But The World Keeps Turning

Chapter 4: Your Hour

The three girls looked up, terrified. Aubrey looked at Beca and wanted to get up, but Beca kept her from this.

"I'll go. You stay with Stacie and make sure she calms down."

She got a quick nod from the blonde. She rose to her feet and started to run towards the place where the scream had come from. Where had it come from exactly? She wasn't sure and the only thing she heard now, were the sounds of crashing waves and the rustling from the woods behind her. The cloud that covered the moon shoved, so the moon became visible. The light coming from the moon illuminated the whole beach, showing a grey figure standing with long, curly hair on the beach about ten yards away.

"Chloe?" Beca whispered.

//

Gradually, Stacie became calmer. She had laid herself down onto the sand again, while Aubrey hovered over her, making sure she was okay, her soft, but sandy hands stroking her cheeks, trying to make her stop crying. But tears kept streaming out of her eyes, onto her cheeks and while Aubrey tried to brush them away, new ones were forming.

The beach was deserted. Strangely, far stranger than the fact that the beach was as far as they could see abandoned, was the absolute quietness. And the careful, but hasty steps of the brunette left the silence as it was. Her slow pace even created deeper silence. The silence that ruled over the beach like a king over his servants, was a silence, not the dull silence before a storm, but a stillness where one can hear things which have never been picked up with ears.

This is what happened when Beca walked away. The silence was interrupted and now Aubrey heard the deafening sound of crashing waves a few feet away from her, the blaring noise of the jungle behind them, the roaring of passing clouds, which passed the moon every now and then, covering the island in a complete darkness, the silent breathing of the woman who was sitting next to her, and she thought she was able to hear the blinking of the woman's eyes and the tears streaming down her face.

And the silence, that didn't interrupt anything at all, vibrated and became music, like a symphony made by the island. And the music continued, and its players formed a massive, invisible choir. Since the waves, the jungle, the tears and the blinking of eyes could be heard, now their heartbeats, their dreams, their sorrow, their despair and quiet hopes, and all that never had had a voice, was mixed in the distant concert, whose sound reluctantly became clearer, emanated from the silence.

Panic is a big word, but it suited the silent terror of every living person at this moment on the beach.

Aubrey laid herself down next to Stacie, not saying anything at all, not wanting to interrupt the song of life, played by the island. She laid her head on the brunette's right shoulder, which had not been burnt. Gently, because her whole back must be sore from the burning and she didn't want to hurt a person she cared for. Stacie didn't fully perceive what was happening and what their situation implied and just stroke the blonde locks of the woman, covering her. She did not just want, but needed the contact. The symphony became louder and Stacie heard a deep bass play along, coming from the chest that laid next to her.

//

"Chloe?"

The figure didn't reveal itself by turning around, but Beca did now recognize the girl because she recognized the way she sobbed. Slowly, Beca approached her, and when she stood just a feet away from the redhead, she grabbed her shoulders gently, making sure she didn't scare her, and turned her towards her. When her face became visible, it appeared to be indeed Chloe. Her hair and her clothes were wet and her orbs were full with tears, but fortunately Beca couldn't discover any injuries. She pulled her into a tight hug, resting her head on the other's shoulder. Chloe still stood there, dumbfound, not realizing she was being hugged by one of her best friends.