Imaginative Essay

Daniel Hatenboer

Point of view; Lena's best friend, Hana. Changing and extending ending of book

I can see her, standing outside with that guy. She went back for him, I know she did. She didn't even care about us, Me, Alex; not even Grace. She's standing with him, saying something. There's a feeling, burning inside of me. She didn't come back for any of us, so why is he so special? I move toward the door, but I'm stopped by Alex. His arm is extended in front of me and Grace. I can tell he wants to see where this is going, to see who this man is.

She's close to him, I can tell, but I know the story of what happened. They were tricked into being with one another, of course they grew close, they had to. If they didn't, they wouldn't have made it out. But my question is still there, it's in all of our heads right now. How close did they get? My heart stops as I see her moving towards him. My lungs are made of stone; no one moves. They hug, Thank god I think, that's all that will happen, I look down at Grace, her eyes still trained on Lena and this man with her. Something flickers across her face, the face that is wiser than it looks. I can't place what I saw, but it's gone before I can say anything, so I squeeze her hand and raise my head to look back out to where Lena is, readying myself leave this place so I can go greet her.

I'm not ready for what I see, something inside of me breaks, not for myself though; no, that's not what any of this is really about. I can feel the anger around us, a fire burning everything it touches, completely incinerating every other feeling in the room. Alex is burning with it, roiling in the rage he feels. Lena pulls away from the man, saying something else, as Alex moves towards the doorway. I follow him, Grace in tow, until we're all standing in the doorway, Alex a little ahead of Grace and myself. I can hear them now, everything they're saying is travelling straight from their mouth to my gut, fuelling the anger Alex sparked inside of me. The man speaks, “promise me we'll stay together, okay? You and me.” Lena opens her mouth, and I instantly feel the air go stale waiting for her to help the inferno grow in proportion, into something I know I would never be able to stop.

“ I promise”

Alex rushes forward, the inferno racing with him, exploding out of the room and into the open world ahead, hungering, wanting, needing someone to dare it, to try and inhibit it's motions. Alex whips the door, no longer able to control himself. The door slams against the outside of the building. His voice rings out. He does not yell, though you can feel the heat in his voice, and it carries straight to it's target. Lena turns around, she must have been expecting someone else because the minute she lays her eyes on Alex, her entire body goes stiff, her eyes dark, as if all the heat has been sucked from her, into the rage that has consumed Alex.

“Don't believe her.”

Lena looks like she could fall into pieces at any moment, as if even her own heart beat could cause her to shatter. The man with Lena has confusion playing across his face; he doesn't understand what's going on, is he completely oblivious to the lightening coursing through the air? Although, why would he know? He has no reason to know about any of this. Then, I can see it in his eyes, something clicks. I guess Lena did tell him about Alex after all. I realize that Grace is no longer holding my hand, she's no longer beside me. She's walking towards Lena, her hands are balled into fists. I run out to her, I know what she wants to do, but hurting Lena isn't going to fix any of the hurt that Lena caused her. “Grace!” I yell as I speed closer. I wrap my arms around her and look back up to Lena. We've closed three quarters of the distance between me and Lena. What I'm not expecting from Lena is exactly what I see.

A single tear, running down her face.

Her entire world has been destroyed. We've turned everything upside down. I understand now why she didn't come back for any of us, why she abandoned us.

She thought we were dead.