Since You Been Gone
Chapter 3
Beca stood stock still, her eyes full of fear, panic and worry as she looked at the girl standing before her. Chloe was scowling at her, fists clenched at her sides and her hair looking like a raging inferno more than ever.
"Chloe, what's wrong?" Beca asked quietly, reaching out a hand towards Chloe's shoulder. The redhead swatted the hand away angrily.
"Don't touch me!" She yelled, causing Beca to take a few steps back, tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn't believe what she was hearing from her girlfriend and yet in a strange way she had always known that this day would come. But, she just wasn't ready for this to happen, not yet.
"Chloe, please don't do this." Beca said, her voice broken and quavering as tears rolled down her face. Chloe saw the hurt in Beca's eyes and she could feel her very soul shattering, but she knew she had to push on regardless, she had to do this.
"I can't go on living this way Beca! It's tearing me apart, my mind is breaking in two, I can't focus on anything anymore. You can't stay here anymore, I don't want to blame you, but everything that is going wrong is because of you!" Chloe said, started to sob uncontrollably. Beca sat down heavily on one of the chairs in the kitchen and rested her head in her hands.
"You know it's been hard for me too. Ever since the crash, I haven't been able to move on." Beca said, her voice muffled by sobs. Chloe looked at Beca incredulously and thought back to exactly a year ago to the day of the catastrophic crash.
Beca, Chloe, Amy and Cynthia-Rose sat in the back of the car while Stacie and Aubrey sat up front. Aubrey had asserted herself as driver, which was fair because the car did belong to her and Stacie had quickly called shotgun, so she could sit next to her beloved girlfriend. In the back of the vehicle Chloe and Beca had spent most of the trip in each-other's arms, exchanging romantic kisses that were as delicate as a Ming vase and as sweet as an apple pie. For most of the journey Cynthia Rose and Amy had exchanged nervous glances at each other, which always ended in them looking away, smiling and blushing deeply. They had even held hands for a few tentative moments, but there had been no obvious sign of them being an item. Stacie looked at her watch and gasped.
"Aubrey, it's six thirty!" she yelped and Aubrey shrieked.
"Oh crap, we have to be there in fifteen minutes! You might want to hold on back there, things are about to get very "Fast and Furious"! Brace yourselves!" Aubrey shouted over and slammed her foot down on the accelerator and the car shot forward at what can only be described as breakneck speed. The car was hurtling along at a speed that was almost certainly illegal. However, what Aubrey hadn't considered when gunning the engine was that there had been a recent cold snap and while there was no snow on the roads that didn't mean the roads were safe. In fact, there was an un-noticeable danger on the road that night, black ice. The car was travelling at such a high speed that when the rapidly turning wheels came into contact with the ice, the whole vehicle spun wildly. Aubrey was frantically spinning the wheel trying to regain control of the car and failing, Stacie was screaming, Chloe and Beca were clinging to each other for dear life and Cynthia-Rose and Amy were clinging to each other screaming in uncontrollable fear. The car hurtled across the black ice, hit the barrier at the edge of the road, smashed through it and flew through the air. All was still for a few precious seconds before the car crashed into the ground, bouncing and rolling before coming to a complete stop. The car was a mangled wreck and a fire had sprung into life, no doubt a result of the crash.
The girls got out of the car as quickly as possible, making it out just as the fire grew in stature, engulfing the car in flames. Aubrey couldn't see very well due to being disorientated and the fact that the flames were so bright.
"Okay everybody, when I call out your name I want you to confirm that you are here. Chloe?" Aubrey said, sounding like a teacher on a school trip.
"Here." Chloe replied.
"Amy?"
"Here!" Amy called loudly.
"Cynthia-Rose?"
"Here!" Cynthia-Rose said, in between kissing Amy's cheek.
"Stacie?"
"Here." Stacie called out.
"Beca?" Aubrey said, calling out the name of the only passenger unaccounted for, but no response came.
"Beca, are you here?" Chloe shouted, panic and desperation creeping into her voice. There was still no response. The girls had all regained their sight, their eyes adjusting to the glare of the flames. They all looked around quickly and realised in collective horror that Beca was nowhere to be seen. Chloe was distraught, but she was not going to let her girlfriend die in a car wreck. She ran towards the car, but just as she got near to it, the whole petrol tank ignited and there was a colossal explosion, which released a shockwave that lifted Chloe off of her feet and threw her backwards.
All of the girls looked at the wreckage in horror, there was no way anyone could have survived such an explosion and the flames were roaring louder than a lion and were enveloping the car in a fist of flame. Chloe began to cry, she felt utterly hopeless and alone. She had lost the one thing she had truly loved and cherished, her girlfriend, her titanium girl, her Beca was dead. Just as Chloe was about to descend into a psychological pit of infinite despair and melancholy she felt a gentle hand rest on her shoulder. Chloe looked up and through her tears she saw Beca smiling down at her. Squeaking with joy Chloe leaped to her feet and wrapped her arms around Beca, squeezing her tightly.
"I thought you were dead!" Chloe sobbed, her tears flowing down her cheeks and onto Beca's shoulder.
"Don't talk such nonsense Chloe. You know that I will never leave you." Beca said, whispering the words into Chloe's ears. The rest of the girls looked on incredulously at the scene in front of them. Chloe remained oblivious to this as she was happy to have Beca in her arms once more.
"I can't live like this anymore, every time I see you, I think back to that crash. I need you out of my life, I need to move on." Chloe said sadly. Beca stood up and walked past Chloe to the door of their apartment, just before she walked out the door, she turned around.
"Chloe, I know you don't want me in your life right now, but I want you to know that if you ever need me, I will not hesitate to be by your side."
"Thank you Beca, I really appreciate it." Chloe said, and she watched as Beca walked out of their apartment and shut the door behind her. Chloe walked into her bedroom and lay upon the bed looking up at the ceiling, wondering if she had done the right thing. She regretted that she had been so harsh in her attempt to get Beca to leave, but she knew that Beca understood that Chloe hadn't had a proper chance to move on since the crash. Seeing Beca's face every day since meant that Chloe was consistently having a recurring nightmare where Beca hadn't made it out of the crash alive. All as Chloe needed was for Beca to give her a few months space in which Chloe could put the horrors of the crash behind her and reclaim her life. After that, she would be fine, or at last she hoped so.
Six months later Chloe had gained a new lease of life, she had stopped needing to visit Dr Stamford and she had finally got in contact with all the friends that she had been neglecting for the past year. Cynthia-Rose and Amy were now in a relationship, which was a piece of news that had shocked everyone who heard it. The Barden Bellas had reformed as a freelance group that were soon to begin a tour across all the dive bars in America in order to chase their dream of hitting the big time.
The Bellas were going to be leaving on their road trip tour on the Friday, so Chloe decided to visit the cemetery on the Thursday to put some fresh flowers down at the grave. It was the least she could do before she left. She kneeled down before the gravestone and placed the fresh flowers into the vase set into the base of the headstone. A single tear fell down her cheek as she ran her fingers delicately over the inscription.
"Thank you so much for letting me move on." Chloe said to the headstone, her eyes scanning the inscription:
Beca Mitchell
Wonderful daughter, beautiful girlfriend, devoted friend, enchanting singer
Taken too soon
Chloe left the cemetery and walked down the street humming the tune to "Everytime" by Britney Spears to herself. Chloe never found out whether Beca's presence in their apartment was her grief stricken mind imagining that her girlfriend was still alive or whether Beca's love for Chloe was so intense that her spirit had been unable to cross over. All as Chloe knew for certain was that Beca was no longer a part of her life and now that she had accepted that fact she could begin to live her life to the full once more.
Fin