Prompt #14: It's my life, it's now or never, but I ain't gonna live forever, I just wanna live while I'm alive "It's My Life" – Bon Jovi
There are skid marks on the road; testament that this is all real, that Jack is not dreaming. Laura is somewhere in that icy water. All the wishing in the world will not bring her back to him. And now there is an empty grave and a broken family.
He imagines her terror as her car plunged into the river; somehow she'd managed to get out but the current was too strong. He wonders if she fought the water. Knowing Laura, she probably tried her hardest to get to the bank and to safety. She would have done all she could to get back to her family.
He remembers the first time he'd seen her, how she'd been so vibrant and full of energy. There was a spark in her that drew him to her, like a moth to a flame, and now he doesn't know he's supposed to carry on without her. He's forgotten what it's like to not have her in his life.
She'd always been so alive, he thinks. There was nothing she wasn't afraid to do or to try; it is – was – one of the things he loves about her.
This isn't fair. He's not ready to let her go. He still needs her; Sydney still needs her.
"Promise me forever," she'd say, and he did. This is not the ending they're supposed to have.
A car pulls up beside him and Arvin gets out. "Jack, what are you doing here?"
"I needed to see it."
Arvin sighs. "Jack, I need to talk to you."
"Okay."
"At the office."
"I'm not ready to go back to work yet."
And then Arvin says the words that further upend Jack's world: "Jack, Laura was not who we thought she was."