August Camp: Day Four, 1317 Words.
"Please, we do not want any trouble," Neil said softly. He reached his hand back into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. "Here, take it. Just please, leave us alone."
I was shaking so badly, but Neil had one hand on me to keep my body behind his. I was holding onto his shoulders, trying not to squeeze too hard, but I could not help it. His voice was strong and sure, but I could feel Neil quivering under my touch.
The masked man snatched Neil's wallet and rifled through it, throwing pictures and other useless things onto the ground. He grabbed the credit cards and shoved them into his pockets before tossing the wallet aside. He was still holding the gun up, pointing it directly at Neil.
"What else you got?" he barked. I jumped suddenly, letting out a soft scream. Neil reached up and grabbed my hand with his.
"Please, this is all we have. Just go," Neil muttered. I could hear that the quivering had reached his voice. I started to cry.
The man took a few steps toward us, and Neil instinctively backed up as did I. Now he had both hands behind him, pushing me back as far as I could go. I reached out and grabbed at his hands, trying to pull him along with me. But just as I touched his skin, he brought his hands back to himself and held them up.
"We do not have anything else, so just please--"
The gun went off with a loud bang, and Neil fell to the ground. I screamed and watched him as he was falling, all in slow motion. As he finally hit the cold, hard ground, I saw that there were tears in his eyes. I looked up at the man with the gun, prepared to throw myself at him and beat him senseless, but he was running in the opposite direction. I tried to move forward, tried to follow after that bastard, but my feet seemed to be stuck. I wanted to chase him, to grab that gun he had just fired and shoot him with it. But then I heard Neil gasping for breath, and I fell to the ground as well. I crawled toward him and cradled his head in my arms, my tears already dropping onto his face. He looked up at me, but I could see the strain already there.
"Neil, are you okay?" I whispered. I looked down at his body, and saw that the man had shot him once right through his chest. There was so much blood.
"I do not think so, Lily," he breathed. He was staring up at me, crying himself. He brought a hand up and stroked my cheek gently, and I began to cry even harder.
"You are so beautiful, Lily," he gasped, trying to smile. "I love you so much, always remember that."
"No, you are not allowed to say goodbye, Neil Everett," I told him. I put my hands on his wound, trying to control the bleeding but it seeped through my fingers.
"I was going to marry you, and give you the life you wanted," he said. He was smiling now, but still the tears streamed from his eyes.
"You still are going to marry me, Neil. We are going to get married in a few months, and everything will be okay," I said. I looked back down at his chest, and realized that he probably only had a few minutes left. "The ambulance is going to come, and you are going to be fine. I will take you home and take care of you, and then we will get married."
"I would have loved you my entire life, Lilian Grey. Never forget that," he told me. His hand was still holding my cheek. I felt myself starting to shake.
"You are going to love me your entire life, Neil, because you are not going to..." My voice trailed off. I did not want to say it, I could not find it in myself to say it. "Die."
He smiled at me again. "I am going to die."
"No, you are going to live. And we are going to get married and have children. They will look just like you, and they will have your great sense of humor and your same level of loving and caring. They will be amazing, just like you are." I did not know what else to say, but I did not want to stop talking. I could not stop. I could see the light draining from his eyes. "We are going to get a house with a great big yard where the kids can run, and maybe we will even get a dog. Every kid needs a dog."
"Good night, Lilian Grey," Neil gasped.
I felt him try to take another breath, but his body staggered, and then his eyes went cold. They were fixed on my face, and I looked at his chest. It was still, not rising and not falling. I looked back at his face as his hand fell from holding my cheek. I knew he was gone, but I did not want to believe it.
"Neil, please, please do not be gone," I whispered. I stroked his face, his hair, tried to get him to move. His blank eyes simply stared straight through me. "Neil!" I screamed.
I have no idea how long I sat there, holding his limp body in my arms before someone showed up. It was a nice old lady who called the ambulance. She tried to have me stand up, step away from Neil, but I could not leave him. I did not want to just leave him there alone on the cold ground. I wanted to hold him, because maybe if I held him tight enough or long enough, he would wake up. Or maybe I would wake up, all of this being a dream. I shut my eyes tightly and opened them again, but I was still sitting there, alone, as I held Neil in my arms. My tears were flowing quite quickly as I reached out and shut his eyelids, and I could feel that his body was already getting cold.
When the ambulance came, they propped him up on one of the gurneys and wheeled him into the vehicle. I wanted to go with them, but someone said something about me needing to stay there because the police needed my statement. I just wanted to be him. What if he was really still alive? What if he somehow woke up? I needed to be there in case that happened.
After being at that damn crime scene for half an hour, I was finally escorted to the hospital. Neil had been officially declared dead, but I did not believe them. I asked to see him, but they said I could not. They said that I was too fragile, and that I should just take a seat and try to calm down. I remembered screaming at them, telling them that he was not really dead. That he could not be. We were going to get married, and I was going to be Lilian Everett, and we were supposed to have a perfect life together.
I suppose at some point, someone had called both Martin and my father. They showed up as I was screaming, and Martin wrapped his arms around me and pulled me outside. I did not want to be outside, though. It was cold out there, and outside was where Neil had been shot. I wanted to be inside in case he woke up.
"Lily, please," Martin breathed, hugging me tightly. "He is gone."
"No, he can't be, Martin," I gasped, crying into his shirt. "We have to get married."
"I know, sweetheart, I know," he said. I felt his tears fall into my hair.