Love Will Keep Us Alive

He wasn't feeling well. He groaned. A woman came and lay a poultice upon his forehead. She covered him in cool mud. She chanted some sort of magic and told him everything was going to be okay. He didn't believe her. He thought he was dying... all over again. He remembered the bus crash... the sound of the metal twisting, the sensation of great pain as his limbs were torn from his body. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out... only groans. He was hurting. And nothing could make it better.

He looked up into the tender blue eyes of Misty Day. She was so beautiful. She lovingly cared for him. When the mud dried, she washed it off. It took away his scars. It was healing mud.

"You're going to be alright, Kyle. You will survive this," she spoke. "You'll live... and you'll have a second chance."

He stared at her as if she spoke a foreign language. His mouth opened, but no words fell out. He was paralyzed. His limbs didn't work. He tried to move them, but he had no control of himself. What the hell? She called this living?

*I'm better off dead,* he was thinking. *It was cold there... and dark... but there was peace. Now there's only pain. So much pain. I need the darkness again.*

He wanted to scream, "Bury Me!"

*I'm supposed to be dead,* he was thinking.

The door of the shack opened and SHE walked in. She came to his side and he felt her touch. She lightly caressed his arm. "Kyle, how are you?" she asked as she searched his eyes.

He grimaced but he could not speak. His voice was stolen from him. Would he ever speak? Would he ever be the man he once was... the one he had been the night he met her; before the horrific accident?

"How is he?" Zoe asked Misty.

"It hurts coming back from the dead," Misty replied. "He's struggling... but he'll make it. He has you now."

Zoe cradled his head in her lap and caressed his hair. She spoke to him softly and he forgot the pain. He forgot the accident. He forgot everything but her gentle touch. She soothed him like no other. She was his medicine. He would survive.

"I am sorry, Kyle. I never meant to hurt you," she whispered.

She kissed his forehead. He was no longer afraid. Her love would keep him alive.

"I'm taking you home with me, Kyle. You're going to live with me. Madison and I are going to take care of you. Don't be afraid."

Madison? Kyle remembered Madison. She had set the whole chain of events into orbit. She was the reason he was dead... and she was also the reason he had come back to life. Madison's spell had resurrected him. She knew Kyle deserved to live. He wasn't like the others. He wasn't a rapist. He hadn't told a soul... but he too had been raped.

A tear fell from his eye and made it's way slowly down his cheek. "Awww, he's crying," Misty said as she knelt over him. "His senses are returning. He really will be alright. He will be himself in no time at all."

Zoe tenderly kissed away the tear. "Don't cry," she whispered. "Nothing will hurt you. Not anymore."

Kyle reached out and took her hand. That single gesture took every ounce of his strength. He wanted to be the man he had been before the bus wreck - the man who had danced with her at the party; the one who had laughed and smiled and told her silly jokes. He would do anything to be THAT man. Now everything was different, but deep down, he was still Kyle, and she was still Zoe. Underneath all the scars, he hadn't changed.

*I love you,* he whispered to her in his mind. Even if she couldn't hear it, she would feel it. He would see to it.