Suki Blue Fiction
They say it’s good to learn something new
every day. I think that’s probably true. If life teaches you nothing else, it’s
that you should grab it by its scrawny throat and shake it. If you don’t? Time
sidles away and leaves you wondering where that stray, grey hair and tendency to
wear slippers came from.
Today, my something new was learning how it felt to die. I’m not sure it’s what
I expected, so I’m not sure if it’s what I got. I don’t really remember what
happened before and what led to my death. One minute Bruce and I were on a
random Bludhaven rooftop and the next I was flat on my back on the ground.
I do remember a feeling like suction, like my breath and my blood were suddenly
taken from me and I was just left with the taste of copper in my mouth and
throat.
I felt nothing after that. Time just stopped. There was no light to reach for
and no angels to guide me – just a big, fat, disappointing nothing. It lasted
for an eternity.
Then, I was flooded. Warm breath flowed into my body and an unbearable weight
pounded rhythmically at my chest. I couldn’t move – stuck somewhere between
total blackness and the neon lights of a street corner. Soft lips touched mine
and that breath pushed into me again. It was then that I heard him.
Bruce, my mentor, my friend. Calling my name, over and over.
Pressure at my chest again and a crack as a rib snapped. I could still hear my
name, but louder, like he thought I was deaf or something. I felt the warmth of
skin as he bent to me again.
“Don’t leave me.”
I gasped as my body awoke. Panic hit me momentarily as I struggled to pull air
into my lungs and re-start what I’d always considered, until now, to be a simple
rhythm.
“You’re alive,” I heard him say. The dull and unemotional tone did not surprise
me.
The tongue down my throat did.