WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CHELSEA ABERDEEN?
PART FOUR

From the files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBI Agent
GBI Case File No. GBNS-2004-22/203

"I've had stranger." Bo joked beside her.

"I think Doctor Venkman said the same thing right before he was attacked by Deep Ones..." Vincent retorted.

There was a loud splashing, and several creatures popped out of the water. They were of a purer strain of Deep One, less removed from their undersea origins, larger, with scaled skin, no hair, and large, liquid black eyes.

"You just had to say it, didn't you?" Bo rolled his eyes.

"In the name of the Deepest Ones...the Ghostbusters must be stopped!!!" one of them shouted, and en mass, they jumped for the boat.

"Blast the fuckers!!!" Bo shouted.

Proton beams hit the Deep Ones, driving them back--until one of them rammed the bottom of the boat, sending the four Ghostbusters straight into the water, heavy proton packs and all.

Jen thrashed, trying to decide whether it would be worse to stay armed and drown, or dump the proton pack and risk going through caves crawling with hostile entities unarmed. Neither looked particularly appealing...but thankfully, the decision was taken out of her hands, as a strong arm she knew well wrapped around her, and pulled her into the air.

"Bo?" she finally gasped.

"Look out!!" she heard Vincent shout.

There was a familiar electric sizzle and a shout of pain, and when Jen opened her eyes Vincent was chasing away another Deep One with shots from his particle thrower.

"You okay, Jen?" Bo asked.

"Unhurt, but a little waterlogged. You?"

"It'll take more than a little water and future Fillet O'Fish sandwiches to slow down the Legend."

"And I'm all right too, thanks for asking..." Vincent muttered.

"I would've gotten to you eventually..." Jen rolled her eyes as Bo helped her up.

"Sorry to sound snarky, Jennifer..." Vincent replied. "But we seem to have lost one..."

"Oh fuck." Bo cursed. "And Fritzy hasn't been lookin' too good..."

"Yes, Milady?"

Thou hast served the Deepest Ones well...

"Thank you, Milady..."

Thou seeketh Dorothy Aberdeen for thy own, don't thee?

"Um..."

Her niece as well, I can also see the burning in thine eyes when thou seest her

"Um..."

The younger has been pledged to the Deepest One himself...but serve me well, and the elder shall be thine to do with as thou wilt.

"I am not worthy, Milady..."

Thou will prove thine worthiness, My Child...

Vincent shook his head. "There's too much energy swirling through here...finding one person is impossible. I might be able to tell when we get close, but otherwise..."

"GHOSTBUSTERS!!!" a voice shouted. "YOUR INTERFERENCE ENDS HERE!!!"

More Deep Ones and more hybrid servitors came out of the shadows, as did an extremely large hybrid.

"Arvis?" Bo asked Jen.

"Affirmative." Jen replied.

"I would've guessed even if he didn't have his name on his shirt." Bo sneered and cracked his knuckles. "This jumbo fuckturd is mine..."

"Attack!!!" Arvis shouted. "Lady Lucindra says nobody stops her and Lord Dagon!!!"

The throng raced forward. Jen started to blast away at them. "Anti-organic setting isn't going to work too well against so many...and not much at all against the Deep Ones.."

"Give me just half a minute..." Vincent replied, beginning to concentrate.

Bo Holbrook plowed through the servitors--in his eyes, he owed this punk Arvis big time.

"You gotta be kiddin' me. Pipsqueak." Arvis sneered.

Bo's response was to grind his soaked cigar on Arvis's forehead.

Arvis growled and lunged for Bo. Bo punched him in the face, then the gut.

Arvis chuckled. "Pipsqueak."

With a blinding speed that belied his bulk, Arvis hit Bo with a slobberknocker that staggered him.

"Bo!" Jen shouted, continuing to fire on the throng of Deep One hybrids. "Damn fool..."

"Ars...perdo...aquam..." Vincent finally spoke.

A light hit the hybrids, causing them to scream in agony, and retreat from the Ghostbusters, diving into the water.

"I diminished the water in their bodies...I assumed that dehydration would be painful for creatures that are part fish." Vincent explained. "Looks like I was right..."

"Jen, Gandalf, find Fritzy." Bo said, readjusting his green ballcap. "I'll catch up as soon as I flush this pile of shit..."

Jen and Vincent wanted to argue, but they knew he was right--their comrade was in far worse shape than Bo was.

But he wasn't going to give up. He picked a direction and swam toward it as vigorously as he was able...

And after an interval that he couldn't reckon, but knew was too long either way, he came up into blessed, sweet oxygen.

He lay on the cold stone floor of the cavern for a good five minutes, panting heavily. It was getting harder to even breathe...

Then he smelled it. Impossibly...and the scent dissipated as quickly as it appeared. Maybe it was just a trick of the mind. Spectral Seduction Number 5, the perfume he'd given Chelsea for Christmas.

With a grunt of pain, he stood, and started to slowly walk in the direction from which he thought the scent came.

Bo dodged his first attack, but the second managed to send a left cross straight to Bo's face. He knew that because the word "LEFT" was written on Arvis's glove, just like "RIGHT" was written on his other glove.

"At least you got them on the hands they belong on..." Bo retorted, throwing a punch in response.

Bo knew he could easily pull his proton thrower, but when he was dealing with an opponent he could hit with his bare hands, he much preferred to throw down on their asses. It's been a while since the last time he was able to do so: an undead killer at Camp Crystal Lake earlier in the year...

About the only problem Bo had was the fact he was still wearing the pack, and it's sixty pounds of weight slowed him down some.

"You making fun of me too, you little shit?!" Arvis howled. "I am so fucking sick of that!!!" Arvis pummeled him again.

"Then quit making it so easy." Bo retorted, blocking the punches.

Then Arvis reached in, grabbed him, and hurled him a good ten feet. Bo hit the ground hard. Oh fuck...I think Frogzilla hurt something..."

Arvis rushed him, but Bo tripped the giant hybrid, sending him crashing to the ground. Bo knew he needed mobility--he tagged the quick release on his proton pack's straps, and left it on the ground.

Arvis got up, wiping his large-lipped mouth, an amused smile on his misshapen face. "Yer not too bad, monkeyblood...been a while since I had any sort of challenge..."

For just half a second, Bo wished Yeti were here. He was even bigger than Bo, possibly even bigger than Arvis. But that thought went away quickly. "Garbagebarge, you are dealing with the Legend. KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!"

They grappled again, grunting and shouting obscenities.

Arvis slugged Bo, sending his green hat flying off.

Bo punched Arvis in the gut. Arvis coughed and gagged.

Bo pressed his advantage. A big fan of wrestling, he followed up with some moves straight from "Smackdown".

"I'd do the Worm on your ass, but it's dumb as hell..." Bo quipped. "And thankfully a dated reference..."

For his bluster, Bo got a right cross to the face. He wasn't sure, but he might have caught sight of at least one of his own teeth flying out...

"No more, little man!!!" Arvis grabbed him, and hoisted Bo over his head. "I'm gonna help the Deepest One!!! I've finally found someone to be with, and I'm not gonna let you jerks mess it up!!!" He raised his leg, ready to drive Bo onto it and snap his spine in half just like Bane did to Batman...

Bo reached into his pocket, pulled out his lighter, and set Arvis's small sprig of hair on fire.

The giant man screeched in panic, and dropped Bo to the floor. Bo scrambled up, not allowing shock to set in. "If my buddy and his woman weren't right in the middle of this, I wouldn't give a flying fuck...but since they are..."

He kicked Arvis in the family jewels. Hard.

"...This is for fucking with Fritzy and Chelsea..." He smacked the dazed Arvis in the mouth.

"This is for broadsiding Belmont." He smacked him again.

"This is for me." Another punch.

"And this is for putting your slimy meathooks on my woman, you ugly son of bitch..." Bo wound up, and delivered probably the strongest punch he ever had.

Arvis, his face a bloody mess, tumbled to the floor.

Bo was breathing hard...he watched the giant hybrid for a good thirty seconds, just to be sure he was out cold. "Oh shit..." Bo exhaled, rubbing his right hand. "I think I fucking hurt myself..."

He spit on the unconscious mutant, retrieved his hat and proton pack, and went on to try and catch up with Jen and Vincent.

His left leg was in agony. Every step had been excruciating...he looked down at himself...Blood?

He shook his tired head angrily. I don't have time for that now...

He pulled a set of keys off of his belt. They had formerly belonged to Joey Williams, Fritz's friend, teammate, and founding CEO of the Ghostbusters West Coast. We've come a long way since that night in Anaheim, haven't we, Joey?

Unbidden, he was caught up in a moment of thought, reflecting on all that had happened to him over the last year and a half. The group of men and women he'd bonded with through adversity that most wouldn't even be able to believe. Joey, Robert, and Leon have quit...not much of a North Team left, is there? Jeff's gone off to who knows were, Peter and Chad quit...I guess not much of South Team either. Andy, Kyle, Jeremy, and Will are in Tennessee. Rose and Otter are helping put the warehouse back together. Ron's attempt to regroup NOMAD fell through, but he's found a new path.

He thought of John Lipsyte. Of Ian McPherson and Ernie Slaughter. Ghostbusters who had made the ultimate sacrifice.

"But I do know one thing..." Nogad finally said. "I can sense it. One of you. The stench of death is hanging about one of you."

It's me Nogad meant, isn't it?

Two of the keys were distinguished with unique coloration. The one with the yellow and black stripes unlocked the main power switch for the Ecto Containment Unit back in Los Angeles. He regarded the other distinct one, the red one, for a moment, and gently placed it into a slot on his neutrona wand. He turned it until there was a loud "click", and one of the lights on the thrower began to blink red.

The most precious memory of all from that night in Anaheim was Chelsea Aberdeen knocking on his door. "How do I look, Doctor Baugh?" she had asked, and he about swallowed his tongue. She was in a shimmering purple dress that hugged just the right curves; in all honesty, it was the moment that Fritz Baugh realized that his friend Chelsea Aberdeen was also a supremely beautiful woman. And had first questioned why he'd been avoiding that realization.

I don't know what I'm about to get into...I don't know what is going to happen to me...but I will save Chelsea or die trying.

Jen listened closely, and heard footsteps. They came closer.

They heard a gurgling voice. "...ordered us to take you to the surface, away from the ritual."

When three Deep Ones and one human turned the corner, they found Jen and Vincent waiting for them.

Caught by surprise, the Deep Ones were blasted unconscious with little effort.

Dorothy Aberdeen, wearing nothing but a simple sleeveless robe, gulped loudly. But nevertheless, the first words out of her mouth were "I'm going to assume that Simon Trevor and Kate Henderson aren't your real names?"

Jen glared at her. "I'm Spengler and this is Belmont--we're with Ghostbusters International."

"We've been separated from one of our companions, Miss Aberdeen. Dr. Fritz Baugh..." Vincent added, notable anger in his voice. "And don't try to tell us you don't know who that is."

"He's...he's here?" Dorothy said, eyes widening. "Oh God...it's everything we were trying to prevent..."

"Prevent. What." Jen asked. "And how."

"We have to find him..." Dorothy shook her head. "Or everything Chelsea and I've done will be for nothing..."

"I don't have a lot of patience right now, Miss Aberdeen." Vincent growled, looking Dorothy straight in the eye. "He'll be looking for your niece. Take us to where she is. Now. Or anything this Lucindra threatened will be nothing compared to what I will do to you."

Dorothy hung her head in defeat. She pointed and started to lead them deeper into the cave system.

Chelsea looked at the horrible creature that was telling her this, a translucent body of water in the shape of the human woman Lucindra once was, with moss forming her "hair"...and felt the urge to vomit again.

Actually, since she'd managed to force a few bites down her throat earlier, she was able to do just that.

"Thou wilt really need to be made of stronger stuff to endure Dagon's attentions..."

"...go to Hell..." Chelsea whispered. "Go straight back to Hell..."

"Thy forgets thy place, Daughter of James, Heiress of Fergus and Danise." Lucindra snarled. She grabbed Chelsea roughly. "Thy family did this to me. The whore Danise McDuff...she turned Fergus Aberdeen against me...they forced me into servitude to that wretch Dagon, forced me to birth his damned Deep Ones for him..."

"That's funny." a male voice broke in. "That's not how the account I read put it..."

Chelsea Aberdeen's heart literally skipped a beat. It was a voice she knew well...a voice that she still heard in her dreams...

Is it another dream?

She turned and saw him, leaning against the entryway to the cave. Fritz Baugh, the man she loved with all of her heart. The man she'd resigned herself to never seeing again. Her heart sang with glee...with hope. An electric surge went through her weakened body, as two months of denied passion screamed for release.

But just as suddenly...horror. He looked like a gentle breeze would knock him over...his skin was pale, his hair a dirty mess. A growth of stubble she'd never seen on him before. And an unfamiliar Ghostbuster flight suit. Black, like a shroud...

The burst of speed had taken most of what he had left...but there she was, being manhandled by some naked woman made of water, spouting some twisted spin on the story Vincent had told him only the day before.

Chelsea Aberdeen, the woman he loved with all of his heart. The woman who'd disappeared without a trace. He had finally found her...he wanted to run to her, embrace her, and shower her with two months of denied passion.

But first he had to get her out of here. Away from this madwoman who had drug her into this...who had turned her into a dirty, pale, stringy-haired shadow of her true self. The madwoman who was still plotting a most dismal fate for the woman he'd come across a continent to find.

When their eyes finally met...they each saw the other's pain. The same dark, hollow look. He saw her terror. She saw his confusion and hurt. But they also saw the same love starting to shine back...

She started to cry. "Fritz...I..."

He gasped a few times before answering. "I understand. I know the whole story..."

Lucindra snorted. "This is the best the Ghostbusters could send against me? I need not even lift a finger to stop thee..."

"You're the same Lucindra that put a curse on Chelsea's ancestors..." Fritz said, a firm, strong anger showing in his voice. "You struck a deal with Dagon, the Deepest One, for power. The price for the power Dagon gave you was one fertile human woman...so that Dagon could breed with her and produce more Deep Ones. You would rule Scotland and eventually the world with that power, and all you had to do was give him one girl." Fritz looked at Chelsea. "Danise McDuff was supposed to be that sacrifice..." he looked back at Lucindra. "But Fergus Aberdeen, a Mage of the Order of Hermes, spoiled that plan. He sent you into the transformation circle intended for Danise...and you were the one transformed into Dagon's 'Consor'"

"That's...that's not what Aunt Dorothy told me..." Chelsea started to say.

"I would've shared that power with Fergus, if that ungrateful bastard had let me..." Lucindra snarled. "But that whore Danise turned him against me...I still had my power, but constrained by the Deepest One's needs, I could only be second best in his undersea dominion. But I could do one more thing...put a pox on Fergus and Danise's bloodline...punish them all, make sure the pain they inflicted on me is returned, that their daughters have no love, but only sorrow. The fate their ancestors inflicted on me."

Unnoticed, the water behind the glowing circle began to churn and bubble.

"You told Dorothy..." Chelsea said, a new anger in her voice. "That Fergus was the one who bargained for power. That YOU were the one THEY sent to Dagon to pay for that power!"

"It was a useful lie." Lucindra smirked. "She was so wracked with guilt, feeling almost like she had killed her lover, that if she were capable of it she would've accepted the transformation herself. But she is too old--Dagon requires a mate who is fertile at the time of the transformation. Thus...when she realized there was another who could take her place, and dispel the family's curse, she brought thee to me."

Chelsea felt like vomiting again. We...the Aberdeens...we weren't the ones who committed the crime! We've been tricked! We've been fucking tricked!!!

Lucindra gloated, feeling her moment of release at hand. "If the first child is a daughter, and she bears the name Aberdeen, the curse will be laid upon any man whom she truly loves with her heart and her body. Some perish by unfortunate circumstance--the types of accidents that claimed the two most recent victims. Others share the fate of the first...a wasting illness that appears with no warning, no sign. Sometimes a minor sprain, the kind of wound that should by no right become fatal...become the ground from which the disease spreads, infecting and destroying more and more tissue until..."

Fritz looked down, revelation gripping him. The sprain to his left leg, suffered during the Ashram incident...now a puddle of foul smelling blood and puss leaking from his left boot.

Chelsea noticed this too, and inhaled in horror.

"I see it now...thou art the one she is doing this to save..." Lucindra said. "The curse is upon thee, Ghostbuster. A pity...the curse works by proximity. If thee had stayed in thine City of Angels, thou wouldst not have been afflicted."

"oh no oh no oh no..." Chelsea sobbed.

Fritz mopped his brow with his right hand. "There's just one thing I don't understand...why didn't this happen until now? Chelsea's been in love with me for years...and even the 'loving with her body' part is almost a year old..."

"The two of you had one reprieve working in thine favor." Lucindra answered. "I was born of the Clan Williams...as long as the two of you were in allegiance to one also bearing the name of the Clan Williams, the curse was held at bay. Indeed, if she had chosen him, he would have been immune."

"Joey Williams, Ghostbusters West Coast CEO..." Fritz nodded. "That makes some sense. At least as much as any of the rest of this...Funny...my grandmother is a Williams, too..."

This seemed to give Lucindra pause. "Interesting...but immaterial. The moment of my liberation is at hand."

By this time, the churning and bubbling of the water in the cavers was strong enough that they became aware of it.

"Dagon approaches....the transmogrification must take place." she looked at Fritz. "For thee, grandson of Williams, I offer you one last chance. The curse will be broken when the transmogrification circle is activated, but I doubt thou wilt last that long. Turn and leave. Renounce thine affections for this doomed child, and I will renounce my curse upon thee. Leave her to her dismal fate, and thou wilt live."

Chelsea looked at him, the tears flowing freely now. Do it... her mind screamed, her voice too weak and paralyzed by fear to speak. Forget about me...save yourself...

Fritz Baugh inhaled deeply, and stood upright. He looked at Lucindra, eyes shining with defiance. "Your choice is no choice at all." His right hand pulled the thrower off of his proton pack. "Because without her, my life isn't worth living."

He fired, the beam striking the shocked water woman, knocking her back.

He pressed forward, driving the shrieking woman back, leaving bloody left footprints behind him.

...But it wasn't enough. His knees buckled, he tumbled to the floor, and the beam shut off...his eyeglasses clattered to the floor, the left lens shattering...

Chelsea shouted his name, and ran to where he fell, no longer heeding any of the danger to herself.

" 'Without her my life isn't worth living'..." Lucindra said, as she shook off the effects of the beam, her distorted form returning to normal. "Fergus said the same thing..." Her face contorted in fury. "Be sure to tell him that as soon as thou gets to Hell, Ghostbuster..."

"...i'm sorry..." Chelsea heard Fritz's voice rasp.

She shouted his name twice more, but if he could even hear her, he was too weak to indicate it.

Then she saw it: the blinking light on his particle thrower. She knew what the light meant.

She inhaled.

"Save him. Now."

"Thou art in no position to make demands..."

Chelsea looked at her, fury in her eyes. "You said if I did what you wanted, you'd lift your damn curse. Do right now, and I'll do what you need me to do. Save him, lift your fucking curse, and I'll take you place as Dagon's consort. If he dies, the deal's off."

"Thou hast already pledged to that, stupid wench..." Lucindra retorted, moving closer. "What canst thou possibly do to revoke that pledge now?"

"This." Chelsea answered. She pulled open the safety panel on the thrower, and jabbed the red button.

A play of sparks played around the nozzle of the thrower for a second, and the cyclotron on Fritz's proton pack begin to emit a new, more ominous whine...

Twice before, the situation had become desperate enough for the original Ghostbusters to jab that button. On the Mark 4 Proton Pack, that button was protected by a key lock to remove any chance of accidental access to that function.

The blinking red light had told her that Fritz had already unlocked the safety hatch. That he had suspected it would come to this.

"If you don't cancel your curse, this proton pack is going to explode." Chelsea informed her tormentor. "Maybe it won't be enough to seriously hurt you, or your demon master...but it'll be more than enough to blow me to particles."

Lucindra suddenly looked nervous. "Thou wouldn't..."

Chelsea glared. "Fritz is going to die anyway, right? This way, I die with him...we die together...and you can go be Dagon's plaything for another five hundred years..."

Lucindra turned to the increasingly agitated water behind her.

Lucindra looked back at Chelsea, for the first time, her face showing panic. "I assent!!!" she shouted, and gestured.

There was a play of light. Maybe it was just illusion, but Chelsea could swear that just a little bit of color came back into Fritz's pale cheeks, and his labored breathing became just a tad easier.

"It is done. The curse is lifted, and will trouble him, and all in thine family no more."

"And how much is your word worth?" Chelsea asked.

"I have sworn this in the presence of the Deepest One himself--just as last time I promised revenge, and by his will it was made so, this time I promise it's end. I will make no action to prevent his escape from this cavern. Dagon will verify that."

A tentacle, sickly purple in color, appeared from the roiling waters. It reached toward the glowing circle.

Chelsea exhaled, and powered down the thrower. The whine faded away.

"I don't..." the words caught in her throat. "I don't know if you can even hear me any more, Fritz. I did this to save you. I love working with you, I love being with you, I love watching all that anime with you. I..." the tears started to flow freely again. "I would've loved to have married you...loved to have had your children...loved to have spent every day of the rest of our lives together..."

She kissed him one last time. A long, deep kiss, a kiss to try and fit a lifetime of love into one all-too-short moment. "I love you...and I always will..."

"He is emerging..." Lucindra shouted. "It must be now..."

Chelsea stood up, her gaze now clear and firm. She turned to face Lucindra and the growing frothing turmoil that would define her life in a matter of moments...

...Behind her, a tear rolled down Fritz's cheek...

Lucindra shrunk back. She suddenly had a very powerful regret: that Dagon would have by his side a new enemy, one that would hate her forever.

More hungry tentacles appeared, reaching for the glowing circle.

Chelsea Aberdeen said one last silent prayer as she stepped forward, and reached to undo the simple sleeveless robe that was her only garment...

"DOWN, WOMAN!!!" an angry voice shouted from behind her.

Instinctively, she obeyed the shout...

There was the familiar sizzle of a charged particle beam.

Chelsea looked up, and for the second time that day, she could barely believe what she was seeing. She had never met Bo Holbrook, the leader of Ghostbusters Nightsquad, but knew his face and reputation well enough to recognize him on sight.

"This...cannot be..." Lucindra shouted, even though there was an enormous hole where her face should be. "More Ghostbusters?!" Lucindra sneered, throwing a shimmering energy blast at Bo.

Two more proton beams slammed into Lucindra.

Bo and Chelsea looked up to see Vincent, Jen, and behind them Dorothy

"When you're a Ghostbuster, you're never alone, Bitch!!!" Bo growled, firing once more.

"The glowing circle!!!" Chelsea cried. "Push her into the glowing circle!!!"

"Is that Fritz over..." Vincent started to say.

"No time! Pour it on!!!" Bo shouted.

"No!!!! This cannot be!!!" Lucindra howled, as the three Ghostbusters switched to repulsion, forcing her back to the glowing circle.

"It's not enough!!!" Vincent shouted, as Lucindra began to fight off the beams.

"Fuck!!!" Bo snarled.

"I will enjoy watching the Deepest One flay you fools alive..." Lucindra sneered.

A fourth beam joined the onslaught.

Dorothy Aberdeen kneeled next to the fallen West Coast Ghostbuster, his particle thrower in her hands.

"What treachery is this?!"

"You spend five hundred years enforcing misery on my family, and you have the gall to ask?!" Dorothy shouted back. "I'll regret listening to your lies, putting my niece and this innocent man in harm's way to my dying day...but right now--you need to go straight back to the hell you wanted to inflict on us!!!"

The fourth beam was enough. The shocked Lucindra was pushed into the glowing circle.

"I was so close...so close...five hundred years...I can't..." Lucindra howled.

The circle in the water lit up, holding her fast. She screamed as the tentacles seized her. In seconds she wasn't even capable of that, as one of the tentacles forced itself into her mouth.

AH...MY LOVELY LUCINDRA...I KNEW YOU'D COME BACK TO ME...

Bo regretted watching as long as he did. It was like something out of one of those tentacle hentai videos Venkman kept sending him from Ray Stantz's email box. Thankfully, the Deepest One and his Consor quickly vanished beneath the waters, and the froth subsided to normal.

"Eat it, Whore" Bo snarled, holstering his thrower.

"The...energy is gone.." Vincent said, shocked. "As quickly as it came, it's gone..."

"Friiiitz!!!" Chelsea called, staggering to reach him.

The rest in the room rushed to their fallen comrade as well.

"Fritzy? C'mon...say something." Bo pleaded. "Some acerbic comment with ten-dollar words only Vincent or Jen will get..."

Jen visibly recoiled as she saw the pool of blood and puss that had accumulated around his left boot.

Chelsea was crying once more. "She said she'd lifted the curse...he's not supposed to..."

"There's no supernatural energy in the room anymore." Vincent shook his head.

"THEN WHY IS HE STILL DYING?!" Chelsea shrieked, panic beginning to claim her.

I failed. I love her...I want to protect her...but I just wasn't strong enough to save her...now she's lost to me...

Life without her isn't worth the living...maybe it's just as well if I...

And then there was a shimmering white light.

Without a second thought, he began to move toward it...