25 Close My Eyes and Die

Life comes after death.

Breathe in eternality.

Breath out death, and live.

Kate's just as beautiful now as when I saw her last. But there's a vapidness to her gaze as she looks upon Flint's fading form.

Flint's throat is dry, he can't form the words to cry out to her, to warn her.

Allegra May.

At Kate's feet is the still form of their daughter, blonde hair soaked and stringy, chest covered in blood.

Snake stands there, jaw agape as he beholds the creature before him, the angel he's dreamed of seeing all these long years since her death.

But this isn't Kate. Not his Kate. There is no life in her eyes, no spirit in her perfect body.

"Kate!" Snake calls to her. "My Kate!"

She turns to him, but she does not recognize him.

"Kate, speak to me!" Snake demands, his hands shaking her lifeless shoulders. "Kate!"

But there is no voice in her throat. She bows her head in submission, a specter and nothing more.

Flint drops his gaze back to his daughter.

Allegra…

Thunder cracks in the heavens outside the cave, the fierce reminder that Flint's people are also dead and dying.

"What have I done wrong?" Snake demands. He pounds a fist into the rock wall beside him, shaking his hand when it burns with pain.

Flint lies his head against the cool stone floor. There are words there, but he's too weak to speak them.

This is fool's gold, Snake. Only fools are foolish enough to think magic could bring life back to the dead…

Snake storms out of the cave, Kate following mutely in his wake.

Flint closes his eyes. There is life after death, and he's not worried about where he's going. The woman with Snake isn't his Kate, he reminds himself. Just a specter wearing her form… He'll see the real Kate and Allegra, too, 

in Heaven…