Heavy

"That was bloody amazing!" Hardin yells as we leave the auditorium and reach for the parking lot.

The chilly, night air hits against my perspired skin, and my body inhales the feeling with my eyes closed. We have danced way too much, but at the same time, it feels like it could never be enough.

Lightness carries my feet as I laugh and rejoice in everything that happened tonight. It feels like I am flying, no, no... floating. It's like some energy is whirling below my feet and it just moves me forward. It's like life makes sense.

Dawn clutches my hand as we walk in the middle of a sea of cars. "I can't believe you told him off about Taylor! we don't even know what happened!" She addresses Hardin.

"Um, Dawn, excuse me but that needed to be said." Hardin laughs as his arm hangs around Tessa's shoulder.

"My feet hurt so much, I have never danced so much in my entire life!" Tessa whines. "I feel so real, it feels like a dream," she adds, her eyes locking with Hardin's for a second.

But then, Hardin looks around the parking lot and he stops on his track. He glances to one side and the other ~repeatedly. "Where's my bloody car?"

"Maybe we are in the wrong place?" I ask, looking around myself.

"No no, I'm certain we left it on this section, right next to that big tree." Hardin's eyes look helpless, his hands at either side of his head.

Right there the heaviness returns, pulling my feet instantly down until they crash on the ground and it's hard to lift them and even walk. I feel it physically growing inside my heart, like a giant mass of thick, dense pitch. And incredibly slowly it starts invading my air tract, from my lungs to my airways, and then to my nose and mouth until my anxiety chokes me to the point I am gasping for air. Something is wrong.

"Something is wrong," I speak absentmindedly. "The book is opened. The car should be here." I peer down the contents in my bag. "We left the car here, and the space is empty, see?" We are standing now before the empty lot.

Panic washes over their fictional expressions. I grab my phone and call my brother.

"You mean with the library? something is wrong with the library?" Tessa holds her hand against her chest.

I nod my head as the tone keeps ringing against my ear.

"Raiden?" Anguish laces my tone. "Hi, umm- Look..." The words come out all clumsily. "Can you- can you pick us up and take us to the Stardust café? the concert is over and something happened with Hardin's car...ok. Please, drive safe but come quickly, I think something happened at the library...hmm. Ok. Yeah. Mhmmm. Right, I'll send you the location. Be safe, bye."

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"Lukah is already there," Raiden informs me while he drives us to the library. My leg shakes up and down in a constant rhythm. My teeth roam around my index nail until a small trail of blood starts flowing. My anxiety is going to kill me someday.

"What was he doing there? is he okay?" I ask with urgency.

"Some Dean drama, as usual. It seems that Dean was high on something, and he dumped Camille and made a public scene out of it. Lukah was around. She suffers from depression, so when Lukah found out, he just went to help her in case Dean got in trouble again." Raiden sighs heavily, the story sounding familiar somehow. "Then the fire started, but they couldn't find Dean. Maybe he just left. That's what most probably happened, so relax."

"Oh my Gosh." I cover my face with my hands.

"I just hope everyone is okay," Tessa utters with a shaky voice. She is sitting at the back, her eyes wired shut as if she were silently praying. Hardin is next to her, his forehead pressed hard against the window. Dawn throws me a worried look since she knows about the books.

"The fire was only in the basement. It's only books in there, nothing important. Just paper. So, don't dramatize this, I beg you Sunset." Raiden shakes his head as he stops right before the yellow light.

He has no idea how important that place is to me. "Just, hurry the hell up, Raiden." Sheer, thick, palpable anguish materializes in my throat. I can't swallow. I can't breathe. I'm being pulled down.

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I never thought that something as intangible as sound could hurt me so much. I cannot touch it. I cannot grab it. Yet, the sound of sirens pierces my ears as if I had needles being stabbed directly into my brain. How come that the things we cannot touch, can hurt us so much?-and in the most violent ways.

"Sunset! Sunset!" I hear my name in a distant echo. The memories hit back-hard.

I got out of the car at some point. The flickering, red lights of the sirens hurt my eyes as we get closer and closer to the StarDust Café.

Hardin, Tessa, Dawn, and I share a panicky look. There are two fire trucks and an ambulance parked right next to the small coffee shop. The fire seems to be off. But I don't know how much damage it has caused.

The entrance area of the StarDust Café is surrounded by some yellow tape. I try to go under it, but one of the firemen stops me.

"No one is allowed to go in, miss." They put their hands in front of me.

"But I need to-" One of them clutches my arm when I try to push forward.

"No one can go inside at the moment. The fire hasn't been completely extinguished." He cuts me in and I take a step back. "We are clearing up the area, so I will ask you and your friends to leave."

"My friends were here. Dean and Lukah Jackson?" Raiden insists, his eyes tinted with worry.

"Yeah, and Camille, and...and..." I trail off.

"And several of our friends," Tessa completes my sentence, without providing further details.

"Yeah, please, let us go in." Hardin rapidly ducks under the tape and steps to the other side. He sprints towards the door but the two firemen grab him by clasping his wrists behind his back and push him back to our side. He is forcefully thrown to our side.

"The injured people are being kept at the-"

"Sunset!"

I turn around when I hear my name.

"Lukah!" I recognize him at first glance. He has this way of walking that is much more easy-going than Dean. I start running towards him when I see the worried look on his face. Is he okay? I run faster and so does he.

His green eyes are clearly defined today, even when it's dark and swirls of smoke surrounding us. We collide in a dusty hug. Our chests impact because of how quickly we were running into each other. Dust springs from his clothing, as if our hug would be an explosion of small, dusty particles.

His arms curl around the small of my back, pressing me tightly against him until the soles of my feet are lifted and they hang on the air for a long second.

"Are you okay?" My words come out muffled since my lips are almost pressed against the arch of his neck. My feet are back to the ground and I break the hug to examine his face. That's when I notice the badge on the skin on his wrist.

"You got burned?" I ask, out of breath. "Are you okay?"

He nods. "Yes, No." He pauses as he tries to find his words. "This will only leave a small scar, but I can't find Dean. I'm scared something happened to him. We argued and-" He sobs and stops talking amid.

"His motorcycle is here," Camille appears behind Lukah. Her blonde hair is a wild mess, and her eyes are swollen with tears. "He didn't leave. He must be inside."

"Where the f*ck is he?" Raiden asks. He is next to me now, with his hands running through his hair as he looks around him.

"Will the books be okay?" Dawn inquires, while she stands between Tessa and Hardin, who have just joined us.

"I couldn't care less about the f*cking books!" Camille startles us by shouting.

"Hey, don't talk to her like that," I command her, feeling blood boiling through my veins.

"Everyone just calm down!" Raiden intervenes.

"I know where he can be. I know. I know." I interchange looks with Tessa and Hardin, and I sprint towards the side of the StarDust café. He must have gone inside the library through the window that we broke.