One Star, One Tear

(Rachel)

It was over. Finally, we won. Barely. We gave the Yeerks a devastating blow, but not all of us made it out. Ax and Cassie...and Tobias...they gave up the most. We hurt them really bad. But they hurt us, too. We ended up winning, though. They left. After that, I didn't really see the big need to do anything. I heard a knock at my door, and Jake walked in.

"Rachel, are you okay?" He asked me. Like I was okay. I knew he just wanted me to finally speak.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you?" His face twisted into a sad expression.

"I'm not sure. After Cassie...and Ax, and...well, you know, after that, it just hit me that they're not coming back." He said.

"They won't come back. Not if they know what's good for them. I have a score to settle." I growled. Neither of us said anything for a few minutes. I thought about the people who died. My mom, Cassie, Ax, and Tobias. Chapman died too. So did Marco's mom. This time it was for real. Tom died, and Jake's dad too. We lost a lot of friends.

"Jake?"

"What?"

"We all lost someone. I just realized that Marco was right when he said we were about to run out of luck. We did."

"Is that you talking? Are you sure you're okay?"

"What? What makes you think I'm not okay?"

"You just said Marco was right."

"Good point. Slap me if I ever say that again."

"Don't worry, I will." He left. I didn't realize how late it was. I was feeling a little better, but not completely. I yawned and sat down in my bed. It was dark. I lifted the curtains and laid down, staring at the one star that poked through the clouds. I thought about my friends, and fell asleep as a tear slid down my cheek.

"Rachel." I heard. It was a human voice.

"What?" I looked around. I was everywhere, and I was nowhere at the same time.

"Rachel, here." I thought I'd heard the voice before, and I tried to find it's owner. I ran all over the place and saw a shadow of a person in the distance. I ran over, and the person looked at me. It was Tobias.

"Tobias?"

"It's me, Rachel."

"But you died! Whoever's playing this joke on me had better stop."

"Rachel, this is a dream, remember?"

"Oh yeah."

"I just wanted to see you." He held my arms and hugged me.

"I miss you." I whispered.

"I miss you too." Then he did something I didn't expect. He kissed me. It wasn't a bad surprise either. I enjoyed it. And we stood there, everywhere and nowhere, just like that for a few seconds. Then he pulled away. "Rachel, I'll see you again. Until then..."

"Goodbye?" Then the dream ended and I woke up. I remembered every second of it. I think he wanted me to. I sat in my bed for a little while and cried. It was almost too much to handle. I got up and went down to the kitchen. I wrote a note to the remainder of my family, and took a knife from the drawer.

"Goodbye everyone." I held it to my throat. I felt the cold tip touching my skin. Then I felt something. Like a gust of wind. And it spoke.

"Rachel, not now. We will meet again, but not so soon. Hang in there." I started crying and put the knife away.

"I guess I'll have to wait a while then?" There was no answer.

Many years later...

It was my own personal hell. With my illness, I wouldn't last much longer. The antibiotics I had been receiving did little good, or so I thought.

"I'm still a little young to die." I said to reassure myself. I was in the hospital, and it was like torture. The disease was in remission, but I couldn't take the meds much more. They made me feel awful. They let me go home, and I sat at my kitchen table and thought about a few things. I picked up 2 pieces of paper and 2 envelopes, and addressed one to my family, and 1 to Jake. In my family note, I said I couldn't take losing my friends and having this disease much longer.

I put the envelopes in the mail and got a knife from the kitchen drawer. I walked to my bedroom and laid on my bed, looking at the sky which was now dark and clouded over. I put the knife to my throat and pushed it in. The last thing I saw, before my vision clouded, was one star.

(Jake)

I'd heard of Rachel's disease. I didn't want to believe it, though. Rachel would be gone some day. And then, Marco and I would be the only Animorphs left. It was strange. It felt like just yesterday when I had Cassie in my arms, and she was dying. I held out my hands and a tear escaped from my eye. I wiped it away and went to check for mail.

There was a letter from Rachel. I picked it up, but I was afraid to open it. I left it on the table and went outside. I sat down in a lawn chair, to clear my mind. But no matter what, that damn letter was on my mind. I sighed and went back inside. I opened the letter. It read:

Dear Jake,

If you're reading this, then I went through with my plan. I'm sorry I had to. I'm sorry you're having to read this. But losing everyone... it was hard to cope with it. I could deal with it for a while. I know you lost people too, but you're stronger than I am. You always have been. Morphing can only clear so much of the pain, and it lingered even then. I tried everything to forget, but my mind won't let me. This was the only escape. I would have died sooner or later, and this is probably less painful. So in regret, I'm saying goodbye. It's too late to stop me, because I already went through with it. Goodbye, Jake. I'll miss you, and everyone else. But it was too hard.

Love,

Rachel

I closed the letter and put it in my pocket. Then I picked up the phone and called Marco.

"Hello?"

"Marco? This is Jake."

"Hey Jake. What's up?"

"Could you come over, maybe?"

"Yeah. I don't have anything else to do. See you in a little while."

"Bye." I hung up the phone and waited.

There was a knock at the door. "It's open." Marco walked in.

"So, what's up?" He asked.

"I got a letter from Rachel. You want to read it?" I held it out to him, and he read it. His eyes were wide.

"I didn't think she would do something like that." He said, astonished.

"Me either."

Epilogue

Jake stood behind everyone else at the funeral. He looked at the memorial that he, Marco, and Rachel had put up to honor all the people who died in the Yeerk Pool. It wasn't written there, though. They had paid for this special section of the cemetery to bury the people from the pool and the Animorphs. They put the memorial there, too. He looked at the empty space beside Tobias's name. They were going to put every Animorph's name on there sooner or later. Jake had hoped it would be later. Now he carved Rachel's name right between Tobias's and Cassie's.

"Tell Cassie I miss her." He whispered, seeing the empty space beside Cassie's name, and the other empty space under the five spaces. The spot beside Cassie belonged to him, and the spot under them belonged to Marco. He hoped that neither of them would be filled for a long time. And he stood there for a minute, and felt something strange.

"Jake...I'll see you soon. Until then, I'll keep an eye on you." He smiled as the wind rushed through the trees.

"I miss you Cassie. See you soon." He said, and he walked back to the funeral procession, which was now leaving the cemetery.