Orphic - Until Dawn (Josh Washington)

☆ Chapter Eleven: Revelation ☆

Cora’s P.O.V

My eyes are wide and disbelieving; staring deeply into the baby blues I had come to adore with every inch of my being. This can’t be real. This isn’t possible. I remind myself whilst burying that lingering hope within my aching heart, even as my trembling fingers move upwards, towards his face.

That fear takes hold, along with the desire to convince myself that this is real and not the illusion I fear it to be. He looks so much like Josh. Those eyes, his touch, his voice... they all belonged to Josh. It can’t be, can it? I shake my head, unconvinced until my fingertips finally make hesitant contact with his cold cheek, gliding softly along the smoothness of it.

He feels real.

“Josh...” I hear myself breathe out with a quiver to my already quiet tone.

His eyes soften at my touch while his lips tip into a small smile and his head tilts, allowing him to lean into my touch like so many times before. “I’m so sorry...” I hear him murmur with a heavy regret, his eyes meeting with my own conflicted ones.

“You can’t be real,” I again shake my head, stubbornly refusing to be fooled by this illusion. “Josh is dead. You—you died.” I say louder than before, again reminding myself of the fact.

However, Josh shakes his head with a frown as my hand drops from his cheek to rest at my side once more. He looks saddened by my sudden lack of physical contact with him, like he felt it to be a punishment. “I didn’t die, Cora. I’m here and I’m real.” he tells me.

He’s damn convincing, I’ll give him that.

“But—” I can’t make sense of it. My mind is fried. My heart is shattered and now I’m forced to stare the very source of my anguish in the face as though all was okay when indeed it was certainly not. “How?”

It’s a simple question, one I’m eager to have answered. Even if I sense that the answer is a lot more complicated and hurtful than I had first believed.

“I’m sorry.” he repeats with a head shake and a hand running through his short dark locks. “It was never supposed to be like this. You were never supposed to be here.” he’s mumbling lowly, almost to himself more than me. He looks terrified, broken and utterly conflicted over something. I want to comfort him, to reassure him that it’s all going to be okay but the truth is, everything is different now.

I need answers; I deserve them.

“J-Josh,” I swallow thickly, unable to believe that the man I love is alive and sat before me. “Just tell me what happened. Start at the beginning... help me understand. Okay?” I take his hands encouragingly in mine while my eyes shift to meet his, a smile gracing my lips.

I need to make this okay for him, even for a short moment. He needs me and I need him. We are broken souls seeking to mend one another with care and love. I have to try to understand. Just like he has always tried to understand me. And so, with an encouraging nod from me, he begins.

“I never meant for you to get hurt like this. I just, I wanted them to feel the humiliation, panic and pain my sisters felt a year ago. I wanted to get justice in some way for what they did to Hannah. But...” he sighs, shaking his head with creased brows. His fingertips glide gently up my wrist, running along my bandages with guilt behind his eyes. “All I’ve done is hurt the one person who means the most to me.” he acknowledges.

“All this for revenge against your friends?” I ask with a deepening frown.

He nods, “my sisters disappeared in the woods because of their cruel prank,” he chuckles dryly, no humour within it. “They got to go on like nothing happened; living their lives and moving forward while my family is left broken and missing two vital pieces. It’s unfair.” Resentment leaks into his tone, his teeth gritting angrily.