And that couldn’t be my mother, holding my father and looking at me with tears spilling down her face.
“Mommy,” I whispered, my voice choked up. It didn’t hurt, exactly. It just felt like I was leaving this world. “Soon. Soon, we will all be together.”
She shook her head fiercely. “Your father and I need you to live, Amy. We need you to live, for us.”
“I can’t,” I mouthed, my throat so dry I could hardly speak. “I can’t.”
“You will,” she said, meeting my eyes. “And we will be watching over you. You will live on, Amy.”
“How?”
“Through love,” she whispered, giving me a soft smile and glancing at the ring on my finger. “Through his love for you.”
I couldn’t keep my neck upwards anymore and my head lolled to the side, bringing Liam and Selene into my field of vision.
His body was rippled with the strength of a vampire, and he had her in a headlock. This was it. Liam was going to snap her neck and everyone would be free, including him. Everyone would be free from this dreaded curse.
“Liam!” Sarah stopped him, Connor suddenly at her side. “No!”
“No?” He looked absolutely baffled and clearly hadn’t noticed the chaos that was around him.
“Look!” She pointed to me, trembling. “Save her, Liam, Save her!”
The rest of the cast was now backstage, although I couldn’t figure out why. I seemed to be seeing double, and Liam was blurred along the edges as he cracked Selene’s head on the wall and then dropped her in Connor’s direction. She wasn’t dead, I knew that, you couldn’t kill a vampire that easily. And then he was at my side, taking my hand, his face blurred up close.
“Amy, Amy, no, no!”
“It’s ok,” I managed to whisper, trying to meet his eyes.
Everything was becoming increasingly hazy and now it looked like my father was sitting up. But that wasn’t right, because I could still see him lying down. But he was sitting up too, as if there was two of him, and glowing the same unearthly glow as my mother.
I wondered if being close to death made you hallucinate.
“It’s ok,” I said, trying to get a grip on reality. “It’s ok. This is everything you wanted, everything you hoped for.”
“Not at this price,” he managed, and I had never seen him so choked up. “Not at this price! Not like this!”
“You have to kill her, Liam. You have to finish this. For me. For them!”
“No!” he howled.
I could feel his arms around me, trying to pull me forward. It was the worst pain I had ever felt and I knew the audience heard. The show must go on.
“I’m not letting you go, Amy. No. This life isn’t worth living without you!”
“Liam,” a voice spoke that I had never heard before, and I glanced up to see a man from another time. Clad in what seemed like priest robes, with long hair and chiseled features. I tried to place him in the show, but couldn’t. Still, he stood there, towering over the rest. To my confusion, the vampires backed up, sinking to their knees. Liam turned, not letting go of me.
“Elias,” he said, his voice muddled. “Please. Please save her. Please.”
The one he called Elias shook his head. “This is not my choice to make, Liam. It belongs to you!”
“How!” Liam said. “How can I do this? Selene’s death will make me human! I cannot save her!”
“Selene doesn’t have to die!” Connor spoke up, and the others turned to him, slowly.
I felt sleep take me and a warmth spread over me. This was it, this was what death felt like. I had spent my whole life wondering what it would be like when the time came. But I hadn’t imagined it like this. I had imagined my withered body, hospital tubing and my sobbing father. I hadn’t seen it backstage with my father’s spirit waiting for me and my fiancé crying.
Elias smiled at Connor. “We mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” He looked upon the coven of vampires, as if he were a proud father. “If you here tonight understand that lesson, then you give me hope that vampires can continue to coincide with humans for all eternity. This has been a bloody fight, and I applaud your effort in it. And with Selene’s death comes your freedom, but at the price of more than one innocent. We made you vampires long ago, but we did not make you monsters. That is for you to decide.”