Death won over Time but Only by Mere Seconds
'One short sleep past we wake and Death shall be no more, Death thou shall die.' "In retrospect there were markers, subtle hints, but we were young and believe it or not even a tad bit arrogant." Nikola Tesla: For King and Country
The Five: 1
They thought they would all live forever. They had never been more wrong.
The first to go was Nigel in 1960. Helen's blood didn't work as well as they had hoped. He died peacefully, only telling Helen of his protégé with Jeanette.
John was at his funeral, unlike Nikola's fake one in the 1940's. Helen ignored her old lover and father of her frozen daughter. James held her close and Nikola leered as he said a prayer for his invisible chemist friend.
Helen missed Nigel's laugh, James's kindness, Nikola's sarcasm, and John's sonnets. Out of all that she missed the constant companionship, the discovery, breaking boundaries of science, and the friendships that came from nights creating new equations, mixing chemicals, and giggling at Nigel's latest joke or arguing with Nikola on why John, a Philosophy Major was with a group of scientist when he didn't even know one thing about science, just history, literature, and poetry.
The only use he was to them was a distraction for Helen and James, an irritation to Nikola, and a nuisance to Nigel's work. He could however, write their memoires one day or leave the information at some inconspicuous author's door.
James was the last and second of them to die. And it broke what was left of Helen's heart.
They thought Death couldn't touch them. They were wrong, so very wrong.