Fabulous readers,

The votes are in and it ended up being a tie. I'd like to say that the tie was what took me so long to come back with this story, but that was not the case. I took a leave from writing due to writers block. As luck would have it, I am back here to finish this commission because reasons! I'm so sorry this commission has taken me an eternity and a half. I'm so sorry for the delay and the 6 months that this has been sitting here festering.

So, I've decided to go down the less violent path and just fly by the seat of my pants. If you liked the original chapter and care to see that one in a separate story of its own, do let me know.

-Hello friends, I am here. Goodbye friends, I am gone. But I leave you this disclaimer. Enjoy *confetti* -

There comes a time in everyone's life where they must lay down, close their eyes, and give themselves to the earth, the sky, the stars, and the moon. Once livid eyes must gloss and pale in the face of death and recede back into darkness. Say goodbye, softly speak those words out in the last breath before one last kiss steals a heartbeat and then nothing.

Jamie had always revered death as frightening, terrible, sad, and strange, but when his numb body lay itself upon the muddy bank in the melting rivers of spring, he felt strangely at ease and accepted the cool embrace of the dirt and rocks beneath his drowned, broken body.

They say one remembers his life in on last bright, brilliant flash, but only the final moments of his life played back and forth, cracking and creaking in his mind like a broken recored. His body twitched and his mind dulled.

"Jamie. Jamie. Jamie." How sweet that voice, like the taste of dew from a honeysuckle in the fresh start of the morning.

"Come play with me. The snow's melting and the fields are all clear. Let's go run like we used to as kids. Go down to the river and say hello to all of the new fish."

Jamie snorted; he was busy typing away on his computer. Like any teenager, he would rather stay inside and play games in a reality separated from his own.

"It's a prefect day. The sun is out. Don't you want to stretch your legs just a little bit?" Sophie asked as she leaned on his desk, nudging him with her toe.

Jamie pulled his eyes away from his computer screen to peer into his sisters face; she looked desperate to do something fun; and her idea of fun had always been sports and physical activity. Jamie pressed his lips together and rotated in his chair, swiveling on it and scraping his toes along the floor of his room. "The snow has just melted, the river is probably too high right now," he said smartly.

She stuck her tongue out at him and nudge him a little harder with her toe. "It'll do you some good to get out and enjoy the sun. I know how mopy you get whenever the snow melts."

Jamie shifted again; he sighed and breathed in. The scent of spring filling his nose and intoxicating him through the open window. It was a rather fine day, a prefect day to simply enjoy himself doing entirely silly things, jumping, playing, skipping rocks. He looked outside to see the still bare trees their long fingers curling as if to say come. He rolled his head on his shoulders and hummed. "Oh fine," he muttered as he stood and stretched lazily. He grabbed for his coat and yanked it on, dropping to his knees and reaching under his bed for his tackle box and fishing pole.

Sophie screeched with happiness and scrambled from his room, running into her own and grabbing her galoshes and coat.

They were like two children again, dressed in rain gear, ready to face the dawn of summer; face the bright, warming rays, the fresh, earthy scent of dirt and worms. They stepped out into a land of pale green and melting white. Sophie ventured forth with her brother, a skip in their steps, chatting pleasantly to one another, kicking rocks as they walked along. Feet heavy from their galoshes. Jamie was beginning to feel glad that he had come out to be with his sister. The fresh mountain air filled his lungs and invigorated him, helped him to think so clearly.

They scooted and scuttled along their way, ducking underneath old broken fences and hopping over barb wire that was no longer pulled tight between wooden poles. The plains smelt of old hey, moist from cow's breath and the dew of the morning that had come and gone.

Time escaped away so quickly as they walked towards the frost tipped mountains, running through fields and receding into the closed space of the forest. Sophie sighed as they reached the mountains edge, just beyond a clump of trees and rocks. She sprang forward, slashing her boot through a bit of calm water at the edge of the river. "Stop it. You'll scare the fish!" Jamie hissed as he tossed a branch at her which she caught and marched away with it. Jamie set his tackle box down, opening it and choosing a small metal spoon, vibrant red and poke-a-dotted with yellow spots.

He sat on the muddy rocks and swung his booted feet back and forth, scraping them along the loose river rocks. He snapped his fishing pole together and tied the hook and tackle, listening to the fast water roar as it shattered against rocks. It was certainly high indeed. He bent passed the trees, ducking through branches and stepped out onto the bank. He opened his mouth but the sound of rushing water swallowed his words. The snow had melted from the tips of the mountains and now drained from the sides of rock and soil, emptying into murky, violent water. That would do no good for fishing; he looked for a pocket where the water was calm behind a rock or a log, that was were the fish would be. He walked along the edge of the river, kicking his feet along, looking around for his sister while he sought out the best fishing spot.

He figured she had wondered off, maybe to go foraging for flowers, rocks, or other fun things to collect. He was left alone to relax. He hopped onto a river rock and cast his line across the way to a calm spot, reeling in his line and using it to mimic the frantic moments of a snack for a bigger fish to eat. He had nothing to distract him, only the click of his reel, and the rush of water as it lapped against smooth rock and bark. Prefect serenity. He sighed and let the gentle sun warm his neck; the cool spring wind lapped at his wet skin, causing him to shiver. Mist shattered around him. The water was cold, much too cold for swimming, perhaps in a month or two, it would be ready. Sophie and he often made trips down to the river during the hot summer months to jump and play in the water's cool retreat. They would take old tire tubes and float down with the current in mid July, when the river was low and calm.

He was excited to daydream about the hotter months, lost in his own little world with nothing but the subtle click, click, click until a scream reached his ears. He jolted and stood, wobbling on the rock. He spun and looked down the river to wear a tuft of his sister's blond hair bobbed up and down. She was waving at him and beaconing him to come. He squinted and could see nothing that would cause her to scream like that.

He did not hesitate, did not question, but ran towards her, wobbling through a bone yard of rocks and branches. Did she get bitten by something? Did she twist her ankle? Did she see an animal? "Sophie!" he shouted as he neared the scene and saw just what it was that caused his sister to scream with such a fright.

An old log, pushed down from upstream and lodge between two rocks, lay across the river. A fine walking bridge for two children playing out in the vast forest. One little girl stood across the way from them, clinging to the tree and outstretching her tiny hand to a boy who had slipped and fell, clinging to the log and scrambling to get back up. The tree lurched and moaned from his struggling and he looked to Sophie and Jamie. "Help me!" he cried.

In a matter of seconds, Jamie was struggling to balance onto the wet log and inch forward to the little boy. "Just stay calm," he said, finding his voice to be very soothing and instructive. He himself was unsure of where that confidence came from. His heart hammered in his ears and his breath came out in exasperated gasps from his sprint towards them.

White rapids, like gnashing, gnawing teeth, snapped at his feet and the log moaned again, but Jamie stepped forward still, one foot after the other. "Jamie, be careful!"

Who could have time to think, to notice the crushing waves that moved the log inch by inch, to fully take in the danger that was offered to him as he stepped out onto the river. Jamie merely let his body react and followed its instruction. The log lurched and Jamie collapsed to his feet, gripping the cold bark with two strong legs. He wormed closer on his belly, outstretching his hand to the little boy. He only had the task at hand to focus on. Everything else seemed useless. "It'll be okay, just take my hand and I'll show you," he said. The little boy struggled and took hold of his hand; he was as cold as death and very slippery. Jamie gripped him and pulled him forward. "Look, you've got my hand now. Help yourself up."

The boy scrambled onto the log, gripping to Jamie with nails and bone breaking fingers. His little eyes darted all around, to the water, to the bank, to the log. The log jolted from the frantic movement. The boy froze and huddled close to Jamie. "Can you cross?"

"I can't. I can't. I'm too scared."

"It's okay. I've got your hand. We'll cross together, yeah?" Jamie asked as he smiled to show his absence of fear. "I'll show you the way. Just turn around and inch forward."

In those seconds, Jamie had become very familiar with the boy. Blond hair, brown eyes, freckles, little brown cowboy boots. A mountain boy, this was his back yard most likely. He was a little boy, no older than eight, just a baby with a bright future. One step forward with Jamie holding hard onto his waist. The log wobbled. Two steps, towards the little girl and her outstretched hand. The log protested and the rapids laughed below their trembling bodies. The water opened its arms wide to receive something fresh to thrash about and break. Three steps. In a moment, Jamie was suddenly very aware of everything around him. His sisters face mirrored in the little girls eye, the cool wind tussling his hair, the smell of earth and water and roots. Jamie's breath stopped and looked down to the watery life below him. In that moment the log gave away and rolled forward, tossing the two bodies from it and down into the crushing rocks below.

With a river so new with freshly melted snow, it was natural that it would swallow up anything that came across its path, toss it about against rock and broken branches, drowning it beneath overhanging shrubs, and debris that had traveled down stream.

His body was at a higher mercy; it knew what it was doing as it had done it many times before. How many times had Jamie been warned about the river? How many lives hat the river swallowed each year? He was just another doll to play with, no different than the lifeless rocks and twigs. His body snapped, bashed, crushed up against anything and everything. It was painful at first, but once the sting of water whittled away and eroded the life from lungs and heart, Jamie found himself at a strange peace.

Rivers can only be so violent before they calm and relax along the plains of farm lands where cows and horses came to drink. Jamie's body came to a slow pace as he bobbed down the icy water. His body brushed along the muddy banks, lodging itself against the rock and shore, hands and arms absent of the little boy's life. He lay alone, empty, cold, dead, dying. He couldn't be too sure though.

Death had a funny vagueness about it sometimes. He could see the soft gray sky and feel the brush of naked cattail stems against his cheeks.

His body had once separated itself from the nature and dirt he cherished so much, he now became apart of it in just a matter of a few violent minutes; water in his lungs, mud in his body, bugs inching across his flesh. He would have brushed them away had he been able to, scratch at the bugs, wipe away the mud, but in death he could not. He was subject to their fate and that was a comforting thought.

What could anyone do in that moment?

He forgave the river as it lapped at his bares toes, shoes tossed away from the chaos, eyes forced to stare up blankly, milky white, distorted. He could not think of anything beyond the river, it was simply everything, life giving, taking, furious, beautiful. His fingers twitched with, a mere echo of his once living body. His mouth opened as if to speak, but he remained silent as one final breath escaped his lungs. He would have been terrified, but found himself at a disadvantage as he had no heartbeat to quicken the blood and make him frightened.

He was dead, he had been dead, yet his mind still stared up at the sky above. He could hear nothing, but the whisper of the river and his voice was so sweet. It sang a lullaby that only the dead could understand and found himself letting go, leaving his body and shifting onwards as though the river had swept him downstream again.