Remains To Be Seen

Aflame

**Three Weeks Later**
Diana
The flame haired girl had gone running inside the schoolhouse. It's very flames making her silhouette disappear like she never existed. My mother held my crying form. Marilla and Mrs.Lynde beside us. Marilla in devastation as Anne had been gone for much too long inside. Other schoolmates joined in heartbreak. Screams of despair filled the air. The place we had been learning up in flames like it was nothing.
Eventually Gilbert came. He was supposed to be in Charlottetown. He insisted we had to do something. Rachel Lynde held him back as he tried to go towards the fire.
"You can't. We can't watch two children perish in the devils resurgence," Rachel said.
"Two? Who's gone in?" He asked.
Marilla had tears dried on her cheeks. Staining her skin as she pulled herself together.
"It was Anne. She went inside," I said heartbroken.
"We have to get her!" he urged.
"No boy!" my mother proclaimed.
"Let me go!" he screamed at us.
Matthew was then arriving with other men. He took hold of Gilbert as the adults began to toss water on the flames. Anne still wasn't here. Gilbert screamed until he cried for Anne. Matthew had him collapsed on the ground stuck in his embrace. My heart broke for the boy. It shattered. Anne has no idea what her hold on him was like.
There was a crack sounded by the wooden structure. Just then coughing sounded and Anne came stumbling out. Gilbert was distraught in tears. Anne covered in soot. She collapsed to the ground at the same time as the school fell. I broke from my mother's hold and ran to her. I looked over seeing Gilbert crawling towards us. I scooped Anne's head up with my hands and pushed her hair from her face.
"Anne?" He spoke desperately over and over.
"Somethings wrong Gilbert. What do we do?" I asked painfully.
"I uhhh....I-"
"Gilbert you need to save her!" I yelled.
He blinked a few times and adjusted himself. He ran his fingers through his hair and then went into doctor mode. He called for Marilla to get water and a rag. He took the cold water and then dumped it on her face. Anne coughed rolling on her side with her face to the ground. I stuck close to her as she coughed.
"Why in the world would you go in there Anne?" Marilla grilled.
Anne dug into her pocket as she was still facing the ground. She pulled out a few pieces of paper and a pen in her hand. Her hand collapsed to the ground for support letting them go as she nearly coughed up her lungs. I tried to help get her to drink water and wipe her face with the rag. All while Gilbert went for the papers.
"You risked your life for little notes?" I was confused.
"They were all I was going to have left," she gasped.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Gilbert is gone. And they are all I have left of him."
She didn't know he was here. I looked up to Gilbert whose heart had broken again. He realized he had broken her. Anne curled up towards me and I held her head close. She cried briefly, then she just passed out in my lap.
"Diana I..."
"I know Gilbert, I've always known, so has she. She just hasn't wanted to admit it. But now she's heartbroken, Bash said you'd gone to propose to Winnie this morning."
"I broke it off," he said airily. "I chose Anne."
"Give her time. We all need time. The school is gone and we all are devastated."
"I don't have time Diana," Gilbert said handing me the notes Anne had gone through the trouble of saving.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm getting drafted to the war as soon as I am of age. That means I'm leaving in less than a month Diana."
"You can't."
"I don't have a choice. It's me or Bash and Delphine needs her father."
I looked down at Anne who was stirring. He couldn't just leave her with nothing. With only heartbreak and the idea of him engaged to Winnie.
"Write to her. Please. I'm going to be away in Paris and I can't fathom the loneliness she will feel"
"I plan to write her all the time. She saved my life on the steamboat. Hopefully she will be my good luck charm at the war. I should go before she wakes," Gilbert exclaimed wiping his eyes.
I looked to Gilbert with sadness in my eyes. I felt sorry for him and for Anne. They were destined to be. But it was all so difficult. The world just kept keeping them apart. Forcing them from each other. I knew it was now my job to keep Anne's chin up. I also knew class was about to be very small. If they are calling for Gilbert for war they must be calling the other families. He nodded and I stroked Anne's head. He left as easily as he came. No. It wasn't easy. He kept looking back. Marilla and my mother came to my side. We took care of Anne best we could.

I didn't see Gilbert again.
No one did.

Anne
I was running to the forest for sanctuary when I saw the smoke against the moonlit sky. I kept running until I found the schoolhouse burning. I wasn't the only one. Pretty soon others showed up. I then remembered something I'd left inside yesterday. Diana tried to stop me. But she couldn't. No one could.
I sprinted inside and was reminded of the Gillis fire. But all the windows were already shut. And I wasn't trying to slow the fire. I was trying to find the notes. Those notes were the last things I had from Gilbert. And he was engaged to Winifred now. I loved him. I was too late.
I couldn't find them. But I'd found Gilbert's pen right where I'd forgotten about it. I had given my pen to Gilbert a few days before he went to Winnie to propose. So I took his just to remember him. But the notes were vital. I needed to find them.
I went to the bookshelf trying to find the book we hid them in. I coughed as I was suffocating on smoke. I had to find it. My eyes burning from the stinging flames. My body sweating profusely from the heat. I pulled two books out and they fell open. The notes flying out. I grabbed each of them. My legs failed to stay upright. My feet sliding beneath me.
Maybe this was it. Maybe it was my time. My heartbreak was to just take me with it. The fire could take my pain alongside the school. I heard my name being cried profusely. I couldn't do it. I can't let my body be taken by the fire like my heart had. I could love another. I had to. I didn't need to lose myself over a stupid boy. He isn't-wasn't stupid. I don't know why I'm staying that. Josephine always told me there is only one true love in your life. I think mine was Gilbert. But he wasn't mine anymore. Winifred was-is a lucky girl.
I managed to pull myself out from the aflame building. I saw Diana come running. I collapsed to the ground. I looked over my shoulder seeing the schoolhouse collapse just as I did. I was overwhelmed with it all and my eyes shut. Crackling in my ears. I couldn't hear anything. A rush of cold ran over my face and my eyes shot open in shock. Marilla tried to ask why I'd gone in there. I released what was clutched in my hand.
"You risked your life for little notes?" Diana was confused.
"They were all I was going to have left," I gasped.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"Gilbert is gone. And they are all I have left of him."
I shut my eyes again after that. I was so exhausted. From both the fire and smoke inhalation but also the heartache of felt for Gilbert. But it didn't matter. He chose his future.

A/N: We love an ICONIC Anne scene. And I know I keep leaving you with sad cliffhangers. But I promise it will get better. You just wait 😁😉 also I could write this forever so how many chapters shall I do? I have like 20+ drafted 😂 and should I do a second book?? Or just keep bustin our chapters for this one book that may be a hundred chapters long LMK❤️❤️