[ partly dialogue ]
[ stand alone ]
// previously known as "Hey Neighbor | A Dialogue Story\\
When a mute foster kid moves in next door to a deeply insecure homeschooled girl that lives in the middle of nowhere, them meeting is slim even when the cl...
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Somehow, he hears it over the wind, over the rain starting to pour down hard enough it breaches the thick canopy above, and amongst Kona's ear-piercing barks. It reverberates through the forest, surrounding him. Jasper has to push his legs faster than they've ever gone before.
He sees the water ripple, the bubbles float, the very outline of her still body sinking.
The world seems to slow around them.
Jasper doesn't take more than a second to throw his phone aside and leap through the air until every inch of his body is below the surface.
Cold. Dark. Bottomless.
A void.
There had been so many occasions Willa described to him this place even before he knew it truly existed. She made "her spot" sound something out of a fairy tale. Beautiful, soft-petaled flowers gleaming in the sun that sprawled out across most of the surface there was to stand. She'd use her hands wildly while tracing patterns in the sky as if imagining the fireflies right out in front of her, describing the way they seemed absolutely weightless. Carefree is a word that was brought up a lot.
In this moment, he sees none of that. Jasper struggles to see anything. The void of the lake has eaten them both alive, never to be seen again. His body tingles yet is too stunned to recognize being cold.
The boy swivels around as panic starts to take the remaining oxygen in his lungs. He can't breath yet isn't willing to go back up for more air. He turns and turns and waves his arm around in the water, expecting to see some sort of Loch Ness monster heading straight for him with razor sharp teeth.
His chest tightens like it's being weighed down by cement.
Somewhere above, a cloud moves out of the moons view, causing beautiful silver rays to sprawl across the waters surface. It shines down far enough to illuminate the outline of larger rocks, the slowed erosion of the grass' edge, and the pale complexion of Willa's unconscious body a mere foot below him to the right.
The moment looks out of a movie or a vivid dream playing through his head. It brings deja vu, the kind of deja vu that blurs your eyes at the intention of trying to remember something that never happened before but for some reason you can't help to try to reach in the deepest part of yourself and find an answer.
Perhaps it's an instance where fear warps your mind into imagining situations you'd have no choice other than to respond to.
Jasper brings her within his grasp and uses the last bit of his strength to push them towards the surface.
The rain hasn't lessened. It's only hitting the Earth harder than it had seconds ago.
All he can make out is the muffled barks of Kona from under the tree line as he hoists both of their soaking bodies up onto the lake shore.
Willa remains unmoving. Her skin is paler than it normally is. Her eyes don't flutter or move around as they would if she was just "asleep". Her lips start to line in the iciest shade of blue.
Jaspers breath halts. He's looking at her chest and positions two fingers on the underside of her jaw, waiting. He waits for any signs of life or any signs this is all just a terrible nightmare and that he'll wake up with the sun shining through his window and text messages from her going on about the most recent Spider-Man movie, how the ending made her burst in to tears.
He waits in hope she'll suddenly sit up, look over at him, and wrap her arms around his neck like he's pictured many times before.
A few more seconds go by with little results so Jasper grabs his phone, praying that it hasn't gotten lost to the elements yet, and dials 911.
Come on Willa, wake up, please.
He leans over top of her, right above the breast bone, clasping his fingers.
Please don't go yet, I need you here with me.
Jasper takes this moment and recalls every health lessen they had last year, pushing hard and about two inches deep. A strangled cry leaves his lips.
This can't be happening. Please Willa. Breathe.
Thirty compressions. Two breaths. And so on until you can't do it anymore, until your arms give up, or until help arrives.
"W...W-Wi-Will..a. W...wa..wake up. C'mon..."
She had been so afraid of dying before. She'd text him at three o'clock in the morning, sometimes called even though he'd never speak. Jasper would listen to her words and every fear she depicted, sending messages to ease these anxieties just so her eyes could close peacefully at night. Just one more night...
"911, what is your emergency?"
🥀
I am a fiend for cliff hangers, I really apologize. At least I'm not taking too long of breaks now, like months until another update comes out. But, as I hope most of you are aware, we are in the final stretches here.
"Hey Firefly" or as it was previously called, "Hey Neighbor", is, I think, a few chapters within its end point. Please stick around to find out what happens.
Don't forget to
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And as always, I will see you lovelies in the next one 💕
