SURVIVORS

Ch. 22~ Lana

Last time: King creature demands more work from Mella and Dr. Watt. He can feel himself slipping into the madness of his own creation, and he needs his reign to come or he will lose everything. Meanwhile Chase has run away from HQ....

Get ready for the longest chapter ever. 

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Lana

I rush out of the house and into the cold, my shoes crunching on the bitter-cold snow.

"Chase!" I holler. "Chase!" There is no answer. I walk hurriedly through the snow coated streets, searching for any sign of him. "Chase!" I yell again. Still no answer.

Thirty minutes of searching passes in the blink of an eye. I was all the way down at the end of Frankford when I saw a strangely familiar light protruding from the trees that laid not so far off the street. I don't think twice about going to it.

I stride off the street and into the thin layer snow that still remained from the last storm. I follow the light into a tunnel of what looks like hands reaching for each other above me, candles dotting every space they could find. The yellowness of the lights made everything else look a luminescent purple. I was sure they weren't actually lights or candles, but for the time being, I didn't really care.

I think to myself, if I were an emotionally damaged dude, where would I hide? I quicken my pace into a jog, beginning to panic.

I spotted a shadow in the lower part of my peripheral vision. It was just then that I realized I was too busy looking up that I didn't even think to look if there were footprints. Sure enough, there were tracks leading the direction I was going (human ones thank God).

I follow the tracks for what seems like centuries until I can see an old willow tree in the distance, (oddly), fireflies floating around it. Unless my memory is severely failing me, I was pretty sure fireflies only come out in the summer. I shrugged the matter off.

As I trot closer, the sound of squeaking guitar strings becomes more and more relevant. I thought it was just my imagination, but the closer I get, the more real it is. And now, being only about fifteen seconds jogging pace from the tree, I hear plucked notes and a voice...

I gallop over to the tree and burst out from behind it- and Chase was there. He jumps and stops his playing.

"God, you scared me," he gasps.

"Chase what the heck are you doing out here?! We thought you... I didn't... Don't ever do that again!" I scold. But then my anger turns into something else. I slouch by the tree and wrap my arms around him, tucking my head under his chin. "I'm so glad you're safe." He pets the back of my head affectionately.

"Yeah, me too." He says. We just stay there, me listening to his heartbeat, feeling the heat through his coat, and him holding me tight, keeping me safe.

We pull away.

"What was that you were singing?" I ask.

"Oh nothing, just this song I learned."

"Well there's a lot of 'this song's' out there..."

"... The one Sam got mad at me for," he laughs. I knit my eyebrows.

"What do you mean?" I question, confused.

"I stole one of the CD's before they melted it, and this was the song on it. I found a CD player in the basement a while ago so I just figured I'd listen to it..."

"What song is it?"

"Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen."

"Hmm.... Can you sing it? Please please please can you sing it? I'll will just be forced to tickle you if you don't," I tease, pointing a finger in his face.