Author's Note: I had a hard time with where to end this one but I think I've got it. Let me know what you think please and thank you :)
CHAPTER TWENTY: ANYTHING I CAN, I WILL
Elizabeth placed her arms slowly around Jamie's sobbing frame; feeling it was the only thing she could do in any attempt to comfort him. She would wait until he was ready.
He cried for a full minute; heaving sobs from deep within him. All the things he could have done with Sarah raced through his mind; things and moments he would never see and never experience with her at his side.
The young Master Gracie closed his eyes from seeing Jamie holding his beloved so close to him; the pain of loss plain to see over his entire body. Alexander didn't want to see this; though it had been over a century past since he'd lost Elizabeth that fateful night the wound still felt fresh as though it had happened only mere days before. Witnessing that similar scene before him had reminded Alexander oh too well of the memories and feelings of his own situation. And yet, when he closed his eyes his image of Jamie Evers was instead replaced with himself and Elizabeth. Alexander had to remind himself that his love was returned to him; that his story at last would reach its happy conclusion. He only felt extreme regret now that Jamie's would not.
Emma cried into Ezra's shoulder. She couldn't believe it. Mr. Evers had been so kind, so friendly, so wonderful, so loving… Why did it have to end this way? Why now twice did this mansion hold such tragedy over love? She wrapped her arms around her husband's neck and felt silently grateful that the two of them hadn't ever been separated. They'd both become ghosts within mere hours of one another and had been trapped within the Gracie grounds for all this time under The Curse. But it just wasn't fair. First Master Gracie and now… She felt sick just thinking about it.
Finally, Jamie began to compose himself; taking deep breaths in and numbing his mind to the pain. He promised Sarah. He promised her he wouldn't do this. It would take a lot of work but he had to do it. He had to.
"Thank you," he whispered to Elizabeth as he slowly let her go. He looked to the floor –afraid to look at her and see Sarah's face. Elizabeth didn't know what to say.
Alexander approached and helped her to her feet. "We can give you some privacy," he offered softly. "I realize how… I understand," he concluded shortly.
"Thank you; to the both of you," Jamie managed to say.
They weren't sure whether or not to offer him a hand up –but both decided to let him be. They moved away from him; arm in arm in silence.
They stood in front of the stairs leading to the organ and paused to look at one another. Grateful to be in each other's company, they pulled in and hugged one another tightly.
Yet both Alexander and Elizabeth felt tense. Their reunion was bittersweet with the loss of Jamie Evers' fiancée Sarah. It didn't feel right that they should now be so happy when he was so crushed by loss. Alexander saw the hesitation in Elizabeth's smile as she looked at him and so he spoke up first, "What is it my darling?"
She shook her head gently. "I'm so happy to be with you once more but I cannot shake this horrible feeling within me of sadness for Mr. Evers. It is not fair that he should give up so much for us to be happy at last…"
"I cannot agree more," Alexander answered softly. He turned his head to look over at Jamie who still sat on the floor where they'd left him.
Jamie was numb. He knew he should get up and move from this spot. He knew he couldn't just sit here and let nothing go through his head as tears fell unnoticed down his face. He didn't want to feel the pain; but remaining numb to everything around him and inside him wasn't in his best interests either. Yet for the moment, it was easiest just to stay where he was. He had no thought and no motivation on what he would do once he stood up.
"Just give him some time," Alexander murmured softly to Ezra and Emma who had approached him and Elizabeth hesitantly; looking concerned. They nodded and turned towards one another; Ezra murmuring words softly to soothe his wife.
"I just wish there was something we could do," Alexander declared to Elizabeth; feeling helpless. He knew from personal experience that the one thing to remedy the heartbreak that Mr. Evers was going through was to be reunited with the person he'd lost and nothing else. "This poison: you say you're the only thing stopping it from reaching her heart and killing her?"
"Yes," Elizabeth confirmed, "Without me, it will rush straight to her… She'd have only seconds left before enough of it finally reached her heart; there's some there now –though not enough to kill her yet."
"Perhaps there's a way: we could find the cure for this toxin and in the meanwhile you just stay in her body to keep the poison at bay," Alexander suggested hopefully.
"I don't know if that's possible," Elizabeth shook her head sadly, "We don't know what Ramsley used and even then I'm not sure I could hold it off that long…"
"What do you mean?" her beloved asked with a frown.
"I can't hold it off much longer I fear… It's too strong."
"How can you tell? I don't understand."
"The poison –I can feel it within her. I can feel there is some in her heart already but it's not strong enough to kill her. Before, there was less of it there but now…" Elizabeth looked up at Alexander who was listening intently and she tried to explain more clearly, "Before, I could feel it pushing its way towards her heart but I was able to resist it; stop it from moving. Whenever I am within her my presence has slowed her heart to almost not beat at all and yet…though I have paused her body's state I can still feel the poison; the death of the poison pulsing and threatening to overtake her. The first time it was not as strong but I fear letting Mr. Evers say goodbye has strengthened the urgency at which death is trying to take her. Its pulse –if I can describe it as that- is harder to resist now.
If we were to try and find the antidote I fear I would not be able to hold off the poison's deadly effects for long enough."
Elizabeth looked at Alexander's defeated expression through Sarah's mournful eyes. She felt terrible to have made him lose hope.
"I suppose that is the way of it," he whispered, moving a stray lock of Sarah's honey brown hair behind her ear.
Elizabeth looked at his coat; lost in thought. The two were silent for several seconds as they pondered the tragic state of affairs.
Suddenly, Elizabeth's expression changed. "Perhaps…" she whispered and Alexander looked down at her, "Yet I'm not sure…"
"What is it my love?"
She turned Sarah's eyes up to meet his. "I have an idea."
Alexander listened as Elizabeth explained her sudden thoughts. "It is worth asking him," he proclaimed with a nod once she'd concluded voicing her conceptions and doubts.
They made their way to Jamie and Alexander decided to take the lead, "Mr. Evers? I am so terribly sorry to intrude. It's just… we are so grateful for all that you've done and it mars me to my core that you must face a reality opposing to our own. I would do anything I could to remedy this injustice. And so when Elizabeth had a thought; a notion that could change circumstances, we decided to bring it to you at once so that you may offer your conclusions and verdict on it. Elizabeth?"
She came forward and Jamie cast his eyes downward; still unable to look at her. "I do not wish to do anything to further harm you Mr. Evers however it had come to my mind a way to perhaps save your fiancée," she began softly; not wanting her words to startle him, "You see, the poison within her is pressing hard against my presence; fighting my resistance against it preventing it reaching its destination. It is my thought," Elizabeth murmured shyly, "that perhaps instead of pushing against it that I can instead pull upon it. If I were to leave her form and pull the deadly quality of the toxin with me, then perhaps I may be able to save her."
Jamie looked slowly up at her, feeling something stirring within him.
"I do not believe it would harm me," she continued, looking to both Alexander and Jamie in turn, "because I am already…deceased and its effects would have no consequence. However I am not sure if I would be successful.
I do not wish to provide you with false hope Mr. Evers-"
"It's not false hope," he retorted gently, "because there is a possibility it would work. And that is not false hope; that's just a shred of hope even if it's tiny.
I promised Sarah that I would…live my life without regrets. But I can't do that unless I know I've tried every available way to save her that I can –even if I'm not sure it will work. I couldn't live with myself if I had a 'what-if' about anything. And if there's a way I can try, I would like to do it. Please."
Elizabeth nodded gently; an acceptance in her expression. "We are forever indebted to you Jamie Evers. If there is a way to help you, I will not hesitate to do so. I just wanted to ask you first…"
"Thank you," he whispered gratefully but suddenly his face fell, "Wait. What about your wedding? I can't do that to you; after all the time that you've waited— You said that you can't take your own form…"
"That is true. However I will be able to eventually. How long did it take for you Alexander?" Sarah asked softly.
"I can honestly say that the first thing I remember after my…my death was a day after I'd been buried –according to everyone else. I appeared in the library where Ramsley soon found me…" he answered; almost pausing on his butler's name as though it suddenly felt wrong to utter aloud.
"You see." Elizabeth smiled gently in encouragement, "I'll be able to take my own form and the wedding shall happen then."
Jamie looked between the two of them with silent contemplation. Finally, he nodded. "If you can at least try then…" he whispered as a tear fell down his cheek from his innermost thoughts overwhelming him once again.
"Of course," Elizabeth agreed just as softly; smiling at him.
"Mr. Evers?"
"You can call me Jamie," he told Alexander softly.
"Jamie. Well I just want to express my deepest regret and contrition. I do hope that you are not resentful –though you have every right to be—with me and with… with what you've gone through tonight…"
Jamie disagreed, "It's alright. The only one I have a bone to pick with –well maybe that's a poor choice of words—" a bit of Jamie's former humor had crept through, "The only one I have anything against; to speak ill words to is Ramsley and he's not here to hear them. Don't worry Mr. Gracie. No matter what happens I understand and I don't blame you for… for any of how things turned out." He paused for only a second and then went on, "Whether this works or not," he whispered; afraid to jinx it, "I understand."
"Very well," Alexander murmured in response and nodded in humbled and grateful acceptance.
"Perhaps it's best," Elizabeth began softly as she and Jamie came closer together, "if we do as we did before…"
Jamie could only nod and the two arranged themselves again on the floor. "No matter what happens," he murmured to her, "I just want to thank you so much for trying to save her. I… I have no words…"
"There's no need," she whispered with a gentle smile much like Sarah's own and it broke a piece of him.
He tried not to consider that he might not see that smile again. And yet it was hard not to be hopeful that he would; though the odds were against it. He tried to numb himself to either outcome although an anxious pit sat in his stomach.
"You're certain this won't harm you," Alexander suddenly asked from several steps away. He looked incredibly uneasy.
"Yes," she replied.
"Listen if you think something's not right or if you feel something bad don't go through with it. I don't want the both of us not to have a happy ending tonight," Jamie stated firmly, "Otherwise all I've gone through will have been in vain."
It was Elizabeth's turn to nod in acceptance, and Alexander cast Jamie a look of esteem and admiration.
Unable to deny Jamie's request for any moment longer, Elizabeth then closed her eyes and thus Jamie's full attention turned on Sarah's face. For a few moments, it was as though time was stood still. No one moved or breathed.
Slowly, Elizabeth's expression drew Sarah's face into a frown as though she was concentrating hard upon her task. Soon she began to shake slightly from her efforts and Jamie was unsure of what to do. But suddenly, Sarah's body shook rather violently once to each side in his arms and Jamie was immediately frightened. "Elizabeth!?"
Before he could cry out again, a wispy figure escaped from Sarah's chest. Although it resembled the ghost ball's essence, its colour was dark –swirling blacks and deep navies. Emma, Ezra, Alexander and Jamie all watched it in horror. After only seconds hovering in midair the ghostly smoke began to fade away and its light diminished.
In shock, Jamie wasn't sure where to turn his attention at first. But a deep urge forced him to look down at Sarah. Did it work? Was she saved?
For several seconds she remained motionless and Jamie held his breath. Gaining some composure, he stroked her cheek gently and whispered her name so softly that it was undistinguishable.
His heart sunk. "Sarah?" he whispered again as tears slowly made their way to his eyes.
He'd been a fool to believe that death would spare her. This place was under a devil's curse after all. It wasn't likely to be forgiving. And it had taken her away from him. Sarah was gone.