lukewarm (krii7y)

the final act

hi guys, I just wanted to give my sincere apologies for neglecting my fanfiction, especially as this was/is the last chapter. At least 4 years too late is better than never? enjoy don toliver up above

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Matt walked over to the scene. He'd been chief police officer for a matter of years, Eric deserved the job far more really, though he honoured his position, he embraced it. He'd seen some awful things. Blood. Loads of blood. Remains. Whole bodies. The whites of the eyes of the dead. But for once, he was relaxed.

Maybe it was the sight of the two boys on land, their clothes soaked through but alive and exhausted, one on top of the other. Their chests rose in rhythm with each other, and there was something therapeutic in watching them quite literally catch their breath. Matt could have sworn the couple looked as if they were straight out of a painting. In those moments, he slowly began to understand why Eric had been so overprotective over John, why he'd kept an eye on the couple.

He smiled, happy that it was over.

He couldn't have been any more wrong. Matt looked in Ezra's direction, then back at the couple. Then back at Ezra, because something just wasn't right. To present day, Matt couldn't describe the twisted look on Ezra's face as he watched the happy couple.

"He wouldn't fucking dare," Matt heard himself say, seeing what was about to happen.

Time seemed to freeze as the police chief started to take his first step towards the water, and all the while, Ezra was lowering his body into the depths. Jaren was still a bit out of it, not aware what was going on. John was lovingly staring at him.

Time resumed. Matt was running as fast as he could, sprinting as fast as he could. John's eyes widened when he realised what was going on, but before he could comment, Ezra had disappeared out of sight, and Matt had launched himself into the water. Jaren had always thought of him as stubborn, but this was a whole other level. The police chief swam sloppily, and perhaps he was too late, too slow, or his morality had gone out of the window, but he was so late into the water he couldn't see the boy anymore. He thought of Mason and what he meant to him. He thought of Eric. Part of him wanted Ezra gone because of Eric's hatred of him.

He thought about a lot of things in those moments, the voices he could hear were muffled because he was underwater, but he swore he tried his hardest to find the wretched boy in the deep.

"Is he forgetting he needs air? Matt, get the fuck out!" a familiar voice screamed.

The police chief's team watched in anticipation, but they spotted Matt neither Ezra. Someone else jumped in to look for them. Breathless, Mason stood near the bank, shivering as if he'd been the one in freezing cold water. His throat was raw from screaming.

Though, he was relieved by Matt bursting out of the surface of the water, gasping for air, his almost black hair plastered to his forehead and his skin resembling a very light shade of blue almost. His breaths were slow, and visibly misty as he weakly swam back to shore. There was a silence across the whole scene when only Matt made it out. Maybe Jaren's ears filled with a kind of white noise, because of course he didn't want things to turn out like this, of course he didn't want things to go too far, of course he didn't want things to go this far.

They pulled a body out, and of course, it was limp and lifeless. The Canadian didn't know what he was expecting, but it didn't surprise him that he didn't respond to CPR. They did everything they could, but it wasn't enough.

Some paramedics attended to John's wounds, one was fussing over trying to get Jaren warm. However, something urged the Canadian to shrug them off, get up with the little strength he had left and walk up to a dying Ezra. He crouched down beside him, just like that day he'd crouched down beside Omari. Something told him to take the dead boy's hands and put them to his chest. Maybe it was because he knew his parents wouldn't care.