They'd just done what they'd dreamt of since they were fourteen.
"I hope he doesn't think I'm easy because I made the first move" Elle thought.
"Should I pull away first, or do I wait for her? I don't want to seem uninterested; or desperate. Should I tell her it's the first time I've ever been kissed, or is that just weird?" Alex thought.
Eventually they moved apart, both a bit too hot under the collar.
"We need to go now. We'll be in trouble unless we get proper medical attention. Can you walk ok?" Elle said, feeling slightly giddy.
"If we don't run it should be ok." Alex said, tactfully rubbing lip gloss off his mouth.
"Definitely beats the mood earlier though." Elle whispered to herself, as they went outside.
The fog had vanished, but murkiness remained. Raindrops kissed their fragile, shivering bodies. They'd left their coats in the hotel; too shredded to be of any use, so they were left in their T-shirts.
They considered going back inside and waiting till the it stopped, but it showed no sign of stopping and if they waited any longer they'd probably be dead. As the hours passed the buildings they passed vanished, trees took their place. Branches tapped against each other in the wind like bony fingers.
Euphoria jolted through them as they left the Silent Hill town limits. But as soon as it arrived, it'd vanished. They were in the middle of nowhere.
The rain went postal, shooting down like shell rounds. The angels must have been mourning.
"Don't cry angels!" Alex yelled in frustration and pain, pulling his soaking hair back from his face.
They staggered forward for hours, against the battering of the rain, wading weakly through the deep puddles, teeth chattering until their gums took hold, they stopped, doubled up on the side of the road, moaning in agony, praying that a car would go past.
Alex stared at Elle as she wrung the bottom of her T-shirt, water spluttered out. His own clothes stuck to him like an extra layer of skin. He'd never been so wet in his life; they may as well have jumped in a swimming pool fully clothed.
"If only her t-shirt was white." Alex thought to himself, even imagining that was too much of a struggle for his exhausted mind. They shivered, the wind grazing against their aching, saturated bodies.
A lane of emptiness continued forever, there was nowhere to shelter from the rain.
"We're dead. I can't believe it, we survive all that, and look at us!" Alex lamented, the battering of the rain only matched by the roaring of his stomach; every step had become a labour.
Elle was in just as bad a state, tensing her entire body until it stung, but it wasn't enough. She felt dead. Her cynical side agreed with him, they couldn't move much more and no cars had passed them.
"I still have the pistol." Elle said.
"You really want to do it?" Alex had considered it several times.
"I would think things could only get better, but we've both said that before and then look what happened." Elle said. Alex agreed, their young lives had been full of tragedy and misery.
"What would our families say?"Alex questioned.
"My mom would spout garbage, and my dad would make me go down into the basement alone with him!" Elle rarely got this angry; her head was a mess of hormones, heartache and hatred. Alex thought about what Elle said, his father would've probably called him a failure and thrown something heavy at him, and his mother would've just stayed silent.
"More importantly what would Nora and Josh say?" Alex said. Silence. Darkness engulfed their eyes as their pain pushed them unconscious.
They lay on top of a picnic blanket, on top of a mountain in the clear night air. Crickets chirped merrily in tall trees that surrounded them. Elle reached for her camera to take a picture. Alex lay with his hands behind his head, staring at the bulbous moon that serenaded them and the hundreds of jewels embroiled carefully into the sky.
"We all think we're so special and powerful, but then you see all this, and you feel really insignificant."Elle said as she lay on her back on the flat grass.
"I know what you mean. It makes you want to go and see everything out there." Alex replied.
They'd gone to see an asteroid shower, alone. Margaret was hesitant about allowing her daughter to go, but Elle managed to persuade her, they were 18 after all.
"There are so many things out there I want to do and I won't get to do even half of them, because I'm just a small town girl." Elle said. Alex began to open his mouth, when Elle cut in. "Alex! Don't even think of breaking out into song! I value my sense of hearing." Elle joked.
"I wasn't dreaming of it. And obviously you're the next Christina Aguilera!" Alex said dryly.
"Well, yes I am. Haven't you heard my amazing cover version of Fighter?" Elle said.
"About nine times." Alex smiled back.
"You're obviously blessed." Elle said. She was kicking herself for not bringing a jacket now; her "I Love New York" t-shirt wasn't keeping her that warm, Alex could see this, he took of his jacket and gave it to her.
"I'm fine seriously, it's my fault. Thanks though." Elle said, handing it back to him. She was cold, but she wasn't pathetic.
"At least take my sweater then. It's too hot." Alex said. He had done the opposite to Elle; he wore a t-shirt, a sweater and a leather jacket. He passed her his sweater and put his jacket back on.
"His sweater even smells of him." Elle thought to herself, before realising how stalker-ish it sounded.
"You know when the CIA recruits me as a super spy travelling all over the world fighting crazy bad guys to stop them from achieving world domination; you can hide in my suitcase." Alex joked.
"Oh that's going to happen, isn't it Mr Bond." Elle said.
"The name is Shepherd. Alex Shepherd" Alex said in his best Sean Connery impression. Elle laughed at him. "Elle, the shower is starting!" Alex yelled.
Elle looked up at asteroids dropping down like petals falling off a rose. The lay in awe until the shower stopped.
"That was amazing." Elle said.
"I told you you'd enjoy it when I dragged you along." Alex replied. Silence. "When we leave for university, we're still going to be best friends?" Alex said.
"Of course, our phone bills are going to be huge!" Elle said; they laughed.
His love for Elle was spreading; he had to tell her how he felt otherwise he would fall victim to it and die.
"I got something I've been trying to tell you. I can't think of a way to say now...but can we meet up again the day after tomorrow, I'll think of a way by then." Alex said, his heart bouncing, awaiting a response.
"Yes! I mean... of course you can. How about really early like 6am!" Elle said eagerly, she knew he was finally going to say how he felt for her.
"Good, I would've said tomorrow night, but I'm taking Josh out on the lake in the boat." Alex said.
The rest of the night was wonderful, Elle thought. She'd anticipated when he would confess his love to her. She waited for him that day at 6am on her porch in the pouring rain, not realising Josh was already dead, and that she wouldn't see Alex for two years.
Elle and Alex were awoken on the side of the road, by a dark haired man dressed like a stereotypical trucker, but his face was different, not tired, old and lonely; he looked like he'd been through a lot, his eyes told that, but he looked at ease, happy and compassionate, Elle put him in his early forties, but a good forty at that. He seemed to know Alex somehow, Elle was in too much pain to inquire how or why.
The man went to his truck for a moment, Elle and Alex noticed that the pistol was gone.
"You don't think they took it do you?" Elle whispered over the rain which had only just calmed slightly.
"Josh...Nora." Alex said quietly. Elle nodded, and for what seemed like the hundredth time since they were reunited less than three days ago, they were silent, deep in thought.
The man returned, he carried Elle and Alex into his truck, taking them to the nearest hospital in Brahms. Alex and Elle rested on each other on the back seat; barely able to talk due to the deluding pain.
Elle knew Travis was married, she could see his wedding ring. She glanced around at the photos and children's pictures which saturate the walls. They were of the Travis, an attractive woman around his age and children, who she deduced were his wife and kids; a happy family.
"Could we ever have that?" Elle thought, the we being her and Alex. She lay on Alex's shoulder trying to avoid putting weight on her own.
After what seemed like days but was only 10 minutes they arrived in Brahms Hospital, thank God they both had health insurance. The staff placed them both on stretchers and separated them; Elle sank down onto hers and fell unconscious.
Elle woke up in the white and sterile hospital. The starched artificial light shining down onto her. Then the hospital began to change, the walls peeled off, revealing the otherworld she now knew all too familiar.
She shouted for help, but no one came. Screeches of static penetrated her eardrums, she fell out of bed, took her weapons and investigated. She shone a torch at a wall; which the shadow of a nurse behind her. Elle swung the crowbar through its face (or lack of one), slicing it clean off.
The static continued. More nurses clambered towards her. The clattering of their heels creating sparks on the iron floor. Elle turned off her light, and hid in the corner, the spark came painfully close to her and stopped.
Elle held her breath. And held it. Her lungs screaming for oxygen. She needed to breathe. The nurses eventually carried on past her. She took this opportunity to evade them and go into another room.
She continued her search for Alex, when a massive ape creature covered in bondage tape burst through the door, buffeting her to the floor. She rolled out of the way, firing assault rifle rounds into his face. To little effect. She got back up and ran behind it., noticing a female form fixed to the back of it. The ape swung his heavy fists at Elle; slamming her to the ground again.
She couldn't get up. The ape began flailing his fists down in a final blow when the female form on his back seemed to take control, he was stunned in place. Elle shot him once in the head with a pistol round. It hit the floor dead.
She carried on running through the corridors, until she found Alex bloody corpse slumped against the wall. She screamed in anger and sadness. And continued running down the corridor, she didn't care about living anymore.
She met the attention of a group of nurses and went wild with her assault rifle, emptying as many rounds into the crowd as she could. She then took her pistol, and used that. Dozens of dead nurses lay on the floor. But more were amassing around her. One bullet was left. She used it on herself.
Elle woke up screaming, in a small, sanitary hospital room, connected to an IV drip, shivering uncontrollably. A nurse ran in to check on her.
"Another night terror?" The kind nurse asked.
"Yeah. How long have I been here?" Elle wiped puddles of sweat from her brow.
"Two weeks, You've mostly healed, that shoulder wound is still pretty nasty, so the doctor had prescribed pain killers."
"Thanks. What about my friend?" Elle asked, praying that Alex was still alive.
"Like you, he was in a bad state, but he's improved. You can meet up in a few days if you want." The prospect filled Elle with excitement.
The day arrived when they could meet again. The sun shone onto their light starved skin. They were sat together on a bench in the hospital garden; both looked as good as new besides some faint scars and bruises.
"When can you be discharged? I can be let out next week if I want to." Elle started off conversation.
"About the same time. I was thinking about using some of the inheritance to finally go to college. Somewhere far away from Shepherd's Glen." That was Alex, after all this trauma and tragedy, he was still moving forward.
Both Alex and Elle inherited everything from their parents as they were the only next of kin. And both of them were surprised that they actually got quite a bit of money; roughly $800,000.
"That's a good idea. I could do the same. We both got lots of points when we graduated, remember." Elle said.
There was then a slight pregnant silence. Alex broke it
"Remember what I said in the hotel. That was the truth. I really love you. And if it got awkward when we started kissing, I'm sorry, but that's how I feel."
"Of course I love you. I nearly gave up on love when you were away. And now you've then you came back. Of course I want you. I love everything about you. And top it off your the hottest guy I've ever met." She finally told him how she felt.
They fell into the others arms.
