Heather. I need to find Heather.
Darkness descends eerily upon the church yard in front of me as I turn the ignition and the rumbling engine stops. I’ve spent all day looking for her. At our date spots, her hideouts, Christ, I’ve even been to the school, and her home, and I still can’t find her. My heart is in my throat as I hop off my motorcycle and walk through the wrought-iron gates into the boneyard.
I speed-walk through the cemetery, feeling exhausted, and I just can’t seem to catch my breath no matter how hard I try. It’s been fifteen hours without a single word from her. Confusion clouds my mind and all I can do is go back through the events of yesterday, trying to make sense of everything. Nobody has seen her all day.
What the fuck is going on!?
When I reach the middle of the burial ground where a huge stone fountain sits, I cup my hands around my mouth before shouting.”Heather!?” I wait for some kind of response, before calling her name once more. “Heather!?” I bellow once again. Waiting, praying that she hears me.
Did she die in the fire, and they have yet to find her? Fuck!!
I drop to a seated position at the edge of the fountain, legs wide, forearms resting on my thighs, and my wrists hanging haphazardly over my knees.
Nothing makes sense.
Where could she be?
I’ve fucking looked everywhere.
A tightness forms in my chest, tears building at my lower lash line, because after everything… I still lost her in the end. I thread my fingers through my dark hair and tug roughly, praying that when I go to sleep… nothing. Everything goes back to normal. Because the thought of never seeing her again is killing me to the very core of my body.
“What took you so long, emo boy?”
I snap my head up at the sweet sound of her angelic voice.
“H-Heather?” A slow, incredulous smile forms on her face and I jump up from my seated position, scrambling over to her as fast as my legs can carry me.
“The one and only.” She smiles widely as I lift her into my arms and hold her close to me. So close I might suffocate her, but I don’t care.
“Where were you?”
“I told you I’d tag you back for that little grave incident yesterday, asshole.” She giggles and I lower her back down onto steady feet. “Y’know, you really should be more careful how you tease me in future.” She giggles.
“You remember?” I question.
Heather simply nods softly. “I remember it all,” she murmurs, tears welling at her lower lash line, and when my hands caress her face, she smiles sweetly through her tears. “Every single time you came for me. All two hundred days of you fighting to make me remember you, of you trying to save me. When I woke up this morning it all came flooding back. Whatever you did this time…you saved me. Savedus. All those days being so lost without you, and I don’t plan on wasting another second thinking about it.”
I’m frozen on the spot. It feels as though I’m still in a dream state. That this is all just some elaborate hoax, but as soon as she kisses me, I know it’s real. I know we both survived. And that somehow… I managed to save her this time.
“Please tell me this is real?”
She barks out a loud laugh and it sends a bolt of shivers up my spine. “Jesus Christ, I fucking hope so. I reallydon’twant to do that again, thank you very much.”
She’s alive.
I’m alive.
She’s back.
“Well?” she says through her laughter. “Aren’t you going to kiss me back? Boyfriend of mine.”
Without waiting any longer, I crash my lips to hers in a brutal and no doubt bruising kiss. Moving my mouth against hers so harshly that her very DNA bleeds into my own and I become one with her. I scoop her body up again and she instantly wraps her arms around my shoulders and her legs around my waist.
“I’ve missed you,” I murmur against her mouth. “So fucking much, baby.” Her fingers fist into the thick strands of my hair as I hold her tightly to my chest. Our collective moans the only sound within Death Valley. She pulls back from the kiss, one hand stroking down my face.
Her eyes dart from left to right as though she is further permitting my features to her memory. “I love you.”
“I love you more.”
And as we hold each other for what feels like eternity, emitting all the love and deep-rooted emotion we have both missed out on, I realise something. In the words of the great Emily Bronte…‘Whatever our souls are made of, hers, and mine… are the same.’
The End
