Epilogue

The Place Between Life and Death

The mists swirling around the bleak blackness was a familiar sight for Bobby Yates as he looked at his hands with a smile playing on his lips. Only moments before he had got to look at that glorious expression in the eyes of William Bludworth before he blew them all sky-high. By now the majority of Eastbourne would be in chaos as the gas lines erupted through the roads, under houses, and other buildings of importance. The hospital itself would likely collapse entirely.

The only regret Bobby had was that he wasn't there to witness it. Ah well, Bobby thought to himself as he started walking in no particular direction. He didn't have any kind of place to get to, it was just better to pass the time by walking than it was standing around. The endless mists swirled around his ankles as he thought to himself. Marianne will tell me all about it. Bobby started whistling as he walked and basked in the pure noise. Down here there was nothing in the way to stop the noise and even one second of whistling seemed to last forever.

Waiting for his time to come, Bobby continued walking with his hands thrust in his pocket, wondering just what kind of chaos it was up in Eastbourne. Suddenly he paused and his mouth fell open in complete shock. "What the fuck?" He announced, his voice louder than it would usually be. He was staring at a figure sitting down within the mist. Maybe he'd finally lost it, doing this so many times. But every single time Bobby had been down here he had never met another soul. He had assumed this was his own personal Limbo but now… now there was someone else? His shock was replaced with glee as he ran over to the figure. Could it be, someone like him?

Then that glee dripped away into surprise again as he looked down at the sitting figure. It was a girl and not just any girl.

"Calloway?!" Bobby exclaimed, taking a step back. "Paige Calloway?!" He thrust his finger at her with wide eyes. "The fuck are you doing here!?"

Paige slowly opened her eyes and her eyes stared daggers at Bobby, filled with some kind of unimaginable anger. "Great. Wonderful. My personal hell wasn't enough, now you have to throw the asshole at me."

"Hey, hey, who're you callin' an asshole!" Bobby said, affronted. He crouched down in front of her and narrowed his eyes. "You really here? Or am I freaking out?"

"You speak like you're not a figment of my imagination," Paige said in that strange voice of hers.

"Nobody calls me a figment of imagination! Don't you know where you are, Calloway?!" Bobby gestured around the misty darkness.

"Seeing as I just got hit by a car hard enough to feel my bones break and careened off a cliff, I can only assume I'm dead. Seeing as I'm somehow still walking and talking yet in this place that can't possibly be real, I figure this is what happens after death." Paige slowly got to her feet and looked at Bobby. "I never expected it to be like this, that's for sure. Now leave me be, whatever you are. I figure an eternity of rumination on my pitiful existence is hell enough."

"Hell?!" Bobby's face broke out into a particularly large smile. "This ain't hell, Calloway! This is paradise for people like us! You're only here because you're like me!"

"What are you talking about?" Paige sighed, turning her back on Bobby. "Is this supposed to be some kind of torture?"

"Fun fact – I just died as well. Blown to smithereens by an explosion not one foot in front of me. I bet my guts are plastered against what remains of the walls." Bobby walked forward and clapped a hand on Paige's shoulder. "So stop, Calloway, and speak to me. This ain't Hell and you ain't dead."

Paige whirled around, infuriated. "I made my sacrifice!" Her voice raised and was extremely loud in the otherwise silent misty surroundings. "Willow told me what to expect but she was talking nonsense! I didn't die to be reborn again! I died to save my friends! So get the hell out of my mind or… or whatever the fuck remains of my mind and just go!"

"So you do know!" Bobby exclaimed, still extremely gleeful upon meeting someone like him. "That's absolutely brilliant, though I have no clue on who this Willow is. Calloway, your friend was right, you will be reborn!"

This time Paige squeezed her fists shut. "Impossible."

"Hahaha! Impossible?! You kiddin' me, Calloway? You think you are dead yet here you are talking to me. I always found you intriguing, Calloway, because you talked to voices. I always thought you were a loner looking for some solace. Nothing gets people away that saying you hear voices, after all. You being here means that the voices were real, though."

"I can't accept-"

"The voices you heard came from the sky, right! Sounded like a woman." Paige's eyes widened at Bobby's words. "Oh yeah. Spoke to you when you were a kid, was there when no-one else was. The voice in the sky would listen to anything you had to say like a personal diary. I know what that feels like – I lived that. I do what I do because of that!"

Paige crossed her arms, resisting Bobby's words. What Willow had told her on top of that cliff had been outright nonsense, it had to be. She had said that her death wouldn't end in darkness, that she would come back.

"Look at you, Calloway, you're forcing yourself to look away from what's right in front of you! Us humans, we know fuck-all about how the world works, you know?"

Paige frowned. "Then what is this? Where is this?"

"I like to call it Limbo. I don't think it is the real thing, but hey, it's the place between life and death, that's for sure. It's where I come when I die and where I leave when I go back."

"You're telling me you've done… this… before?"

"Oh yeah, Calloway, definitely! That voice you heard, she has a plan! A plan to solve every problem human-kind has ever had! I'm part of that plan and you… you're part of it now, too, I can see that. I bet she sent you to me so we can work together!"

"I'd never work with a person like you, Yates. You're scum," Paige shook her head. "The voice didn't send me here… though you sound like you know what she is."

"She's Death, don't you see!" Bobby grinned. "Motherfuckin' Death itself!"

"That can't be true," Paige said, despite herself. "She talked about the List as if it wasn't part of her."

"List? The hell you talkin' about? Hahah… man, Calloway, I love the fact that you're nuts! More things we have in common." Bobby looked up and down Paige's body not hiding his gaze at all. "Great lookin' too. Come on, we can share Death's mission! Together we can change the world!"

"Fuck Death," Paige spat and then glanced to her legs. They were slowly fading away, impossibly, in the mist.

Bobby's grin disappeared at her words instantly. "So you choose Life then. You'd be on the wrong side."

Paige watched Bobby as her waist followed her legs. Willow had talked about the choices as well. About demons and an Apocalypse and a Doomsday Clock. She had talked about Life as if it were a person, the same as Death. She had mentioned the Four Horseman and the role they played in that ridiculous fantasy of hers. Willow couldn't have been telling any semblance of truth, could she? Yet here she was, in this strange misty world, speaking to a man who claimed to have just died and certainly didn't seem like a figment of her imagination.

"Of course you'd be," Bobby continued, shaking his head. "Well, Calloway, I know of you now. If you plan to fight against me you're gonna be in for a world of pain. You can't die but you can suffer and I'll make sure it lasts for eternity. Death has the future of the world in its sights and any who don't work with her works against her."

"Fuck Death," Paige repeated as her torso faded away. She looked Bobby straight in the eyes as she continued, "Fuck Life too. I'll make my own choices," and with that defiant statement Paige completely faded away in front of Bobby's eyes.

"Calloway…" he muttered, staring at the space she had just been in. "I'll find you. Count on it."

Paige's eyes shot open and she found herself staring up into the blue, cloudless sky. It was almost blinding after that dark misty place she had been… or had she been? She could hear the gently swoosh that could only be water. A small smile played on her lips. It had been a dream. A twisted dream but a dream nevertheless.

She pushed her hand against the strange metallic surface underneath her and pushed. Almost instantly a lance of pain shot through her and Paige let out a small guttural growl. Almost instantly a face popped above her – the familiar face of Willow Orwell.

"You mustn't move, no, no, no." Willow said, placing her hands against her shoulders, pinning her down. "It is too soon."

Paige tried to say Willow's name in surprise but the voice wouldn't come out. In fact it hurt to open her mouth. Instead she moved her head very slightly and another electric shock of pain ran through her.

"You're in no condition, Paige." Willow looked strangely exhausted. She still spoke strangely but there were black rings around her eyes. "You'll recover but it will happen slowly, so stay still and just lay there. I'll get you some fresh water so just hang on a moment." With that Willow disappeared from Paige's view and Paige's eyes flickered left and right.

What did she mean, in no condition? Paige forced her head up despite the intense pain to look down at her body and what she saw would have made her scream had her voice worked.

Both legs were twisted in various unnatural directions as if someone had gone to town with a sledgehammer on her limbs. One arm had nearly folded in on itself with the white bone thrusting out of her skin. The other arm hung loose though was covered with uneven slices. Strangely enough there was no blood at all and Paige's eyes rested on her stomach and saw a huge gouge as if a beast had taken a bite out of her. She could see the muscle and something that strangely looked pink and glistening and she had a small suspicion that she was looking at her small intestine.

She had to look away from the wreck that was her body. Instead she tried to look around as best she could with her limited mobility. It was clear that she was on some kind of small boat, a fisherman's trawler. She could see Willow speaking to another figure that had to be Ash in the cabin, their voices too quiet to hear. Paige looked back up to the sky and let out one long breath.

What in the world was happening? The injuries she had, there was no way any normal person could survive them. Was that conversation with Bobby Yates truly real? It seemed impossible yet here she was, lying on the deck of the boat with fatal wounds.

"You there…" Paige whispered, her voice painful but finally working. She peered into the cloudless sky and waited for that familiar voice to wash over her. Bobby had said that the voice belonged to Death but Paige was sure that wasn't true. The voice, whatever she was, didn't seem like it. But then again, who was she to say what Death was? "Hello?" There was no response. "HEY!" Paige yelled out loud, the words tearing at her throat, her voice echoing over the boat and the waters surrounding it.

Nothing at all. It was clear enough.

The voice was gone.

Deep in the ruins of the Eastbourne General Hospital, a great chunk of concrete fell to the side amidst other rubble and numerous bloodstains. With a groan, Bobby Yates squeezed his fist shut and slammed it against another concrete piece in an attempt to distract himself from the pain. "Always fuckin' hurts so damn much!" He cursed as he stared down at the condition of his body. The only limb left to him was his arm. There were only ragged stumps where his other arm and both legs should have been. In fact, that arm over there might have been his… or at least may have been one of the other students. Bobby wasn't too sure.

He could already feel his body at work and smiled. Every time the recovery process was quicker and that was something he was immensely grateful for. He grinned and leant his head back. "Paige Calloway… Gonna find you… Gonna make you mine… That's the damn truth, oh yeah…" He closed his eyes to relax. "We'll rule the whole damn world…"

A/N:- There we have it. With Paige and Bobby resurrections, the world contains so much more than we mere mortals could hope to guess. Elimination Game is over and man, did I enjoy it. Learnt a few things regarding my writing style and things I tend to do, so I can improve on it the further I go.

I'll be taking a short break over Christmas but look out for the Prologue of Final Destination: Last Laugh, the final book in the Final Destination trilogy and the third book of the World's End Chronicles on January 1st on Monday! It's gonna be a hell of a time!

Thanks you all for reading, hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you'll continue to enjoy the World's End Chronicles! See you in the New Year!