Chapter Twenty-Nine

Beautiful Release

Kimberly's eyes fluttered open just as the paramedics were beginning to strap her into a gurney. The first thing she was aware of was how badly the left side of her face was hurting, though she couldn't quite remember why; her head was also throbbing uncontrollably, by far the worst headache she had ever suffered. As she began to become more aware of the sights and sounds around her, she began to remember just what had happened to her: she had been in a car accident, she had blacked out and she was sure she was going to die.

But, there she was, not dead but strapped into a gurney and about to be loaded into a Lakeview Hospital Ambulance. She shut her eyes tightly once more, as though she hoped that would help drive out the pain in her head but the gesture did nothing; she wiggled her fingers and toes, wondering if she had suffered something worse then a head bump to be loaded into an ambulance. Everything responded, she checked out okay.

The sound of someone calling her name caused Kimberly's eyes to flicker open once more, her gaze attempting to pinpoint where the speaker was standing. Relief washed over her when she saw Thomas standing beside the gurney, looking even more relieved then she felt.

"Kimberly, thank God you're okay." Thomas mumbled, kissing her forehead and lips gently before she could say anything.

Slightly confused about the whole series of events that had led to her being upon a gurney instead of in a graveyard, Kimberly said, "What happened? How did I get out of the car?" What she really wanted to know was, had she cheated Death once more?

Thomas smiled slightly at her question. "Altessa rescued you, she climbed into the burning car and somehow managed to pull you out, believe it or not. A real Timmy and Lassie style-rescue." He answered, the whole thing seeming much more amusing now that the real danger was over.

"So, you're comparing me to a twelve-year-old boy who has a knack for falling down wells?" Kimberly questioned, raising her eyebrow slightly, though it sent a wave of pain through her body. She took the fact that she could joke as a good sign. Thomas opened his mouth to defend his statement but Kimberly cut him off before he could do so. "Where is Altessa anyway?"

Thomas frown, brow knitting as he heard her question. "I have no idea, after she saved you, she took off running, she was really upset about breaking the Design." He answered, wondering if he should be concerned for the teenager. He decided against it, however, since it was more likely his turn to die next and not Altessa's.

Kimberly frowned as well, wishing that she wasn't strapped down to a gurney (which made her feel like a mental patient) and that her head didn't hurt so bad (which made her want to kill herself.) Her concern for Altessa multiplied because of what Bludworth had said about the teenager; something inside of her told her that Altessa had known how to beat the Design all along. After all, hadn't she something to that extent when they were leaving the mortician the first time? "Thomas, I think Altessa's in danger." Kimberly said, staring at her boyfriend with a serious expression upon her bruised face.

"Why? Death has already skipped her, it's not her turn to die yet." Thomas questioned, trying to figure out where Kimberly's concern stemmed from. It wasn't the first time he had wondered if Kimberly and Altessa shared some sort of visionary link.

Kimberly shot an irritated glance at the paramedic to her right for strapping her down before turning her gaze back to Thomas. "When I went to see the mortician, he told me that Altessa had created the ripple that put Alex and I on Death's List in the first place. Altessa should have never been born but she was which started a chain of events that brings us to where we are now; basically, if there was no Altessa, the whole premonition thing wouldn't have happened in the first place.

"He also told me that the only chance we have of prolonging the Design is if Altessa dies. Do you think it's possible that Altessa knew all along that she was the cause of the Design, that she could somehow break it? I mean, didn't she say something like that before?" Kimberly questioned, brow knitting in concern.

Thomas paused to think about Kimberly's question. "Well, yeah, she did say something like that, after we had visited the mortician the first time; she asked if her intentional death would somehow break the Design. But I doubt that she really knew that it would, she was probably just offering ideas." He mumbled, though it seemed like quite a stretch to him. How many people offered up suicide as an off-handed idea?

"Either way, I think Altessa's in trouble, and we have to find her before she does anything stupid." Or deadly, Kimberly thought but say, making a point and pulling against the straps that held her down. The action sent a wave of pain through her head and she had to pause, shutting her eyes until the dizziness passed.

Thomas gave her a strange look. "Kimberly, you were just in a car accident, a major one and you probably have a concussion, I think Altessa will be all right until-" Kimberly once again cut him off, sounding even more upset and worried then she had before.

"I don't feel like I have a concussion." She snapped, though, inwardly, she wouldn't have been surprised if she had a concussion after all. "Altessa might be in danger and she might not be all right after the doctors tell me that there's nothing wrong with me. I'll go to the hospital after we know that Altessa's not going to kill herself." Despite her throbbing head, Kimberly turned her anger toward the paramedic, who seemed content enough to pretend like he didn't hear anything that Kimberly was saying. "If you don't let me out of this god-damned gurney right now, my friend could die and then it'll be your fault." Kimberly thrashed once more, realizing that she was making too much of a skeptical in her actions. But now, however, didn't seem like the time for saying please.

The paramedic seemed surprised by Kimberly's behavior (obviously not the sort of behavior he had expected from someone who might have a concussion) and glanced over at Thomas, who simply shrugged. "She's obviously not that hurt; I promise she'll get to the hospital after she sees that her friend is all right." Thomas assured the man, who seemed more then eager to follow orders instead of thinking for himself.

Kimberly sat upright as soon as she was untied from the gurney, fighting down the wave of dizziness that washed over her. Letting Thomas help her down from the stretcher, she seemed ready to take off that very moment. "All right, Thomas, we have to find Altessa right now." It wasn't the first time she had said these words, but this time she really sounded like she meant it.

"Do you have any idea of where she is? She could be anywhere, Kimberly, she just took off running." Thomas remarked, putting his arm around the brunette's waste in an effort to support the shaky girl.

Kimberly didn't answer right away but instead began walking forward, heading away from the ambulance and accident scene. After a brief pause, Thomas followed after her, clearly in no mood to leave her alone after her recent brush with Death. "If she wanted to be alone, then I doubt that she would go back to our apartment, but I doubt that being alone was the reason that she ran away." Kimberly frowned as she spoke, feeling somewhere deep inside of her that she was never going to see her new friend again. She tried not to think that way but she found it nearly impossible.

"Kimberly, I really doubt that Altessa rushed off to kill herself; I mean, she has no solid ground to do such a thing." Thomas said, figuring that he was trying to reassure his girlfriend and keep her from doing something stupid.

Kimberly, however, didn't seem very reassured by the words and stopped abruptly, turning face the officer. "Thomas, she was more then enough ground to kill herself, though I doubt that any of the reasons you can think of will be the reason that she does it. And I know she will, if we don't get there in time." She snapped, trying to speak with force, though felt as though she were trying to save someone that was all ready dead.

Thomas sighed, pursing his lips. "Okay, so where do you think she vanished off to then?" He questioned, seeing that there was no fighting Kimberly now that she was on a mission of sorts.

Kimberly paused to think about his question before the answer dawned upon her. "Home, I think she went back to her house; no one wants to be completely alone when they die and her house is all she has left of her family." Her reasoning didn't seem like it made the most sense but Kimberly was certain that was where Altessa had run off to. Everyone wanted to be at least close to home when they died; that was partially the reason she had stopped by her father's house the morning, just in case she did die before getting back to the apartment. Home really was where the heart was.

Thomas thought about saying something but he decided that there simply was no point; logic couldn't interfere with way Kimberly was thinking right now so there was no use trying. "Fine. Lead the way." He muttered instead, sighing as he followed Kimberly to the SUV, which had been moved to the side of road once he had realized that Kimberly was all right.

Kimberly climbed into the passenger side and buckled, waiting impatiently for Thomas to start the engine and turn the car around toward the Adams' house. Please don't let us be too late, Kimberly prayed silently, we can't be too late again.

* * *

The Adams house looked just as it always did: lights out, crooked for sale sign in the lawn, silent as houses should be. Nothing seemed amiss or out of place, but Kimberly felt as though it appeared more foreboding then any other house she had ever seen. As Thomas' SUV slowed in the driveway, a low humming sound reached their ears; at first, Kimberly couldn't figure out just what she was hearing but as the car pulled closer to the garage she was able to identify just what the noise was. "No..." Her words came out breathlessly as she tore her seatbelt off, bolting out of the car without waiting for Thomas to come to a stop.

Kimberly remembered the sound she was hearing from the days when she was in grade school and her mother used to warm the car up before they got in to drive to her school in the winter time. She remembered that her mother always made a point of parking the car outside the garage while it warmed, worrying that the garage would fill with carbon monoxide and poison them all. Of course, at the time, Kimberly had had no idea what carbon monoxide was or did until she was in the ninth grade and one of her classmates had committed suicide by starting the car, leaving it in the garage and letting the whole place fill with carbon monoxide. She had overheard one of the girls saying that carbon monoxide was incredibly lethal but perhaps the best way to die because it felt just like going to sleep.

And now, all the pieces were beginning to settle into place, the final puzzle in Death's Design. The sound she was hearing was the car running in the garage and the garage would fill with carbon monoxide gas and if Altessa had decided to kill herself that way, there would be almost no chance of her still being alive, since a great deal of time had passed since the teenager had run off. And it all makes sense, Kimberly realized suddenly, stopping just before the garage door. Altessa's nightmares about her dying because of gasoline poisoning make sense now; it wasn't really a Sign for the house explosion but for how she would really die.

Kimberly grabbed the garage door handle and flung the door upward, coughing and staggering backward as a wave of nauseating odor hit her. She covered her mouth and nose with her hand as she squinted her eyes to get a better look into the garage, knowing exactly what she was going to see.

Her mental picture didn't disappoint, though she would always wish that it had. Altessa was seated with her back against the back bumper of the family mini-van, head tilted toward the exhaust pipe, which continued to expel the poisonous gas. Despite the way her thick hair sprawled across her face, it was easy to see that the teenager's face appeared slightly swollen, lips puckered and slightly discolored, eyes glazed over with the milky whiteness of death, chest and body still.

"No." Kimberly choked out once, reaching out to grab the teenager, pulling her away from the pipe, though it was more then too late. Her limbs were stiff, an after effect of Death, and she felt like dead weight in the brunette's arms. "Altessa, please..." She trailed off, unsure of what to say. Altessa, please, don't be dead...? Tears filled her eyes as she stared down at the teenager, who was really nothing more then a corpse.

Altessa was dead, the Design was broken, she and Thomas were free. But somehow, sitting on her knees in the driveway with her friend's corpse in her lap, Kimberly didn't feel very free.