"It can't be..." Jesse breathed, her gaze locked on the island.

"I told you we had to be close!" Lukas said excitedly, turning around and running back to the sail so he could turn them straight in the direction of the land.

"Well what do you know." Petra said, coming to stand beside Jesse. "We actually made it. The endlessly running is over."

Jesse tried to say something, only for her voice to choke in her throat, gulping back a sob. Tears brimming her eyes.

"You big sap." Petra mumbled, placing an arm around Jesse's shoulders.

"I can't believe it!" Jesse managed to gasp out, wrapping an arm around Petra in return. "We're actually here, we're here!"

She looked over at the redhead, smiling broadly through the tears she was unable to stop. Petra smiled back at her, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze. Despite still looking sick and tired, there was obvious joy in her blue eyes. A bit of colour flooding back into her pale cheeks.

Jesse felt another hand on her shoulder, looking back to see Lukas standing behind them. His own face flooded with happiness and relief.

No words were spoken as they sailed in the direction of the island, watching as it grew closer and closer.

It was big, that was for sure, but still just an island. Large mountains towering above a dense jungle. A long stretch of white sand beach waiting to greet them.

"Hold on." Lukas warned them as the gap between the boat and the sandy slope closed up.

Jesse felt the boat jolt lightly as it met the sand. As Lukas quickly secured it, she and Petra exchanged excited glances.

"It's secured.." Lukas called from the beach. "The boat isn't going anywhere now."

He looked up at them, extending an arm. "Come on. We can get out supplies in a bit. Both of you have to feel some solid ground beneath your feet."

Petra allowed Lukas to take her hand, helping her down from the boat and onto the sand. She wobbled slightly on the spot, catching her balance within a few seconds again.

Jesse took Lukas's as well, nervously glancing down at the ground he was standing on. She was uncertain of how far down it was.

"It's okay, I got you." Lukas replied, placing his hands above Jesse's waist and promptly lifting her down onto solid ground again.

It felt incredibly odd to all of a sudden stand on land again. Jesse felt her own balance falter slightly, holding onto Lukas's arm until she caught it again.

"Would you look at this place." Petra said, coughing lightly as she stared up at the large jungle. "This is pure, unexplored terrain!"

"I hope recovery is placed above exploring on your priority list." Jesse replied, shaking her head. Petra snorted lightly in reply.

"I'll go start getting our most vital supplies." Lukas said, stepping back towards the boat. He looked over his shoulder. "Petra? You're better in this field than me. What's our next step?"

"It's late already." Petra replied, turning to face them. "We should stick to the beach for now, I assume we have enough food to last us until the morning. Maybe spend the night on the boat. Tomorrow we can start heading into the jungle, when there's no risk of it falling dark on us."

"Got it." Lukas replied, hopping back onto the boat and disappearing beneath deck again.

Jesse slowly walked up to Petra's side, stopping to gaze up at the jungle in front of them as well. Feeling her heart flutter with something she hasn't felt in a very, very long time.

The will for adventure

----------------------

The sun had faded soon after their arrival. While they were planning to spend the night on the boat, the three of them wanted to spend as much time as possible on land.

As the last of the sunset faded away, leaving the sky a deep navy colour, Jesse, Petra and Lukas set up a small campfire on the beach.

"I missed feeling the warmth of flames." Jesse said, holding her hands in front of the fire to warm them up. "From a proper fire, ya know? Not talking about the lanterns we had on the boat."

"Agreed." Petra said, holding her own hands up to the fire.

Jesse rubbed her warmed up hands together, before picking back up the sandwich she had been eating. It was a good thing they arrived, the food they were eating at that moment was all they had left.

Jesse thoughtfully stared into the flames as she slowly chewed the food. She glanced up at the others.

"Where do we go from here?" She asked softly. "We're finally free again, no more running. But what will we make of our lives here?"

"Oh I know exactly what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my days." Petra said. "Once I'm done with this flu, I'm going to start exploring every last nook and cranny of this island. Leave no stone unturned!"

Jesse and Lukas both laughed, Petra soon starting to chuckle as well.

"That's one way to look at it." Lukas said, shaking his head. "And very possible at that. We could set up a base somewhere in the jungle to use as a home, with miles of unexplored terrain in every direction. This island is big."

"It'll be like old times." Jesse said, a sad smile coming to rest on her face. "Just the three of us, instead of five."

"But this time." Petra said, scooching slightly closer to Jesse with a grin. "This time, we'll be together."

"Petra's right." Lukas said, getting up and coming to sit back down on the other side of Jesse. "This might not be how we imagined our stories to end, but it has the one key detail we all wanted. We're going to grow old together on this island."

"And nothing will break us apart." Petra said, reaching out her hand.

"Nothing." Lukas and Jesse agreed in unison, both placing a hand on Petra's.

"Thank you guys." Jesse said softly, looking up at them. "For still being here for me after everything that has happened."

"We'd do anything for you." Lukas said, wrapping an arm around Jesse. "I'm just glad you're happy, Jesse."

"Me too." Petra admitted, too placing an arm around Jesse's shoulders. "It's good to see you smiling again."

The redhead frowned slightly, seeming to remember something. "Jesse, you never got to finish telling me this afternoon..."

"Telling you what?" Lukas asked curiously, while Jesse felt her face slowly turning a bright red.

"It doesn't matter now." She said quickly.

"What doesn't matter now?" Lukas asked, looking over at Petra. "What were you two chatting about while I was manning the sail?"

"Nothing!" Jesse tried brushing it off.

"Jesse had some sort of a nightmare." Petra explained, causing Jesse to groan. "Talked about this all being her fault, and that she somehow screwed up on the night of the drowned attack." Petra gestured towards Lukas. "She didn't get to tell me, when we heard you screaming like a creeper caged in with a cat."

"Jesse?" Lukas asked her, raising his eyebrows. "Whatever did you mean?"

Jesse sighed, promptly falling backwards onto the sand so she was lying on her back, facing the starry sky above her.

"Playing dead won't work." She heard Petra say in an amused tone.

Jesse rolled her eyes, letting out a half-hearted chuckle. She took a deep breath, realising Petra and Lukas weren't going to let it go that easily.

"What did you dream?" Lukas asked her, looking down at Jesse.

She hesitated, turning her head in his direction. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Lukas looked surprised, exchanging a glance with Petra. "Uh, yeah?"

"Well." Jesse took a deep breath. "In the dream, you kind of... killed me."

It was silent.

Jesse propped herself up on her elbow, seeing both her friends staring at her. Petra had her head slightly tilted to the one side, one eyebrow raised. Lukas's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his face at any moment, his mouth halfway open.

"What? You said you wanted to know." Jesse replied, letting herself drop back onto the sand.

"Just... why though?" Petra asked, shaking her head. "Out of all things your sleeping mind could have concocted!"

Lukas still didn't say anything, slowly raking both his hands through his hair.

"So, what about the bit where you said you screwed up?" Petra asked, propping her chin on her hand like she was getting ready to listen to a story.

Jesse sighed, closing her eyes for a few seconds. Even though everything ended up turning out okay... she was still hesitant.

"I fell asleep." She said softly. "It was the first time I had to man the sail by myself. I sat down to take a breather, I got lost in thoughts and then I fell asleep.

I didn't know for how long I slept, or how far we possibly could have gone off course. There was no way of knowing. I had hoped that it wasn't too long, and that we were still on the right path. Which we were, considering we finally arrived, but... as the days passed, I more and more believed that we would die out here because of me."

Jesse took a deep breath. "I guess the dream was my subconscious mind expressing my fear of telling you guys... Lukas found out I doomed us and as a result he killed me."

"Wow." Petra said, sounding somewhere in between surprised and confused.

"Yup." Jesse replied softly. She felt a hand on hers.

"Jesse." Lukas said softly. "You know I would never hurt you... right?"

"I do." Jesse admitted, allowing Lukas to pull her back up into a sitting position. "But I was still scared of what the two of you might think of me."

She looked down at her hands in her lap. "Everything that has happened to us, is my fault... I was the one who got exiled, and dragged you all down with me. It's because of me the two of you got hurt that day... it's because of me you had to flee the mainland as well.

I was the one who kept my nightmares a secret. It was my phantom that broke Lukas's arm, it's my phantom that caused Petra to become sick in the first place.

And then I was the one who possibly ruined our last chance at a happy ending. Can you blame me for being scared that you... that you might never forgive me?"

Jesse didn't look up. She felt Lukas rest his hand on her shoulder in a comforting matter.

"Jesse." Petra said thoughtfully. "Do you spend hours looking for all the things that you could possibly blame yourself for? The fact that half of these things could maybe be pinned on a person, never even crossed my mind in the first place."

Jesse smiled vaguely at Petra's words.

"She's right, Jesse. We don't blame you for any of this." Lukas said softly. "Nothing here is your fault, okay?"

"So you're not mad at me?" Jesse asked softly, looking up.

"What's there to be mad about?" Petra pointed out. "We're alive, Jesse! We still made it."

"Exactly." Lukas said. "We all make mistakes. Blaming each other for it won't get us anywhere."

He pulled Jesse closer, giving her a gentle hug. Jesse rested her head against Lukas, feeling one of Petra's arms wrapping around them as well. She closed her eyes, letting out a slow, long exhale of relief. Feeling all the pressure that's been weighing her down, finally lifting off her shoulders.

And for the first time in quite a while, Jesse actually felt happy. If she could rewind time, she wouldn't.

Sure, she would never see her two childhood friends again. She would never see Radar again. She would never see Beacontown again.

But she still had Petra and Lukas. They weren't going to leave her, she knew that. All she ever wanted was to be with her friends. If she never got exiled, she would only have had Petra... and who know how long it would have been before their friendship drifted apart?

But now she could spend the rest of her life with both Petra and Lukas.

And she could rest assured that the three of them would always be together, no matter what.

"Come on you two." Lukas said, the three of them breaking the hug. "Let's call it a day. And tomorrow, we have a whole new adventure awaiting."

___

The last five days flew by... I guess spiteful time knows I doesn't want to end this book?

Anyhow, I don't have much else to say here, other than I REALY enjoyed writing this. Just... friendship fluff, why do I write it so little? Probably because depressing topics are even more fun-

Now, let me shut up before I get mushy over this book, that's for the epilogue xD

A part of me never want to write a short story again, just because it goes by so fast. But hey, it was a lot less stressful to write, and I also think this story can't be dragged out. I could have had a lot more happen on that boat, even elaborated more on what happened in between chapter 1 & 2. But I think the plot flowed well the way it did! 

Enough rambling, I'm seriously just dragging this A/N out xD I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! See you with another in five days!