FIFTY THREE: Set Me Free

"The empire cremates the deceased, right?" Barclay wondered aloud, either oblivious or indifferent to Kel's distress.

"Barclay."

"Do you think they'll send what's left of me back to Mevani?" 

"Barclay, stop."

"It's funny," he continued, too light-heartedly for a man more dead than alive. "In the end this is how I'll finally get to go home."

"Barclay! Please!" Kel screeched, covering her ears with her hands. "I can't take any more!"

"No, you have to take more." Barclay said slowly, gazing solemnly at Kel's crumpled figure. "More and more. Because that's what it means to be alive."

"I don't want to be alive then!" Kel cried. "I wish it was me instead of you!"

"But it's not you," Barclay chided her softly. "So you have to keep living, Kel."

Unable to hold back her sobs any longer, Kel laid her head on the cot at Barclay's feet. She bit her tongue to keep herself from wailing as waves of despair washed over her body.