Love Like Winter ❄️ Xavier Thorpe

Chapter 20 (Xavier's POV): Is This What Dying Feels Like?

Soundtrack:

"RITUAL" by Waterparks
"Running Up That Hill" by Kim Petras
"My Demons" by STARSET
"Bells in Santa Fe" by Halsey
"Love Like This (Acoustic)" by Kodaline
"Hurts Like Hell" by Fleurie

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(Xavier's POV)

How much firewood do we even need to start a fire? I haven't exactly done it before. With my luck, I'll get all this wood inside and won't have anything to light it with. Maybe I'll have to convince Anna to light the fire with her powers or something.

I feel my phone vibrate and assume it's probably just Anna, so without even looking, I just answer it.

"Hey, Princess, I'm almost done."

"Is this Xavier Thorpe?" A woman asks that definitely is not Anna.

"Uhh ... yeah?"

The woman laughs and I wonder if maybe I shouldn't have openly admitted who I was while we're supposed to be in hiding. "This is Nurse Lao, I was just speaking with Anna, but I think the cell reception must be weak where you are."

I've been telling Anna for months now to get a new cell phone because no matter where we are, she has like no signal. It's dangerous. "Yeah, her phone sucks. Um ... did you need to talk to her again?"

"You can just relay the message to her if you feel that's appropriate. I know it's really late, but considering the circumstances, I thought you'd like to know. The results that I told you regarding the blood test I ran on Anna earlier were wrong."

"So what does that mean? That she will be able to have kids?" I reach up and run my fingers through my hair and I'm honestly not sure whether or not I'm actually breathing.

She was quiet for a minute but then said, "Well, yes, probably in around eight months."

Eight months? That's a weird estimate of time considering most pregnancies last ... nine ... months. No, I'm definitely not breathing. I don't want to assume what I'm assuming she's saying, so I try to keep the stupid grin off of my face, not like she can see it or anything.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" I ask, hoping she'll tell me what she means so I don't have to get my hopes up, even though they already are.

"Annamaria is carrying your child, yes." I can picture her smiling as she tells me the news I wanted to hear.

I remind myself to breathe so I can thank her. "Oh my god. That-that's great news! Thank you so much."

I hang up the phone and call for Anna to see if she's still outside. She doesn't reply, so I nearly trip over the back steps trying to get inside the cabin.

"Hey, Princess?" I call for her again. "Anna?"

She's not in the living room, so I check the bedroom and that's empty too. The cabin is literally not big enough to lose a person in, so panic starts to set in. I dig out my phone and try calling her. Even though her phone is shit, it should still ring. She doesn't answer. The panic is starting to cement itself inside of me. I call her again and put my phone on speakerphone, while trying to listen for her phone ringing, and I hear it. It's incredibly faint and as I look for it inside the cabin, it stops ringing.

Maybe it's not in the cabin.

I step outside onto the front porch and find myself hesitating to press 'call' again on my phone because I already know, but I do it anyway. It starts ringing a few feet ahead of me and Anna is definitely not with it. I pick her phone up off of the ground and end the call. It's too quiet outside. I feel like even the bugs have stopped chirping, but then I realize it's just me. My world has stopped turning.