Teacher and the Thief

Chapter 24

I was sure I was dead. I remembered being crushed under my metal car, and my neck getting completely spliced through, as well as Trisha firing her gun and me firing mine. I didn't recall if anyone got shot, though. But nothing hurt anymore, and I was in a completely different area I didn't recognize. Here, I didn't… feel anything. I didn't even feel like a human being anymore.

And I was sure that this was what being dead feels like.

"Belle?" I heard the familiar voice that my whole body froze to when I heard it. The male voice that I haven't heard in two years, the one I would've done anything to hear again, and the one I thought I'd never hear again.

"Jack?" I whimpered, searching for where his voice came from. My body was weak, trying to cope with the new, uncharted area, but my mind worked hard to find him.

But everything stopped when he slowly appeared in my view, looking as he did the afternoon before he was killed. He was there, he was standing right there, right in front of me.

"Belle." He breathed, and my whole face brightened as I found the strength in my legs to run. I forced my way over to him and slid my arms past his and around his back, my head against his chest as I cried softly, but then harder. His arms didn't wrap around me.

"Jack, you're here!" I cried as I looked up at him, searching his eyes for his emotion. "You're actually here… I can't believe it."

"You shouldn't be here." He muttered lowly, but I shook my head.

"It's not your fault I'm here. Now I'm kinda glad I am." I admitted, my hands rubbing up to his shoulders until they were firmly there. "Two years is too long."

"But you're not dead, Belle." He stated, his eyes looking into mine with the faintest glimmer of sincerity. "And now you have someone else you love and another Jack in your life."

"No, it doesn't matter, none of that matters." I assured him, "I'm dead now, or I wouldn't be seeing you here."

"You don't know what you're seeing." He shot back, but I lifted myself from his shoulders and pressed my lips hard against his, kissing him until he kissed me back. It didn't take long, and his hands were around my waist, pulling me closer to him, and I kissed him until I needed to breathe, pulling away only slightly, with our lips still close together.

"But I know what I'm feeling." I whispered, kissing him softly again, this time more briefly.

"No!" He pushed me away, heading in the opposite direction I was facing. "This… it can't happen, Belle. I'm dead."

"So am I."

"No, you're not." He argued immediately, turning around, facing me but not approaching. "You have a life with your new love and I'm just going to get in the way."

"You don't know what you're saying." I claimed, denying everything he was saying. "Don't you love me anymore?"

"You have a new life with Adam, and I can't get involved in it, Belle." He remarked, and I thought I saw a tear, but he wiped it away before I was sure. "I can't be in your life anymore."

"It was always you!" I cried, running back over to him, gripping his muscled arm with both of my thin ones. "Nothing, and no one could replace you."

"But you did." He jerked his arm free, and I felt my heart shatter into more pieces then it did when I lost him the first time.

"I could never replace you, Jack. You were my boyfriend, my best friend, my coworker, and my team member. You were everything to me."

"Exactly." His eyes found mine again, but now much colder than before. "Were."