Chapter 12: pearl.
"Welcome, intruders. You have two options today. To pass into the afterlife, breathe out. To request the whereabouts of a floater, breathe in."
Without being hasty, we all held our breath and waited before breathing in – except Jack decided to breathe out for some reason. The creature sucked Jack towards him and we all cried out, trying to drag him back.
"I've been here too long guys... it's time for me to go," he shouted back, before being swallowed into a spinning vortex. Ashton broke down into tears, as a lock of black and red hair as well as a leather belt dropped onto the ground in front of us.
I bent down and inspected it. The red streak was from Jack's head – and I assumed the leather belt belonged to him. Meaning that at Jenna's house yesterday, that lock of hair and pearl was a sign that she had passed on.
Suddenly a memory was triggered. I remembered picking up another lock of hair at Luke's place... and a bracelet. No wonder it had seemed familiar... who did Luke lose? That was something I should've remembered, surely?
"Guys. This bit of hair... remember, we saw it at Jenna's place too!" I exclaimed, desperately trying to get the attention of the two wailing adults in front of me. "Michael, Ashton, this means that Jenna's gone too..."
Michael swallowed hard, and went a pale shade of green, as if he was going to be sick. "I hate this, Calum," he croaked. "Everyone is leaving... it's just a matter of time before-"
"Don't say it," I interjected. "It's gonna be fine, no matter what. You've still got us," I said with pretend confidence. It was working though – I hadn't collapsed on the ground in tears unlike the others; yet. "Do you guys know someone Luke was connected with that also died?"
Ashton scoffed, sitting up properly and running a hand through his golden locks. "The other Jack. Luke's brother."
That's right – the memory clicked back into place. "How long ago was that?"
"Not sure. I haven't been here long enough," Ashton wept. "It was always Jenna, Jack and Jack... I remember the anecdotes. When I got here, only Jenna and red-streak Jack were around, but they took me in like my very own parents." I felt a slight pang in my heart. Jenna had been so kind to me and despite their hatred for Luke, I did have some good times with them. "And now they're gone! I might as well join them at this rate..."
This was when Michael jumped up, slapping Ashton hard. "No, don't you dare! I... I think I've developed something f-for you," he declared. I turned away and let them have their little moment – there wasn't a kiss but I could tell they both liked each other. They'd made the same mistake I'd made with Luke. Good move or bad move; who knew?
~
The long walk back down the mountain took less time, but with one less person it felt even longer than the journey up. Ashton walked behind us and kept sniffling every now and then, and Michael would slow down momentarily to calm him down before joining me again.
The bus was the same, except instead of only being shirtless I was now also pant-less. I couldn't wait to just get home and cuddle Luke really hard.
I started remembering my hand vanishing and checked it to make sure it was fine, and thankfully it was back in place, fully intact. I hadn't decided what I was gonna tell Luke, or if I was gonna tell him at all. I didn't want to worry him, but at the same time if I was gonna die then I wanted us to be ready. There was nothing worse than being ripped away from your loved ones – I'd already experienced that once with my family, and I wasn't prepared to go through it again.
Strong exteriors didn't always mean strong interiors, after all.
By the time we got back to Selfrisingford, it was almost dusk and the glorious sunlight was spilling over the buildings, illuminating the walls with orange and pink shades. I spotted Luke in the distance standing with his back facing me and his front facing the ocean, also painted a warm colour by the sunlight, and ran over to reunite with him.
"Calum?" he said with a smile when I engulfed him with a tight hug. "Why aren't you wearing any clothes?"
I shut my eyes and enjoyed the moment – the warmth of the sky, the scratchy scent of paint and wood, the snatches of gentle sea breeze fanning over us. "I missed you," I whispered, pressing my lips against his neck.
"What happened up there?" he asked, once I'd pulled away from him. We sat down on the soft shards of grass, interlocking our fingers as an eternal bond.
"We confirmed Jenna's death and Jack got himself sucked away by the black monster thingy," I informed. He gave an empathetic smile, rubbing my arm. "Also... I realised what the meaning of that lock of hair and bracelet on your bookshelf means."
He froze ever so slightly, avoiding my eyes. "Y-yeah?"
"Yeah. It must've been so painful for you, Luke – just as it was for Ashton and Michael today up on the mountain. They were broken, so broken – the only people who cared about them had just vanished into thin air. It was all they could do to make it down and not join them."
Luke pressed his lips into a brief smile. "It's hard and it's happened to me so many times, but it doesn't get any easier. It was hardest with Jack though, because I was still young and he was my brother after all. I just wanted to hang out with him all day long but he resented my every fibre and in the end, I never got to make amends with him before he left."
The sun was beginning to say its final farewells, the tip of the semi-circle only just visible. The colours were deepening, darkening into purples and violets before fading completely to black. The stars came out after that, brightening up the sky once more alongside the moon.
We sat there for a long time, just wrapped in each other's presence, and there was nothing more I would've asked for. The peaceful quiet of being a floater – no one disturbed us, no one even came close to disturbing us. Even if they did, we wouldn't have been able to hear them. That's how in love we were.
~
The next morning, Michael and Ashton were at our doorstep with two bags, waiting expectantly like dogs for their dinner.
"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, yawning when I opened the door. Michael let himself in, giving me a brief hug whilst Ashton simply waved.
"With Jenna and Jack gone, we didn't want to live in that huge place alone so... can we move in with you?"
Luke came bounding down with his annoying morning energy and pursed his lips when he saw the two people at the door. "What..."
"They wanna move in with us," I relayed, placing my hand on Luke's shoulder. The hallway was very cramped with three abnormally tall people and Luke who was only a few centimetres shorter. "What do you say?"
Ashton dropped his bag and got on his knees. "Luke, I'm really sorry for being such an asshole to you these past few years. I followed the crowd when I should've reached out and talked to you, but you know how it is when your friends are toxic. As for Michael..."
"I'm sorry too. Even though I came at the same time as Luke I should've stuck with him when he defended you."
Luke shrugged. "Well I guess you're forgiven. But you have to stay downstairs, okay? There's only one bedroom upstairs."
They started settling in whilst I found some random food to eat. It didn't fill me up but it was the action of eating in the morning that drove me towards the kitchen each morning.
We decided that a trip to the market would be good, since we were running out of clean clothes and none of us liked washing very much. Though the market brought back memories of mother Jenna, we had to press on and deal with it, however much we hated that death was a thing.
It was busy when we arrived, but there was one stall where no one was going near. We went over to take a look and it turned out there was a guy selling (or trying to sell) his tent.
"You young boys want to buy this tent?" he said in an American accent. He looked very malnourished, but the tent looked almost new. "I made it myself."
I glanced at Luke. "We could totally go camping, right?" I whispered into his hear. He nodded enthusiastically, and I called Michael and Ashton over. They all agreed that it would be awesome to go camping so we bought it off him for a sufficiently hefty price, getting Ashton to lug it around since he was the most muscular. It was actually pretty hilarious, his body shifting from side to side as he struggled in the heat.
***
I actually love this 💖
Kimmy xx