No. It can’t be.
“Declan?” I scoot around to see a blue caterpillar emerge from behind a blade of grass.
“Elizabeth,” he exclaims in his unmistakable Scottish brogue as he inches over to me.
“What are you doing in my dream?”
“Dream?” His beady eyes drop in dread.
“What’s wrong?”
“Darling . . .”
“What’s going on?” I question in fear.
“You died.”
Horror fires off inside me as I look at him. “Then . . . Then what are you doing here?”
“Don’t panic.”
“Oh, my God!”
“We’re together, Elizabeth. That’s all that matters.”
“If I’m dead, then . . .”
“I am too,” he tells me. “He shot me right after he shot you.”
“NO!” I cry out, and he’s right here next to me, comforting, “It’s okay, darling. We’re still together. Nothing can hurt us now.”
“But you’re . . . you’re dead because of me!”
“No, baby. You made the right choice. That guy was there for revenge, and no matter what you said, he would’ve killed us anyway,” he tells me. “But look around you. This place is incredible.”
I stare at him in utter shock and ask, “How are you so calm?”
“We’ve both been here for a while, a few days or so, but you’ve been sleeping. I’ve had time to digest it all, but this place doesn’t allow stress to last very long.” He slinks his way closer, running his body along mine, and the moment I feel his touch, my heart settles peacefully.
“We’re okay?”
He nods and then tells me, “We’re not alone either.”
“You mean Carnegie? Did you meet him?”
“I did, but there’s someone else you’re going to want to see.”
“Who?”
“Your brother.”
“Pike?” I perk up in astonishment. “He’s here?”
“He’s out with Carnegie right now gathering berries.”
“You talked to him?”
“Yes, but don’t worry. We’ve had a lot of time to reach an understanding with one another.”
“He’s not a bad guy,” I immediately defend, and he stops me.
“I know that now. Come on. Let’s go find them.”
We maze around enormous flower stems and even more gigantic tree trunks as we scoot together, side by side. Every now and then Declan looks over to me and smiles, which makes me giggle. He’s right, the stress doesn’t last long. As I frolic along, I feel weightless, I feel exuberant, I feel . . . free.
“This way,” Declan tells me before we turn and weave our way through the wooden vines of a berry bush. “It’s a shortcut.”
I look up at the pink berries that are as big as basketballs, and when we come to an opening and make our way out, I see Carnegie. And next to him is a bright red caterpillar.
“Pike?”
“You’re awake!”
“Pike!”
I slink as quickly as I can to him, and he does the same.
“I never thought I’d see you again,” I tell him.
“You can’t get rid of me,” he jokes as he nudges his stumpy head into the side of my tubular body. “You know, when you promised you’d do anything to get us a better life, I didn’t think we’d have to be fucking caterpillars to get it.”
We both laugh and Declan joins in as he sidles up next to me.
“Language, young man,” Carnegie nags in his dapper British accent.
I worm my way closer to my lifelong friend. “Carnegie . . .”
“It’s been far too long, my dear.”
“What is all this?”
“Why, this is your afterlife. Nothing will ever hurt you again, because pain no longer exists. This is where dreams are reality.”
“I told you it would all be okay, darling,” Declan reaffirms.
I release a pleased sigh and lean my head against Declan.
Carnegie looks to us, asking, “So, this is love?”
Gazing into Declan’s eyes, I respond, “This is love.”
Declan and I continue to nuzzle each other tenderly while Carnegie and Pike are off by the pond’s edge. Movement catches my eye, and when I turn to a tall bush next to me, an orange caterpillar appears. It stops and looks at me curiously, and then the beady eyes widen.
“Princess?”
My body sparks in bewilderment. “Dad?”
He rushes over to me, his tiny mouth fighting for the biggest smile.
“What are you doing h—”
Oh, my God. He’s dead.
And suddenly, I see his smile drop when realization hits him that I’m dead too.
He stops moving, and when his eyes slip away from mine, he looks to Declan. “What happened to you two?”
I hold my breath, not wanting my father to feel any guilt that I chose to pay the pay the price for his past—that Declan did too. “You tell me first.”
He scoots a little closer before saying, “The brother of one of the guys I handed over to the feds ran me off the road right after I left the beach the last day we were together. He gave me a choice. He told me I could live and that he would kill you instead or he could just kill me.” My mouth gapes in shock. “Obviously, I gave up my own life.”
“There was never a choice,” Declan tells him.