#dream dimension or whatever the hell. And it was like some path somewhere. With trees

[werezmastarbucks]

more like honeymoon [2]

previous part

word count: 3769

warnings: loving couple throws fists

music: in the text

LOS ANGELES by blink-182 segment

You had a dream that the prison world was being destroyed. The fearful suspicion was on the back of your mind at all times, but you didn’t know how to express it. Kai always said you were the more paranoid one. All the bad outcomes, you always considered them. You argued that this kind of pessimistic outlook saved your live even when you didn’t know it did. Well, look where you are now, he would reply. Not that it’s bad, so I don’t know what I’m trying to prove here. He just liked to argue.

The white light together with earthquake came, and the ground crumbled beneath your feet. Kai was somewhere away, you could only see his silhouette as he stood on a hill or something. You were now staying in Los Angeles. The end came while you were running to him, the whiteness becoming your least favorite color. Your heart was tearing apart because you were so tired of something constantly trying to stop you from being together.

You woke up in your happy crowdless realm, the queen of enclosed nothingness, and felt like you wanted to go home for the first time. Just because this dimension was more fragile.

Kai was sleeping next to you, his nose deep in the pillow, and you had no idea which part of him was responsible for breathing. Like in a trance, you crawled out of bed and left through the balcony doors to look down on the city lit by nobody, to make sure the world was intact. It didn’t, and wouldn’t, go anywhere. You got used to being here alone and having it all, so quickly, a part of you couldn’t imagine sharing this planet, and Kai, with anybody.

When you returned to bed, Kai was lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. His hand took your chin and turned your head to him.

“Where were you?”

“I had a bad dream”.

Kai was a pro in bad dreams. He had a black belt in going back to hell through his dreams. Agonizing, long, realistic nightmares plagued his head no matter how deep he shoved it under the blankets. He looked a little strict for someone who consoles another after a bad dream. You had your suspicions he had other things on his mind. Sometimes you would catch him observe you as if he was expecting you to run away.

LA1 by Moby segment

You were finishing the book. This was the book you’ve been meaning to read ever since you were fourteen. When everybody nailed it at school, you were busy with other more interesting stuff, and so, you never ended up reading it. Now was the epitome of everybody’s ‘one day’. People leave interesting tv shows, tedious chores, the best packs of cookies and postponed hobbies for that cryptic ‘one day’ but it never comes. Not for most people at least. Now, you two, more so you than Kai, finally faced this neverending time period to do everything procrastination took away from you. You finally were finishing that damn book.

As you laid there at the pool of your new house, and the sun was sending blinding specks jumping off the water, Kai was drawing complicated shapes on the side of your leg and looking down the valley of Los Angeles, the city where he was king. Just like everywhere else.

“I think I have memorized every inch of you by now”, he said.

You swallowed down a sigh, because you were about fourteen pages away from the end. You knew when Kai started talking, there would be nothing else but talking for at least fifty minutes.

“Good, now, if I get into a horrible car crash and get terribly disfigured you will recognize my body one way or another”, you replied, trying to at least finish the page. Kai’s hand laid on the paper, pulling it away.

“Once we get out”, you smiled.

“If we get out”, he corrected you.

You let go of the book he was pulling away. He didn’t like sharing you.

“You think... we’ll be here long?”

“The spell is all we have, and it’s useless”, he shrugged like he didn’t care. “There’s nothing else. The ascendant is out there, and we don’t have a Bennet here to cut her...”

“Do these things have expiration date?” you asked, worried, “is it possible that one day, this prison will collapse and disappear?”

He looked at you, his hand caressing your knee absently.

“No, I don’t think so. It’s awesome here though, isn’t it? You like it, right?”

“Of course I do”, you nodded, without giving it too much thought. You looked down to the city where Kai’s gaze has been wandering earlier. “I’m still waiting for the horror to kick in, but it doesn’t. Either I’m too jaded to care, or...”

You bit your lip hard, thinking, whether you’re willing to spoil him. Parker’s palm squeezed your skin lightly. His hands were always warm, and he never refused to tickle you. He was a perfect guy to live with in a prison world: impossible to exhaust, handsy and resourceful. He could stay in one place for weeks, or drive through several states in one day. He knew every part of this magical planet and never felt lost anymore. It was bittersweet how this luxury of traveling without any discomfort came after eighteen years of him agonizing here alone.

He looked good with the hills of Los Angeles on the background, serving as colorful addition to him. His dark hair, and gun-like eyes, his demeanor of rich cynical kid who’s going to do you on the kitchen counter and never call again - only, Kai was following you everywhere.

“Or?” he took you out of your pondering. He didn’t like that either, when you drifted off in the middle of conversation. What are you thinking about? Who are you thinking about, Y/N? His tone of voice always said, I took you as far as an enchanted prison world so that you can’t see other guys, and you still have your head in the clouds.

“The feeling of having everything you need in your arms is intoxicating”, you sighed. The fundemental sensation of being completely satisfied with your life, while being in a literal prison world, came from the realization. Kai Parker was the final point of whatever path you’ve been striding. You weren’t one for professing your love passionately, or expressing it many times. But this one time you felt like you needed to get it off your chest.

“You ever had that?”

He blinked.

“Do you want to stay here, or do you want to move on? You wanted to see Fontana, right?” he asked, a bit lost, and he sounded like his mouth was dry. You took your book back from him.

“Pomona first”.

That night there was vivid change in Kai; instead of pounding you into the bed, like he usually did, as you both enjoyed it, he laid low, pressing you into the matrass with all his body. You felt almost like suffocating on the long, stretching feeling he was drilling into you with passionate, deep movements. For the first time you felt what it was like when you’re trying to jump out of your own skin with pleasure, after all the crying and moaning is just not enough.

“Wait for me, baby”, he was whispering, as you two moved together, hips to hips, shoulders to shoulders, and you thought your eyes will pop out, that maybe your nails are already halfway inside his shoulder blades. Kai was changing; he has been for some time now. He was becoming calmer and happier, and now, as he was making you come and told you to hold on at the same time, for a second there you could see him, shed of all his layers. The Kai Parker he would’ve been many years before, many tortures and catastrophes, and murders ago. The magic, devilish temptation, malevolence, misery and memories aside, there he finally was, a person who was begging you not to come without him, because even that, he didn’t want to do alone. As you clutched the hair on the back of his head, soft, just slightly curly, you felt your body fill with love, that kind that never really lets go of you. Because you finally saw the last manifestation of him, the last entity that lived in him, and it needed you, and loved you.

Kai, too, was making love as opposed to your usual experimental mutual fucking. Both types brought you joy; after he collapsed on the pillow next to you, you knew he would never be the old Kai. You could feel it in your guts.

I’M ON FIRE by Bruce Springsteen segment

“I could take you literally anywhere, and you still choose America”.

You dragged your now big bag on the glistening asphalt, sweating in heat, and gave up, motioning towards it.

“Technically, Hawaii...”

“Technically, Hawaii is America”, he nodded, picking up your bag, “but I hear you”.

“The Pacific, Kai”.

“You know what I did when I was here?” he asked, for the thousandth time in nine months.

“Climbed the Everest”, you chanted, rolling your eyes.

“Climbed the Everest”, he noted proudly. It took about a week? for you to convince him you weren’t interested in dying forty-five times before you finally reach the top of the mountain. He clicked his tongue finally, saying there’s no adventure to you. That’s how you ended up jumping off the Grand Canyon. Dares always led you to some drastic decisions you later regretted.

You settled on the famous North Shore, where the ocean was blue and green, and the palm trees swayed every day... all the day. At three oh seven, it rained for eleven minutes, and then, a majestic double rainbow stood above Oahu. The evening was so beautiful you felt you wouldn’t get tired of it in a hundred years. It’s really hard to get tired of hawaiian sunsets. Everything was perfect.

Until your phone rang.

When you were clutching on Kai, your belly bag was on you, together with all essential things in the world of the twenty-first century. You had your phone in there, the charger in case of anything, car keys, wallet, pack of plasters and some gum. It all traveled with you into the world of ‘94, and that’s how you listened to music from the future in the world of the past. The charger was especially useful, because you could keep your phone turned on and took pictures. Literally everything you did resembled a young couple’s honeymoon. You were forced to delete everything from your phone though, so that it could contain all the photos from different places. You even joked that, once you run out of space completely, it’ll be time to go home.

Another once we get out moment.

Now, your phone, that survived here for nine months because you were charging it regularly, rang, and you didn’t even pay attention at first. It hasn’t rung before. This thing is not supposed to ring, it’s supposed to play music and take pictures of Kai as he is being adorable, sleeping in his king-sized bed, his head buried in the pillow.

You stood like a dummy in the middle of the parking lot, waiting for him to bring the bags to the car. And the phone was ringing.

What is this noise? you thought. Then your hand slipped into your pocket, and your heart got confused as to whether to sink or to leap. Your brain got squeezed inside your skull. Rage, and relief, and worry filled you. You knew so many things at the same time. Suddenly you knew you missed home like crazy. You missed leaving the house and seeing dumb people around. You missed not being a spoiled brat living in the houses that didn’t belong to you. Missed the traffic on the streets, and you missed animals and birds. In this world, there weren’t so much as spiders, crawling around and creeping you out. Not a mosquito, not a lousy worm. No sharks in the ocean, no swallows in the skies.

Also, you knew you’d kick Damon’s ass so hard he’s going to choke on his own kidneys. You recalled the moment you threw yourself in front of Kai, so full of yourself, and announced,

you wanna send him away again, you gotta send me with him

and Damon looked at you with his ever exhausted silver eyes of a jaded cat, and said,

okay.

And sent you, the person he used to call a friend, into the prison world.

Also, you knew, somehow, that Kai will be unhappy about this. Many times that he asked you ‘you like it here, right?’ you felt he was now clinging on the very place he used to be horrified of. It was way more than your own ego, so you barely thought that it was you that changed his perception. You were secretly scared his mind will start telling him this condition of things is normal. That only two people in the world is normal. And he won’t want to leave once the chance comes. That all his once we get outs is just him playing along with you, while he knows, in the back of his mind, that you’re never getting out, and he doesn’t care if it drives you crazy.

You answered the phone and didn’t say anything. Damon was silent, too, for a second.

“Well”, he said finally, “how you lovin’ it?”

You found his cockiness inappropriate. Not like he has locked you in a closet with a bully and came round in fourteen minutes to check on you.

“What is it? Are you here?” you asked, you throat dry.

Kai left the supermarket and was about a hundred steps away. It was going to rain in half an hour.

“Yes, we decided to pick you up, so to say”, he replied shortly.

“You decided I have learnt my lesson? Decided I was now good to go home, that’s what you decided?” you asked, your voice bubbling inside your throat like a pillar of boiling air.

“Give it to me...” Elena’s voice was closing, and your lungs trembled. You have missed them all. Even the Salvatore douche. God how you missed others. You could see Kai slowed down. He had very good eyes, and he saw you were holding your hand to your ear. He was fifty steps away.

“Y/N, where are you? We came to get you back home. Listen, we never meant to...”

“Ask her about Parker”.

“Are you alright? Are you with him?”

“We’re not taking him with us!”

Your voice quivered.

“I’m fine”.

It came out less bitter than you meant; like you were about to cry, while in reality you were bursting with rage.

“Is he keeping you there? Or has he left you there alone?”

“What do you mean?”

The audacity of them. Left you alone. They’re the only ones who throw their friends into magical prison worlds, for nothing.

“Well, he has stolen the ascendant. We had to build a new one”.

“What are you talking about? Kai doesn’t have the ascendant”.

There was silence. Through the flapping hot hawaiian air, you could see Kai with the paper bags walking towards you.

“Yes, he does”, Elena chuckled sadly. “We thought he’d be out by now”.

“We only found one useless spell, Elena”, you growled, “how are we supposed to get out without Bonnie’s blood?”

“Oh my god”, you heard Damon mutter. The palm trees started swaying in front of you. You knew now yet another thing. You were just afraid to think it.

“Bonnie conjured that one without blood. We didn’t have much time, Y/N. It was just the spell, and the ascendant. You’re saying he found it? Why hasn’t he got out then?”

All your guts sank down there together with your mind. At the same time, there was nothing to be shocked about. The signs were all there. You never even showed interest enough for him to share about the ritual of traveling between the worlds.

“That fucking liar was keeping me here”.

“Y/N, where are you?” Elena was almost yelling now.

“Tell her to go back”.

“Is he abusing you?”

Your face got distorted with anger and bitterness at the same time; you could feel you’re grimacing at him, as the musles in your face and neck went tense.

A gust of wind slapped you in the face, and the phone slipped out of your hand. The invisible pull was so sudden you were grabbed, too, and nearly fell on your face, as the clutch pulled on your hand a little.

“Kai!”

The phone shot through the air, right into his hand, and fifteen steps away, you could see he was furious already. The temper of this guy.

He hopped through the air. Your head was ringing with the echoes of their voices.

Kai couldn’t wait to walk another couple of meters, so he just leaped to you using magic. Perhaps he also did it to startle you more; as he reemerged next to you, his hand laid on your throat, and not the usual possessive sensual way, but ‘i’m about to squeeze the life out of you’ way this time. Your head bumped on the side of the car. The only reason he didn’t smash the phone on the ground was probaby the amount of fantastic pics it held.

“What did he say?” Kai growled.

If you could talk, or breathe, you’d say he’s a dick. You fought him, the anger giving you strength, your fists hitting him into the chest and stomach.

“Is he coming for you?”

Kai was screaming, and you have never seen him like that. For a moment there it felt like the old Parker, the miserable, uncontrollable, lightning throwing witch was back in his skin again, and you couldn’t take it to fix him all over again.

Your hands grabbed on his forearm as you kicked him in the shin as hard as you could. Kai yelled, letting you go, and you could finally breathe.

“Dick”, you scolded, “you dick”.

Your voice was hoarse. He didn’t hear you. Kai was suddenly full of demonic fear and fury, and the noise; he barely felt pain which let go of him in a second.

“You’ve been lying to me?!”

“You’re not going anywhere”, he said, his voice quivering with how much he contained inside. All the acid lava sleeping in the depths of his being, frozen by the comfort of not being disturbed, like he was locked away in a mental institution, now rose again and illuminated his skin from the inside.

“You’re lying to me!”

Too bad you lost it, too. Kai might have become a little like you; but you have become a little like him, too.

“You said there was no way out! While you had the ascendant all along? From day one!”

“You said you liked it here!”

You charged at him, your fist up, and he blocked it easily, hitting you in the stomach.

So, he beats girls, too!

He was never good at seeing the kick coming. God knows why, if you wanted to defeat Kai Parker, you just kicked him with one of your legs. He never sees it coming. The fight exhausted both of you as you screamed atrocities at each other. You knew you were just letting the frustration out; that kind that floods over you when you realize you’ve been wasting months in the prison world while you had all the means of getting out that whole time.

Kai, however, was fueled by something more sinister than that.

You never really meant to hurt him. Just punch him in the teeth for being a proper dick. He knew he was doing wrong, otherwise he wouldn’t be asking this ‘you like it here, right?’ like a broken record all the time.

And like a fool, you always replied, yes, because it was truth.

He now believed you’ve been lying to him, too, like a scared cat that was suddenly brought in at the vet clinic and the doctor was clicking the long metal scissors in front of him. He felt betrayed. He thought you’re dreaming of getting out and see your friends again.

“I am not enough for you! You have the whole world! And me! So what, you meant something else when you said that I am everything you need?” he yelled. Almost at the top of his lungs. The clouds were meanwhile gathering above Manoa, to release the rain in ten minutes.

“I meant it!”

“Then why do you need to leave?!”

“Not me - us!”

“We are not going anywhere! You’re staying here, with me!”

“No, you listen to me, Parker, we’re going back there, together, just like we arrived here! This”, you pointed your finger at the wretched sky where even the rain was on schedule, “is not real”.

As soon as those words left your mouth, you knew he’d misinterpret them.

His mouth moved like he was about to tear down his own face and bit yours off with the bloodied teeth of a skeleton. You could feel your lower lip swell. Blood was dripping down your chin because of how hard you fell on your face after he threw you away with his witchy move. You were about to break his jaw completely, and it was his own doing. If he hadn’t wanted you to become a fighter, he shouldn’t have taught you.

Your right fist was shaking with pain. It felt like you shattered your knuckles completely beating on his stupid head. Nothing in the world could set it right.

“What did you say?”

You felt mortally tired. It felt like when you stood on the edge of the Canyon, like when you were about to fall.

“Kai, this world is fiction. We need to go back out there...”

“It doesn’t work out there!”

“It will”.

He panted. He spat the blood on the ground, and you felt like you wanted to stop fighting and start making out.

The paper bags were scattered all around the car, one lonely banana forgotten under the blazing sun.

“I will fucking kill you for lying to me”, you sighed.

“I thought you loved me”, Kai responded, his voice dead, and your heart shuddered.

“I fucking do!” you roared.

“Then why do you...”

and that, all over again.

[bobasheebaby]

Departure- The Rise chapter 1

Pairing: Sean x F!MC (Coral Grady)

Written for @badthingshappenbingo Fandom: Choices Endless Summer  Square filled: Thwarted Escape

Word count: 2,209 Warnings: angst, dark!fic?, gore? Summary: The catalysts head home only to find everything has changed. A/N: My MC is Coral Grady and she is dating Sean. This happens after the start of the apocalypse. Thank you to both @itsstillnotwhatyouthink and @blackcatkita for proofreading for me. The dialogue and a lot of the set up comes from Endless Summer Book 2 chapters 13 & 14. This chapter is fairly mild.

Series Warnings: death, rotting flesh, gore, blood, biting, turning, blood consumption, may get NSFW. It’s zombies, it ain’t gonna be pretty! By requesting to be tagged you acknowledge you are at least 18 years old and can stomach the gore.

If you need to avoid The Rise postings, filter #choices zombie au or #the rise to ensure you won’t see my zombie fic posts.

Let me know if you want to be added or removed from the taglist. Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters, I’m simply borrowing them for a bit.

The catalysts stood staring at the portal, hearts racing with hope as they watched the swirling portal, crackling with electricity. The air hung heavy with anticipation, no more fighting, struggling to survive, they made it and found their way home. “Let’s do this together.” Coral said, turning back to face her friends. “This is it. Together, we’ve faced dangers none of us could even dream of. If you guys are by my side, there’s nothing we can’t overcome.”

“Compared to some of the things we’ve seen, a purple death vortex is a cakewalk.” Craig proclaimed.

“I’m with you Coral! All the way!” Grace replied

One by one, each of the catalysts, friends stepped forward joining Coral on the catwalk.

“So Varyyn, after we’re through, take the heart and get outta here.” Diego said, his voice breaking with emotion at the thought of having to leave Varyyn behind. “Don’t get caught, okay? I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”

“You would not be able to know either way.” Varyyn replied.

“—I’d know. Somehow I’d know.” Diego answered, a tear streaking down his cheek.

Varyyn’s lip trembled, seeming to hold back his own tears. He pulled Diego into his arms embracing him, his lips meeting Diego’s one final time. “I will wait for you, Diego.”

“For a million years?”

“For eternity.” Varyyn promised. “Goodbye my friends. It was the greatest honor of my life to know you.”

“Can we please move this along? The radiation cannot be good for our health!” Aleister grumbled, irritated and anxious to return home to Hartfeld and get away from this blasted island of death, away from his father.

“You ready Princess?” Jake asked with his familiar smirk, though Coral could see the nerves he was trying to disguise.

Coral took a step towards Sean, slipping her smaller hand into his larger one. Ready or not here we go. Her heart pounded in her chest hoping they made it through before being detected.

“I know I look like a tough guy, but a moment ago, I was scared witless.” Sean said gazing down at her.

“Really?” Coral questioned gently squeezing Sean’s hand.

“Really. And somehow, the moment your hand touches mine, all of that evaporates.” He replied. “Coral? Let’s go home.”

The twelve of them encircled the portal sphere. “Everybody, together. One—” Coral said, her breath caught in her throat, they nearly made it, they were finally returning home. “two—” She squeezed Sean’s hand. “three.”

They stepped forward into the light simultaneously. They felt their bodies stretch, shrink, dissolve and reconstitute, as they transmitted across dimensions, falling through the quantum foam. They held hands tighter, refusing to let go of one another.

“Whoaaaaaa!” Shouted Raj.

“Yaaaaaaah!” Craig screamed.

“Aaaaaaaah!” Michelle shrieked.

Finally, they felt something solid underfoot. “Do you feel that?” Coral questioned, both excited and afraid to open her eyes. Home, we’re home. It worked, we actually made it.

“I think we landed somewhere.” Zahara answered.

“I still can’t see.” Diego replied.

Coral winced against the blinding light as she opened her eyes.

“We made it! We really made it!” Grace exclaimed excitedly.

Gradually the haze faded. Silence hung heavy in the air despite the sun hanging high in the sky.

They stood in the middle of the roof staring out across the buildings. The sun hung high in the sky marking the middle of the day, yet a silence filled the air.

“What? What happened?” Quinn questioned. What went wrong?

The campus stretched out in front of them, everything quiet as if everyone vanished at once, the stench of death hung in the air. Familiar buildings stretched before them. Bare trees, and cool crisp New England winter air showing how long they’d been gone. It’s winter? It was just summer. The world appearing both familiar and unfamiliar at once. The realization of how much they missed, how long they’d been gone, how much had changed settled around them heavy in the air.

“Dammit, Z! You got the coordinates wrong!” Craig exclaimed in frustration, kicking a stray rock across the roof.

“I didn’t! I wouldn’t make that dumb a mistake!” Zahara denied with the air of indignation at the accusation.

“Then where the hell are we?” Michelle asked, her voice laced with confusion and annoyance.

Coral covered her nose and mouth with her hand, trying to lessen the stench she breathed in as she drew her gaze over the familiar surrounding, eyes squinting in the midday sun. “The gate worked—” Coral said, choking on the sickly sweet smell of rotting flesh. “We’re home.”

They stared out at the campus, the silence of the normally busy square was deafening. Not a living soul in sight, they felt their hearts sink, each thinking the same thing; what happened? Where is everyone? Tension hung heavy around them as they scanned the horizon for some sign of human life or what had caused everyone to abandon the once busy campus they had all called home.

Sean silently watched the stillness, his face creased with pain. “Yea, it’s Hartfeld.” He replied, voice cracking with emotion.

“Nah, man… No way!” Raj replied incredulously.

“Yeah, last I remember there were fucking people! It wasn’t a fucking wasteland that smelled like death.” Craig angrily rebutted.

“I don’t understand. What happened?” Quinn questioned, her usually bubbly personality subdued as she tried to wrap her head around their surroundings.

“Surely this must be the distant future. It must be.” Aleister offered, refusing to believe this was their reality.

Coral slowly spun around, every corner silent, empty and oddly still. What caused this? She couldn’t think of anything that would cause a mass evacuation and leave the stench they were surrounded by.

“What the hell are we supposed to do here?” Michelle questioned the group.

This was all they wanted, to get home—but this wasn’t the home they left, the home they were trying to return to. Could they even return to La Huerta? Would that be the better option than staying?

“We have to look for survivors.” Coral replied, her stomach twisted in knots as she hoped that someone survived, that they could get answers. They can’t all be gone, right?

“Coral’s right. People could be hiding from whatever caused this.” Grace answered gesturing at the empty quad.

“I wouldn’t bet on it.” Jake replied grimly.

“Well sorry if I don’t take your word for it, Jake. Come on!” Sean countered, annoyed at the pilots pessimism.

They carefully descended the building’s creaking fire escape down to street level. Belongings left behind, cars abandoned with doors left wide open. The twelve look around trying to decipher what they were seeing, trying to piece together what could have caused Hartfeld to be seemingly abandoned. What could have been so bad that everyone would simply leave?

“Okay, let's look around. But be careful, okay?” Coral suggested.

The friends carefully maneuvered the desolate street, looking around, looking for clues as to what happened. Stray leaves swirled around them in the breeze fluttering in the wind. Sean suddenly paused, breaking off from Coral, heading down the vacant street.

“Where is he going?” Michelle asked.

Coral shook her head, breaking from the group, following after Sean. She followed him into an abandoned building, mailboxes in the entryway hanging open, everything as eerily quiet as outside. She climbed the staircase up to the second floor, following his path. She paused when she saw him standing in the open doorway, staring into the empty apartment. “Sean? What are we doing here?” She asked stepping closer, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“This is my mom’s place. Was. Was my mom’s place.” Sean replied with a shake of his head. I should have been here for her.

“Oh… Sean.” Coral answered softly.

“After we finally managed to get away from my dad, she wanted to stay close to me. I wanted her close.” Sean said stepping further into the living room looking around sadly. “She got this apartment when I was a freshman. Closest building to Hartfeld stadium.” He walked up to a cracked photo frame, hanging askew on the wall. He picked it up, looking at it sadly. A photograph of a young Sean, beaming after winning a peewee football game stared up at him. Hugging him are a proud mother and father. “I always hated that she kept this photo up. She still loved him after everything. After everything that bastard did to us, she still loved him.” Sean whispered sadly. “At least…she loved the old him. But that man was dead.” Sean slumped down clutching the frame. He blinked, welling tears forced out.

Coral sat next to him, grasping his hand in hers. “I wasn’t here, Coral. I told her I’d always protect her, and I wasn’t here—”

“It’s not your fault, Sean.” Coral replied leaning her head against his shoulder and squeezing his hand.

“That’s all I was ever good at, you know? Taking punishment so someone I care about doesn’t have to.” Sean said sadly. “And for my mom, for the person that mattered most… I couldn’t even do that.” His head dropped in shame. I shouldn’t have left, maybe I could have saved her.

“Sean, we’ll fix this.” Coral replied, voice strong and sure. She had to fix this, for everyone, for Sean. They had no choice but to find out what happened and fix it.

“You say that with such certainty… I don’t know how you do it.” Sean said looking up at her, letting out a laugh. “Only you could make me look at the end of the world and think ‘Yeah, this is fixable.’” He sighed shaking his head. “It seems completely nuts. But I look at you… and I believe it.”

“I believe in us.” Coral replied, standing up, offering Sean her hand. “Come on Heisman. The world needs saving.”

Sean took Coral’s hand following her out to their friends. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Raj falling apart in front of them. Nothing gets to Raj.

Raj paced, his hands thrown up in the air, as he ranted to himself. “This can’t be happening. It can’t be happening. It’s a nightmare. I can’t deal with this. I can’t!”

“Uh, Coral? I think we finally broke Raj.” Zahara stated gesturing to their fun loving friend mid panic.

Coral walked over to Raj. He ran his hands forcefully through his hair, eyes wide and almost wild. Coral wrapped him into her arms. He suddenly stopped moving, freezing as her arms came around him. “I— I—” He stuttered, unable to complete his thought.

“We’re here, Raj. We’re here with you.” Coral stated reassuringly.

“Okay. I’m okay. I’m good now. Thanks, Coral.” Raj replied exhaling. He wrapped his arms around Coral, returning the hug. “You’re a pretty good hugger by the way.”

“You too big guy.” Coral answered, breaking from the hug with a final pat on her friends back.

The twelve turned, heading back to the dorms when Diego froze, squinting his eyes trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

“So. This might sound weird, but—” Diego trailed off, his eyes wide with shock and uncertainty.

They turned, their eyes following Diego’s gaze.

“Is that people?” Jake asked.

“They aren’t people, they’re zombies.” Zahara replied, eyes wide in amazement.

“Zombies? Real live zombies? Cool!” Craig exclaimed.

“Craig, think. Zombies eat people, and we are the only people around.” Zahara replied slugging Craig in the arm as to knock sense into him.

“Oh, yea that’s bad.” Craig replied.

“Run!” Estela shouted.

“Hurry! Back to the rooftop! Go! Hopefully they can’t climb!” Coral declared.

The zombies grew closer, the quiet, the stench, the fact everything was abandoned now making more sense. They sprinted as fast as they could, reaching the fire escape, scrambling up to the roof. Back we have to go back!

“The Gate! It’s gone!” Quinn shrieked her voice high with panic.

“How the hell do we get it back open?!” Zahara demanded.

“I—I don’t know!” Grace replied sullenly.

“Oh no—” Aleister exclaimed, eyes growing wide as their brief head start was coming to an end.

They saw the zombies moving in closer still. The horde seeming to grow the closer they got to the building.

“Varyyn! He must’ve taken the Island’s Heart out of the machine and is on his way back to Elyys’tel!” Diego answered.

“So we’re totally screwed then. Great!” Michelle shouted.

Coral thought back to the times her mind linked with Varyyn. She closed her eyes and searched for him in her consciousness. She searched, pleading, praying he could hear her and feel their desperation. She tried, over and over, squeezing her eyes shut, hoping to finally find him. But she can’t find him, seconds ticked by and all she found was empty space. We must be too far. She slowly opened her eyes, the realization settling in on them one by one, they were stuck. How could we have been safer on an island that tried to kill us than home? She looked around her friends bewildered faces, every face etched with the same fear and worry. How do we get back now? Can we survive long enough to get back? Could whatever had changed be reversed, or was this simply the beginning of the end?

Feedback fuels me, please like, comment reblog or send an ask. Feel free to scream, I promise I can take it. 

Masterlist can be found in my bio.

Tags: @speedyoperarascalparty @liamxs-world @annekebbphotography @syphaxs @hopefulmoonobject @itsstillnotwhatyouthink @riseandshinelittleblossom @cocomaxley @ao719 @blackwidow2721 @katurrade @leelee10898 @stopforamoment @akrenich @cora-nova @gardeningourmet @daniv2278 @bella-ca @gibbles82 @choiceslife @tornbetween2loves @sleepwalkingelite @carabeth @traeumerinwitzhelden @blackcatkita @boneandfur @bobbersb @endlessflame @kadencantarella @innerpostmentality @imma-winchester-addict @strangerofbraidwood @darley1101 @sirbeepsalot @itsalliepg @likethetailofacomet @salt-n-burn-em-all @debramcg1106 @blackcoffee85 @super-secret-fandom-blog