Death’s Kiss

The machine beeped in the room, a steady, constant rhythm that was easy to miss yet impossible to ignore.

The room was almost all white, only the curtains, separating the occupants from the rest of the building, had a modicum of color, ugly polka dots that were an affront to the eyes.

Sylus sat in the chair next to the bed, looking down at his intertwined fingers, his hands covered by smooth, black gloves.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” He asked, his voice quiet, desperately insignificant in the small room.

Olivia smiled at him, her bed angled for her to sit up and look at him. Her hands were neatly folded in her lap, numerous tubes and cords connecting her to the multitude of machines behind her.

“Living like this isn’t exactly pleasant.”

She tried to make it a joke, but the look Sylus gave her held only pain.

“The doctors said you could have months, maybe even a year. In that time they could…”

He trailed off as Olivia shook her head.

“I know they could maybe help me, but I don’t want to wait that long. To be trapped here, hoping for a miracle.”

“It happened once before,” Sylus said, his smile weak.

“Miracles don’t happen twice.”

Olivia reached out, taking his hand in hers. She gently entwined her fingers in his, careful not to touch his skin, feeling the coldness of his body through his glove.

“We did so many amazing things together in such a short amount of time,” she sighed, her fingers drawing tight around his own. “It’s time for me to move on, it’s time you let me go.”

“You say that as if it’s an easy thing to do.”

Sylus spoke the words with venom on his tongue, his sizzling anger draining out of him as quickly as it arrived as he saw the unshed tears in Olivia’s eyes.

Sighing, he gently squeezed her hand back, the two of them connected in silence for a time, only the steady beat of the heart monitor breaking their quiet moment together.

Olivia was forced to pull away when the door to her room suddenly slid open, a nurse entering with her nose buried in a clipboard.

“Ms. Olivia?- oh, I’m sorry!” The nurse hastily apologized. “I didn’t realize you were up.”

“It’s alright,” the patient assured her, waving at the nurse. “Did you need something?”

“I just stopped in to check on your vitals. Are you feeling up for it?”

“Sure.”

The nurse came around to the opposite side of  the bed from Sylus, the man politely turning away as the nurse checked Olivia’s heartbeat and conducted several other quick tests.

When the nurse was done she jotted a few things on the clipboard before smiling at the woman.

“That’s all I needed! Is there anything I can do for you, would you like me to move that chair out of your way?”

Olivia looked over at Sylus, considering him for a moment.

“That’s alright,” she said, her voice soft. “It’s being saved for someone special.”

The nurse’s expression softened, understanding in her eyes as she looked over at the empty chair.

“Alright. Well, if you need anything else please don’t hesitate to give me a call.”

She left as quickly as she had arrived, leaving Olivia and Sylus alone once more.

Neither spoke for a moment before Olivia gave a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry,” Sylus said, his usually chipper voice muted.

“Why are you apologizing?” The woman asked. “It’s not like you’re in control of all of this.”

She didn’t mean it hurtfully, but it was impossible to miss the flicker of pain that flashed across Sylus’ face.

“Sometimes I wish I was.”

Olivia frowned, reaching for the man’s face but stopping just short, her fingers a hairsbreadth from stroking his cheek.

“Remember what you told me? You’re the pole holding the entire circus tent up. If you went walking off to do your own thing, everything would come crashing down.”

“At least then I’d be in charge of my own life.”

“So many people are counting on you, whether they realize it or not. How would you feel if you knew you’d one day have to face them and tell them you didn’t help them because you chose to save one, unimportant woman?”

Sylus’ dark eyes flash, a chill running through the already cold room.

“Don’t dare say that. You’re an important person, no matter what happened in the past. Not-”

“Hey, hey.” Olivia grabbed his hands, pulling them close to her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

The man looked at her for a long moment, his expression steel as he searched her eyes, desperate to be sure that she was telling the truth.

Eventually he sighed, shutting his eyes tight.

“I just don’t want it to be like how things were in the past. Finding you on that rooftop, about to-” A shuddering breath escaped his lips. “It’s not something I want to see again, or to be a part of.”

“It won’t be,” Olivia assured him. Leaning down, she placed a gentle kiss on each of his hands, the smooth cloth of his gloves cool against her lips. “I’m not making this choice because I want to go, but it’s the best thing for me.”

Sylus still didn’t look happy, but he nodded in understanding, his thumb rubbing small circles into her hand.

“I don’t want you to go,” he admitted, his voice weak, desperate.

“I don’t want to leave.” Olivia’s smile was as full of pain as it was love. “You’ve helped me so much, I’ve discovered so many things about myself, my life, that I wouldn’t have been able to see if you hadn’t opened my eyes. To lose all that…”

She stopped, pulling a hand away from Sylus’ to wipe a tear from her cheek.

“I don’t want to say goodbye to any of that, to you.”

“Then don’t. Stay, be with me. We’ll find something out, the doctor’s could-”

“They can’t.”

The words stopped Sylus short, his gaze forever locked on Olivia, tears running freely down her cheeks as she gave him a painfully beautiful smile.

“The doctor came in today while you were gone. They said—they said there was nothing they could do. All that could be done was make it as comfortable as possible for me.”

A chilly silence descended over them, an inescapable cold that Sylus had never experienced before. It was a dark and consuming chill that promised an inevitable end he wanted no part of.

Even if he had no choice.

“Sylus, I’m sorry-”

“Don’t.”

Olivia fell silent, watching his pained expression with sorrowful eyes.

“Don’t apologize, you had nothing to do with this. I’m—” He closed his eyes shut, running a hand through his messy hair. “I’m mad that this happened at all.”

Unable to contain his emotions, he leapt from his chair, his feet carrying him in an unending path across the hospital room floor.

“Why couldn’t they have noticed it earlier, why couldn’t it have been something treatable?” Each question sent him passing faster and faster, his feet carrying from one end of the room to the other faster than his words could keep up with him. “Why could it have just not happened to you in the first place? Why?!”

“We can’t prepare for what we don’t know is coming,” Olivia’s voice stopped the man in his tracks, the words haunting him with their familiarity. “We can only prepare for what we know is coming.”

Sylus gave a hollow laugh, a gloved hand to his face, the room filled with his empty laughter.

“Using my own words against me,” he gave her a pained, rueful grin. “That’s not very nice of you.”

“I’m sorry,” Olivia said, a sad smile on her own lips.

Closing his eyes, Sylus stood like that for a moment, still as death. Then he let out a deep sigh, all his anger and anguish draining out of him in a slow, painful exhale.

Walking back over to the bed, Sylus gently took Olivia’s hands in his own, giving her a pained smile.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been angry, not when you-”

“You have every right to be angry,” she assured him quickly, giving a reassuring squeeze of her hands. “This affects you too.”

Sylus couldn’t help the laugh that burst from his throat. “How are you not raging at how unfair this is?”

“Because I have someone amazing and wonderful to do that for me?”

The man shook his head, gazing at her with a loving smile.

“…I’m going to miss you.”

Olivia brought his hand to her cheek, brushing against the smooth feel of his gloves.

“We’ll probably see each other again, everything dies eventually.”

Sylus blinked. “You think I’m going to die one day?”

“Anything is possible, and besides, wouldn’t you want to see me again?”

Shaking his head in resigned amusement, he sighed, gazing into her eyes with regretful acceptance.

“Is this what you really want?”

Olivia nodded, her eyes flickering with a sliver of fear.

“Will it hurt?”

“It’ll be faster than falling asleep.”

The woman closed her eyes, taking a deep, steadying breath. When she opened her eyes, Sylus could only find acceptance in her determined gaze.

“I’m ready.”

Nodding silently, Sylus ran a thumb along her cheek, taking one last moment to memorize her features, the spread of freckles across her cheeks, the scar next to her eyebrow from when she was a child, and her bright, captivating eyes that had drawn him helplessly in.

“I love you, Olivia,” he whispered, closing his eyes as he leaned in towards her.

“I love you too, Sylus,” she whispered, her words a quiet breath as she pressed her lips to his.

Their kiss was cold and sweet, a comforting chill running down Olivia’s spine like a comforting breeze on a hot day. She pressed deeper into the kiss, pushing her emotions across as she dove deeper into the encroaching abyss.

Sylus could feel her heat against his lips, a soothing blaze that warmed his cold soul, leaving an aching fondness in his chest as he felt her fire slowly die out.

He held their lip lock for another moment before slowly pulling back, opening his eyes.

Olivia’s eyes were still closed, her head resting on the pillow behind her, her hands at her sides. It almost looked like she was sleeping, if the shrill ring of the heart monitor wasn’t blaring the bitter truth.

“Goodbye, Olivia,” Sylus murmured, spending only another second to observe her sleeping face before he turned to leave.

He had almost reached the door when the nurse from before barged in, the door almost slamming open in her hurry.

Sylus stood in front of her, all but standing in her way, but she didn’t even stop to acknowledge him, her gaze locked on Olivia’s still form, her brow furrowed in alarm.

“Miss Olivia?”

The man stood to the side as the nurse rushed past him, his slow steps out the door a heavy contrast to her hurried sprint to her patient.

Sylus walked down the halls of the hospital, no one stopping him or asking what he was doing there.

On his way out the entrance he passed by a service dog, the animal whimpering, trying to back away from him as it’s owner looked at in confusion.

As Sylus stood there, looking up at the blazing sun, he found it’s comforting warmth was lacking to the fading heat upon his lips.

“What a day for rain,” he muttered to himself, a tear rolling down his pale cheek.