The Floaters [cake au] ✔

⌛ ➀➁ : pearl. ⌛

Chapter 12: pearl.

"Welcome, intruders. You have two options today. To pass into the afterlife, breathe out. To request the whereabouts of a floater, breathe in."

Without being hasty, we all held our breath and waited before breathing in – except Jack decided to breathe out for some reason. The creature sucked Jack towards him and we all cried out, trying to drag him back.

"I've been here too long guys... it's time for me to go," he shouted back, before being swallowed into a spinning vortex. Ashton broke down into tears, as a lock of black and red hair as well as a leather belt dropped onto the ground in front of us.

I bent down and inspected it. The red streak was from Jack's head – and I assumed the leather belt belonged to him. Meaning that at Jenna's house yesterday, that lock of hair and pearl was a sign that she had passed on.

Suddenly a memory was triggered. I remembered picking up another lock of hair at Luke's place... and a bracelet. No wonder it had seemed familiar... who did Luke lose? That was something I should've remembered, surely?

"Guys. This bit of hair... remember, we saw it at Jenna's place too!" I exclaimed, desperately trying to get the attention of the two wailing adults in front of me. "Michael, Ashton, this means that Jenna's gone too..."

Michael swallowed hard, and went a pale shade of green, as if he was going to be sick. "I hate this, Calum," he croaked. "Everyone is leaving... it's just a matter of time before-"

"Don't say it," I interjected. "It's gonna be fine, no matter what. You've still got us," I said with pretend confidence. It was working though – I hadn't collapsed on the ground in tears unlike the others; yet. "Do you guys know someone Luke was connected with that also died?"

Ashton scoffed, sitting up properly and running a hand through his golden locks. "The other Jack. Luke's brother."

That's right – the memory clicked back into place. "How long ago was that?"

"Not sure. I haven't been here long enough," Ashton wept. "It was always Jenna, Jack and Jack... I remember the anecdotes. When I got here, only Jenna and red-streak Jack were around, but they took me in like my very own parents." I felt a slight pang in my heart. Jenna had been so kind to me and despite their hatred for Luke, I did have some good times with them. "And now they're gone! I might as well join them at this rate..."

This was when Michael jumped up, slapping Ashton hard. "No, don't you dare! I... I think I've developed something f-for you," he declared. I turned away and let them have their little moment – there wasn't a kiss but I could tell they both liked each other. They'd made the same mistake I'd made with Luke. Good move or bad move; who knew?

~

The long walk back down the mountain took less time, but with one less person it felt even longer than the journey up. Ashton walked behind us and kept sniffling every now and then, and Michael would slow down momentarily to calm him down before joining me again.

The bus was the same, except instead of only being shirtless I was now also pant-less. I couldn't wait to just get home and cuddle Luke really hard.

I started remembering my hand vanishing and checked it to make sure it was fine, and thankfully it was back in place, fully intact. I hadn't decided what I was gonna tell Luke, or if I was gonna tell him at all. I didn't want to worry him, but at the same time if I was gonna die then I wanted us to be ready. There was nothing worse than being ripped away from your loved ones – I'd already experienced that once with my family, and I wasn't prepared to go through it again.