Train To The Unknown

Chapter 10-The truth.

(Atlas POV)

I remembered everything.

I remember crashing, I remember the agony, I remember grabbing Oliver's hand before I shut my eyes for the last time. I knew it. Deep down I had known the truth, I just didn't have the heart to tell him what I believed this place to be. "Ollie..." I breath out, looking at him, my head still pounding from the fall... Those words he had shouted at me before I fell made me remember it all, because it was not the first time I had heard them. "I know," I whisper, causing him to look at me in confusion. "What? Do you mean?" He asks as he tried to stop the steady stream of tears still running down his face... But that's the thing; I just couldn't put it into words.

"Ollie, don't you see? We crashed, and it was all my fault... The entire car had dived off the cliff, I remember shouting to the paramedics to get you out..." I explain, tears burning my eyes, but I refused to let any more escape. "We were rushed to hospital, I kept on dozing off while they worked on you... T-Then I found out that they were finished, and that you were trapped in a coma. I... I was told it was highly Unlikely that you'd ever wake up again. There was barely any brain waves and at this point it was only your heart that kept you alive..." This time the tears fell, and I was powerless to stop them.

Oliver had broken down, glaring at me accusingly, "then why the hell are you here Atlas, if I was the one who was basically dead!?" He was becoming increasingly hysterical, so I grabbed his face and our eyes met as our foreheads touched, which was my first reaction to calm him down to try and show him that we were both in this together. "Ollie... I hadn't lasted long after I saw you... I had internal bleeding in my head that the doctors hadn't detected... l didn't even have a chance to make it out your hospital room before I collapsed. That's why I'm here! That blank space on my ticket is for your name! But what you don't realise is that you aren't completely dead yet! You're in a coma... You're stuck between life and death. Now listen to me when I tell you that I will never leave you. It's always going to be me and you, alright? Us together... Always..." I pull away from him as the boy continued to calm himself down. "We're still together, that's all that matters, right?" I ask him, running out of breath as I tried to get through to him. His eyes widened as he screamed at me, "OH GOD! I'm the reason we're stuck here! I'm keeping you behind!" OH GOD I'm the reason we are stuck here!"

My mouth opens and closes as I found myself completely speechless. "THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE SERIOUSLY STUCK ON?! Ollie, we're dead because of me!" I screeched, feeling the guilt eat away at me. Damn, I can't stop the tears from falling because let's face it, after this he'll never speak to me again. He'll hate me. He should hate me.

"Atlas..... ALTAS LISTEN TO ME!" Oliver shouts out, breaking my train (heh, great choice of words there Atlas) of thought. I look at him, seeing he had a serious look on his face. "It wasn't your fault. It was a accident, the road didn't even have lights to help guide us.... So stop blaming yourself. It's just like you said; even if we are dead, we're still together... Although, I will blame you if we end up in hell," he says with light laughter, earning a small smile from me.

"I mean, if anything you should be blaming me for making your train late," he said, trying to make light of the conversion. But anyone could tell that if he couldn't laugh, then he would have been crying. Now that all my memories have been recovered I know that the worst part is yet to come. The endless waiting. Even then, we were together. We'd make it through this; dead or alive.

"So you're telling me that the reason your ticket was in the 'waiting' box is because you're waiting for me to properly pass on?" He points out while we started heading back to the station central. "It sounds so morbid when you put it like that" I stated, furrowing my brow. "Atlas, you're dead, that's what's morbid in this story" he snaps back, falling behind.

He felt guilty. It was written all over his face. I stop, turning him towards me as I pull him into a hug. He buried his head into my chest, choking on his sobs as he tried desperately not to break down again. "Stop doing this to yourself. I have you with me, and that's all I could ever ask for," I whispered softly into his ear, "and when our time here finally does come... We'll leave together."

We finally make it back to the central station, stepping by off the tracks. We didn't exactly have a plan, god knows Oliver doesn't want me to make one up. He suggests we head back to the control room with the tickets and stay there for while so we could check my ticket again, to see if anything has changed. I nodded in agreement and I pull him over to the direction and off we went. Being dead really wasn't a big shock to me, I had accepted it a long time ago thinking it was my imagination that this was a dreamlike state. That it wasn't really happening. But I was wrong... Even with the positivity of having Oliver by my side, I couldn't shake the negative voice in my head that seemed determined to say.

I wondered to myself if Oliver could wake up one day and leave me, or if he would pass on with me. But I realised It didn't matter, even though the thought of losing him terrified me. I knew I would wait for him.

Always.

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