burning-falls

Struggling transforms her captor into a Chinese finger trap. She__ suffocating. Sucking in air without relief. Her lungs expand. Contract. Expand. They fill with lies and broken promises. With despair and lost hope. Each inhale is empty. Invisible hands reach into her body and constrict around her windpipe. She watches her friends collapse like supernovae, their cognizance disappearing into a black hole. A black hole she__ quickly cascading into. The dark consumes, bleeds into her vision. She blinks. Catches icy blue eyes peeking out from the shadows.

Why aren__ you smiling?_ Cameron asks. She picks up the Astropad and stops the video.__ecause this is the beginning, not the end.

Death and his scythe do not come. No sweeping black capes or ethereal escapes. There__ no pearly gate, no prisms of colors as his soul slips away. The stillness is cold steel. The silence is empty with no memory to mend it.

Time keeps ticking away, unaware of the suffering each second generates. Time doesn__ care, because if it did, it would__e reversed.

Seconds ebb and wane. She__ not afraid of her voice anymore, but she__ not entirely sure she trusts it. She__ seen the damage caused with a single word. Right now, each one is a weapon, a conduit of war, and she won__ just throw them out there all willy-nilly.

The night surrounds, breathes across her skin. They__e lost in the shadows of the moon.

He holds her for an eternity. Time cascades into the void of the past. She inhales his scent. Full of man and strength and yearning. And she wonders why she ever doubted their relationship. Why she let Julian__ soothing touch coax her into loving him too. Gage is everything. Gage is hers.

A glacial chill rushes through Gage. He whips around just in time to see arms clutch Summer around the middle and drag her into the dark. Panic seizes him, and he takes off after her, regardless of the chaos brewing behind him. Her cry of surprise echoes all around them, drilling into his bones.

Her mum is leaning against the wall, arms crossed, when Summer exits. __age left from here a few minutes ago,_ she says, tone neutral. __is hair was ruffled._ She gestures with her hand above her head.The haze Gage left Summer in vanishes. She frowns.Her mum sighs and steps forward. Smooths her daughter__ hair. __f he hurts you,_ she says in a mild tone, ____l kill him.

Time is a thief. A killer. Time is killing him.

If this is my final moment,_ she says, __hen I can die happy.___s that why you__e saying all this? Because you think we__e going to die?___ don__ know,_ she admits.__ammit, Summer._ He clings to her waist, grip desperate, eyes heavy with torment. __ou__e saying everything I want to hear, but I don__ know if I can trust it.

Her gaze travels back to the lie twisted in a tempest of mud and blood. She witnesses the culmination of her recklessness through a curved lens. Absorbed in life uncoiling, unaware of the world beyond this ridge. His light hair, darkened by rain. His stiff shoulders, full of pain. The vision poisoned with truth. With rust-stained hues.

She feels him scoot closer, the heat of him radiating off his chest and absorbing into her skin. His legs straddle her from behind, and he places delicate kisses along her shoulder, her back, the very center of her spine. Each time is like an electric current surging through her, soul stirring and lovely.

You didn__ tell Summer about it, did you?___hat?_ Gage scoffs. __eah, telling your girlfriend the Angel of Death might visit her if some switch is flipped is normal pillow talk.

She waits for his reprimand or words of disapproval.He kisses her instead. Hard. Lips demanding, fingers tightening on her chin. He consumes her with this single act.

Landon drops the bloody knife and stares at Summer like he doesn__ even know her anymore. The truth is, she__l never be the girl she was seven months ago. Too much has happened. Too much has changed.__hy__ you do that?_ Summer cries.__o save you,_ he says.But there__ nothing left to save.

Dreams deny her the freedom she truly seeks. Darkness consumes. Leg muscles burn. She runs away, even while lost in the paradise of sleep. Gravity is a crushing force bearing down on her chest, shattering wings and refusing her flight. A whisper in her mind. You don__ belong here.

Dammit, Gage. What the hell were you thinking?___ wasn__,_ he shouts. __ was upset she wanted to stay, and I lost it.__than scoffs. __eah, you did._____ an idiot.___eah, you are.___hut up.