What if R and Julie hadn't met outside the city? What if R had been captured, taken by soldiers inside the fortified city of the Living? A different version of the R/Julie story, one where they meet in her world, not his.

Isaac Marion owns Warm Bodies. I just enjoy playing with the characters.

A Dark Negative of Love

Chapter 28 – Suspended

With a shock I realized it was real. Though I struggled, I felt the knife cutting open my chest. I saw more than heard Nora trying to stop the surgeon, and being pulled back. Her eyes met mine, and they were full of tears, then she was gone.

I began to wonder if I was being vivisected like the other Dead I had seen on my first day in the Grigio dome.

Finally, mercifully, things went dark, as the pain once again overwhelmed everything else. I could hear my own breathing, and nothing else. Then I heard nothing.

A horrific pain hit me repeatedly, forcing me back to consciousness. I tried to slip away, to crawl into some part of my being where I couldn't feel, but it persisted. I felt as if I was being crushed from the inside out, and whatever was hitting me was shredding me internally by making me move.

I finally realized that something was on my chest, and that large bursts of pain were emanating from it.

I opened my eyes briefly, blinking in the bright lights, and saw two masked figures hovering above me. Everything was blurry, as I was having trouble focusing, and breathing was very difficult. I pushed past the pain to try to make sense of the blurs in front of my eyes, squinting in an attempt to focus.

It seemed that one person had brown hair and was holding something metal in his or her hands. The other person was tall, had blond hair, and appeared to be a man. He pushed aside a face mask, and I saw his lips moving as he said something. "R?" Was that what he said?

I struggled to think, as I thought I might have recognized him, but it slipped away.

I craned my neck around as I heard a beeping sound from somewhere nearby. This meant something, something quite serious I was sure. So I tried hard to focus on it. It was rhythmic, but not steady. As suddenly as it started, it stopped.

It was too much. It was all too much. The darkness, the too bright lights, the pain. A memory of a smiling girl with blonde hair and blue eyes flashed through my mind, and I felt myself smile back at the memory. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.

I must not have made the transition, I thought. I was leaving, going to final death. I wondered if there was a Heaven or Hell waiting for me. Would I be reunited with my own, now forgotten, family there? Or would I be in the Hell I deserved for years of feeding on the Living?

I faded away again, consumed by pain. As darkness descended, I felt something soft brush across my lips.

PLEASE REVIEW. I WILL SEND AN EXCERPT FROM THE NEXT CHAPTER TO ALL REVIEWERS.

REVIEW IF YOU WANT THE NEXT CHAPTER!

REVIEW

V

V

V

V

Next up is the last chapter. Are you curious? Let me hear from you!