Death Stares Back
"I now pronounce you man and wife."
The details of the church are fuzzy, but Demetri doesn't notice. One never does in a dream. The only thing that is clear is Zoey, the way she seems to glow in her white gown. She is smiling angelically, lighting up her whole face. When he leans down to kiss her is when the gunshots are fired. He turns when he hears the familiar sound, and catches all three squarely in the chest.
He wakes up in his bedroom, drenched in sweat, breathing a hard. He is completely awake, painfully aware of everything. The blackout, his flashforward, today's date...
"March 15th" Zoey says softly from next to him. He looks at her, half covered by sheets, eyes barely open.
"The day I die." He says solemnly.
"The day you survive." Zoey replies with certainty. "The day we get married."
He wants to believe that, so badly that it hurts.
But one can only be so optimistic when referring to his own death.
c c c
One moment he is singing to himself, trying to figure out his tux, the next, a stinging pain in his forehead, then darkness.
When he comes to, he is sitting in hard chair, his own blood running into his eyes. A complex looking mechanism is ten feet in front of him, and he can only decipher one piece of machinery.
The gun pointed at his chest.
Behind him, which he can just see the edge of if he turns his head, it some kind of chart drawn, but with no rhyme or reason to it. Dyson Frost called it his Garden of Forking Paths. He looks closer and discovers it's an overlapping map of Flashforwards, connected by lines of chalk. Pictures of places and people are stuck to it. And he noticed his picture connected to a snapshot of Mark's gun on a white background. In the picture, his eyes are closed, and he looks deathly pale.
Deathly.
All the future possibilites lead toward one final destination. At the very top of the wall, there is a date, and a two words.
2016- The End.
This is bigger than they knew. April 29th is definitely not the end of their problems. But somewhere in his mind, Demetri already knew that. He just wasn't quite ready to believe it, until it slapped him in the face.
The clock is ticking. He very aware of exactly how much time he has left to live. He doesn't know what to think. He knows that there is no chance of his being rescued. But a small part of him clings to hope. The human spirit, everlasting hope. All that was left in Pandora's Box.
He wishes he could see Zoey again. But she'll move on, she's young. When he's gone, her life will continue. He couldn't imagine moving on if the roles were reversed, but he didn't have to think about that right now. He'd have plenty of time when he was dead.
At some point he feels the tears running down his face. Why the waiting? He can't stand it. Why can't Dyson Frost just shoot him already? Why does it have to end so violently? Why can't he grow old with Zoey and die peacefully in his sleep when he's ready to go?
Why is he so scared?
He's an FBI agent. He should be able to handle this. He can't bring himself to lean forward and let the gun fire. He can't. Not yet. He must stay strong.
He doesn't dare move to wipe the salt water from his face. He tries to face death with dignity. That's all he can do now.
He sits for hours, sitting perfectly still, staring at death.
And death stares back intently, watching his prey, waiting to strike when the time is right.
When the waiting is over.
c c c
It's in the last ten minutes when he hears his name being called. He can't reply, or the gun will fire the three shots in his chest. He wonders why he doesn't scream, and end it now. But he can't, someone is looking for him. They'll find him into time to watch him die.
Mark bursts in a few mintues later. His hands shake as he looks over the Dyson Frost's murdering creation. His voice is desperate a he tries to figure what to do.
"One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish." he mutters, again, again.
Great fucking time to be catching up on your Dr. Seuss. Demetri thinks. But Mark has his reasons for all the crazy shit he ends up doing. He always has his reasons.
Demetri thinks back to Hong Kong, where Mark literally lost his job to find out what would happen today. He hopes he can return that devotion one day. No matter how this turns out, he owes Mark his life. He will never forget him.
"Tell her I love her." Demetri says urgently, breathing hard, sweating with stress and suspense.
"You can tell her yourself." Mark replies tersely.
He starts to move the target of the gun upward, then stops suddenly, gazing at Demetri.
"My hand, my gun." He says. Demetri nods, and Mark keeps going upward. Demetri wouldn't have it any other way.
The clock enters the final five seconds, and the target of the gun moves between his eyes and conitnues.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Demetri's eyes squint tightly together and he winces as each bullet fires.
He opens his eyes and breathes in. He hadn't realized he was holding his breath. Behind him, his picture on Dyson Frost's Garden of Forking Paths has three bullet holes in it.
When he realizes he's alive, that he has survived his predetermined death date, a grin breaks across his face. He can't quite believe it, but he opens his mouth and starts to laugh uncontrollably. Mark laughs too, his right hand covered in blood from getting his fingers caught in the trigger mechanism.
"Do you think it's safe to move?" He asks Mark, once he's got himself under control.
"Only one way to find out." Mark replies.
Demetri gets up carefully, his legs stiff and half asleep. He stretches, and behind him hears the sound of water hitting a solid wall. When he turns, Dyson's Garden is washed away, the chalk running off in waves, the pictures smeared and ruined.
They look at the blank wall for a moment, but though it could have provided a lot of answers, Demetri's to overwhelmingly joyful to think of much other than the fact that he's alive.
He's fucking alive!
He looks at Mark, and at his Death Chair, and at the gun that would have killed him today. And he smiles and smiles because he still can't believe that he'll be able to live the rest of his life with Zoey.
At that moment, it doesn't matter what the Flashforwards bring. What happens on April 29th or whatever may happen because of that. Because he'll have her, and that's all he needs.