Not Fang
Disclaimer: All
characters (except for the nurse, but nobody cares about her) belong
so JP (or PJ, if you flip it…) This is a sort of "What If Fang Had Died In That Part In The Beginning Of SOF?" (the part right before they go to Anne's)Tis sad, ye be warned.
"To die will be an awfully big adventure."
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
A friend who dies, it's something of you who dies."
Gustave Flaubert
The waiting room was packed, making us even more nervous than we already were.
Oh dang, oh dang, oh dang…
If anything happened to Fang, I think I would jump over the nearest cliff—wings folded in.
"Excuse me? Maxine Ride?"
I jerked upright. "Yes?"
Before me stood a petite blonde nurse, her hands clasped tightly. I noted that her nametag said "Sally", and I stored that bit of information in the back of my mind.
Sally bit her lip. "Um…come this way, please," she said softly, motioning to a room off to the side.
With a nod, I turned to Iggy, and tapped him on the hand twice, letting him know that he was in charge until I came back. Carefully, I stood, then made my way toward where Sally had indicated.
She followed me, then shut the door behind us.
For a long moment, no one said a word, and I was beginning to worry that something was wrong with Fang.
"I'm so sorry," the young girl murmured, fiddling with a lock of her long hair. Suddenly she blurted, "He didn't make it. Your brother."
Oh God, no.
"He…he died a few moments ago. Do…do you want me to take you to where he…is? They haven't removed the…the body."
Body. He's just a body now.
"No!" I screamed, restricting the urge to shove the girl. "He's not dead! He's alive I tell you! He is! He is! You're lying to me!"
He wasn't dead. He couldn't be. There was no way.
"Come," the nurse said quietly, and I vaguely noticed that she seemed to be crying.
Sally pushed me into a room, but did not come in.
I stared at the white paint for a moment, before slowly—oh so slowly—turned around.
In the center of the neat, unnervingly lab-like room, sat a bed. And on that bed, was a cloth sheet, pulled to the top, but obviously covering something…something shaped human.
One unsteady step at a time, I made my way over there. Then, I stopped and simply stared, willing me to pull back the blanket, to see for my self that what was under there was not Fang, was someone else, someone who didn't matter.
Light filtered through the small window to the side, so that I was sure to see the face of this…what was on the bed.
Knowing that I would lose my nerve if I didn't do it now, I took a breath, and then yanked the corner of the sheet off with all of my strength.
For the longest moment, I stood there, not moving, not breathing. After what must have been an hour, I heard a heart-rending wail, one that chilled my blood.
It took me a full minute to realize it was I.
"Not Fang!"
The word tore through me as I shrieked them, collapsing on to the ground.
"Wake up Fang, please!" cried, clinging to his limp hand, as if it were my lifeline. "I'm sorry! But please, please wake up!"
Nothing happened, and I began to sob harder, harder than I had in my entire life.
Not Fang. Oh God, please not Fang.
