Eden, The Love War

Trees and Glowing Gems

Before I can say anything else she is pulling me through beautiful clean streets and around twisting bends that I can't recall.

We get to a small air duct and she pulls me through a long winding rock tunnel. I can hear my coughs echoing through as we start towards a dark door. She presses her ear to the door and does a long combination. The echoing continue for a long moment. The door slides open with a loud rumble and a young man's face appears in the darkness.

"Rowan?" says a familiar voice. I try to walk forward but Lark stops me before I can enter. "Yes Ash." , she says with slight frustration. Ash steps aside to let us in and pulls me into a strong embrace before I can leave his grasp. "I missed you Rowan.", he whispers into my ear. I can hear the tears forming in his voice. With that I hug him tighter to show that I understand and pull away to continue walking, following Lark.

The main room of the underground looks different than it did before I left. It still had small pieces of crystals, but they were now imbedded in to the new ceiling and a new smaller tree growing from a large spot in the ground. It looks as out of place as I felt right now, at the center of everyone's attention and feeling spaced away at the same time. I look up to see people stopping at the sight of my presence. I begin to look down to my feet to calm my nerves.

"I will go get you some water" says lark in a tired tone and walks off. I look back at the small tree growing from the slightly charred soil and dead old roots. I feel as if that tree was a represtation of my current state. Changed from a traumatic experience that will never be forgotten but also begins to start over and has time to regrow. I turn to see lark walking back with the water and she hands it to me. "He's been really bad lately" she says in a sad voice, staring directly through me.

I gasp slightly in the middle of my sip of water and I begin to choke on the words that had just processed in my mind. She continues, "he hasn't left his room and won't speak to anyone. He's locked himself in and has only left temporarily to eat. I think this time, he really thinks you are dead"

After a long pause of hesitation the words just barely leave my mouth, "I'm going to see him" I say in a scratchy voice. I could tell it was hard for them to understand me, but once they did Lark pulled me up the stairs. I was stumbling every few steps but I picked up my pace to a run when his door was in sight. Lark ran past me and slammed her fist against the door rapidly. I could hear movement from the other side but he didn't come to the door.

After a few seconds Lark started slamming her fists again and screamed, "It's Rowan!" I could hear a rapid pace to the door now and then he stopped just on the other side of the door.

"What about her?" a raspy voice said. It sounds strained from tears.

"Just open the door!" she screamed, obviously annoyed at his hesitation.

The door creaked open just a bit and there was a gun barrel pointing at my throat.

"Lachlan" I say with intense fear in my voice. The gun enters the room again and the door open a bit wider. I could now just make out the beautiful gold eyes. He steps a little closer into the light and now I can fully make out his features. His soft brown hair, his smooth pail skin, his strong build, and the one thing that grants me a look through the window into his soul.

In his eyes I can see many different emotions. He looks extremely happy as his eyes widen. But there is a hint of fear as if he is staring at a ghost. He continues to stand in disbelief as we stare through each other, as if we are reading each other's thoughts. After what feels like ten minutes he asks, "Are you actually alive-" his voice trails off as he continues to process the situation.

As he does so, I begin to ponder what happened after I was taken away. Didn't the underground explode? How was it restored so quickly, or how long was I gone?

"It brought me there" is all I could say. He looks puzzled so he gestures me into the room and I silently walk in. Lark walks back downstairs with a quick hug. Lachlan closes the door behind her. He leans against it and sighs. I can only slightly make out the large tears rolling down his face.

"Do you remember the trees?"
"Yes, I went to look for them but I didn't see anything." He still looked extremely puzzled
"I..." I couldn't spit out my words. It was like I was having my vocal cords held in my throat. I began to speak again, but my whole body went still and I fell to the ground. In the moment the room turned black.

Ohh cliff hanger!
Sorry it took so long to update. I went on vacation and got a little stumped on the ending.Don't forget to comment and vote!

Love,
mads❤️