‘People fear death even more than pain. It’s strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over,’

- Jim Morrison

Chapter Forty

Azelie woke up, the pounding pain in her head pulling her from her unconsciousness. She slowly opened her eyes, coughing a little as she did. A bright white light blinded her as she shut her eyes once again, only now realising that there was a strong smell of petrol hanging in the air, mixed in with something else. Blood. She opened her eyes again, squinting a little as she did before looking around, letting out a scream of terror as she did.

The car was upside down, and she was strapped in by her seatbelt - the seat belt Cole had forced her to put on. Azelie’s breaths turned quicker and shallower as she tried to get her mind around what had happened.

The speeding truck round the corner. The force of the truck. It all came back to Azelie as tears began to roll down her cheeks. She turned to her right, crying in hysterics as she did.

Cole was half out of his chair, blood pouring out of his body like a river. They had hit a tree and a thick, heavy branch had come through the window and was stabbing through Cole’s body. Azelie’s shaky hand quickly pressed down on the release button for the seatbelt, her body falling down from the chair as she did, but Azelie didn’t feel the pain. She quickly crawled out of the car, dialing emergency services and barely managing to keep herself from breaking down.

She had to get help. There was no time to cry, no time to freak out. Cole had to live. He had to.

“Hello 911, what’s your emergency?” the operator questioned as Azelie took a deep breath in, trying to push everything down but finding it impossible to do so.

“I-I was in a c-car crash, the car’s upside down, my boyfriend is trapped, please help, please,” Azelie cried, her voice shaky and she quickly spoke down the phone. It was the first time she had called him her boyfriend, barely five minutes after he had asked her, and he was dying.

“Okay, ma-am, stay calm - help is on the way! Do you know where you are?” the operator quickly questioned, his voice full of concern.

“I don’t know... just outside of Bellingham,” She answered, tears rolling down her cheeks as she tried to think.

“Okay, we can just track your location, just stay calm - what’s your name? Are you okay?” the operator asked. Even just the simple question seemed impossible to Azelie as her brain tried to make sense of the words.

“Azelie... Azelie Ryans, I’m fine, it’s my boyfriend - it’s Cole,”

“Okay, Azelie, is your boyfriend awake?” the operator replied, Azelie’s heart beating wildly in her chest. Not even an hour ago, she was trying to end her life; and now she was trying to save the life of the guy who saved her. The whole situation made Azelie sick. They wouldn’t have been driving home if she hadn’t of run off, if she had just sat in the hall and cried. It was her fault. She shook her head, now was not the time to be concerned with the though of how this was all her fault, right now was the time to be concerned with saving Cole’s life, so she didn’t have to blame herself for that wouldn’t be her fault as well.

“I d-don’t know,” Azelie replied, her whole world spinning. What if he wasn’t? What if he was dead? “I’ll check,” she quickly spoke walking over to the car and crouching

back down to climb back in. She crawled back into the car, tears running down her chest as she took in Cole’s appearance. She quickly stretched out a hand, shaking Cole softly.

“C-c-cole,” she spoke, her voice breaking, “Cole, please, wake up! I need you! Please Cole, I love you,” She cried, Cole still not moving. Tears ran down her cheeks in floods as she tried again, happiness taking over when she heard him groan, moving his body slightly. She quickly put her phone back up to her ear to talk to the operator again. “He’s awake, slightly, but he’s still alive,”

“Okay that’s great Azelie, you are doing great! Can you check the other driver for me? Could you do that?” he questioned, trying to get Azelie to leave Cole.

“I can’t, his car is on the road, we were pushed down the bank... I can’t leave Cole, not that far,” she cried, not wanting to leave Cole as he woke up, his green eyes meeting Azelie’s, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

“It’s okay, just stay with Cole then, keep him awake - talking if you can! Help will be there soon,” The operator said down the phone, trying to comfort Azelie. “Put the phone down if you need, don’t hang up in case you need help though,” he added quickly.

“Okay, okay, I’ll do that,” She quickly replied, not tearing her gaze away from Cole before quickly placing the phone where the windshield should be.

“What happened?” Cole questioned, his voice weak. He tried to hide the pain he was feeling, trying to keep Azelie calm, but she hear it in his voice, breaking her heart even more that it already was.

“The car, we were hit, Cole, but it’s going to be okay, I promise, help is coming,” she stuttered, trying to make sense of her own words. “I love you, okay, I promise it’s going to be okay,”

“Azelie,” he groaned, not taking his gaze away from Azelie. If he was going to die here, she was the last thing he wanted to see. “You need to get out of here,”

“What?”

“You need to go - it’s not safe...” he croaked, a tear escaping his eyes, rolling down his face. He didn’t want to look away from Azelie, she stopped him noticing the pain, the pain of the tingling he felt in his toes. He didn’t want to down to see the branch stabbing him in the stomach, the excruciating pain killing him more than the blood lost would.

“No, Cole! I can’t leave you! I won’t!” Azelie cried, shoving her hands through her hair, trying to think of ways to make him see sense - for him to stop trying to save her and instead save himself.

“Azelie, the petrol is leaking out of the damn car, you need to go!”

“Cole, I am not leaving you!” she shouted, her brown eyes wide with fear as she took in the fact that the colour that had once been held in Cole’s skin was gone, replaced by a ghostly white. His green eyes no longer shining - instead the colour looking dull and dead.

“Well do you see me getting anywhere any damn time soon?” he shouted angrily, just wanting Azelie safe. He was going to die if the car exploded, he knew that - he had faced it. But if Azelie died because she was too stupid to leave him, he couldn’t handle it. She was still alive - for once she was bucked up her seat belt without an argument and it had saved her.

“I don’t care! I don’t care! I love you, I won’t leave you! I can’t live without you, Cole!” Azelie cried, her heart breaking. She couldn’t do it, she couldn’t leave him - hell, she couldn’t even consider it. Not even for a second.

“Yes you damn well can, Azelie! You’ve been happy, you know life can be happy! Damn it, I love you too but I can’t face you dying Azelie! Go!” He cried, tears running down his face as he wished in his head that he hadn’t stopped to tell her that he loved her. Couldn’t he have done that while driving? Had he really needed to stop?

“I was going to jump, Cole,” she confessed, shaking her head.

“What?”

“That morning we met - when you pulled me over and stopped me from diving into the water... I was going to jump, even if you hadn’t shown up,” Azelie told him, not looking away from his green eyes. His heart broke in his chest as he remembered that morning. His head had been pounding from his hangover, and his stomach could barely hold his drink down, but somehow he had managed to pull her over from trying to jump off a bridge - the jump she had once claimed was a joke. “And now I’m damn well going to save you,”

“Azelie, just go! I’m stuck here if you haven’t noticed,” Cole shouted, frustration running high. Why couldn’t she just leave him? Save herself and let him stay here?

“Cole! I am not leaving you! Get that through your thick skull. I love you and I am not leaving without you!” She screamed, not wanting to stand for any of his pleas anymore, the sooner he realised that she was not leaving him to die, the better.

Cole fell silent as Azelie let out a breath, trying to clear her head so she could figure out how to get him out and away from the car. The branch was going through his stomach, Azelie knew that taking it out was only for the worst case scenario, but what else could she do? Taking a deep breath in, she laid out her options, trying to figure out which one carried the highest risk, while also trying to figure out how much time she had, before making her decision, praying over and over to any god she had ever heard of, everyone she had ever lost and finally, to anybody who might just be listening, just to build some kind of hope up inside of her, to give her something to hang on to.

“Right - this is what I’m going to do,” she spoke, her voice firm and commanding. The weak girl who was crying for a love lost was gone, she needed to be strong. Love gave her that. It replaced the fear that had built up inside of her. Azelie had one fear, Cole had realised what it was a few weeks ago.

They say that there is nothing to fear but death itself, but what do you fear when you do not fear death, when death is nothing but an old friend to you. Well then, you fear life, but more importantly, you fear love. Azelie had lived for years with everyone she loved dying, dropping like flies, around her and she had convinced herself that love was the key - that if she loved somebody, they die.

But earlier that morning, she had faced it. The moment she told Cole she loved him, everything seemed more real. She had faced her one fear, her fear of love - of losing those who she loved and those who loved her in return. The only thing was, it took finding the one person she loved to face her fear, the person of she would give her life to save; the one person she would die without.

Without Cole, she would die. She would end up behind the rails of the bridge again with nobody to pull her back.

Azelie quickly told Cole her plan, before setting it into plan, praying over and over that it would work, trying not to think of the outcome if something when wrong. The sound of sirens filled the air, quietly as the ambulance grew closer and closer to the accident...

Suddenly time ran out.

Death appeared, as an old enemy, somebody that had taken so many people from Azelie. Death came to clear out the old to make way for the new. The last drop of petrol spilled from the tank before car caught alight. One spark - that’s all that was needed, that’s all it took. It was barely a second, and the whole thing erupted, flashing like a light as the flames grew, screams filling the air.

Azelie lay on the grass, pain erupting all up her back, her screams filling the air as she lay on the ground, unable to move. She began to wish for death to take her away, and that it did. She drifted into the darkness, leaving everything she knew and loved behind as she ran into the comfortable arms of death, greeting it as an old friend, a comfort, as it took her away, drifted her away in to the unknown, making way for the new.

Her heart took one final beat; her lungs, a final breath, as her brown eyes - the gold shining brightly as ever - flutter closed. For the second time that day, Azelie felt at peace with everything, completely content as she drifted off.

In the end, she didn’t fear death, nor love, for she was at peace.

You guys are kicking my ass with the comments! I woke up to like 30 emails :P God help me with this chapter! Only the epilogue to post now and it's over :O Dedicated to StupidandProud for making the awesome banner, and for just being awesome overall! It was unlikely that without her, this would have been even posted cause she's that cool! :) xx

UNICORN OUT