Death and the Swordsman
Chapter 4
By: Leelei
Author's Note: Thank you for all of the reviews! : ) I just wanted to take a moment and respond to a couple regarding the swearing. For starters, get the fuck out (lol, this is a total joke, please don't take it serious, it's meant to be sarcastic-it's how we talk in Cleveland sometimes). Personally, I swear all the time in my everyday life, so it's been insanely difficult to keep it out of my fan fics for this series, especially since it's one in which it is very uncharacteristic for the kids to be vulgar. However, I chose to keep it in because I wanted to use it as a symbol of Ulrich's luck growing worse. As his day progresses and he seems like he's "falling further and further down a hole," he picks up the bad habit as a result of his depressed state. But I do completely agree with you, though. I could definitely picture Yumi reaming his ass if Ulrich ever talked like that on the show. :D (By the way, Author's Note's are officially un-rated now. > )
WARNING: This chapter could be considered the technical climax of the story. I didn't want to give it away, but I feel that it's necessary to give the readers a heads up. This chapter contains Ulrich's death, and it is just slightly graphic (meaning that it leaves you with an image of how it happens). Please, if you are uncomfortable with this subject but would still like to keep reading, e-mail me and I'll send you an alternate scene.
When Ulrich opened his eyes again, he was sitting on Jeremie's bed watching the young boy type at his computer. The brunette quickly jumped up from his position and climbed up on the computer desk, pushing apart two of the closed blinds and peeking out of the window. First, he noticed there was no wrecking ball in sight, then he saw what he was really looking for. He watched as Yumi stormed away from the school yard, restarting on her way home.
"Are you going to go after her?" Jeremie finally broke the silence as Ulrich sat back down on the edge of the bed.
"No…" the older boy replied quietly in his glum state and stood up. "I better get going…I have to go get something for my report." Without waiting for a response from Jeremie, he left.
He didn't bother stopping at his own room, checking the change in his pocket as he walked out of the dormitory and quickly dashed through the schoolyard. He and Odd had mastered the art of sneaking out over the course of the year, with Yumi's help by providing all the best exits, but on that night he was alone as he crept past the teachers on watch duty and the security cameras that he knew were always on in front of the entrance gate.
Once he was on the main road, he walked down the sidewalks as cars rushed by on the street through the dark night, speeding to reach their destinations. Ulrich found an open store, searching for a box of baking soda he needed for the volcano and paid for it with the last of the allowance his parents sent him for that week.
He declined a bag and held onto the box as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and trudged along the way back to the school, his eyes downcast and his shoulders slumped. He passed under the countless bright street lights as he followed the cement path home.
'What has happened to me?' he asked himself in his thoughts. 'I'm loosing grip on everything…soccer, school, my friendships, Yumi and me…Lyoko…' he grew more and more downtrodden with each thought. 'I can't keep letting all these people down. My horrible luck is going to hurt someone else soon, not just me. I'm just so…so…so worthless!
'I mean why can't this just happen in shifts? One bad thing here, one there…but no, it has to hit me all at once. I just can't take this anymore. I can't deal with it…it's too much…
'I wish I was dead.'
About a hundred feet from the intersection he knew he needed to cross at, Ulrich finally looked up and noticed the light for the street he was on was still green. "I'm not gonna wait for it…" he mumbled. Without looking, he stepped off the curb and passed between two parked cars and walked out into the street.
It was a cold night, the wind blowing in from the east and scattering the leaves down the sidewalks. Their tiny crinkling noises accompanied the natural sound of the moving cars and talking people near the buildings and stores on the street. The air was crisp and fresh, but soon all was interrupted by a loud honk and the skidding of tires.
The driver of the sleek, black car had noticed the green light and new it would change soon. Not wanting to wait for it once it turned red, he had sped up. He never noticed Ulrich until it was too late.
'I wish I was dead…' Ulrich's thoughts repeated as his attention snapped to the oncoming car, the lights blinding him and the horn drowning out his screams.
His mind had entered a dream-state as he could feel the impact of the car, and vision went black just before his body collided with the cement.
When he opened his eyes, Ulrich was surrounded in white. He knew he was standing, and he was still wearing his same clothes while feeling perfectly fine, but he couldn't see anything but a vast empty white color.
"Where am I?" he called. Putting his hand in his pocket, he noticed his cell phone was gone. He looked down, frantic, checking all of his pockets and finding nothing, not even the baking soda he had just bought. "What's going on?" he called out again, looking around as he walked forward. "Jeremie? Yumi? Odd?" he yelled. "Aelita?" He asked himself out loud, "Am I on Lyoko again? Or is this something of X.A.N.A.'s doing?"
Suddenly, he felt a presence behind him and whirled around. An apparition had appeared; a ghost-like figure floating just above the ground covered in a pure white cloak, the hood pulled over a face that was only a black shadow. The figure was thin and about his height, with pale, petite hands that barely showed from the long sleeves. It's head was lowered, but the missing face raised to meet his stare.
"Ahh!" he yelled and jumped back. "Wh-who are you? Where am I?" he asked in fright as he shielded himself from the ghost.
"There's no need to be afraid, Ulrich," the spirit replied in a quiet voice. Ulrich knew he had heard that voice a million times before, but it was too low then for him to recognize. However, he knew it was a girl. "I won't hurt you," the voice continued.
'Yumi? Aelita? Sissi?' Ulrich asked himself in his thoughts. 'Mom? Mrs. Hertz? Milly? Tamiya? Emily? Dorothy? Who could that voice possibly be…'
"Don't worry about who I am now," the voice replied and Ulrich's eyes widened at her telepathic abilities. "You do not know now, anyway."
"Then tell me." Ulrich demanded through his fear. "Tell me who you are, and where I am."
The vision continued to stare at him with her response. "I am the Angel of Death. You have received what you wished for, Ulrich. Now I must deliver it to you."
"What I wished for?" Ulrich asked in reply. "What are you talking about?"
The apparition waved her hand to the side and Ulrich suddenly heard a new, very familiar voice.
"I wish I was dead."
The echo of his own voice sent shivers down his spine. "Oh…" he said and tried to regain his breath as his fear was driving it away.
"Ulrich, you have decided not to live. You have forfeited your own life and have been granted your request."
"What?" Ulrich suddenly looked at her, his thoughts quickly computing in his mind.
"Ulrich Stern, you are dead."
The brunette boy could feel his legs weaken. He looked down to the whiteness he stood on and held back the urge to throw up. "If I'm dead…" he choked out the words. "Then why do I still feel human."
"You are still a spirit now," the ghost replied. "You have not yet entered Heaven or Hell. This is your Purgatory. I am to show you what will happen as a result of your decision, and then you will receive your judgement."
"You mean I get to see life…without me?" Ulrich asked.
The apparition nodded. "You will be able to see what happens now to the people around you after your death. You will follow their lives, see what they do, watch and see if they remember that handsome brunette boy who was the star soccer player, or the quick swordsman who always fought bravely on Lyoko."
Ulrich's attention snapped to her at the mention of the virtual world. "What do you know about Lyoko?" he asked impulsively.
The ghost made a sound almost like a snicker. "There's no need to worry, Ulrich. You are forgetting that you're dead now."
Ulrich didn't know how to respond. "Oh," was all he could manage, everything still processing in his mind. "Well, then show me what happens. I want to see everyone after my death. I want to see how with my horrid luck gone that they can actually live…"
The ghost slightly tilted her head, confused by his answer. "I cannot read your thoughts to understand your judgement, but I can sense a change in the future."
Ulrich didn't understand her prophetic response. The ghost took his hand, yet he felt nothing as he followed her while she floated along through the white. "Do you have a name?" he asked.
The ghost turned her head to him. "I am called Death now."
Ulrich snickered himself. "You don't look like the Grim Reaper to me."
"Death is viewed on Earth as a frightening, disastrous occurrence, and yet humans forget to realize that is in inevitable. Not all unavoidable things are ominous. I am here as an angel to disregard the symbol of the evil thought of in it."
Her words made Ulrich think as she waved her hand again, that time in front of them, and a vision appeared. "I have to start from the beginning."
"The beginning of my life?" asked Ulrich.
"No," she answered and looked back to the floating image as she continued, "the beginning of your end."
Ulrich looked up to the moving pictures of the waiting room in a hospital and watched as the setting took over the white surrounding them, placing the two in the hallway of the medical building. The place looked real, but when he glanced down at his hands and saw how the white aura around his skin, he knew no one on Earth would be able to see him.
He first noticed the people around him. The principal of his school paced back and forth, while Jeremie was sitting on a chair and stared at the ground, his face red with a blank look. Odd stood and walked around, also, his painful discomfort obvious to all. Yumi sat on a chair and cried into her hands, her parents sitting on both sides of her trying to comfort her while handing her tissues. Jim and Dorothy stood near the wall by Jeremie's chair. Jim had folded his arms and stood solemnly while Dorothy was holding a copy of all of Ulrich's health records the school had on file, having already given the originals to the hospital when she arrived with the principal, Jim, and the two boys.
The principal had made his way over to Jim when the Phys. ed. teacher spoke up. "Sissi didn't come with us?" he asked quietly.
"No…" the principal answered through his troubled voice. "The doctor wasn't very optimistic when he called. I know she wouldn't be able to handle this." Jim could only nod a reply.
Odd had walked over to Yumi and knelt in front of the girl. "Yumi, don't cry," he told her through his own building tears. "He's gonna be okay, don't worry."
"Oh, Odd…" Yumi cried, releasing her hands from her red, tear-stained face. Her mother rubbed gently rubbed her back as her dad thanked Odd for his encouragement.
"Yumi, your friend will be okay soon," her father reinforced the boy's words.
"See? Your dad agrees with me." Odd tried to make her smile.
On the other side of the room, Jim noticed how Jeremie's face was beginning to loose all of its color. "Jeremie? Are you okay?" he asked.
"Wh-What are we going to do…" the young blonde stumbled through his wavering voice as he continued to stare at the floor. "What happens now?"
"Jeremie, everything is going to be okay," Dorothy moved to sit next to him and held his cold hand. "The doctor will be out shortly to tell us how Ulrich is doing, then you can go in and see him."
"I don't like how this is going…" Ulrich muttered as he watched the scene.
Just as the Kadic school nurse had finished her sentence in the image, the doors open and a tall man in a white doctor's coat appeared carrying a clipboard. "Are you all here for Ulrich Stern?" he asked.
"Yes," the principal answered for them all.
"Okay, I need to speak with a guardian."
The principal stepped forward and conversed with the doctor. When he had finished explaining, he stepped aside for the administrator to return to the group. The principal's eyes were wide and his faced had lost color, sudden shock and disbelief overcoming his features. "I'm sorry," he managed to say through a forced voice. "He's gone."
Yumi was the first to cry out. "NOO!" she screamed and began to sob hysterically. Her parents gasped at her reaction and held on to her as she leaned forward in the chair.
"Yumi…" Odd didn't know what to say as he was standing by her. His own tears started to fall as he began crying, too. Jim walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. Odd looked up to see water in his eyes as well.
Jeremie had began crying after the announcement, Dorothy hugging him and quietly tried to shush him in a sympathetic voice as she tried to hold back her own tears.
The doctor stepped forward again. "And his parents?" he asked the principal.
"They're on their way," with a choked in his voice, the principal responded.
The entire room was filled with upset. Ulrich couldn't believe the wretched sobs he heard from Yumi. She cried and wailed as her parents tried to ease her, even attracting the attention of other nurses to the room. Ulrich had never heard anything so painful before.
"Death, is she okay?" he asked the ghost standing next to him.
"She is hurt by your passing." Death answered. "They all are."
"What about my parents?"
"Once the hospital had received and identified you, they contacted the principal first. He called your parents immediately before gathering the others. Your mother and father dropped everything and flew in to see you, but they were still too late," explained Death.
Ulrich watched as the scene went on. A nurse appeared from behind the doors with a handful of items, including the baking soda. The principal accepted them, and Jeremie, Odd, and Yumi lost any composure they had left when they noticed their friend's cell phone.
"They'll see…" Ulrich told himself, although he felt mixed deep down inside as he watched the despairing scene. "They'll benefit from this eventually." He turned to Death. "What happens next?"
"Why, your funeral, of course."
"My funeral?" Ulrich exclaimed. "I don't want to see that!"
"This was your wish, Ulrich Stern," Death said as she waved her hand again. "I am just a messenger."
Ulrich's attention lingered on Yumi as the image faded. She hadn't yet stopped bawling, not even calming from her hysterical state. He had never seen her cry before, and her pain then was overwhelming. "I'm sorry, Yumi," he said softly under his breath before the sight was gone, then leaving him to wait for the next to appear.
Thank you again for reading. Chapter five coming soon…I hope everyone has a great vacation!!! :D And please, drop a review if you would like to. I truly appreciate all of the input you guys have given me, and I welcome and hope to see more of it for future chapters! : )