GENRE: Gay Paranormal Romance
LENGTH: 2,699 words
RATING:

After getting some bad news about his dad’s health condition, Shane, with his boyfriend Kenzo, rush to the hospital. Slippery snowy road conditions, added with a bit of speeding, send them into a terrible car crash.

Both men are in critical condition, with one on life support. Decisions are made. When one must be sacrificed to save the other, will their love survive?

EXCERPT:

“Do you know what’s the hardest part of being away from you? It’s being denied to do something like this.” Kenzo ran his fingers through Shane’s short hair.

Shane's eyes fluttered open. “I’m dreaming,” he mumbled.

“No, you’re not.”

“Yeah, right,” Shane smiled at Kenzo. Dream or not, Kenzo's touch felt very real, as was the way he lifted his eyebrow in that way of his.

“This is me, Shane. You're not dreaming and you're not hallucinating. I’m here ... to haunt you.”

Shane snorted. “Very funny, Kenzo.”

“Shane, look at me, really look at me. Touch me,” Kenzo said earnestly, looking at him with that damn puppy-look of his.

Sighing, Shane reached out to palm Kenzo's face but his hand went right through it. Shane’s breath caught, letting his hand fall on his bed.

“Kenzo, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“I miss you, Shane.” Kenzo said simply.

“No, no, no. I mean, what are you doing here. You’re not supposed to be here, Kenzo.”

“Aren’t you glad to see me?”

“I am! God knows I am. But this is not right. This is ...”

“Too absurd for you?”

Shane's vision started to blur. “This is ... hard,” he whispered. “You were gone. You might be here right now but you’re going to leave me again.”

Shane started to cry, the wall that he had been building up around him crumbling into a pile of dust. He hadn't cried after he woke up at the hospital after the surgery, not even once. And he didn't cry when they told him that Kenzo, his Kenzo, had died in the accident. His fault, it was his fault that Kenzo died, and he cried brokenly, flinching away when Kenzo reached out for him.

“Kenzo, you have no idea. You don’t have any idea what I’m going through. I’d rather die than go on without you.”

Kenzo looked lost and confused. Wearing his gray T-shirt, he was still very much the same Kenzo that Shane knew and loved. He looked beautiful, and so real, and alive. Distracted, Shane almost missed Kenzo’s next words.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Shane,” Kenzo said quietly. “You have no idea what I went through. Alone. Silence all around me. I'm not supposed to be here, they tried to stop me from going to you. But Shane, I'm here now. I come back to you.”

“But you died,” Shane choked out.