Chapter two
Derek
That woke me up quick.
At the piercing sound of a gunshot, I pushed Simon off of me and whirled around just in time to see Chloe give me one last look, and fall to the ground.
I'm not exactly sure what sound I made. I felt pure dread course through me, and my heart being ripped from my chest. I knew I'd gone pale. I ran forward.
I was really hoping that when I touched her cold, pale skin, she would look up at me and tell me she was alright. She'd be hurt, but she'd be fine after some stitches. She'd be fine.
Except she wasn't fine. I turned body around so I could see her face. Her mouth was open the tinniest bit, and her eyes were wide, vacant.
"Chloe . . ." Simon choked out from behind me.
I barely heard him. My dread slowly morphed into something else. Rage pumped through my body, and my head snapped up to look at the murderer.
Mr. St. Cloud stood there, gun still smoking at his side. When I rushed forward, Simon knelt down beside Chloe.
I grabbed Mr. St. Cloud's boy wrist and flipped him on his back, turning his arm. "You killed her!" I shouted, tears burning in my eyes. "You . . . Killed her!"
I lifted him over my head and threw him against the wall. I walked over and stepped on his neck as hard as I could, making for absolute certain he was dead. He deserved so much more. If there was a person who didn't deserve to die, it was Chloe. Not just because I loved her more than anything. How many times has she helped me? How many times has she helped people who didn't deserve it? How many times has she done something so nice, and didn't have a clue it was a good thing to do, because she thought it was the only thing?
I looked back over at her. Her head was in Simon's lap, and silent tears rolled down his face.
I walked over to her and fell to my knees. I let Simon hold her, because I mostly didn't want to look into her eyes again. I wanted to remember them being lit up when she was laughing, and crinkling in the corners when she smiled.
Chloe always said that right after someone was killed, she could see their ghost. Maybe her ghost was here, maybe she could hear what I was saying. "I'm so sorry," I whispered. Simon looked at me, like he thought maybe I was talking to him. I didn't even look at him. "I'm sorry. You came back to get me. It was me that . . ." I couldn't find the right word for what he was. "It was me he fought, me he was trying to shoot." The tears burned again. "it should've been me."
I took Chloe away from Simon then, holding her close to me, rocking her in my arms. I didn't want to think of it as "her body". It was Chloe.
"Chloe, if you can hear me, I love you and I'm sorry. So sorry." Hot tears rolled down my face. My insides were sliced so shreds, my body shaking. "It should've been me."
"Do you think she can hear us?" Simon asked me, his voice cracking.
I nodded.
He took a deep breath. "Chloe, I never told you things that I wish I had said, I never told you how I f—"
The door banged open. "What's all the hubbub?"
Tori flounced in. I didn't care. I was overwhelmed. How could she be dead? We were going to get married one day. We were going to be together always, no matter what.
I guess always is a lot shorter than I thought. I growled at my inner voice.
Tori looked at Chloe, who was still in my arms, and her eyes widened. Her breathing came faster. "She's just knocked out, right? That Cloud guy hit her over the head, and she's just knocked out. Get her into the car. She should be in a bed when she wakes up. She's been through a lot."
"She's not going to wake up," I said, my voice absolutely emotionless.
"Yes she will! Stop lying, Derek!" In a movement, Tori was right beside me, shoving me away from Chloe. Tori pulled Chloe close to her, looking into her vacant eyes. "No," Tori gasped, and her head snapped up. Her eyes were filled with tears. "Who did this?"
Simon answered. "The Cloud guy,"
"I'll kill him—"
"Derek already beat you to it."
I wasn't listening. Chloe's last moment haunted me, replaying again and again. Her face twisting in pain, but at the same time looking at me as if to say Derek, what's happening? She wanted me to have an answer, but I didn't. I'd let her walk behind me. I'd let her come along. I'd let her try to save me. I'd let her get shot.
"There's has to be a way," Tori said to Simon, almost pleadingly. I realized I'd missed their whole conversation.
"No, I don't think there is." Simon's voice was faint. I could tell that his heart wasn't in it. He was thinking about Chloe. "I could ask dad, but I'm pretty sure only necromancer's raise the dead."
Tori shook her head. "Some spell . . ."
My ears perked up without my consent. "You said you didn't think there was one, but we could ask dad. Maybe he'd have the answer. Why are we just sitting here? Chloe's counting on us!"I stood up, pulled Chloe's lifeless body into my arms and dashed out the door.
Lauren came running out, with dad right next to her. "Chloe!" Lauren called, running forward. "What happened?"
"She was . . ." My throat closed as tears burned in my eyes again. I couldn't get the words out.
"She was shot," Tori said, grief covering her tone. "I walked in and she was . . ."
"No," Lauren breathed, tears springing down her face. "In the arm? We need to get it looked out."
"Not in the arm," Simon whispered, appearing beside me.
"She's dead," Tori clarified.
The tears on Lauren's face flew faster and she began to cry. She flopped down on the side-walk, silently sobbing.
I looked at my dad, whose face was covered with sadness, eyes glittering. "We can bring her back, right?" I asked, my voice catching. "There has to be some kind of spell . . ."
"There's a few, but we can't do them. Millions of things could go wrong. You can't mess with nature using magic, son."
I put Chloe beside Lauren on the grass. I heard Tori mumbling something into a phone. "We need to do it,"
"We can't—"
"Now!" I growled. I've never done that to my dad before. But, as far as I was concerned, he was being selfish about the girl I love's life.
"We can't mess with nature." Dad said firmly.
"He's right," Simon's voice came from behind me.
I turned around so fast, glare blazing, that Simon flinched. "He's right? So I guess knocking people back with your words, and throwing energy balls is natural? I thought you of all people would be on my side in this."
Simon flinched again. "I'm sad, too." His voice was soft. "I know how you feel. I want her back. But things could go wrong. Most likely, whatever we bring back, wouldn't be Chloe anymore. Would that be any better?"
It wouldn't be. To have her so close, but I could never touch her. To see my Chloe doing things she would never, ever do . . . That's the only thing that could possibly be equally painful as this.
My dad put his hand on my shoulder, but I shook it off.
Tori appeared between me and Simon, waving her cell phone around. "I just called the ambulance, we should get out of here."
"Why'd you do that?" Simon asked.
"It's a lot easier to plan a funereal if you don't show up with some random body of a teenage runaway who nobody knew was dead. The other two options would be leaving her here, or burying her ourselves. Does either of you think that she deserves that?"
I didn't. I could tell Simon didn't either.
The dread feeling was back. It spread through my spin, across my stomach, and finally around my heart. It stayed there, crushing my heart with its weight. "So we should get away from the people in there . . ." she pointed at the building.
I honestly didn't care what the police thought. They could take me to jail. They could kill me. Nothing could be as bad as losing Chloe.
But I grumbled, "Fine," picked her up, and started walking in a random direction.
