Chapter 37: A Sound of Thunder

Tick

Tock

"I won't leave without you…"

Tick

"Hahahah…"

"...ever be… alone…"

Tock

"Make me…"

"...I miss them so much…"

Tick

"...It's your fault she…!"

Tock

"What happens when you die?"

Tick

"We're... family…"

Tock

"What happens when you die, Aubrey?"

"Please go out with me?" Chloe pouted.

"No, Chlo, we talked about this." Aubrey sighed.

"Do I ever ask you for anything?"

"Look, your parents will never find out about this. We don't even have to be sneaky, we're living together."

Chloe pouted and Aubrey felt her stomach drop.

"If ANYONE finds out that we went to the gay bar, my parents will kill me."

"They will never find out!" Chloe whined, "Pretty please?"

Aubrey looked at Chloe's puppy eyes and she knew that she could never say no to her. Even though she still felt her father's hand burn on her cheek from earlier that week, she agreed eventually. Her friend was overjoyed and ranted about preparation and how much fun it would be. She just hoped she was right and prayed to God that no one would find out.

That night, Aubrey's hands were sweaty as she showed the guard her ID. The guard rubbed his eyes as he cast a quick look at the card between his fingers before he returned it and nodded. Chloe grinned and grabbed her hand tightly as they walked through the doors. Loud music blasted reached their ears, which Aubrey instantly recognized as Madonna.

"Drinks on me!" Chloe yelled over the music. Before Aubrey could protest, her friend was gone. She sighed and put off her coat and hung it on the pegs next to the entrance.

"You look like you're lost." she suddenly heard.

"I guess I am." she stammered to the brunette that was leaning against the wall next to her.

"Don't worry, me and my friends will get you through. Are you alone?"

"No, Chloe went to get some drinks."

"Oh, that's too bad." she said disappointedly. Her eyes wandered over Aubrey's body. "Well, how long have you gals been dating?"

"No, I'm not gay, I'm here for her." Aubrey said offended.

"Right." the girl winked.

Aubrey was about to say something snappy she would later regret when Chloe came up from behind her and handed her two shots.

"Hi!" Chloe said, happily as ever. "I'm Chloe, what's your name?"

Aubrey's mind was fuzzy when she felt herself being dragged out of the car. She couldn't stand up, so her body was pulled by her father across the concrete of their driveway. The rough tiles scraped across her arm, leaving several cuts on her skin. She wondered how long this was going to take when she was thrown into a chair.

Her father was yelling at her, but his words did not reach her. She still hadn't figured out how her parents knew where she was, but they had entered the club and dragged her outside and into their car. She closed her eyes to stop the world from spinning. Her father's hand hit her across her cheek. She heard her mother sob in the background of the yelling of her father she did not comprehend. He forced her to speak, but no words left her mouth. She opened her eyes slowly when she did not feel his hand anymore and saw that her mother was standing between her and her father. They were both shouting at each other as they pointed at her like they were taking turns. But her mother defending her only seemed to anger him more and he pushed her out of the way as he took off his belt, something which he rarely did. But going to that place, she must have pushed too far, she thought. This was her fault.

Aubrey did not dare to open her eyes as she felt pain everywhere. She did not hear the wheezing sound her father made when he struck her, nor the sound of leather on her skin. She heard her mother cry. Resisting would only result in something worse. Her father grabbed her by her hair and threw her into the closet in the guest room. She did not hear the door locking. She tumbled onto to the wooden floor of the closet. Her hands cupped her ears to block out the sounds she did hear inside her head. The silence that followed swallowed her whole, as the darkness took over her body, and her consciousness.

After hours and hours of searching in two groups, Stacie and Chloe almost gave up. It was late in the afternoon and the air was warm and humid, making it hard to breathe. They had split up into two groups, searching for the lost girls. Naturally, Stacie and Chloe joined each other looking for their loved ones. The jungle was unusually quiet today because the air around them told them a storm was coming. The girls didn't speak a word. Their bodies were tense and their senses were enhanced. Like animals, they knew something was about to happen. Stacie shifted the gun from behind her back to her stomach, as she wasn't used to the feeling yet. Chloe's eyes widened as she saw.

"Stacie…" she stammered. "What is that?"

"Did you let her go without the gun?!" Chloe snapped.

"Chloe, please…"

"Don't say my name right now. Did you let her go without the gun?" she spoke very clearly.

"Yes." Stacie answered breathlessly.
"How could you do that.." Chloe's voice broke. "You knew they were still out there.."

"She refused to stay and do nothing about your disappearance-"

"Could you have stopped her?"

"I wanted you safe."

"Then why didn't you go with her?!" Chloe cried.

"I don't know!"

"Tell me!"

"I didn't know this would happen!" Stacie yelled.

"You let everyone that I love die! She left me! She left me alone! You send her away! How could you do that?!"

"I did not send her away! This was her decision"

"If you had stayed with her-…!"

"Everyone I cared for has either died or is missing!" Stacie yelled back. "...Everyone… except for you!"

Chloe tried to contain her rage, but she was afraid she couldn't.

"You have no idea what loss is." Stacie whispered angrily.

Suddenly, they heard a cough in the distance. They hurried towards the sounds and found their friend lying next to a small river. Aubrey had regained consciousness and coughed the water that was trapped in her airways. Both girls fell to her knees and tried to help her. But the words they had said to each other still echoed inside their heads.

"Aubrey… can you hear me?" Chloe said.

When she woke up, Aubrey panicked and tried to stand up, only to increase the blood streaming from the 10-inch gash on her calf and a small, but deep one in her stomach.

"Stay down… You're injured."

Aubrey still didn't respond. She only looked at them for a few seconds, before she realized she wasn't in danger anymore. And when she did, her eyes started to water and she cried convulsively.

"Please, sweetie, tell us what happened to you." Stacie said as she stroked a strand of hair out of her her face. Chloe had taken her belt and wrapped it tightly around Aubrey's calf, just under the knee to try and stop the bleeding. The gash was open and wide and bled heavily.

Aubrey didn't answer. When Stacie tried to look into her eyes, she avoided her gaze.

"Please… talk to us." She tried again.

Aubrey shook her head and looked to her calf.

"She needs help, she's losing a lot of blood." Chloe sighed.

"Well, I don't happen to have a first aid kit lying around." Stacie snapped.

Aubrey looked at Chloe and then at Stacie. They noticed that her gaze was somehow… different. The light in her eyes had died and had been replaced by a terror they had never seen before.

"We need to get her to a safe place. Do you remember the direction to the beach?" Chloe tried again.

"I do. Let's get her up."

With some help, Aubrey ended up on her feet, but she tumbled to the ground as she tried to walk, even with both their support.

"I'll carry her." Stacie said as she picked her up in her arms. She noticed how incredibly light the girl was. She had noticed before when they were swimming. They all had lost a lot of weight when they were here, to the point that their collarbones and the lower part of their ribs were showing. As they walked, they left a trail of blood that was dripping down Aubrey's legs. She started to lose consciousness again.

"No no no… stay with me. You cannot leave me now." Stacie said. Aubrey opened her eyes, but her eyelids were heavy.

"We have to hurry."

When they had arrived on the beach, they laid her down carefully.

"Alright, you need to stay here, I'm going to look for Beca." Chloe said.

"No, we just talked about this!"

"That's why you're giving me the gun this time. You need to stay with Aubrey, the other girls can come back any second."

"No, Chloe, I'm coming with you-" Stacie said angrily.

"She's dying! Can't you see?!" Chloe said, looking her in the eye. Aubrey flinched as she heard her scream. "You've done enough."

"This is not my fault." she pointed to the girl on the beach.

"Isn't it?" Chloe asked angrily.

Stacie's answer was stuck inside her throat.

"Give me the gun." Chloe demanded.

Her whole body was trembling as she took the gun from between her jeans and hip and handed it to her. She had never seen Chloe like this. She was outraged. Her eyes were dark and she looked angry.

But when she turned around, holding the gun in both hands, she hesitated as she looked to the dark jungle.

"What are you waiting for?!" Stacie said. "Go!"

And with that mark, Chloe disappeared into the jungle.

After a waiting a while, the other girls had still not returned to the beach. Stacie sighed and thought of ways to keep Aubrey awake.

"Aubrey, you need to stay awake."

The blonde girl on the sand didn't answer.

"Here, you can't be comfortable like that." she said as she moved Aubrey's head to her lap.

A silence followed, which Stacie did not expect was helpful for her to stay awake.

"I'm going to tell you something, and you need to listen to me really carefully, so you'll stay awake, okay?"

Aubrey nodded.

"I've never told you about my home. But I guess I never told anyone, really." she said.

"No one knows that I grew up in France, in Marseille to be exact. We owned a small house near the sea. I, my brother Lucas and my parents moved to the States when I was 12 for my father's job, but…" she hesitated shortly.

"But three years after we moved, my parents died in a car crash… It was storming and an oncoming truck lost control of the vehicle. Lucas was only 12 when it happened." her voice cracked.

"Having no family left, we both were adopted by this American family. My adoptive family is fantastic, but I still miss my parents every day. My adoptive mother, Jenny is serious, but kind. David, my adoptive father, is the funny one and keeps saying that he looks like Morgan Freeman. But besides the age, they're nothing alike." Stacie chuckled. "He does speak a little french."

"And I know you won't speak to me, or Chloe. I don't know what happened last night when you were gone, but everything's going to be okay."

"Some twenty years from now

I'm sure that we'll both be somewhere,
working our butts of to pay off the mortgage." Stacie sang as she ran out of things to say.

"But isn't that all that we've always been wishing for?"

The jungle rustled in response. The sea became more restless every second. Dark clouds had gathered above their heads, and the first drops of rain were falling down.
"Some twenty years from now,
all that we'll talk about is breastfeeding and car payments and apple pie recipes.
"But God, we'll be happy having drowned inconvenience."

The sea smashed its water against the rocks in the distance. Stacie grabbed her hand as she felt Aubrey tense up. The nature around them was screaming, warning them about the danger that was coming.
"And yet, I've lost so many people in my life, over and over again." Stacie whispered.

"I lost my parents, I lost Cynthia, I lost Jessica and Denise, I lost Lily… But I was most scared of losing you."

Will you sometimes think of me?
The girl who never lied about her love for you.
Won't you forget.

"Beca?" Chloe said softly as if she were to say it too loud, the girl in front of her would disappear again.

Beca just looked at her friend and she looked like this was the first time she'd ever seen her. Chloe's heart was racing and her whole body was trembling from adrenaline, as the other girl stood completely still. Large drops of rain smashed against their bodies as the thunder fulminated above them. Darkness had spread between the trees like a fog. They stood there, in the woods, looking at each other as if they were enemies. Enemies after an undecided battle between their armies.

Beca looked vulnerable, her hands rested against her stomach as she rubbed the wounds on her hands. Chloe looked defeated, as she unconsciously traced the purple bruises on her neck. They both had suffered loss. They both were grieving. This war they were fighting had no winners.

Some twenty years from now

what happened today will be no more than a tiny little bump

in the endlessly smooth surface of the highway of our existence.

This had to end.

"Beca… I…" Chloe stammered. "I've played this moment over and over again in my head and thought of every scenario and everything I could say, but seeing you now is just-"

Chloe was cut off by Beca laying her hands on her glowing cheeks.

"Shut up and kiss me." Beca said breathlessly and she kissed her softly first but pulled her closer when she felt Chloe respond. Chloe cried as she kissed her, breathing her in and touching her shoulders and her back, all the things she loved so much about her. She smelled the scent of Beca's skin, which belonged to her and only her. Her hand was entangled in her brown hair, which was not soft as she hadn't washed it in weeks, but she still adored its texture. She loved the way that Beca was standing on her toes to kiss her. In fact, she was in love with all the things about her and holding her after she thought she had lost her over and over again, was too much for her.

Some twenty years from now

all that I'll be asking myself is what the hell, I was thinking

When I decided to fall head over heels for you.

Chloe felt like she was dreaming. She was inside this terrible nightmare, where Beca was the one that tried to drag her out. She could not wake up. What had happened to them would haunt her, even if she could wake up, after all this time.

The place around her suddenly did not feel real anymore. Chloe pulled away and looked into Beca's eyes. The darkness she saw there, was caused by the things that happened here. This dream state she was in, Beca had come to her to wake her up. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to wake up. Beca pulled her into a firm hug. In her thoughts, she saw her mother sitting right behind Beca on the cold ground. The red-haired mother, that looked so much like her, replaced the dead flowers for new ones in front of the stone she was kneeling for. Her mother had kissed the stone, before she stood up and left the scene, leaving the stone for Chloe to see.

In loving memory

Chloe Anne Beale

March 9th, 1995 - October 15th, 2016

A loud crack was heard and a white flash zipped through the sky. When she opened her eyes, her mother and the stone were gone. When she looked at Beca, she saw concern in her eyes.

"What's that sound?" Beca asked.

Chloe heard the sound to as she saw an orange glow cast over Beca's face. The color of the light combined with the typical scent scared the girls.

"Chloe, the jungle is on fire!" Beca said hysterically.

"What? How?!"

But there was no time for answers, as they now clearly saw the flames approaching them.

"Chloe run!"

But Chloe froze in terror and she watched the flames near them. If Beca hadn't grabbed her hand and pulled her with, she maybe had stayed on that same spot, watching the flames take over. But moments later, they were running, never letting go of each other's hands.

As they ran, they saw animals everywhere. Small animals, but also animals the size of themselves, all fled in the same direction. As they ran, the jungle screamed in agony as the fire burned her precious skin.

"Shit!" Donald cursed as he burned himself, trying to use the zippo to make a fire. He angrily tossed the object away as he sat down on the ground.

"Are you alright?" Joseph asked.

"It's nothing." Donald said annoyed. He laid down on some palm leaves he had gathered for the night. The Bella's had only made 3 wide beds, which were of course for the two leaders of the group Jesse and Bumper. Greg, the guy who followed Bumper around and copied everything he did, got the third bed. This is how things went the last couple months. Jesse and Bumper always had had a certain kind of hierarchy in the group and being here had not changed that. They had always claimed more food for themselves. They never had to do the stupid chores in the camp. But besides everything, life had been fairly good. No one had died. Donald had been sick for a while, but nothing life-threatening. It could have been so much worse, so no Treble was complaining about the situation they were in.

The other guys weren't there because they had gone swimming in the small lake in another part of the cave.

"I smell you got the fire on!" Kolio said as he walked to the camp next to the stream. He stared for a moment to the pile of wood that was, in fact, not burning at all.

"What's that smell then?" Greg asked.

"Smells like…" Jesse started and he looked outside through the opening in the stone that leads to the jungle.

"Fire!"

"What?" Bumper asked.

"There's a fire! We need to run!"

A few moments later, the Trebles left everything behind but their guns. Like animals, they fled the forest and left everything behind. When they ran past the last vegetation on the edge of the forest and reached the beach, they heard the loading sound of a gun.

"Don't even think about it."

Jesse sighed as he put his hands up. The scenery was lightened by the fire in the forest behind them. The fire was enormous and spread a heat that made everyone sweaty and nervous. One could hear the sound of trees falling down as they burned.

"Put down your guns." Chloe said as she pointed the gun to Bumper. Amy collected the guns they dropped on the sand.

"Got you now, dimwits." Amy said.

"I should shoot you right now." Chloe said. Her hands were trembling.

Everyone looked at Chloe, breathlessly.

"You don't want to do this." Joseph said. "I know what he did to you. And I know that he can never make that right."

"Shoot him." Stacie said. Her eyes were watering as they shot from Bumper to Aubrey lying in front of her. Chloe stepped towards him.

"How could you do this to me!" she shouted while crying. Jesse looked away, but Chloe grabbed his face and turned it towards her.

"Answer me!" she cried.

"Stop lying, they haven't done anything wrong!" Greg yelled back.

"I didn't mean to." Jesse suddenly said. Greg's and Kolio's eyes widened. Donald sighed and he looked to Joseph.

"What, you mean you accidentally raped her?!" Ashley said angrily.

"I was scared, okay?" His voice was trembling as he spoke the words. "It was the stress of everything we've been through, combined with what happened between me and Beca."

"Is this what it's all about?!" Beca said unbelievingly.

"My heart was broken!" Jesse said in defense and he turned back to Chloe "You had taken everything from me I ever wanted…"

"What the hell are you talking about." Bumper spat.

"And at that moment, I felt… so... powerful." He sighed as he looked Chloe in the eye for the first time that night. "Every night when I go to sleep, I relive that moment."

"But there's nothing that I'd like to take back more than what I did to you." he said as his voice broke and a tear rolled over his cheek.

"I don't expect you to forgive me… I don't expect that from anyone. I don't even deserve to live."

"She deserved everything she went through." Bumper said.

"No one deserves something like that." Greg said softly.

"She killed my brother!" Bumper shouted. "You killed John, just because he liked her!" he pointed to Aubrey.

"That's not true!" Chloe said bitterly.

"Hell, I don't even need to know why you did it." he continued. "You set the house on fire when you saw Aubrey and John going upstairs… I've seen you knocking over the candles on purpose!"

"I-I…"

"I don't know if you are just denying everything or if you honestly don't remember." he cried and the tears on his face reflected the still rising flames behind them. "But you killed my brother and you got away with it. I still miss him, every day. I was planning to get revenge on you by destroying the Bella's. That's why I drugged Aubrey before your final performance last year, so she would screw things up and the Bellas would be over. But that wasn't enough. I needed to hurt you. Permanently."

Chloe punched him on his cheek and she was pretty sure she felt something break underneath her knuckles. Bumper spat a bit of blood on the sand and he showed her his bloody teeth.

"You know what is funny? Me telling you why I hate you so much, but in fact, I don't owe you anything, not even an explanation."

She hit him again.

"In fact, what's even funnier, that you've become everything you fear about me. Look at me, sitting here, getting beaten up with a gun against my head so I'm not able to defend myself…"

Again. Blood from his mouth was smeared over her knuckles.

"You were at the same place as I am now, exactly 93 days ago…"

"Shut up! She's nothing like you!" Beca said as she grabbed one of Amy's guns and pressed it against his forehead.

Chloe's whole body was trembling, as the realization struck her. Amy was standing behind her and rubbed her shoulders to calm her down. Her vision blurred and her hands slowly moved to her hair as she grabbed two fists full. She pulled as she fell to her knees and cried.

"I've created a monster!" Bumper laughed, even with Beca's gun against her head. "You ARE me!"

"Shut your mouth! You don't get to talk to her like that!" Beca said angrily. "She will never be you. At least she has some dignity left."

Beca looked at Jesse as she talked. "Chloe still knows love… kindness… friendship. She is the smartest and best person I know and I love her."

Chloe breathed deeply as she heard her. The rushing of the sea, the burning of the forest and the beating of their hearts, which was almost inseparable of the noises that the island made, stopped for a very brief moment.

"Guys, look at that…" Joseph said as he pointed at the large beam of light coming from the sea, not too far away from them to see it came from a small boat. The beam illuminated Bumper and the gun pressed against his head. It cast shadows of the rain on their faces. Thunder raged above them in protest.

"Hey!" Amy yelled as she waved her arms. "We're here!"

Beca didn't look behind her to the boat. She only looked at Bumper, how his pupils dilated as the light was shining upon them.

"We're saved…" he said softly and for a moment, Beca saw a normal boy in front of her. But the blood on his lips betrayed what he had done.

"No... We are, but you're not…" Beca said softly to him. "May God have mercy on your soul."

Rain splashed against her face, she heard the sounds of the waves crashing behind her and the light of the fire in front of her reached her eyes as her finger tensed up and pulled the trigger of the gun. Bumper lifeless body fell to the ground. Blood splashed against her face, she heard the sounds of various screams behind her and the light coming from the headlights of the boat reached her eyes as her hand released the gun. The gun fell lifeless onto the ground.

She slowly turned around and she was blinded by the white light.

This was it.

This was the end.

The world had stopped turning.

~ End

A/N: I want to thank everybody who read and supported my story. All I ask is if you want to leave a review, even if you don't have an account (yes, I'm looking at you!), I'd still appreciate it if you left an anonymous review!

I'm also making an additional chapter, where I explain various things in this story and point out some of the easter eggs I put in. It's like a SparkNote for my story. It will be up on Sunday next week. If you want your question to be answered, don't hesitate to ask in a review or through a PM. If you are reading this after I posted the SparkNote chapter, I will still answer your questions through PM.

Last but not least, I want to give a huge shoutout to my best friend, biggest fan, and bèta-reader Johanna. I could not have done this without you. I love you so much. Thank you for everything.

I haven't written all the things I have to say about this storyline yet, so (after a break) there will be a sequel to this story. It will be called Yesterday. I put a trailer of the story on my YouTube channel (April C Blue), so if you'd like to see a preview you can check it out there or on my Tumblr (AprilChloeBlue). Follow me (the author, not the story) on fanfiction to get a notification when the story is published.

Thanks again for reading this story.

~AprilChloeBlue