Rewrite (Raven x Apple)

~Chapter Forty-Three~

Apple looked over at the clock again, for the fifth time in one minute. It had been over thirty minutes since Raven left, and she was getting really worried.

Apple picked up her mirrorphone and dialed Raven's number. The sound of a phone ringing had never sounded so worrying before.

"Pick up...please pick up."

Raven, of course, did not pick up. Apple sighed and glanced down at her phone in her hands, a worried expression on her face.

"Goddamnit, Raven...I'm getting worried..."

She threw her mirrorphone to the side of Raven's bed and anxiously paced before her eyes landed on something sticking out of a drawer of Raven's dresser. It was a fraction of a piece of paper.

Curious, Apple walked over to Raven's dresser and opened the drawer. Of course, it felt wrong to be invading Raven's privacy right this, but maybe it could give Apple some answers as to where Raven is.

She pulled the paper out of the dresser and unfolded it, revealing a lined page that looked like it had been sloppily torn out of a notebook. Apple skimmed over it, her heart stopping and her eyes widening. She dropped the note and began to rummage through the drawer.

Inside, Apple discovered dozens of notes given to Raven by these blackmailers. Her eyes widened with each word she read, every threat and every ask for an absurd amount of money.

"Oh my god..."

Apple could feel that horrible feeling you get in your chest when you're given bad news build up more than ever.

"Raven..."

Apple threw on a jacket and pair of shoes and ran frantically through the dorm hall and down to the garden, where the note said. Apple reached the garden and swung the doors open without a care who may have heard the racket. All she wanted was to see Raven safe. She looked around, her eyes scanning over the rows of flowers and hedges and bushes.

"Raven!" She yelled. "Raven! Are you okay?!" She weaved her way through the hedges, looking around as she did so. The school gardens had never felt this big before.

Apple finally reached the center of the garden, and when she saw Raven unconscious on the ground, her heart stopped. Her face flushed white and she ran over to Raven, tears streaming down her face.

"Raven! Raven, please wake up!"

Apple shook her, trying to make her voice clear through her sobs.

"I-I'm gonna get help!"

Apple released Raven's body and stood up, running faster than ever before back towards the school. Completely out of breath, Apple ran into the dorm hall.

"HELP! ITS RAVEN! HELP!"

She screamed and cried in between heavy breaths. Students soon began to emerge from their rooms, looking confused. Cerise approached Apple, rubbing her eyes.

"What about Raven?"

Apple sniffled, trying to compose herself through her out-of-breath-ness and sobs, but it was nearly impossible. More and more worried students began to crowd around her, asking what was wrong.

Ashlynn broke through the crowd and ran up to Apple, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Apple. Breathe. Calm down. What happened to Raven?"

Apple, finally able to compose herself, blurted out; "I-someone is blackmailing Raven and they went to meet her in the garden and I just found her and-and she's unconscious!"

Almost everyone audibly gasped, in complete shock.

"Show us where she is."

Apple nodded, and with the little strength she had left in her, began to run towards the gardens once again, the students following her. She led them through the maze of greenery in the garden, until finally, they arrived. Raven was still there. She hadn't moved an inch.

Everyone froze, staring in shock at what they knew as the Rebel leader, now lying unconscious in the middle of the gardens, cold in the darkness of the night.

Cerise slowly and cautiously approached Raven. She knelt down and held her cloaked ear to Raven's chest, her face whitening. A tear fell from Cerise's eye as she stood and turned to one person.

"She's dead."

The crowd gasped and tears rapidly grew in Apple's eyes as she stared at Cerise.

"N-no...no, she can't be dead..."

Cerise solemnly shook her head and stepped to the side. Apple took a step forward, her footsteps being the only sound mixed with the soft crying from the rest of the students. She knelt down next to Raven, observing every detail of her beautiful face. She wasn't dead. She couldn't be.

A tear rolled down Apple's pale cheek as she slipped her arms under Raven and held her up, taking a deep breath as she held Raven's chest to her ear. No breath. No heartbeat. Nothing.

Apple gasped as tears fell from her eyes. It finally hit her. She would never hear Raven's voice again. Never speak to her again. Never feel her warmth again. Raven was the light that guided the school. She guided Apple. Apple wished that this was all a nightmare. A horrible, horrible nightmare. And she would wake up in a few seconds. She would wake up with Raven, like how she did almost every other morning. Raven would pet her hair and wish her a good morning. But no. This was real. Too real.

Apple didn't want to admit to the students that Raven really was dead, because she didn't want to face it herself. Her heart broke into a million pieces all over again.

Apple held Raven in her arms, starting to sob loudly, until she finally broke. She knew this was the last time she would ever be able to hold her Raven in her arms.

Apple screamed. A loud, primal-animal-sounding scream. The students stared at her in shock. They had never seen Apple this emotional. Apple screamed a loud, desperate scream, unable to stop. Her Raven was gone forever. Truly gone.

Word count: 987