Lilium's Short Stories

[Lilium Mortem]

THE END
CW: Blood, Gore, Death

"FUCK!" Jak yelled, pulling Bea into an alley. "Keep pressure on the wound, but keep moving!"

"J, I don't think I can do this..." Bea said, holding her stomach and leaning against a wall.

There were more bangs and shouts coming from the street. Jak looked forward, the end of the alley let out into another street... that was starting to fill with smoke. Jak pulled at her hair, trying to think, when she jostled her glasses.

"YES!" She said, pulling them off.

"The hell?" Bea muttered.

Jak didn't have time to explain. She had learned to lock pick(god what a silly thing to do to impress a girl) a while back. You need two things to open a regular deadbolt: a torsion wrench, which is basically any kind of thing you can wedge into the lock to make it turn when you want it to turn, and a pick, anything you can use to set the pins.

Jak had learned that with the rubber protectors removed from the ends of her glasses arms, they made a decent torsion wrench. Moving to one of the back doors in the alley, she pulled the forms she'd brought in her bag and pulled the paperclip off to fasion a pick.

Twenty seconds later they were in, the sound of sirens and megaphone boosted police commands fading behind them Jak closed the door.

Laying Bea gently down on a couch in the break room of some shoe store, Jak went to search for some kind of med kit and found one in the bathroom.

"Ok, let's get that mask off you." Jak said, pulling the N95 off Bea's face.

...She looked so pale.

"J, It's fine." Bea smiled weakly.

That snapped Jak out of it and into motion. Shirt cut open, fresh wad of gauze on the wound... there was an exit wound, that was good right? Eventually Jak had gotten to the end of her first aid knowledge and just slumped down next to the couch.

"We can't leave, help isn't coming any time soon." Jak said, muffled explosions punctuating her remark.

"J, If this is it-"

"DON'T TALK LIKE THAT!" Jak roared, making Bea flinch.

"J..."

"I'm sorry. I just-, this isn't the end."

"What if it is? I don't feel good, J."

"Then it was all for nothing." Jak shifted, turning away from her fellow activist.

"It wasn't for nothing." Bea said weakly, closing her eyes.

"We could have had a nice life. Just walked away and lived out in the sticks or something. We could be happy."

"We both know that isn't true. We wouldn't be able to find jobs, we'd be harassed, discriminated again still, and we'd be worse people."

"But we didn't have to fight!" Jak yelled, starting to cry "we didn't..."

"But I'm glad we did. All the smiles, the people we helped. The community we built. So we got hurt, so we suffered, but at least we've shown that a better world is possible. And we got to live there, in the good times. With our friends, our community. That was worth it."

"It's- It's not worth it if-" Jak choked back a sob, "If you die!"

"I'd die a thousand times If I could see one girl like Sara, or a guy like IO, smile and be themselves. Maybe I'm not kind enough to myself, but it's the truth. We made a difference."

"But we didn't change the world, not like you wanted." Jak shifted, turning to lean into Bea's side, damn the blood.

"We could never have changed the world." Bea said, smiling. "Not by ourselves. But we still changed lives, including each others. I'm happy with how things turned out, even if there's still more to do. There will always be more to do..."

"We- we can still do it!" Jak stammered, holding Bea's hands in her own.

"I don't think I'm going to make it, J" Bea said with a weak smile.

The world fell out from under Jak. Bea had to survive, she had to! What would living mean without her? Would the community they built scatter to the winds? What about all those times Jak needed a shoulder to lean on? That was a world that seemed far worse than dying.

"Please" Jak whispered, invoking any kind of deity, any kind of help, her tears running down her cheeks and falling onto the hands cupped in her own.

"I love you" Bea croaked out.

Sobbing, Jak held Bea until her body started going cold.




 

---

Three months later, Jak looked at her empty apartment.

"Sad to see it go?" IO asked, balancing a box on its shoulders, showoff.

"Yeah. I still miss her, and I don't want to leave this place behind." Jak said, sighing.

"We all loved her. I know you loved her. But we have to move on."

"Yeah... Do you think it was worth it?" Jak asked.

"Was what?" IO asked.

"Everything."

IO put the box down and thought about it. A couple of minutes later he nodded, and moved Jak out of the empty apartment that was once the home she shared with Bea.