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Robin doesn’t want to die. Not here, not now. Definitely not when she finally has a reason to live.
Robin is bleeding out beside the wreckage of Murray’s truck, sprawled out in a ruin. Her body feels like a cinderblock, heavy and soaked through with crimson so dark it almost looks black.
Your touch breaks her out of the haze, cutting through the mix of foul metallic tangs and roaring pain. She feels your hand on her side, almost desperate as you try to hold her together. Robin can see the shape of her name on your lips, yet the words feel like a transmission from a station far, far away drowned out by the static buzz in her head. Her grip on reality begins to slip as her mind starts playing the tape of how your future together is supposed to go. You both start fresh in Europe, in a flat you’ll call home, far away from judgment and all the interdimensional danger. You will tell her about your day studying to become a nurse as your head lies on her lap, your two fluffy cats will knock things over while the record spins, and you will dance around your small kitchen together. But most importantly she will spend the rest of her day cherishing you, to love you forever, until death do you part as they say.
The only issue? Death is closer than either of you thought before.
Robin lifts a weak, blood stained hand up to trace your cheek gently. She opens her mouth slowly, choking a little at first. “ ‘m sorry…”
You scream and cry for your love, wrapping her up, keeping one hand on her pulse point. You yell on and on to Murray about medical stuff that never made sense to Robin, but she knows that you were passionate about it, and that is all that ever mattered to her. One thing does break through the haze of her half consciousness, though. Your pleases and cries.
“Robin please- fuck-fuck- don’t do this. Look at me. Look at me, my love. Look at me sweet dove. Keep talking, okay? T-Tell me about OUR future! Our future together! Tell me! What would our cats’ names be?” She lets out a shaky breath, wincing as she tries to focus on your voice. Her eyes flutter open and closed, eventually staring hazily up at you. Robin swallows thickly, the words tasting like blood and ash. "We-We're going to be happy..in the future. So happy. Together. We will have a cozy flat, and… Uhm.. the cats'… names." She blinks sluggishly, trying to recall the names. You had picked one and her the other. But, what were they…? “..I'd like to name one of them…Pixie." You cry and nod along, pulling her into your lap as gently as possible. covered in her blood from head to toe. A calloused hand is kept on her neck, right at the pulse point while Murray is off getting help. Tears fall softly, pattering onto her bloody cheeks as she looks up with love and devotion.
“That's right. After-After the band! What was I going to name the other one, hm? Tell me. Tell me my sweet Dove.”
Robin’s breaths come in shaky, wheezing gasps as you lift her into your lap. Her head lolls weakly against your shoulder, her eyes fluttering shut again for a moment before she forces herself to stay with you. "Uhm..M-Muppet. Muppet." Her voice is slightly slurred, and that pulls right out of your chest. Faint sirens can be heard in the distance, but your focus is on her and her alone.
“Yes! That's right! What-What kinds of cats, baby? What breeds?”
Robin closes her eyes and presses her face into the crook of your neck, her body trembling against you, warm and slick with blood. "They, uhm…" She swallows thickly, wincing at the tangy iron taste in her mouth. She coughs, pain lancing through her whole body. "Ragdolls.. They'll be ragdolls…” Sobs ring out through the empty field as her pulse grows weaker under your fingers, her body settling more, eyes drooping.
“Yes! Yes baby! Now-Now think about them. Think about-about having them, y-you can’t do that if you’re not here. The ambulance is almost here, just hold on. A little bit longer. You’re so strong my dove.” The sound of the sirens make her heart flutter, filling her with the brief hope that everything might be alright after all. Just maybe.
"I'll try…" She whispers, her voice more of a hoarse croak rather than a silky smooth symphony. She manages a tiny, blood-tinged smile as she thinks of your future. "Pixie...and Muppet." Her fingers weakly curl into the fabric of your shirt. "They'll be spoiled rotten… Just like you spoil me..." A soft, pained laugh escapes her. "And you'll call them 'fur babies' every five minutes… I’ll roll my eyes..." Her breath hitches, tears stinging in her eyes, cleaning paths through the blood and grim on her face. "...But, I won’t mean it. I’ll never mean it…"
The EMT’s arrive, your hand never leaves her wrist. counting the beats as she gets loaded into the ambulance. You are there the whole time, holding her tight. You are holding her when the first responders yell around you. You are holding her when the rhythmic thumps under the pads of your fingers come to a slow, but steady stop.
The back doors of the ambulance blast open, and she is ripped from your hold as compressions are being done. Left alone, face, chest, arms, legs, hands, everything coated in a thick layer of blood. Of her blood. Your nostrils are filled with the metallic smell. Your mouth is withered and brittle as you smack your lips, trying to bring some life to your pale lips to no avail. A nurse finds you and leads you to sit in a chair, out in the hallway. She is whisked away before she can help you wash up. You are left alone once again, surrounded by droning beeps, bust footsteps, and infinite white sterile walls. It seems like they go on forever. Nobody is there to help you this time. Steve is off in the Upside Down, and when he gets back his best friend is not going to be there. Eddie is dead, he has been for a while. Robin is soon to join him, the two will make a horribly destructive duo in the afterlife. Nobody is there for you. You have lost everything.
“Family of Robin Buckley?”
“Me. That's me. I’m-I’m, uhm, her-her sister.” As you stand to meet the doctor, he sighs and takes his glasses off. Putting a hand on your shoulder.
“Sweetheart, I hate to inform you, but… she did not make it. Time of death, 10:47 AM.”
You do not scream. You do not even cry. You just… stare. Your heart stopped beating along with Robin’s, just minutes ago in the ambulance.
“Let me see her.”
The doctor opens his mouth to disagree, but inevitably decides not. He leads you through the white halls, all of it a blur as your eyes lock on the door at the end of the hallway. You walk past him, into the room, and there she is. Your Robin, your beautiful robin. Always so beautiful, even with her eyes glazed over, blood matted into her hair and splotched onto her face. One step into the room, and your knees slam into the ground. You grip her hand and when that usual thump can not be found, you sob. Tears pour and sobs wring out. For her, for you, for your future that is supposed to be spent together. You sob and sob until you can’t sob anymore, holding her hand tightly never letting go again.
“Soon my love, we will be together again soon. So soon. I promise.”
The next day, a body will be found. A nineteen year old girl, wrists slit in the bathtub. While the people around you fall apart, you finally rest. In the arms of the woman you love, who loves you back just as much.