“Selfish!”
She broke his grip and shoved him halfway across the patio area.
“I’ll show you how selfish I can be!”
“Stop, Hannah! This isn’t you.”
“How do you know what’s me! You have no idea how dark and miserable it is in the veil! You can’t feel, you can’t taste. You’re dead but there’s no peace.”
“So let me give it to you!” he said.
Hannah ignored his words, moving toward him as he continued to back up.
“This is all your fault! You left me down there in that watery grave.”
“I had no choice!”
His retreat ended when she backed him up against the wall.
“Yes, you did.”
She gripped his throat and lifted him up against the wall.
“You could’ve stayed down there with me.”
Glee filled her as his face turned red, and he struggled to breathe. His nails dug into her skin as he struggled to remove the vice grip she had on his windpipe.
“Don’t do this.”
“If you do this thing, your path to the light will be barred.”
Her head snapped to the right and she growled low in her throat. It was the fortune teller.
“If you kill him, what’s left of your soul will die as well, and once you’ve used up this body you will be left to wander the earth forever. You claim to love him. Could you deal with his death on your hands?”
Hannah glanced back at Oliver and gasped. Was this what she’d become? She released her grip and stepped back as he fell to the floor and clutched his neck. She’d remained behind because she thought it would help him. Instead all she’d done was cause him grief. She screamed and placed her hands on her head as her need for revenge and her re-discovered emotions warred with one another.
“Hannah.”
She looked up to find the man she’d almost chocked to death kneeling in front of her.
“It’s time for you to go where you’re meant to be.”
She shook her head no as fear set in.
“Yes. It’s time to let go of your pain, and be healed.”
“After everything I’ve done… how can there be any forgiveness for me?”
“Far worse people than you have found absolution from our Father.”
Hannah glanced up at him and admitted to herself just how weary she truly was.
“I promise I’ll stay with you.”
“Until I’m gone?” she asked.
“Yes.”