Depthless: Under The Library

Chapter Twenty-Seven// David

David's POV

When the realization of what had just happened hit me directly in my face, I let out the coursed up frustration from deep within in one guttural scream.

"No!!!" I holler, tears blinding my sight, as I crawl away, further from the death scene, further away from her pure essence, now disintegrated, away from the demise which could've befallen me if I had lingered a minute more.

She was too young, too innocent, to be so brutally murdered. And that was it. Murder. She was murdered, and I hadn't even leaned her name, let alone saved her. The things gran had told me before suddenly seemed extremely brutal. Yes, she was still young. She still had life's many flavours to taste. There was so much sweetness installed for her yet... it seemed all too cruel to replace that with an overdose of the flames of death.

In my foggy state of mind, I had realized I'd reached the park area. But, where were my family?

"Brooke! Gran! Mom, dad?" I yell, to no avail.

Chaos ruled. All around me, the park erupted in flames, dazzling, a strange purple colour. Most of everything man-made had been reduced to ashes. Scorched patches burn on the ground, craters as deep as my height spread downwards, evidence of the latest brutal attack.

"Mooomm!!! Daad! Gran! Brooke!" I yelled myself hoarse, running in directionless circles, with anxious tears dribbling down my face, clouding my sights.

Far off, I could hear the sound of a giant truck revving up its engine, but I don't stop to think what that means. Shouts echoed all around, from boisterous men, and I could hear the wailing of women and children as they slump over their wounded family members.

"Gran!" I scream, gasping, clutching my heaving chest to steady my heartbeat. "Where are you?" Tears keep pricking my eyes, but still, I persist. I keep searching.

At one point, I remember running past a hysterical young woman with honey curls. Sobbing, she reaches out and grips my shoulders tight.

"My daughter! My little girl Alice... have you seen her?" She shrieks piteously in my face, her grief-stricken blue eyes an electrifying reminder of the loss I had just experienced.

Something in the way I resounded must've let her in on the truth, because her eyes widen with unmistakable agony, and she releases her grip on my shoulder.

I crumple to the ground, consumed with tribulation. The mother was no better. Thoroughly heartbroken, she turns towards the lake, before I could issue a shout, and in a matter of seconds, I hear a resounding splash, striking me into temporary immobilization.

I don't know how long I spent, hunched in a heap in the middle of the fiery purple land. The explosions had long ceased, like some sort of unacceptable irony. Overhead, the sun only served to ignite the grassy plains, the trees blazed to life, engulfing all last traces of life.

"David!" I hear a voice. Distant, far off, but still a voice. And it's calling out my name.

"Gran... how's... how is heaven?" Is she still in my mind? Even after death, her voice sounds so unmistakable clear, loud, ringing through the flickering of the deathly flames.

"David!" Then I hear another voice.

"Brooke!" I yell. She charges out of a thicket of trees, her blonde hair now singled and smoking.

"Get up! David! Run!" Gran's voice calls out now, breathless, as she comes into view, a thin figure, now full of speed, as she zipped around burning park benches and flaming bushes.

"Gran?" Warily, I stand. I couldn't process this. I couldn't process what was happening. Then she runs straight to me, and tugs at my arm, then at Brooke's.