You and me | Pacey Witter

thirty-two

THE GROUP had tried to catch themselves some sleep since they knew that they were going to be at the island till morning. They tried to make themselves comfortable on the church benches. But then sudden screaming and cries from woman woke them up. The walls thumped and windows shattered.

They scrambled together to the doorway, trying to break free of the church. Outside of the building, flames built up and smoke filled the church. They tried everything to open the door, they kicked, and hit it, but it wouldn't budge.

Aurora felt the smoke began to fill her lungs once again. It gave her flashbacks from the icehouse fire that happened a few months back. She coughed, and Pacey was the first to look back. "Hey, hey, Rory. It's okay. You're okay," he told her, and held onto her hand gently. "Breath in and out, okay? Breath with me."

Aurora began to follow his breathing pattern, and soon she felt her breathing go back to normal. Pacey quickly grabbed a hold of her and ducked the both of them down as fire came toward them, but before it could hit them, everything stopped. The flames were gone, and you could no longer here the cries from the woman, and shouts from the others.

Joey pushed open the door and the group was quick to rush out. They breathed heavily as they looked around the dark woods that surrounded the church. Jen's voice was shaky, "could we please just go home now?"

"Look, I don't care if we have to swim home," Joey exclaimed. "Let's just get the hell out of here."

Aurora nodded and turned to look at the Monroe girl, she held a hold of her hand, "are you okay?" she worriedly asked.

Haley nodded frantically and swallowed the lump in her throat, "I'm fine," she said with a shaky tone. "I don't want to be here anymore. I just want to go home. Please, let's go," she stated with teary eyes.

Aurora nodded and pulled her closer to her side, "okay, we're going home. It's okay, we're okay."

"Guys, look, there's got to be a logical explanation for this," Dawson stated.

"Okay, well, why don't you send us a postcard, Spock, because I, for one, am not sticking around to find out," Pacey shot back. "Come on!"

The group rushed through the woods. Not a word could be muttered from any of them, all they could hear was the heavy breathing from one another. As they made it to the docks, ready to swim across, Joey pointed out, "hey, the boats here!"

"Get the line," Pacey ordered. "Get in, get in!"

- - - - - - - - - - -

DAWSON SIGHED in disappointment as he paused his film that he and the class had just finished watching. "To be quite honest, I had envisioned a much more straightforward documentary on the history of Witch Island, but I was surprised by what I found there: a love story, pure and simple. Two soulmates torn apart by the social climate of their time. And while what happened to us on the island is certainly opened up interpretation, there's no disputing the fact that the island embodies the emotional turmoil of a girl who didn't know what the future held for her and the boy she loved."

"It's nice work, Mr. Leery," Principal Green complimented. "A tad derivative in the wake of the whole Blair Witch phenomenon, but inspired work nonetheless," he continued. "I particularly liked the part when-"

"Hey, man. What's that all about?" a girl questioned from the front row.

"What?"

"It looks like two people standing on the dock, watching you go," another girl said. "See? Look close."

Dawson rewinded the film slowly before he paused at the dock. A man and woman stood there, dressed like they belonged in the 1600s. Mary and William. Aurora breathed hitched in her throat as she looked over and immediately caught eye contact with Pacey, both of them wore terrified expressions.

- - - - - - - - - - - 

THE BENSON twins sat at their kitchen counter explaining their trip to Witch Island to their uncle. "Uncle Josh, was the scariest thing I've ever experienced," she exclaimed. "At first it was fine, until we got ready to leave, our boat had already left, suddenly a bell rung from the church, I didn't want to go back, but everyone else did, and I didn't want to be left alone, so I went with them."

"We got there, and no one was in there," Aurora continued. "And here's the weird part, there was no bell," she told him. "We knew we had to spend the night now because we had no other way of getting home. Uh, we all explored more of the house-"

"Some people exploring more than others," Lucas joked, looking over at Aurora.

Her eyes widened as she punched her laughing brother's shoulder. "Anyways," she huffed and turned back to their uncle. "We went to go take a nap really quick, but we were woken up right away to the sound of screaming and banging on the church. It- it was terrifying. We tried to get out, but we couldn't. Fire surrounded the outside and the door wouldn't budge."

"This huge fire ball came at us," Lucas informed. "But before it could harm us, everything had just stopped. No more yelling. No more banging. No more fire. Joey opened up the door and we got the hell out of there. Dawson is probably one of the stupidest people I've ever met, because he thinks there was a meaning behind it, and wanted to check it out. I would've left him, if he decided to stay."

Joshua looked back and forth between the both of them with a serious expression, before a small smile slowly made its way to his face as he snorted out a laugh. "You're kidding me, right? You know how made up those sounds?"

Aurora looked at him in disbelief, "okay, I understand that it sounds crazy, but trust me, it happened. You could ask any one of us," she told him. "And if you don't believe us, you go to the island and try to stay the night, and then come back and try to talk to me about it being fake."

Joshua's posture straightened up as he cleared his throat, "uh, no, I'm good."