As I Lay Dying Novels & Stories

Only I can have it. Somehow, I push myself off the bed and stand. I grab his shirt and tug, trying to snatch the pad back. But Danny’s older than me and bigger. “What are you doing? Don’t touch me!” he screams, pushing me away. My hand slips and I fall. The air rushes out of my lungs. I want to scream, but nothing comes out. “Are you dying?” Danny taunts, coming close and looking down at me. I try to breathe, but I can’t.

Lower Chamber — Seconds After the Collapse Jay lay motionless on the cracked tiles. Golden fissures along his spine flickered weakly — like dying embers. Elias was kneeling beside him, shaking him violently. “JAY! Wake up — COME ON — open your eyes!” Jay didn’t move. Didn’t breathe properly. Didn’t respond. Lena stumbled onto the platform, nearly tripping as she dropped beside Elias. Her hands hovered over Jay’s chest. “No… no, no, no… please don’t be gone—”

Laughing until our sides hurt. Waking up next to him every morning. A future. A life. A forever with him by my side. “How did it come to this?” I choked out, slamming a fist weakly against the floor. “How the hell am I alone in a supply closet—dying?! At twenty-fucking-five?!” My voice cracked into a scream. “I don’t want to die!” I curled in on myself. “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t—”

I can feel it, my soul slipping away. “Let me die; I don’t deserve to be alive,” I said, removing all the wires from me. “Please stop it; you are truly dying,” Maven cried. “Let me die,” I hissed, falling on the bed, and my sight was getting blurry. There was a commotion in the ward, and Maven cried loudly. The doctors brought the defibrillator, but I was gone, falling into darkness. *****************

Without a word, he turned and sprinted toward the shipping container in the backyard. My father and Axel exchanged a glance and saw horror in each other's eyes. They immediately followed after Jacob. When the three of them reached the shipping container, the pungent smell, and the lifeless little body before them struck their hearts like a hammer blow. Jacob rushed to Estelle's side, his fingers trembling as he probed my carotid artery before lifting my eyelids to check my pupils. A few minutes later, he slumped to the ground, his voice hoarse and broken. "We're too late... Dead... for at least 48 hours... Dehydration, high fever... Organ failure..."

His heart ached as though it was going to rip him apart from the inside. “Lily, just hold on a little longer. I’ve already called every top-tier healer!” My parents, whose hair was now grayer than ever, nodded through their tears. “Don’t be scared, Lily. We’re here now. We’ll get you through this.” But we all knew the truth. I was dying.

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I listened to them speak, eventually freezing into ice. Silence grew once more in the room. However, the temperature was still dropping. My mind grew even hazier. 'Mom, I'm coming to you. I'm sorry. I can't live on. I'm sorry...' I was dead. I died. I died in that icy basement they locked me in. As the last shreds of warmth fled my body, I thought to myself, 'If there is a next life, I don't want to see them again.' However, I never realized my mind would stay past my death.

On the day of my pyre, my body had been reassembled. The mortician was skilled. I looked… almost whole. For a moment, I studied the still figure laid out before the sacred flames. I had to admit— Death became me. I looked better than I had in years. No fear. No pain. No exhaustion carved into my bones. Just stillness. Peace. My parents came to see me off. Caden could not. Pack justice for killing Seraphina had been swift—and merciless.

The world which I knew of love and happiness was now shattered, while darkness consumed me waiting for my end to catch up with me faster than my heart could take as I laid there on the floor like a limp vegetable begging for air. As I lay frozen, my world collapsing In slow motion, Lizzy’s voice echoing through the storm in my head. “Sis you can't fucking die on me, I would die in this heartless world without you in my life” she said while my hands kept urging me to fight.

My insides are screaming as panic sets in as flashes of the last however long, blaze through my mind like a forest fire. "My name is Layla. I don't know where I am, or how I got here. I don't even know what day it is. I was running and fell off a cliff into a raging river and that is the last thing I remember. Brady and Jace - " I start to explain what happened when he slams his fist into the cement wall cracking it. Whoa.