing away. My head became increasingly dizzy with the blood loss.
"Hmph, humans," the shape-shifter snorted, "weak as ever and just as predictable."
I watched as the form of my wife strode away from my broken body. It disappeared as vision blurred. Breathing was almost impossible. With only one working lung, and the other collapsed and filling with blood, I knew that I only had maybe a minute to live.
"If you're calling me to brag about your daughter again, Hughes, we'll see if fire can travel through phone lines." Roy's voice whispered from the telephone receiver dangling above my head. A few tears welled up in my eyes at the mention of Elysia. I tried to reach for the receiver, but I didn't have the strength to move my hand more than a few inches.
"Hughes?"
Crimson spilled onto the pavement from the telephone booth. I couldn't feel how wet my chest was with my own blood, or how red it was. All color had faded and the black around the edges of my vision was growing rapidly. I took a rattling breath and choked on blood. I couldn't feel the pain in my chest anymore. All feeling was almost completely gone.
"Hughes...Hey!"
Suddenly, I felt very tired. My eyelids were twenty pound weights. I closed them and pictured Gracia and Elysia in my mind's eye.
They're waiting for me.
"I'm sorry...I said...I'd...be home...early."
"Hughes!"
"Roy..."
The name slipped out in my last breath. I saw my wife and daughter smiling and heard my best friend's voice as the darkness wrapped itself around me.
"Hughes!!"
