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“Please, no,” Donna sobbed. She pressed her forehead against Dick’s. “Please, Dick, wake up, please don’t leave me, don’t leave me like this.”
“Donna, he’s gone,” Wally said, touching her shoulder. She shrugged him off, twisting her body away from him as grief crawled up her spine and settled over her shoulders like a shroud.
“He can’t be gone,” she whimpered. “He can’t- it’s my fault.
If she had only known. If she had only known that the curse laid upon her extended to found family. Your family will die, little heroine. You will watch as everyone you love dies, and you will be left alone. In her wildest dreams she had never imagined the curse could take her dearest friend, all because she loved him.
Wally wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly as she cried, speaking soothing nonsense into her ears. It didn’t matter; she couldn’t process it anyway, so numb to the outside world. Her vibrant friend, who even in his darkest moments clung to life like a dog with a bone, was gone in the blink of an eye, and it was her fault, all because she’d dared to speak aloud the truth, that he was family to her.
She sobbed again and gripped Wally tighter, which was when she realized that he’d gone stiff.
She pulled away to look at him. “Wally?” she said, blinking tears from her eyes.
His face was twisted in pain. Wide, panicked eyes looked down at her, his mouth frozen open in a wordless scream. He pitched over, and Donna screamed, catching him before his head bounced off the pavement. “Wally!” she screamed. His heart wasn’t beating. His heart wasn’t beating, and he wasn’t moving. He was as stiff as a corpse, but his eyes still moved, flicking back and forth like he was looking for escape.
“Donna!” She looked up to see Garth and Roy burst in, kicking the door down and coming to a halt as they witnessed the scene before them.
“Help him,” she begged, “Please, I don’t know how to stop this!”
She looked down, only to see that even Wally’s eyes had gone still, motionless and unseeing.
Shrieking, she shoved his body away from her. Roy took a step forward, and she screamed “Don’t touch me! I’m cursed, don’t touch me!”
“Donna, what happened?” Garth asked, kneeling next to Dick. His hands shook and he looked stunned and confused.
“It’s my fault,” she cried. “It’s all my fault.”
“Okay, just calm down,” Roy said. “We’re going to figure this out.”
They couldn’t figure it out. There was nothing to figure out. Her love for them was going to kill them, that she was certain of.
“Garth?” she heard Roy say. She looked over to see Garth looking alarmed and gripping his throat. He was choking, making awful noises as he struggled to breath. Roy dropped his bow and rushed over to him.
“Donna, help, he’s not breathing!” Roy said, holding Garth upright.
Donna shook her head. There was no point. Just like Dick and just like Wally, Garth was going to die, and so was Roy, and she was helpless to stop it.
“Donna!” Roy said. She could hear the panic and frustration in his voice, but she was numb. She was numb. She felt distant from her body, the ache in her chest and the tear tracks drying on her face a distant feeling.
She watched as Roy bent over Garth, trying to get him to breath, before slumping over himself, a high, pained whine the last sound he made before going completely still.
And Donna was left alone, just as the words of the curse had foretold.