"Are they in?" Thindrel asked, eyeing the lakehouse.
It was a small wooden house standing proudly in the mid centre of the large lake. Surrounded by water on all sides except for the long wooden bridge that connected back to the shore.
The dark lake amidst the dense forest spread wide till the eyes could see. Only the moonlight above and the lights inside the house were illuminating the night.
"I saw them arriving a few minutes earlier," Selene answered.
"What are those noises?" Thindrel asked in confusion.
Selene concentrated on the sounds, they were of arguing, coming from the house.
"Shit! They probably started picking the fight."
"You go in and keep them occupied. The team will be a few steps after you." Thindrel ordered.
Selene nodded and frantically walked along the wooden bridge. Her heartbeat quickened and her breaths shattered for every step she got close to the lake house.
Something's not right. She could feel it.
She was almost mid way when a bright light coming from a corner of the house illuminated the darkness. From outside it looked like something was burning inside the house. She could still see two shadows moving from where she was.
Selene shot a panicked look to her team and increased her pace. She prayed it was not what she was thinking. She should've never left them alone. Few minutes alone, and they already set the house on fire.
Selene took quick steps, almost running on the slippery wooden bridge. She could hear Thindrel's and Shana's voice behind her.
"Selene! Get back! The house is on fire!" Shana yelled.
"Selene return to the shore ASAP!" Thindrel yelled too.
Selene didn't care if the house was on fire. She didn't care if she'd get hurt. All she cared about was that Keir was trapped inside it.
The fire spread like a wildfire all through the wooden house. In a few seconds, the house was burning into the bright orange flames.
Her mind flashed a virtual Keir burning in those flames.
Selene pushed the thought away and ran towards the house. The view blurred as her eyes teared up.
The smoke made it difficult to see the house past it. It was all hazy. She could feel the heat from the fire, pricking her skin until it was intolerable. Although it didn't stop her.
She crossed the long bridge to half way when suddenly a loud deafening blast occurred, sending Selene off the bridge from its large impact.
She was tossed into the lake. The waves created in the water from the blast, hit her with force and shoved her towards the shore.
A loud ringing was all she could here. Her tired eyes stared back at the abyss of what's left of the house. As the waves hit her one last time, her body gave away. Her eyes slowly started to vignette down the vision.
The weight of water around her suppressed her. She had no energy to swim to her way up. The water slowly reached to her chin, but her eyes were still fixated on the blasted house. Now there was nothing but flat floating wooden planks.
Everything was destroyed. Shattered window panes and house structures were floating beside her. But the fire didn't stop, it was still burning upto the bridge mercilessly. Wrecking everything on its way.
That burning bridge felt like Selene's last straw to see Keir. It was her hope burning away and she did nothing.
As she sunk deeper and water reached higher, it gurgled when it made its way to her mouth and nose. Tears of shock that were brimmed in her eyes were now diluted into the lake water.
As the water wholly surrounded her and drowned her, Keir's smile played on her mind.
It was like a dream sequence, playing his face ever since she met him in the shed.
She hoped she would see him once again. If not here in this world, anywhere.
It was her last thought before she was completely consumed by the dark lake.
***
"Why isn't she waking up?"
"There's too much water inside her. The paramedics are doing their best." Thindrel assured Shana.
"I have a really bad feeling about this."
"Have faith, Shana." Wyatt patted her back, reassuring her.
Selene can hear them despite the paramedics muttering incoherently over her body. She could tell that they were standing no more than a few feet away. She wanted to relieve Shana that she is alive and sound but she couldn't even open her eyes let alone get up.
For the next few minutes, the doctors got busy pushing out the lake water from her body. Selene in a swift retched half of the lake and gasped breathing the terrestrial air again.
"She's awake!" Shana and others rushed to her side.
"Ma'am! Please give the patient some space."
Selene coughed and shook her head at the doctor, "It's alright, I'm fine."
The doctor nodded reluctantly.
She turned to the team with a face filled with questions, that she was too scared to ask.
Thindrel patted her arm and gave her a stiff smile. "Take some rest." He said and left to handle the damage. Soon Wyatt followed, reassured that Selene was indeed fine.
Once they were alone, Selene turned to Shana with a dread filled face.
"Keir?" It was her first question.
"You should rest, Sel. You've just woke up-"
She cut her off, "Keir!" She demanded.
Shana shook her head lightly, "They are still searching for them. The damage was large, they don't think they survived it." She trailed off.
Selene shook her head vigorously, not believing a word she heard. "No, no, no. That's not true. They aren't searching well."
She got up from her stretcher and ran towards the lake. Shana ran after her, trying to catch up with her.
"Sel, Sel! Listen to me!" She whisper yelled behind her.
Selene didn't stop and stomped her way to the lake where the searching team and Thindrel stood.
Shana grabbed her from behind and roughly turned her to face her.
"Hey! Listen to me!" Shana looked her in the eye with her palms firmly gripping her pale face. The tears in her eyes were threatening to fall. They were shining under the lights, but the fire beneath them was evident, much like the blast before.
"I know how you are feeling right now," Shana said.
Selene shook her head, "No, you don't." A tear trailed down her face.
Shana wiped it away with her thumb, "You need to get a grip, Selene. You almost died running into that fire. The blast almost killed you! Why would you do that?!"
Selene was hyperventilating, she took small gasps of air while running a hand through her hair, "Keir was inside." With that she broke into sobs.
"Shit!" Shana muttered glancing back at the team. No one can see like this. Her best friend is an emotional wreck right now.
"Sel, you need to understand the situation. No one knows what you and Keir are. You crying right now is not ideal. No one can know. Thindrel can not know." Shana stressed every sentence, making sure it was reaching into her brain.
Selene took deep breaths through her mouth and tried to get a grip on her emotions. But everytime she wiped those tears, new ones flowed.
She placed a neutral face even though her heart was breaking into million pieces right now.
"You're right. Thindrel can't know. They'll find Keir, he is safe. I know. They are still searching for him, right? He'll be alright." Selene kept babbling to herself.
Shana wasn't sure if she should agree with her and give her false hopes.
Selene was feets away from the blast, but the impact almost got her killed, imagine to someone that's inside. It's highly unlikely that they are to be found. Alive.
"Yes, they'll find him. Now you should rest."
Selene shook her head, "The hell I will! I'll stay right here till he is found. Days, if I have to." Selene walked to the team, determined.
Shana gave up and followed her defeatedly. They soon joined Wyatt and Thindrel. The searching team was all over the lake. Diving and resurfacing, trying to find the bodies.
Selene pushed the word 'bodies' aside. He is safe, he is safe. She kept chanting but a while later it felt like an impossible lie.
"How much is destroyed?" Selene asked Wyatt though she could see all of the lake house practically drowned into that deep lake.
"It was a nasty blast. Even the foundations broke. We are not sure what caused the fire yet."
Selene should've never left them alone. But deep down she knew that everything had to do with Keir's love for her. She is the one responsible for whatever happened tonight.
Thindrel pressed the transceiver, "Greg come in! Anything yet?"
"Negative sir!" Came in from the walkie talkie.
Selene felt like she was punched in the gut. Air left out of her lungs listening to the hopeless news.
"Sel, you should go. We'll take care of this," Wyatt said, concerned by the pale face of his friend.
Shana touched her shoulder, "Let's go home, Sel."
Selene shook her head like a kid denying to go to school. She will not move a muscle until she gets some news that she is hoping.
Selene took out her phone and checked her screen. She put it back into her pocket and folded her arms across her chest.
It was midnight. The moon was shining radiantly that night but radiance left out of her life an hour ago. She shut her eyes painfully as her tears brimmed again. She hated the way she was losing control over her thoughts.
Was she this pessimistic from the start? She thought.
She looked up to the moon again. Keir would've loved this view if he were here tonight. He loved the moon. He said that it reminds him of her. The moon lighting up the night's darkness.
She was his moon. She was his light. Now Selene realised that he was hers.
Hours passed as Selene drifted into the thoughts of him. Some sweet, some bitter. But every thought managed to tear apart her heart strings. Every passing minute of the clock, managed to squeeze the sanity and hope out of her.
Shana and Wyatt tried to send her away, they checked up on her every hour. But she never gave up. She stood there unmoved, watching the lake and the fading moon.
Selene took out her phone. 3:56, it showed. Still no sign of him or Haden.
"Sel, it's almost four. Please, at least now let's go home."
Selene paid no heed to her. She focused back to the lake, hoping Keir would come out and sweep her off of this misery.
"Selene you're still here?" Thindrel asked, joining her by her side.
Selene didn't respond. "You should head home. Anyway there's no sign of them here. The team is taking a break too, we'll come back in the morning," Thindrel said.
She was furious that they were already giving up, "How could you stop when everything is at stake?"
Thindrel shrugged confused, "I placed half of the searching team here. They'll intimate me as soon as they find any movement."
"And the other half?"
Thindrel shrugged again rubbing his tired eyes, "I sent them to the riverside that connects this lake. I'm sure the bodies would wash up there in the morning." He placed a small triumphant smile and stretched back his neck.
Selene was beyond furious when she heard him. She wanted to punch that smug smile off his face. She curled her fist into a ball and pulled her fist back to take a swing at him.
Shana caught her arm and placed herself between Thindrel and her.
"Selene! You look so worn out. Let's go home. We can come back first thing in the morning."
Shana glared at her with her back to Thindrel. She gripped Selene's hand and signalled her to drop it.
Thindrel who was oblivious to the agony Selene was in, stopped his stretching and turned to her.
"Yeah, take rest. We'll meet tomorrow."
Shana practically dragged a glaring Selene out of that area, who reluctantly gave in, disgusted to watch her douche of a boss' face.
They got into the car and drove wordlessly to her home. It was a painfully long drive to her.
"let me stay with you tonight, Sel." Shana asked her friend with concern. She didn't want to leave her in this state alone.
"I want to be alone, Shana." Selene denied.
"Do you think Keir-" She cut Shana off.
"Don't!" Selene warned her.
She got out of the car and went inside, not sparing a glance back to her friend.
Her ex-friends loneliness and silence met her once again when she opened the door. For once, she didn't complain. They are better than the absence of Keir.
Selene went inside her room and sat on the corner of her bed. The bed was the same as they've left before.
His cologne and after shower was still hanging in the air and her comforter.
Tenderly she reached for the comforter and stuffed her face into it. The smell that once brought comfort, now reminds her of the deep hole in her heart, created in the wake of his absence.
Selene couldn't hold back anymore. She couldn't place a strong face anymore. Her body shook hysterically as she began to bawl. The sounds of her sharp wails cut the night's silence.
Selene slipped down the bed and fell onto the ground, clutching the comforter in her hands.
"I'm sorry, Keir."
"Please come back!" She whispered, sobbing into her hands.
****
🎶 When the highs too high and the lows too low,
When you love someone and they let you go.
Don't you let it kill you,
Even when it hurts like hell!
Oh whatever tears you apart,
Don't let it break your heart! 💔🎶
Louis Tomlinson sang it. I love him, he's my favourite.
And.. No comments from me. Just know that I had to. For the story, I had to kill Keir.
OK guys, fry me in the comments >>
Please do VOTE , even if you hate this chapter. I worked hard to write this. 🤗
~A. 💔