[ 37 ] 2014

-

"She also just recently granted me a special favor because she said I had been a good son while I was alive. Maybe we could use that in your favor."

-

The paramedics arrived within minutes of the phone call they received from Billy Quinn, as well as the police, which immediately handcuffed Luke Hemmings and threw him into a squad car. The paramedics went to Cindy and Calum's side with both of the Quinn siblings crying hysterically beside them. Harleen had stepped out to check on the twins, in the midst of it all, they had woken up from their nap and they were crying. 

They got Cindy and Calum on stretchers and wheeled them off towards the ambulance. There were two ambulances outside, one for Cindy Hemmings and the other for Calum Hood. As Billy climbed in beside Cindy, they hooked her up to a heart monitor which was beeping weakly. The paramedics had explained that she still had a very weak pulse and that there was a chance she wouldn't make it due to the tremendous amount of blood loss, but that they would do everything in their power. On the other hand, the paramedics in the other ambulance did not hook up the other victim to any machines as they felt for a pulse and found none. 

Harley pleaded with them to do something, but they were working on the gaping and bloody hole in his chest, unable to do much else for him. 

Arthur followed behind them in his car once Harleen had checked on the babies and left them with their caretaker. 

In the police car, Luke Hemmings sat with his head in his hands, not having resisted arrest. Tears were streaming out of his blue eyes and down his face as he cried for his sister. And he knew it had all been his fault. He just hadn't been able to control himself. He even felt for Calum. Though he would consider him an enemy, Luke knew that there had to be something else wrong if he had murdered him in cold blood so easily. It was not something he had ever wanted to do or ever thought of doing. 

The ambulances arrived at the hospital within minutes and both were wheeled to different sections of the hospital--Cindy was taken to the Intensive Care Unit, while Calum was taken to an empty room near the morgue of the hospital. Harley was informed that someone would be with them shortly to give the body a final inspection and fill out the necessary paperwork. But she was in shock and disbelief. She had no more tears to cry, and she sat in the empty room with her boyfriend Calum on the cold steel table with a while cloth sheet over his body. His lips had already turned purple and his skin had lost its color from the lack of blood flow. It was more than evident that he was no longer with her.

But she had called Jack in anyway, begging him to come help Calum because he was injured. Jack arrived fifteen minutes later with Hazel and Michael. The two others stayed in the waiting room with the rest of the family while Jack found a way to sneak into the room where Harley and Calum were. 

When she heard the door open and she saw him walk in, she shot up from her seat and ran over to him desperately. "You have to help him, Jack. He's just injured, but if you heal him, he'll be back to normal." She pleaded, grabbing his arm and practically dragging him to Calum's side.

From what Jack was seeing, he immediately knew there was nothing he would be able to do for Calum. There was a sheet covering his body and he wasn't hooked to any machines. The paramedics hadn't seen the need for it, since he didn't have a pulse and his h eart was no longer beating. On the white cloth were heavy red crimson spots of blood that were soaking through from his injuries. Jack walked over cautiously, his hand hesitating over the sheet for a moment until he pulled it down slowly to reveal Calum Hood with closed eyes and purple lips. As he pulled the sheet down further, he took notice of the injury that killed him. It was a huge gaping hole in his chest, like someone had stabbed him through the heart.

"Please Jack." Harley begged, blue eyes red and puffy from her tears. "I know he's just sleeping and he needs some help to wake up. Please."

Jack turned to her slowly, eyes filled with pity. She was in denial. He thought that most likely in the bottom of her heart she knew he couldn't do anything for Calum, but she did not want to accept it. He would have to break it to her as gently as possible. 

"Harley..." Jack started.

But she stopped him again with her pleas. "He's just resting his eyes for a moment. His injury was bad."

With that, she started sobbing again and he knew that she realized Jack couldn't heal him, as much as he wanted to. There was a limit on Jack's healing powers. He could repair the physical damage to Calum's body so that he may look like he was okay. But without a pulse and without actual blood flow, there was no way to bring him back. His body was like a shell, and empty husk with no soul to accompany it. And that made Jack Quimby's heart ache. He felt powerless, like the time he had tried to save his father from the hunters but had been too late. Now he had lost someone else important to him. A friend, and his eyes brimmed with tears as he accepted the fact that sometimes people were to die and he could do nothing to stop it. 

He held his head low as the tears started to spill from his eyes and he wept. By his side, Harley dropped to her knees in defeat and she dropped her head on Calum's shoulder, her hot tears the only thing warm about him now because they were falling upon his cheeks.

There was nothing anyone could do to help him now.

-

When Calum felt a pain and a blistering burn in his chest, he also felt his life force leaving him and he knew he was no longer part of the human world. He felt an emotional pain to join the physical pain he was feeling in his chest when he realized he hadn't been able to say goodbye to his beloved Harley Quinn. She was his everything and he just wanted to tell her that he loved her with his entire being. 

He heard footsteps nearby and he called out. "Is anyone else here?"

It was such a big hallway, the dark dimension, that he knew it was possible for him to encounter other people. Especially since people were dying every second. But as he had read in his books, people rarely ever encountered each other, unless they knew each other and had died, or were dying at the same time. The person seemed to hear him calling and he heard the footsteps get louder, and more hurried. He soon saw Cindy Hemmings step into the dim light of the hallway. But she was flickering like a hologram and that was when it hit him. She was not dead yet, but she was on the verge if she was flickering like that.

He wondered what had happened to her after he passed away for her to be there. She was in the house when it all happened and if he had to guess, he thought it was a plan gone wrong. He could hear and see everything his grandfather was doing with his body, but he could do nothing to stop him. His plan had been to get Calum and Harley killed for outsmarting him that night they tried to save Ashton.

Cindy was relieved to see a familiar face and she ran into his arms to hug him. For Calum it was strange, but for her it was completely innocent, as she was scared and he was the only familiar thing to her there. But he hadn't hugged Cindy Hemmings in two years, when they had been dating once so long ago that it felt like an entire lifetime. Calum wasn't much of a hugger anyway though, but he let her hold onto him since she had never seen anything like she was seeing then. She never knew about his powers, not even when they had been dating as he didn't feel like she would understand.

"What's happening?" She asked, her voice echoing as it bounced off the walls. "Where are we?"

As they pulled away, Calum started to explain to her. "It looks like I died, and you're in critical condition." She looked up at him with wide and curious bright blue eyes. 

Cindy brought her hands to her chest in surprise, and a light gasp escaped her lips. "Harley will be devastated. And my Billy...I don't want him to worry for me. Is there anything we can do?"

He thought about it and an idea came to mind. Or rather, a person came to mind. Though they were distraught enough as it was, he knew Harley would be smart enough to try to get Jack to heal Cindy. It was too late for him, but Cindy could still live. Their little reunion was soon interrupted as he saw the way Cindy started getting more and more faint in front of him until he could only see almost nothing of her. He was quick to think up a message for Harley, and one for Arthur as well. "Please tell Harley that I love her with all my heart, and that no matter where I go in the afterlife, I'll always be thinking of her. And tell my uncle that I appreciate everything he did for me."

Cindy Hemmings nodded her head as she continued disappearing from sight.

The moment he was gone, he noticed there was a red flashing above all the doors and his timer started counting down from five minutes. 

He walked down the hall, not knowing which door to choose or where to go. He only stopped again when he heard another voice. This time it was another voice he recognized, but one he had not heard in a while. 

It was the voice of Ashton Irwin that called out to him. 

"Calum!" He called.

"Over here!" Calum called back. 

Ashton followed the sound of his voice, and soon Calum was mt with not one, but two people. They were Ashton Irwin, and Bobby Vega. When he stood face to face with them, he was surprised that Ashton actually pulled him in for a hug. For Calum, that was already too much affection for one day, but he would allow it. Bobby merely waved at him awkwardly and stood back while the two talked.

"Its been a while." Ashton said with a smile. He soon added, "Bobby and I were sent here to pick you up."

At that, Bobby gave a nod of his head. But he also added a statement of his own. "We honestly don't agree with how things turned out though. So Ash and I decided to put in a good word for you with the all powerful. I mean, She granted me something I thought would never be possible after all." By that, Calum did not know what he meant. But he did not want to go into details. He knew Calum would see and understand once they got to their earned version of heaven. Calum was also surprised they were using female pronouns to talk about God because in most religions God was a male.

"She also just recently granted me a special favor because she said I had been a good son while I was alive. Maybe we could use that in your favor." Ashton informed him, and Calum almost felt bad at the selfish thought that entered his mind. He thought that he wouldn't mind if Ashton used his favor to help him because he just wanted to return to Harley so badly. And he knew with all the bad things he had done, it was even a miracle to be going up to heaven. Now expecting a gift from the higher power was even more farfetched.

The two boys led him through the right door and it was strange how their earned heaven was just a perfect version of the neighborhood where they lived. Everyone was happy, everything was perfect. And as they walked up to the front yard of Ashton's house, he saw that across the street was his house, just like it was in real life. His heart felt like it had been wrenched completely when he saw his parents, his sister Mali, and his grandmother Anne-Sophie. They all smiled and waved, and he ran to them. His parents and his sister had always been good people. It had only been Calum who steered from the path, since he had been under the influence of his grandfather for so many years.

But that was all behind him. He was home.

Still, there was one thing in the back of his mind that he knew would never let him be completely happy. It was the fact that he was there, and Harley was still alive. He wanted to try anything and everything to get back by her side.

-

so guys this is the new chapter for today. i will try to write another one either tonight or early tomorrow morning. so please stay tuned for that. we still have about thirteen chapters left to this story. 

thank you all so much for reading and supporting this story.

also what do you think boby used as his favor from the big philosopher in the sky? and do you think ashton will really give up his favor for calum's sake? what is going to happen next? only i know the answer to that. please keep reading to find out.

-clary