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IT WAS COLD AND BRIGHT, almost too bright for her eyes to see straight. Her skin was covered in goosebumps and she blinked rapidly, unable to make out anything clearly. It was as if there was an empty hole in her chest now, the physical pain nothing compared to the emptiness she now felt at the loss of those that she knew were gone. When her eyes finally adjusted to the intense light, what she saw rendered her speechless.
The couch she sat on was familiar, all of the things surrounding her were indeed the most familiar things in the world to her. Why she was in the Blakes' flat, she had no clue. It should be impossible. It was.
The Ark had retained its cold and solitary atmosphere. A shiver ran down her spine and her eyes darted around skeptically. It was home, but it was something that made her feel unsettled nonetheless.
"You okay?" a voice asked from just beside her. Jumping slightly, but then leaning back to recover from her shock, she looked to the other end of the couch to find Bellamy with a tattered book in his hands.
"W-what?" she managed, trying everything she could to repress the tears gathering in her eyes. This had to be fake. There was no way she was back on the Ark with a person who was dead. Swallowing roughly, she snapped out of her own paralyzing panic and sadness. "I'm fine. All okay. It's good."
He looked at her for a moment like he didn't quite believe the words that came out of her mouth, but nodded slightly anyway. "I'm almost finished, then you can borrow it," he told her, gesturing to the cover of the book that he held. This was no hallucination, it was something right out of her memories.
Everything she was experiencing was pushed to the side and she smiled slightly in spite of herself as she looked at him. "How many times can you read that?" she asked, laughing airily at the quick shrug that he presented.
"You're not one to talk. You always loved the Iliad," he said, putting the book down on the table in front of them with a small smile. Taylor shifted in her seat, and positioned herself slightly closer to him — she still couldn't believe that he was right there in front of her.
"Okay, you got me," she surrendered playfully. "But you're close to a record breaking number, while I, on the other hand, am not." It was an echo of the conversation they had just a few years ago, and she was starting to slip back into the illusion that everything was okay.
She glanced away for a moment, while he shifted closer to her on the couch, the dip in the cushions and the surprising amount of heat that she could feel radiating from him feeling all too real. When she looked back, their faces were just barely a mere inch apart. His eyes were just as she remembered them, ones that she could get deeply lost in.
