Luckily, and strangely at the same time, Africa wasn't in our room when I arrived. My white coat was wrinkled beside my bed, underneath my surgery notes.

I hadn't read those notes since I had started investigating. They seemed so mundane. Part of a previous, simple life; and, at the same time, so related to the new one. I took a bite of the Cadbury chocolate bar on my night table. I needed a sugar rush.

I run to the train station and took the next one to London.

The Thames was almost as orange as the sky. As I walked, I thought that sunsets were the only moments in which neon colours were genuinely elegant.

My mind always drifted to the London Eye night when I wondered by the river alone. It was a devastating thought. Everything with Luke had been so... quick. And ephemeral. Just like life. It had suddenly ended at the best part. Just like many lives. I couldn't decide if it was sadder for things to end at a bad moment, or at a good one.

I stopped a few meters before arriving at the hospital. I took my creased white coat and my student accreditation out of my bag. David's voice echoed in my head: "I don't think it's such a good idea, Tess. It's serious".

It was already dark when I finally decided to do it. Eight in the evening. The labs would be closed by then.

I entered the hospital and I forgot about neon colours and memories with Luke and inner philosophical dissertations immediately. It didn't matter whether it was day or night. Oncology was as busy as it had been five hours before.

I pressed the lift button and it opened in front of me.

"Tessa! What a nice surprise. I didn't expect to see you anymore until the next semester."

My heart skipped a beat. It was just Joel, the janitor that usually opened the labs for us. It shouldn't have been a surprise. He was everywhere around the hospital. I mentally pinched myself for having expected to get to the labs without running into anybody.

"Joel. Hi." It was helpless. Enthusiasm was far from achievable for me at that moment. "Mm, yeah, it's just... some extracurricular activity I've gotten myself into. You know, it's getting more and more competitive. Must work hard."

He looked at me, half suspiciously and half concerned. I smiled what must have looked like a Botox-addict smile.

"Even harder? You look tired, Tessa." He looked at me up and down, worry growing in his eyes.  "And pale. Is there something I can do for you?"

Great. Pity had managed to open the doors for me. Whoever needed to say "Open Sesame" definitely didn't have dark circles.

He helped me to the door of crime, and I told him that I would take a very long time, and that I would call him when I finished.

As he walked away, it was as if my brain had frozen. I forgot what I needed. Then it came back. And then I wisely wondered about how the hell I was going to manage to get so much material out of the hospital on my own. Having left my friends out of it didn't seem such a good idea anymore.

"Damn it." I whispered.

A loud noise startled me from the other side of the room. A crystal flask must have fallen to the floor. My heart skipped two beats this time.

"Somebody stop the fucking extrasystoles, please." I whispered.

It was a harder whisper. I was going crazy. I wasn't getting out of the hospital this time. They would catch me and tie me to a chair at the psychiatry department.

"Well, I wouldn't mind some sedation to slow my heart down. Gosh. I am talking to myself out loud."

I could swear I had heard a laugh this time.

"Gosh."

It had probably been me again. Without even being aware of it this time. My tachycardia was getting faster and faster. I slowly sat on the floor.

But then I saw a shadow move and my heart started to sprint as fast as ever. My breathing was getting almost as quick. I couldn't tell if I was screaming or just hearing an imaginary scream.

"Tessa! Tessa! Shut up, it's me!"

I wasn't screaming anymore. I was probably unconscious or death.

"Luke."

"Yes, it's me."

"You're real."

He reached for my sweaty cheek with his firm hand. My passive tears fell on his skin. I could smell him. He was real.

"Luke."

"Tess."

I didn't know what else to say. I had forgotten how to think.

"I'm here." he said.

Those words brought me back to life. I could only be in two states: numb or infuriated. I brusquely got away from him and shook my head.

"You're not. Get away from me."

"Tessa..." he said, in his sweet, undeniable voice, as he reached for me again. I couldn't take it.

"Didn't you hear me? Go away, Luke! You're dead for me!"

I burst into tears and let myself fall to the floor. I couldn't stop it. He came closer and I didn't shout at him again. He hugged me and I felt relieved. He was with me. That was all I had wanted for months.

"Why, Luke? Why did you leave me? Why are you back? Where have you been? Why did you betray me?"

He sighed. And, without breaking the hug, he answered:

"I can't explain, Tessa. I'm so sorry. I wouldn't have hurt you if there had been another way to do what I needed to do. What we needed me to do."

"We? Is there still a we, Luke? You stole my idea. You are responsible for many people's deaths, Luke. And I hate you for that."

He did break the hug this time, and he walked to the windows that I had looked at while he had made love to me at that same lab.

"Tessa. You have to believe me. I'm not responsible for any of this. I didn't do anything. I'm on your side."

"Then why can't you tell me what's going on? God, I thought you loved me, Luke. I trusted you."

"And you should trust me again, Tessa."

I shook my head and stood up.I realized that he hadn't confirmed that he did love me.

"It's not that easy."

"What can I do to prove that I'm telling the truth?"

I considered it for a moment. I didn't have a choice. And I wanted to believe him. I wanted to be with him again. His emerald eyes had always been opaque. But that's why I had fallen for him and not for David's honesty.

"I'm going to start treating people clandestinely. I am sick of waiting."

"I don't know if that is such a good idea. I know you're impatient, but I don't think..."

"I don't care." I shook my head again, but, this time, without tears falling from my eyes. "I don't care about what you think. I have lived without your advice for months now. I can go on without your help."

I expected him to come running and hug me again. But he didn't.

"Fine. You do whatever you want."

He walked out of the lab, and the door closed behind him. I stood there, alone. A part of me urged me to run after him. I had been waiting for him for three months. Why was I letting him go? Why had he come back to go again?

If I run after him without taking everything I needed with me, I would lose my only chance to win the immortality battle.

I opened every drawer in the material room, crying, trembling, but I didn't find a single bag. There were many card boxes. I would have to use those. But I wouldn't manage to make it out of the hospital without being caught. I could call Africa, but it would take her an hour and a half to get to me. Alex and Lindsay were probably in Oxford too, looking for me.

David would be there in twenty minutes. But he would refuse to help me prepare my way to jail. I only had one option.

"Camille? It's Tessa. Look, I know I treated you like rubbish the other day. I was broken. And, on top of that, I was jealous as hell. But I need your help. I wouldn't call you if it wasn't absolutely necessary. I'll meet you here. Okay. Thank you so much."

I had prepared all the boxes by the moment her tiny figure appeared behind the door. Her black curls looked more beautiful than ever. I broke off crying again.

"Luke was here." I screamed.

She stood there, silently, watching me cry. She didn't look surprised.

"You knew, didn't you? He came to you."

"Yes." she said, half ashamed, half blissful.

"Why did you tell me that he was in love with me?"

"Because it's true. He was."

He was. But not anymore. He had gone back to her. He had chosen her over me. After everything we had shared.

"Nobody falls in love and out of it that fast, Camille."

She didn't answer. None of us had anything else to say.

"Why did you call me?"

"I need you to help me take these boxes out through the emergency exit."

I need you to tell me he's not the same with you after loving me.

"Let's do it." she said, and she lifted a box as gracefully as if she was two meters tall.

"Camille." I whispered as we walked through the corridor. "I suppose you understand what I'm doing."

She nodded.

"Well, I'm going to need help to carry it out. I only have Lindsay, Alex and Africa. And you."

"And Luke."

"I don't think he'll want to help me."

"Tessa. I can't tell you anything, but believe me: he's on your side."

I stopped walking. The corridor was empty and dark, enlightened by the hazy London moon. I could only see Camille's silhouette and my own, and I felt caught in the middle of an inescapable nightmare. It was worse than the other times I had felt caught in a bad dream, because, this time, there was no uncertainty. For the past three months, I had seriously considered that ambiguity was the worst that could happen to me. But at least I had hope.

"Stop saying that! He said that as well. It kills me. Knowing that I'm not part of his team anymore... and that you are. So please, stop torturing me."

I never would have thought that I would be so sincere with my enemy. But I felt she was my friend at that moment. I hated her but I admired her. I wanted to have what she had. And being close to her strangely felt like the only way to keep being part of that team I had been expelled from.

The corridor seemed eternal. As we walked, I thought I had never coped well with change. When I was eleven and finished the last one of the Harry Potter books, I cried. When I started college, I missed home and cried every Tuesday after biochemistry practice. And every semester, I cried without reason the day after exams were over. It wasn't sad only getting over things I would miss. It was sad getting over everything, because it meant that another phase was over, and that we were all closer to the end of the countdown. It also meant I would have to go on without a part of myself, because I made everything become one more cell in my body. Therefore, it hurt getting rid of it.

I couldn't cope with Luke being over too. That phase was supposed to be eternal. And leaving him behind meant having to get rid of every neuronal circuit created or used in the past seven months.

"Camille." I whispered when we finally managed to get to the street. I could tell she was expecting me to say thank you. "I have to ask you one more thing."

She sighed, tired of me and my uncomfortable requests.

"Is Luke staying with you?"

She sighed again.

"He's going to kill me for telling you this, but he's staying at the Premier Inn near the London Eye. Room 127. Bye, Tessa." she said. She left the boxes on the ground and turned away.

He wasn't staying with her. That was all I needed to know.

What did you think of this chapter? Did you like that Luke is back? Do you think that Tessa should trust him? Let me know in the comments! I am entering the Wattys 2016, so, if you enjoyed it, please don't forget to vote :)

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