As you flicker in and out of consciousness, you find yourself fixating on the name of the automated CPR device they are using on you: “the LUCAS.” You know it’s some kind of acronym, like “scuba” and “laser” and “taser,” but you can’t recall what the letters of LUCAS mean. It’s funny, you think, that this—the thing by which you will either live or die—has the same name as the man crying out for you now, his voice barely audible above the shouts and sirens.
You almost want to laugh as the medic puts his lips to yours. How fitting that the final kiss of your life comes from someone else, as if you really are the cheater Lucas accused you of being.
You close your eyes, or maybe open them, and try to enjoy it, knowing this will be the last thing you’ll ever feel.
Kelly Murashige’s work has appeared in The Quarter(ly), The Bloomin' Onion, and Thimble Literary Magazine. She is the author of The Lost Souls of Benzaiten, The Yomigaeri Tunnel, and Milkiverse.