CHANGE

CHAPTER 6: THE BELL TOWER

I drove down this dark road with no lights and as I got closer I looked for the building I missed so dearly when I was back in California, but the closer I got the more confused I became. I couldn't see the bell tower at all, usually when I get to this distance I can see the very tip of it but I can't see anything. I pulled up to where it used to sit, and there it was in ashes. All black, dusty, and broken down. I slowly got out of my car and closed the door, then I began to approach the pile of now ash. 

As I stood in front of a building that used to stand tall and hold my dearest memories gone to ash, I feel to the floor and screamed. When I screamed I knew no one would hear me because the closest house is miles from here. 

I kept on yelling, "NO NO NO," and the more I yelled the faster my tears started to fall from my eyes. I couldn't believe that the bell tower was gone, it wasn't necessarily the tower being gone that upset me, but the fact that this made me feel like everything in the Outer Banks that I leaned on as a long lasting memory was gone. Sarah, Rafe, the respect I had for the Cameron's, my family, and now the bell tower. The only thing I had to hold onto here is Kiara and her family, everything else had been ripped away from me when I left for California. 

More tears started to come as I filled with regret for leaving, it made me feel selfish and made me realize I didn't appreciate what it was that I had here. I don't even care about having a better life anymore, I just wanna go back in time when things were like when I left. Maybe Sarah would be okay, maybe me and Rafe would still be together and he wouldn't have done what he did. 

As my head filled with new thoughts of regret every second I felt like my body was exploding and I didn't know what to do. 

I started yelling and kicking the burnt wood that used to be the bell tower, then once I ran out of energy I sat down on the floor and my eyes were still watering but I was numb. I just sat there with tears going down my face, I dug my face into my knees and arms and tried to control my breathing. 

Once I got my breathing under control I fell back and laid on the floor, crying and screaming had made me tired so I closed my eyes for a few minutes. I thought I might fall asleep so I opened my eyes again and just looked up at the stars in the sky. It had been a while since I've seen the stars this well, because in L.A you can't really see stars due to all the light and air pollution over there. I forgot how beautiful it was.

A few minutes into me looking at the stars I heard a car approach, I just figured it was the police. They like to come up here at night and patrol every now and then because kids come up here and smoke and what not, but since I didn't have anything on me I wasn't worried. Plus I know a lot of the cops considering I used to get caught up with Barry and his crew pretty frequently. I saw the reflection of the lights and I could tell they parked behind my car because I saw the shadow of my car on the trees. The door of the car opened and closed and no one said anything which I found strange, because if it was the police they would have asked what I was doing here and who it was. 

I stood up quickly to face whoever it was, I had a pocket knife in my back pocket so I reached to grab it incase it was someone dangerous. It was really dark so we faced each other for a moment starring, and when I started to walk closer to him he stopped. This made me feel weird so I stopped too. I couldn't make out a face at all, but he was tall and I was looking him up and down trying to figure out where to stab him if he tries something.

"Hi, Ash," he said.

I froze, it was- it was Rafe. I dropped my pocket knife in shock. He chuckled and said, "that's why I didn't want to come closer."

Omg, his laugh, the one I missed so dearly. I didn't know what to do or say. I just stood there in shock trying to think of whether I should make a run for it or say something. But I took too long in thinking about it because I was looking at the floor and then I saw his feet right in front of mine. I took a small step back and looked up at him. I still was in shock and couldn't speak.

He looked into my eyes and smiled, I blinked twice because I didn't know what to do then I started laughing. I know, of all things. But I was hysterical and it was probably almost 4 by now, I had just finished having a mental crisis too so I was already pretty on edge and emotional . He started laughing and said, "are you seriously gonna laugh at this right now."

I looked at him and covered my mouth to try and hold in my laugh and shook my head yes. He started laughing too and while we were laughing, my eyes started watering again and I was scared I would start crying. So as our laughter died and it went quiet I turned around and walked towards the burnt down bell tower and simply said, "did you know they burned the bell tower?"

He didn't move, and said, "yea."

"It was probably some kids smoking right?"

He sighed and said, "No, actually it wasn't."

Author's Note:

Sorry about the late update guys, I got real busy with school work the last two weeks. But here it is, I can't wait to write the next one. Also sorry about the cliff hanger, lol. Anyway hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, the next one will come next week hopefully :).