Until The End Of Time

Chapter 17. Box of hearts

Warning: Violence, Suicidal Triggers.

"What do you want to eat? I made some oatmeal with strawberries. It won't be too hard on your stomach."

"I can't... Not right now. Besides this dry bit of gingerbread, everything just makes me nauseous."

The girl looked up and smiled weakly. Her hair was a mess, and she was swimming in his flannel, but dark circles didn't dull her brown eyes one bit.

"Thank you, though." She walked over to where he stood and tiptoed to put a kiss on his cheek.

Michael smiled without turning around. He pulled the hem of his oil-stained white T-shirt up to wipe his face while continuing with the eggs. The sounds of her footsteps got further away until he couldn't hear them anymore.

After finishing with the pancakes, Michael set them on the table and sat down. He looked at all the food in front of him and sighed. He always made way too much, as Kye had said. He didn't eat, and Kye basically just smelled the food and ran straight to the bathroom, but Michael couldn't help himself. He didn't want her to go hungry later when he was busy outside.

The house was quiet. A little bit more than usual.

"Kye?"

Michael called, but no answer. He frowned and stood up. From the bathroom and bedroom to the back of the cabin, he searched everywhere. While running around, Michael felt every warding and tried to calm himself down. He had never gotten panicked easily, but since his power was gone, everything worried him. Everything made him fear the worst.

"Kye? Where are you?"

His voice started to break. He knew she didn't joke around like that. Kye was thoughtful. Besides, she didn't even have the energy for anything these days.

Michael tore through the small cabin from top to bottom, and, soon enough, there was no more place to search. He flopped down to the floor and panted. He felt fear creeping up inside, but he pressed it down.

Michael took a deep breath and pulled himself up. He ran to the electric fence that he had painstakingly put up around the land while calling her name like a madman. He manually checked each and every warding on the way. They were all in perfect condition. That meant Kye was still in here somewhere.

Michael ran through the wood. As he passed the big lake behind the cabin, he heard a big splash. Sprinting as fast as his human legs allowed, Michael got there just in time.

Something very similar to his flannel was floating in the middle of the lake.

Without wasting another second, Michael jumped in. His mind was blank. He needed to get there. Michael swam as fast as he could toward the piece of dark green fabric now slowly floating in the other direction.

Twenty-five feet away, he could see there was nothing attached to the shirt. Michael dove down and searched aimlessly, hoping to see something, anything that resembled a human.

He prayed not to see anything at all.

A strange-looking water plant was swaying back and forth in the murky water directly below him, so Michael swam down toward it. The closer he got, the clearer it became. The leaves were not leaves at all, but rather long, wavy strands of human hair. They looked almost jet black in the weak lighting underwater, but Michael knew their true color like the back of his hand.

He almost choked on water. Suppressing the urge to scream, Michael grabbed the girl under her arms and pulled her to the surface.

The first gasp of air was everything. Michael breathed in as much as he could before swimming back to shore with one arm. Carefully keeping Kye's head above the water, Michael swam until his feet could touch the sandy bottom. He dragged Kye out of the lake and laid her down gently on the wet soil.