The Last Cabin

Chapter 16

Finn woke with a jump, covered in sweat. The morning was gray and cloudy; I couldn't tell if the sun was rising. The look on Finn's face was tense as he got up and moved around the room with loud feet.

"Finn," I whispered. He paused to look over at me, "please come lay with me, a little longer, and talk to me, before this day has to happen." He nodded his head as he slipped back into bed. The large window to the bedroom held fog and clouds in the misty sky. His arms wrapped around me as I clung to his chest, smelling his scent once again. He pressed his mouth on the top of my head.

"I wish I had met you before. I wish we could have had a normal life together, at least for a bit," he said.

I pulled my head away from his chest to look at his eyes, "we had those few days," I said with a grin. He pulled me in tighter.

"It wasn't enough. I'll never forget you, Poppy, not in this life or the next, whatever happens."

"It's hard to remember people in the next life; memories fade, but the feeling will always be there, and I felt that since I first met you. Maybe we've done this before, and maybe we'll do it again. Time is such a strange concept. It seemed as though my whole life before you, I was waiting to see you again."

Finn paused for a moment, with a thoughtful face, "Yeah... yeah, that's what it is. Everything was leading up to meeting you. Nothing else made sense until I saw you, then it all became so clear, the pain and disappointments. It all fits now."

"So what's our next life going to be, Finn? Are you going to be famous again, or are you going to be more simple? What if in the next life, we're amoebas, or bacteria or..." I said with a giggle.

"Maybe we'll be giants on another planet," he said with a smile.

We laid in bed for two hours, planning out multiple next lives, what we could be, what the future would look like. We talked about our childhoods, because we never went into that much, and it turned out, we both had this sense of missing home, or missing the comfort of it since we were both young kids, especially on stormy nights, but with each other, that longing faded away. Home wasn't a place, it was a feeling.

After being entangled with each other over the morning, the grayness was replaced with the bright sun piercing through the windows. We got out of bed, dressed, and sat for a pop-tart breakfast. Once at the table we were quiet, possibility eating our last meal together.

"Poppy, life is precious, and even if we do have another one together, I want you to live this one as long as you can. We don't really know anything, but we do know that Mitchel and Carson have a plan out of here. Maybe you're supposed to experience things without me, I don't know, but you have to consider going."

The thought of death scared me. The thought of those people ripping my skin until I became one of them was not the way I wanted to go out. And I didn't know what the truth was about the afterlife, I only knew how I felt.

"I don't know how I could possibly leave you," I said.

"I don't know how I could possibly watch you die."

My mind was riddled with options. I could stay here with Finn, hope for a helicopter beyond the odds, or I could glide away with Carson and see what we make of our lives, or I could go with Mitchel and have this stable, comfortable life with him. I know neither would be bad, but Finn would always be on my mind. And what if I left and Finn survived? I would always wonder.

I packed a few snacks, and got as ready as I could be to go onto the roof, and prayed this helicopter would come through. Finn did the same, grabbing anything he might want. I looked out the large windows one more time, remembering the first time I had seen this room, I was so mesmerized by the view, by Finn. Enamored with the thought that a man such as him was into me. I was so naïve.