Children of the Elements: Prey to Him

Epilogue: Roses and Raindrops

Epilogue: Roses and Raindrops

Eva stared out of her bedroom window with tired eyes. Her eyelids pricked, telling her to blink, but she was busy looking out over Georgea’s garden. She felt spiteful as she mocked people silently in her head. They were too happy.

It was annoyingly sunny on the day of the funeral. Eva hadn’t slept in weeks, and it was unfortunately hitting her just an hour before the event. She yawned, her eyelids half-closed as she wandered over to her wardrobe in her underwear, running a gentle finger over her muscular stomach before she pulled her black dress off the hanger.

She felt dead inside. The news of Nathan’s death had hit all four of them hard, Georgea included. Chris had been silently floating around the house, only really speaking to Eva when she started crying on an almost daily basis. His face was consistently pale, dark bags under his eyes and a generally sombre aura dominated him. He thought that they should’ve checked for him and Ash when they originally heard the explosion warning. As much as Eva had tried to argue otherwise, she couldn’t convince him that it wasn’t his fault: Nathan and Ash were plenty capable of looking after themselves. Chris always retorted that clearly they weren’t otherwise they wouldn’t have still been in the house. It was hard to counter that.

Ash hadn’t left her room since they had returned. Eva hadn’t seen her eat or even go to the toilet in weeks, but whenever anyone would try to talk to her or enter her room, she slammed against the door, threatening to burn them to a crisp. It was slightly disconcerting that the three of them believed her, and had ended up dodging her completely.

Eva zipped up the back of her dress slowly, glancing at herself in the mirror. As she caught sight of her protruding collarbones, she sat down at the desk, gaping at herself in the mirror with a cold vacancy.

After a minute or two, she was vaguely aware that she was taking out her make up bag, and began to apply eyeliner. She wanted to look nice, not really for herself, but for the others. She may have been the one to cry the most, bar Georgea, but she had the healthiest way of dealing with the mortality. She was worried about both Chris and Ash: their internalising of their pain was killing the pair of them, she could tell. She hated to watch it, and set herself as their support in that instant. She would be there for them for as long as they needed. For Nathan.

There was a knock at the door. Eva span in her seat just as it swung open and Georgea appeared. Her eyes were already swollen as she blew her nose in a tissue. On seeing Eva though, she smiled. “Sorry, don’t mind me” she said, her voice soggy with tears.

Eva returned her smile gently. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Umm,” Georgea started, breaking to laugh nervously and taking the tissue away from her face. “The car’s coming to pick us up in ten minutes. Would you mind checking on Chris for me?”

Eva nodded, following Georgea out of her room and into the corridor. She stopped just in front of Chris’s door, watching Georgea head down the corridor. “She’s coming, right?” Eva called after her.

Georgea span around quickly enough to suggest she was anxious, but relaxed almost instantly. “She’s already gone.”

Eva frowned. Georgea took her silence as the end of the conversation and descended the stairs. She would’ve gone with us, surely? What is she up to?

Eva shook her head and turned back to Chris’s door, only to jump out of her skin as her hand collided with Chris’s chest instead of the wood.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you” he said after a second’s hesitation.

Eva drew a blank on what to say, so instead she just smiled as she scanned his face. He had been crying. Perhaps not as recently as Georgea, but his eyes had a hint of redness about them which he’d only get if he’d been crying.