Burning Souls (F.T Sequel)

Thirty-Seven

A/N: *clears throat* ... 

...°...

The silence blankets me in a soft cocoon as I gaze straight ahead, right at the cot's barren centre. Hunter and I have laid there for what seems like forever, deserted in our little camp in the middle of the forest-clad nowhere. This quiet side of the mountain with its glistening lake has been considered as normalcy for a while now, even more so than my quaint London apartment. Those days haven't been on my mind for a long time. 

"The Turned one has been caged in the car," comes a voice from the slit in the tent that serves as an opening. I turn my head, senses numbed, and nod once at Jay. He offers his hand and I place mine on it, feeling grateful for the pull upwards. I feel like I'm going to fall at any minute now. He opens the flap for me and I slowly tread through, feeling a familiar pair of burning eyes on me the instant I step outside. The sky has begun to darken, and I realise that after having left the main tent with the Turned locked in it, I've stayed inside this much smaller but familiar one for the remaining of the day. That's probably why Alice has been dropping off bottles of blood outside of the tents while thinking that I couldn't hear her. They're all thinking that I'm about to have a breakdown, aren't they? 

I look up and lock gazes with Hunter. We stand there, simply staring at one another. Then, I start running and throw myself into his arms, clenching the metaphorical life out of him. His strong arms instinctively encircle my waist and he clutches onto me, even as my feet come back down onto the soft ground. As the winter has begun to melt away, the earth gives way more easily underneath my Converse, but the early evening's chilly air still has it hardened enough. As if sensing the impending tension over all of our heads, there are no cricket or bird songs, no owls hooting their presence over the forest. The moon has begun its travel up to the middle of the majestic sky, and its arrival will signal the end of this life. 

"They're ready," I whisper, running my fingers up his bare forearms. His veins clench and unclench behind the trail of my touch. He squeezes me gently and softly takes hold of my chin, tilting it upwards. 

"But are you?" he replies, dark eyes filled with love and sadness and unconcealed chaos. I shake my head slightly and lower my stare again. 

"I can't not be." 

His face comes to the cradle of my neck and he holds me like that for a moment. "You don't have to do this." His breath caresses my neck and I shiver, clutching him more tightly against me. "I'll kill anyone who says otherwise," he adds fervently, lifting my gaze to his once more. I begin to shake my head at him with a sad smile when a voice suddenly lifts a bit further away from us. 

"Guys, we need to get there before the moon's at its peak." It's Jay, and his tone is hard and clear, though I sense a pained underlayer to it. When the engine of a car revs up loudly, the urgency of the situation suddenly breaks past the numbness in my bones that I'd installed and grabs hold of me without caution. The reality of everything slams into me and knocks the breath out of my lungs, and before I know it I'm fisting Hunter's tee-shirt desperately in my hands until they go white-knuckled, as if my life depends on it. "I love you," I whisper-scream at him, holding his gaze intently. A tear rolls past my eye and his finger comes up to brush it away. "I'll always love you," I press, the tears coming full force now that he begins to peel away my fingers from his shirt with trembling hands. "Please live for me Hunter, please live." When he shakes his head a sob wells up and I force it down, burying my face in his shoulder. "Please."

"If you are taken away from me," he begins, cradling me gently with a hard-edged, determined voice, "If you are taken away from me Emma Sanders, I will have nothing left to live for." The car roars loudly, impatient to get on the road, filling the air with its sputters and growls like a deranged animal. "I love you Em," Hunter whispers, pushing me towards the car. I watch as cold resolve begins to fill his features, taking away the emotion of the man that I'm leaving behind. 

"Hunter-" he opens the car's door for me without a word, but I continue to stare at him, refusing to slide in. With a sudden heart-breaking yell, he slams the door shut again and turns his back to me, running away from all of us. I squeeze my eyes shut as tears break past my lids and stain my cheeks with humid wetness. I rub at them desperately as they reach my lips and I taste the salty water. I can't do this to myself. I can't break down now, not when I'm doing this to save my sister and, possibly, the rest of the planet. A roar seizes the forest and shakes it violently, causing birds to flap their wings and soar towards the sky with fear. The first tree is ripped from the ground and thrown down the mountain side. An ache takes a hold on my heart as I feel Hunter's presence diminishing, feel his imprint on my collarbone becoming more and more painful. I'm losing him. I'm losing him even though I haven't lost myself yet. This is completely backwards. 

"I'll see you soon Em," Caleb comes up to me and engulfs me in a bone-crushing hug, lifting me up off the ground. "Don't worry," he whispers in my ear, and I can sense the grin in his voice, "I'll chain your man up to the bed for you for when you come back." I laugh weakly as he sets me back down and gently opens the car door for me. "Don't go down without a fight." His eyes level with mine and I nod, watching as he takes a step backwards. Fernando nods at me and comes to stand beside his boyfriend, intertwining their hands together in a unified force. Their support hits me greatly, and I feel myself well up again. 

"You're so unbelievably stupid," Alice says, eyes and nose red and puffy from crying. I hug her back when her arms come around me. I nearly crumble when she begins to stroke my hair, just as she's done for so many years. "But I would do the same for you if I could."

"I know," I squeeze her hard, feeling no opposition to doing this after all, at all.

"Just remember that I don't regret enrolling you in that school at the beginning for a second. You've grown so much, Emma, and I couldn't be more proud of you." She lets go of me and gently kisses me on the cheek. I turn away slightly when she offers me a sad smile and slowly walks back towards Chase. He waves at me and I wave back awkwardly, suddenly feeling so incredibly small in this wide, wide world. Dominic's hand comes to rest on my shoulder and I have no idea that that little squeeze of reassurance will suddenly become the thread that I will desperately hang on to, the last connection to my life with these incredible people. 

"Let's go," he says. I nod and slide into the car. He closes the door and opens the one next to it, settling into the front passenger seat calmy. Jay looks at me over his shoulder briefly, and I nod as his eyes speak unsaid words. He turns back and his knuckles briefly turn white, before Dominic shoots him a look and he relaxes again. If it were even possible to be relaxed in this case. As we drive towards what will most likely be the last heroic thing that I'll ever do in my life, the woman at the back of the car screams and thrashes as if her inner, animal instincts know exactly that we're all driving towards our interminable deaths.