The necklace lay on the asphalt next to the smashed car, among the debris and rubble and broken glass.
I picked it up, holding it close to me, letting the cool, wet chain soothe the ache in my body. I had come out of that car crash miraculously unscathed.
On the other hand, June didn't.
I was taken by the authorities at the scene, and everything went by in a blur. I only came back to my senses when I had requested to see her in hospital. When I walked in, she was out of it, eyes shut, breathing laboriously.
I held her hand in that ICU, it reminded me of how I used to hold my mother's in the hospital countless times. It was snow white. I kissed her hand gently, unable to imagine a world without her, willing for her to wake up, so I could apologise. So I could say something to her before I left her.
But then I realised in a sudden heartbeat that it would be pointless.
She wouldn't hear me, and even if she did, she wouldn't want to.
June, I'll never stop loving you as long as you live.
~~~ ~~~
It's been seven minutes since June went for my father. When she came back, she was empty handed.
"He... when I went there..." she panted out, hands smoothing her jeans. "He was already dead. The flames got to him..."
Her words spilled out of her mouth erratically, as she nervously patted herself.
"We've gotta go." she commented finally, pursing her lips.
I sighed. I guess it couldn't be helped.
I had sworn to end him, and I had seen it through.
"We've gotta go." I repeated. "And June, for all the things that I said in the past twenty minutes, I'm incredibly sorry."
They'd spilled out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Jovan's weight on my back didn't let me reach out for her, so I tried to give her a sincere expression.
"It took Jovan's life." I said. "You weren't to blame entirely. You're not a liability. You're far from that."
Karma, looking like she could do without the past few hours' events, led us to the fire exit. We sprinted after her, as we heard a searing bursting sound and then white, before the entire place shook. I rooted my feet to the ground, holding Jovan tightly to me.
We ascended the rungs as fast as we possibly could, finally feeling the exhaustion and fatigue of the past age.
The sunrise had never felt so good.
I felt I had lived a life under there, even though it had only been twenty-four hours.
I gasped, panting for air, on all fours. June fell to the ground on her back, catching her breath, as we felt the earth shake again. Karma was the only one who managed to stand upright on her feet, taking Jovan's body in her arms and dragging him.
"We can't stay here!" she cried out.
With the last bits of our strengths, all three of us and Jovan collapsed in an area that was less fragile, and rested there. Karma let Jovan's head sit on her lap, and it was then that she noticed that his nostrils were flaring ever so slightly.
She gasped, and pressed her hands to his chest. After a few moments, her face crumpled.
"He's alive! His heart's still working... Oh my God, oh my God... he's... oh my God!"
YOU ARE READING
North
General Fiction"Iriehen was a dreamer's city. It wasn't a city for the faint of heart, not for someone like me, who was just waiting for the next big thing. It was a city for the people who were in the next big thing." ... When June Winters, a young attorney aspir...
