Redemption (Waking Up Dead) by April Margeson

now.
    The pressure that the spells were putting on me was unbearable and I tried to reach Alzar, but he wasn’t close enough to help me.  Why didn’t I just listen to him?  He’s always right and I had tried him before with the same results.  I had always ended up on the bad side of things when I thought I knew more than he did.
    Seconds maybe minutes had passed until I could finally sense Alzar had found me.  Instead of coming to my aid, he began to retaliate.  His power shook the connection between us and I think that it only made me feel worse. 
    Aden shrieked.  The sound of it made me happier than I wanted it to and I felt bad for wishing harm on another, even him.  Our ways taught us to never harm another without just cause and even then the act was not one to be taken lightly.
    My mind began to fog and even though I remained connected to Laynie, the spell was pushing me farther and farther away from her. 
    “Max!”  Laynie screamed, but the sound of her voice made me realize what was happening. 
    I am dying.  My body had given up the fight, but my heart wasn’t ready to accept that. 
    “I love you Laynie” I called to her in hopes that she could still hear me.
    Everything went dark and I knew that this was the end.  I had come so far and now it was all over.  I could only hope that Alzar could find a way to save her.  Maybe she will come back and live a long happy life. 
    Something happened right then that I didn’t understand.  I knew that the connection had been severed with Laynie, but there was something else, something peaceful.  Had I entered the spirit realm?  I could only hope.
    My thoughts were as clear as they could be, but it seemed that nothing else was right.  I could hear voices talking around me, but the words were muffled and beyond comprehension.  The voices were oddly familiar, but I had become so weak that I just couldn’t make myself care who they were.  I’m just so sleepy that I can’t care about much of anything.  The one thing that I did care about was Laynie and I am in no condition to help her now.
    Maybe if I could get a little sleep then everything would be better.

CHAPTER 9 Alzar
    I had done everything that I could do to overtake Sal and Aden, but I failed.  Without Max here with me I had been powerless against them.
    Sal had made a wise decision when he turned Aden and knowing that he was a witch had been a major plus for him.  I had never seen that amount of power from the dead before and clearly things are about to change.  I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be for the good.
    I had heard Max call on Aria before being jolted out of Laynie’s dying body.  Somehow, I had known that she would refuse to answer him. It seemed to me that she had gotten more involved than she had wanted to from the start and she had no intentions on doing any more than she had already done.  If she could only help a bit more, I thought to myself as I made my exit back to reality. 
    I had no other choice but to leave Laynie as she was.  The thought of Sal turning her against all of us was becoming more of an issue than I had wanted to think.  If he has his way, soon, we would all be dead.  That is all he has ever wanted.
    Snapping back to my body, I could feel that something had gone terribly wrong during my return.  There was a surge of power at first and then there was nothing.  I knew all too well what it was… Max.
    As soon as I had fully reentered my body, I opened my eyes only to find that Max was not there.  Jumping up from the bed, I began to search for him and it wasn’t long until I found him. 
    He had fallen from the bed into the floor.  Blood was coming from his mouth and nose and I jumped over the bed and to his side.  His pulse was dangerously slow and if I didn’t do something fast, he was going to die.
    “Alice!  Caleb!”  I screamed for the only ones that were left that could help me.
    Not even a second passed until the door flew