Dead Flowers - Chapter Fifteen

Robert is alive but for how long?

When I had been a young teenager, I had buried the only person who truly cared about me. My grandmother had been the reason for all my hopes and all my dreams.

She had been there when my mother was too busy to tuck me in at night or when my father’s telephone call was much more important than the doodle I had drawn for him.

She had been the reason my childhood had been brimming with happiness.

Now, as those years had drifted by, I felt as though my happiness was now lingering on the life of a male I had barely held a relationship with.

Robert lay in the old hospital bed with a smile upon his opaque face. His skin was so pale and his hair was so black. He was human, a full blown human with veins and muscles and organs.

He was alive.

“Robert?” I called, grabbing the chair beside the wall and pulling it up to his bedside. I fell into it gracelessly. The sound of the creaking wood didn’t faze Robert and he continued to sleep with a peaceful look across his handsome face.

“I can’t believe you did this,” it came out in a whimper, “I can’t believe you did this for me.”

I was given no reply but a gentle snore than made me laugh gently to myself. I slipped a hand upon his face; carefully caressing it because I was scared just touching him would cause him to vanish.

When he didn’t disappear and all he did was move into the warmth of my hand, I felt myself released a whine.

My arms fell upon his bed and I buried my face in his sheets, “You’re so dumb, so stupid! I liked you the way you were, I wanted to be with you regardless if you were a ghost or not -”

“The experiment went well,” breathed the dry feminine voice of Dr. Best. She strolled in without a care while I kept my head buried on the bed. “I don’t want to say he’s going to survive but it’s the best we’ve had yet.”

“When will we know?” I muttered into the thin blanket Robert laid upon.

“It is hard to say. Our last subject made it about 10 hours before her heart shut down,” Dr. Best came up behind me, “Robert spoke about you every day, Leena.”

“Don’t say that.”

“And why not, you silly girl? You should be ecstatic to be so highly thought of by such a handsome man.”

Robert was handsome. He was gorgeous. His face had been pretty as a ghost but as a human, he looked untouchable. If I had run into this boy at a bar, I would’ve walked on by with such a nervous stutter I’d probably end up spilling my drink.

“It’s not that,” I whispered, my head lifted up softly, “If he dies... If he dies I don’t want -”

“You don’t want to be at fault?” She chuckled, “You are not the one at fault, Leena. He chose this, not you. He chose this so he could be with you. If anything he was at fault for not speaking with you first.”

I couldn’t blame him, no matter what Hannah Best said.

“You can leave, Leena. You can leave right now and go back to your fiancé. You can pretend you saw nothing and that Robert is far from your life.”

I dropped my head back down, shaking it in a ‘no’ over and over again.

“You can live a normal life, a happily married life.”

“But I don’t want that,” I whimpered, “I don’t want Caleb. I’ve never wanted Caleb. I just wanted to be with Robert.”

The blankets stirred.

“I don’t care if I can’t have children. I don’t want them, not unless there his and if he can’t give them to me, I don’t care. I was just happy being with him.”

Dr. Best smiled, “Young love is painful, isn’t it?”

A dead laugh was muffled by the blankets, “You have no idea.”

“Heart ache can kill you, Leena.”

“So I’ve heard,” I breathed.

“I’m going out to gather some dinner. Is there anything you prefer -”

“Thank you but I’m not hungry.”

Dr. Best scoffed, “Leena, dear, I don’t care if you’re hungry or not. You’ve been sitting for 8 hours in that damned little office. You’re going to eat and then we are going to sleep. I don’t care if you sleep here but you will get some rest.”

I barely formed a nod.

When Dr. Best returned, she had forced me to eat a full burger and to message my fiancé. She told me to tell him that I was alright and something important came up and I would call him when everything was in the clear. She than forced me to rest and I took the cold floor of Robert’s room over the padded rest area upstairs.

I wasn’t sure what time it was but I was exhausted. I wanted to stay awake. I wanted to make sure Robert would make it through the night unlike so many others before him but my eyes shut the second my head hit the floor.

I could hear voices, gentle ones that spoke in hushed tones. It sounded like they didn’t want to wake me.

“You need to lie down,” said a woman. It was Dr. Best.

“No, I feel fine, Doctor, just let me see her.”

“Robert, I am advising you to lie down!”

“And I will,” chuckled the male, “When I can lie with Leena.”

“You are a stupid boy,” snarled the doctor. Her voice was rising and the world around me was slowly being clearer. “Robert, lie back down. You are not fine -”

“I am. I feel great!” A warm body dropped beside mine, “Look, I truly thank you for everything you’ve done but just give me this one last thing. If I am unable to make it through the night, than at least I’ve been able to hold her.”

“Robert...”

“Please...”

“Fine, very well,” and the door slammed shut causing my body to sputter awake.

“W-What’s going on?” My body was constricted, was held against a solid form. I struggled, “Let go! Where’s Robert? Robert!”

That hold chuckled and I could feel the man’s chest press against mine, “I’m right here, love.”

I turned, roughly struggled until my face was staring up at my captor’s. Instantly, my eyes watered while a carefree laughter lit Robert Iria’s green orbs. He was right here. He was holding me with warm solid arms.

“How are – You’re okay?”

“Right now,” He said with a beam, “Right now I am perfectly fine.”

I began to cry. I began to cry out of frustration, out of happiness and out of relief. All these emotions I had felt for years toppled over as the once ghost man clung to my weeping build.

 He held me until I had calmed. I shuffled out of his arms, laughing amongst my dying sobs as I wiped my face and fell against the metal wall. Robert pushed his thick body up, the pale skin draped in a simple blue hospital gown.

“You’re so dumb, you know that?”

Robert smiled, “Yes, Dr. Best has mentioned that once or twice.”

“Don’t laugh,” I muttered, “I mean it. You should’ve talked to me. You should’ve told me – Robert, I -”

“Leena,” his happy voice had softened, “I am a selfish man.”

“Don’t start with that again -”

“No, love, I am,” The man sighed, “I should have never accepted your feelings. I should’ve pretended they didn’t exist and you would’ve moved on and I... I wouldn’t have put you through all this heartache.”

“Rob...”

“Just listen, love. I am selfish. I wanted you to be happy, yes, and I wanted you to be able to live a full life but I wanted it to be with me. I wanted you to have children with me and I...” He paused, “I didn’t want to watch you grow old and die.”

“W-What?”

“I did this for you, Leena, there is no doubt about that but I also did it for myself. Even if we spoke, even if you told me you did not care about children, I would have still left.”

“What if... What if you never found this place? Would you... have come back?”

He frowned, “I have run that very question over and over in my mind, Leena. I know I would have wanted too but -”

“Never mind,” and a sullen smile broke over my face, “You’re here now. You’re... alive.”

“I am,” and with open arms he offered me a place against his a chest, a place I couldn’t refuse.

Robert and I laid silently together for what seemed like only minutes when Dr. Best finally returned. Her face, still stoic and aged, seemed surprisingly refreshed and I assumed she had gotten a bit of sleep while I had sat in my once ghost boy’s arms.

“Robert, I have given you over an hour with your Leena,” said the female doctor, “It’s time you rested.”

He smiled, “I have been resting -”

“Without any distractions,” snarled the woman. I quickly unwrapped myself from his arms and with pleading eyes, begged him to follow her orders.

“If that is what you wish,” said the polite gentleman. A kiss was placed upon my temple, a chaste one that lingered until a harsh cough came from Dr. Best.

“And you dear,” she said with a much softer tone, “I need to speak with you. And you -”

“Yes, Doctor?” Robert was lying upon the bed, grinning in his robe. He seemed so playful, so teasing but I guess that was what happened when you dealt with the dead man for over a year.

Dr. Best sighed, “Robert, you stay put. I understand you have an overload of energy and right now all you want to do is satisfy those needs your body is craving for but you’re human now.  You are no longer dead and you can no longer live like you once did, your body needs sleep and it needs food.”

“I understand, doctor -”

“I don’t think you do,” but she shook her head anyway, “Darwin will be into see you soon. Just stay put.”

He grinned, “I will do my best.”

“I’m sure.”

When Dr. Best and I reached the little office she turned to me with a sullen frown. It was a sad one, one I wasn’t sure why she was holding. Robert was doing great. He hadn’t once had any form of pain, he was moving like never before so I couldn’t grasp what was so wrong.

“He is doing well,” Dr. Best said, “Much better than I had ever hoped.”

“It’s great, isn’t it?”

She sighed, “Leena, dear, if Robert does end up surpassing the next few days and he does make the transition over to human life, you still have a few loose ends to tie up.”

“Me?”

“Yes, dear, you still have a new life you attempted to create. What do you plan to do about it?”

I gulped. Caleb. She was talking about Caleb, the boy who I was supposed to be marrying in the next few months.

“I don’t know...”

“I do not know you as well as I should like,” said the doctor, “but I can tell you are far happier lying with a dying man than you have been with Mr. Pine.”

“Caleb’s been good to me,” I muttered, “He’s been there for me and...”

“And?”

“He’s going to be crushed,” I whispered, my hands slipping over my ears.

“Who is, Leena? You must make a choice -”

“Caleb... Caleb’s going to be crushed -”

“And who is Caleb?” spoke a voice.

“Robert!” and Dr. Best pushed past me with a furious yell, “You are a horrible patient!

The man chuckled, “Dr. Best, I have -”

But he stopped.

Everything around me seemed to silence as Robert tried to open his mouth. His green eyes seemed to be struggling with something until all of a sudden, they closed.

“Robert!”

His body dropped.

“Robert!” Dr. Best rushed to his side while I, I stood there with a panicked look, a horrified one. The door hung open, creaking on its hinges just as Dr. Darwin came rushing down the hall.

He began yelling commands at the scientist until she returned with a stretcher and the two of them heaved the heavy man upon it.

The door shut.

And I was left in the silence of the room.

To be continued...