Her voice was raspy and weak from tears and sorrow. “Accept life for every challenge. Make your own footsteps. No need to follow. Lead, and… believe in the magic.”
I wanted to trust I’d be able to do all these things, but I just couldn’t get past the fact that I was moments from never having this woman in my life again. The sheer pain ripped through my soul with a violence I’d never known. Not even when losing my dad. Natural instincts had me fighting to survive his death. With Noma’s? I wanted to go with her, chase her to an afterlife that had to be better than being left behind.
Sobbing, I leaned—fell over her bed, letting my head lie on her chest. “I can’t do this.”
She struggled to breathe, for reasons beyond her illness. “You can. You will.”
Tears streamed from my bleeding heart. “Not without you.”
“Home—” She coughed. “Together. I’ll always be with you.”
Within her body, her energy—her soul—shifted. It was preparing for its next existence, far from me.
Desperate to hold her back from the heaven calling her home, my head stayed to rest against her chest while my arms slid underneath to hug her body, which was the only thing I could contain. “No. Please.”
“I love you, baby boy.”
Gasping, because I knew I was losing the fight, my body shook with her in my hold. “Then stay. Then stay.”
But then she gasped.
Everything went still for us both. The only movement was my labored breaths in the air. Another presence was with us now.
Not sure where the courage was coming from, slowly, I peered up from her chest to see her face. Stars danced in all her tears as she gazed at me for the last time. “Maddox,” she whispered, a name she had said so rarely since we ran… “The gift. I feel it.”
The one my mother and I had experienced…
Wanting to protect her from the cruelty of the gift from Hell, I lifted her upper body in my embrace that was now morphing from a child’s into a man’s. “Stay away from it, Noma.” Her head rested in my palm, which may have been missing part of a finger, though it was strong enough to brace the woman who supported me all my life.
Soft eyes drifted to the ceiling to watch above us. Then she gasped again, this time in awe. A gentle smile formed. “She’s real, baby boy.”
Not sure who she meant, my lips moved, yet no words formed. My brain begged me to ask questions, but my heart was consumed with a misery that was unfathomable. There was nothing I could say while trying to muster more strength, so I just… held her instead.
Then, it was too late.
Her chest stopped moving.
Her lifeless body hanging in my arms.
In disbelief and a gut-wrenching longing, I whispered, “Noma. Please.”
Silence…
Not even a machine made a beep.
“Nooooooo,” I begged her body to move with a shake of my arms. I begged her heart to beat. “Nooooomaaaaaaaaaa!” My tears fell on her lifeless form. “Not without you.” I growled, “Not without youuuuuuuu.”
Nothing.
This woman, full of bravery and grace, was… gone.
I don’t know how much time passed. I don’t know how long I stood there, ears ringing in a shock that nothing on earth could possibly absorb. But, eventually, with the utmost respect, I laid her back on the bed. With all the love that I had for her, I lifted her blanket and laid it upon her body. Then, with straight fingers, tucked her in.
Deep inhale…
With all the bravery she had insisted I carry on with, I pushed her dyed hair from her forehead then kissed it, long and hard as I shook through a goodbye I never wanted. “Your baby boy. Always.”
Still leaning over Noma, a hand touched my spine, but my next growl warned the nurse to back away. She may have seen a young teenager before her, but she was wrong. I was a soul that was now molding into something else. What I was becoming, right in front of her, was an angry beast. A young man who would live, since I promised Noma I would, but I was convinced I was going to be a sinner while I did it.
