“Scar, wake up!” An urgent shout jostles me awake. 

I jerk up, blinking rapidly until my vision focuses. Sebastian is in front of me, hands reaching towards me, and I allow him to help me up. Blasts ricochet off the trees, making them quiver and tremble around us. 

“What…” 

“They found us.” He cuts me off, releasing his grip on one of my arms. He pulls me forward, away from the campsite, and I have to sprint to keep up with my soon-to-be-detached arm. I look around dazedly, frowning when I realize something is missing. Then it hits me. 

“Wait!” I gasp, head twisting around –eyes searching frantically for the electric-eyed boy, “Where’s Jasper?!” 

Sebastian glances around in confusion and then curses loudly under his breath. I wrench my arm free of his grip and rip Jasper’s shirt off as I run, putting it on correctly as I propel myself through the trees so I can fight properly. I reach the mass of corpses as my fingers curl around the hilt of my sword. 

“Jasper!” 

I shriek his name desperately, unable to spot him through the zombies. My sword sings through the air, hacking through zombie after zombie. As I slice wildly, fear and desperation slowly start to sink in. I don’t hear anymore gunshots bursting through the air. I don’t hear his voice, shouting my name back.

I don’t hear anything except the sickening sound of zombies gurgling and spitting drool. An icy shard of something sharp blossoms in my gut and I feel sick to my stomach. 

Please. 

Sebastian kicks a zombie to the side and then jerks back startled. His eyes are wide with horror. 

Please…no. 

I stumble. 

My sword drops to the ground, thumping loudly against the earth like a massive pile of boxes falling. I stare down at him, stomach clenching tightly, chest swelling up like a balloon being filled with water. My knees cave and hit the ground –hard. Pain resounds up through my thighs, vibrating through the bones, but I don’t feel it. 

“Jasper,” I croak. 

Something wet trails down my cheek. Sebastian swings out with his own weapon, still fighting off the pack of zombies somewhere around us. 

Jasper lets out a shuddering breath. His heart beats wildly in his chest, which has been completely torn open, surrounded by glistening red muscles and protruding pieces of yellowish bone. One eye is squeezed tightly shut from the pain, but he forces the other baby blue orb to stay open and it’s focused on me. 

“Oh my…Jasper,” I whimper brokenly. 

“Have I ever told you…” Jasper mumbles hoarsely, breaking off to suck in a sharp intake of breath, “how pretty your eyes are?” 

“What?” I feel the skin between my brows pucker. 

“They…they could put emeralds to shame.” The corners of his lips twitch up into a ghost of a smile. 

My lips tremble. I let out a strange sounding laugh, one that’s on the verge of sounding hysterical. “No, I don’t think you’ve ever said anything like that.” 

His ghost smile seems to grow. “I should’ve told you earlier. I should’ve told you everything…” 

Jasper grits his teeth, both eyes squeezing shut. His back arches slightly, almost moving off the ground, and his heart sputters. Blood soaks through the wound like water flowing freely out of a faucet. Bubbles pop and burst. It’s sickening and sends a jolt of hysteria through my numb chest.  

I cry out. My hands hastily start working at his shirt. If I can get it off, I might be able to stop all the blood. He slumps back against the ground and almost seems to sink into it. Panting heavily, he shakes his head slightly. “No, Scar. Keep it on. It’s…it’s too late for me.” 

“What?” I shrill, head shaking back and forth wildly. “No! Jasper, don’t…talk like that; don’t say that!” 

“Scar, listen to me…” Jasper grounds out through his teeth, “tell Sebastian…make sure he takes care of…” 

My eyes widen in horror. 

His breathing becomes heavily labored and his words become winded. Somehow I manage to rip the shirt off and press it into the wound, trying to soak up the blood. Jasper winces in pain. 

“Scarlett…” He whimpers softly and my frantic orbs flicker up to meet his. 

The life is vanishing from his eyes, like water being sucked down a drain. His hand lifts and his fingers brush against my cheekbone. Electricity sizzles beneath the skin at his touch. 

“I love you.” He gasps breathlessly. 

Then his hand falls from my face, thumping softly against my lap, limp. 

An antagonized, heart wrenching scream spears through the air and chokes off with a watery sob. Air barely forces its way into my lungs, burning fiercely around the large lump in my throat. Tears blur the peaceful expression on Jasper’s face, the dull blue eyes that are forever locked onto my face. My side hits the ground with a solid thump that’s drowned out by my sobs. I curl up slightly, clutching his hand tightly to my chest. His skin is pasty against mine, the warmth slowly fading into something unnaturally cold. 

A hand reaches over me and brushes against Jasper’s face. 

I let out a deranged sound and go to hit at the hand’s owner, but Sebastian fends me off easily. He removes his hand from Jasper’s face though, and through the tears, I can see he closed his eyes. 

“Come on, Scar. Up we go.” He whispers softly, arms curling around my torso as he lifts me up. 

I struggle against him. “No! Let me go!” 

My words are raspy gasps filled with pain and unshed tears. Jello seems to replace my muscles. Instead of powerful blows and elbows to the chest, I can’t muster more than a feeble jerk. Sebastian pulls me into him and sweeps an arm beneath my knees. I try to worm over his shoulder, reaching out blindly towards Jasper, hysteric cries bubbling through my lips. He tightens his grip on my torso and breaks into a solid run. 

“No!” I try to kick him. “Take me back!” 

“Scar, there’s nothing left back there for you.” Sebastian chides gently, as if soothing a terrified child. “He’s gone.” 

I shake my head defiantly. “No! He can’t be.” 

“Scarlett.” 

“He’s not dead!” I scream at him, fingers curling into fists so tight that my nails puncture the heel of my palms. “He’s not!” 

“He is.” Sebastian’s dark eyes hold mine. 

The truth sinks into my bones. 

And I don’t want it. 

Letting out a broken sob, I crumple into Sebastian like a broken doll. Air is inexistent. Tears stream heavily down my cheeks and screams rip past my lips hysterically, one right after the other until my voice gives out. But even then, my lips are still parted in a silent scream. 

My heart is numb. 

I can’t feel it beating in my chest anymore. The image of Jasper’s face, the desperation, the pain, the life slowly draining out of his eyes, is burned into the back of my eyelids. 

Sebastian stops running after a while, panting heavily. My body twitches, slowly returning to life. I stare blankly at anything my eyes catch across from me. He lowers me to the ground and I slump against the tree behind me, still curled up into a ball. 

“Scar, I know it’s hard.” Sebastian starts to speak hastily, plopping down in front of him. “Look at me, chica.” 

My eyes, unnaturally dry and stinging sharply, twitch towards him. 

“Listen to me.” His dark eyes lock with mine, voice soft and soothing. “It’s going to be okay.” His hand touches mine. “Jasper’s in a better place now, okay? He’s going to be happy now. Remember what you told me last night?” 

“I don’t want him to be happy,” I croak softly, barely able to muster enough of my voice for a whisper. 

Sebastian’s brows pucker. “Oh?” 

“I want him to be here; with me.” 

Dry amusement swims within his dark eyes. “That’s a little selfish, don’t you think?” 

“I don’t care.” I sob. Tears spill over, streaming down my cheeks heavily, and I hide my face into my palms. “I want him here.” 

“I know.” Sebastian exhales slowly, squeezing my hand. “And I’m sure he probably wishes the same thing.” 

I wrench my hand away from his and hold it in between my chest and my knees. “Just leave me alone.” I hiss at him. Sebastian doesn’t seem fazed. “You didn’t let me wallow in self-pity when Mo died. So why should I?” 

“Because,” I bristle, “I said so.” 

“That’s not a very good reason.” 

“Just go away!” I scream at him. He’s making me forget –distracting me. The pain in my heart is slowly shrinking with each word he says, folding into a smaller origami heart. It’s being tucked away for later, into a bone white bird cage created from my ribs. I think of last night, stomach churning painfully with nausea, and my body shakes violently.

“Make me.” 

How many times have I said those words? I’m not even sure I could count to a number that high. And here they are, twisted back around towards me. I stiffen and lift my head. Slowly, my gaze shifts back to Sebastian. 

“Scar,” His voice is stern, thick with promise, “We’re going to go home. No matter what happens now, we can’t stop. We’re going to warn everybody and then we’re going to come back. Do you know what we’re going to do when we come back?” 

I think for a few moments, but come up with nothing. “No. What?” 

“We’re going to hunt down every last one of these dead bastards and kill them for good. For both Monique and Jasper,” His jaw clenches tightly. “Got it?” 

I stare at him. His words don’t stop the heavy flow of tears. They don’t stop the hollow ache inside my chest. They don’t stop the sickness inside my stomach that threatens to work its way back up and out. 

But my eyes narrow and determination floods through my body, “Sounds good to me.” 

Because revenge does sound sweet, sweet like caramel. 

Automatically, I go through a scary metamorphosis. I’m no longer broken; no longer drowning in my own tears. My heart thaws, replaced with a dry, painful ache –a reminder. And I can understand Sebastian now, how he was able to function after Mo’s death –how he was able to come to peace with it all. Granted, I had to help him along quite a bit, but now he has just returned the favor. He knew how to help me move on. 

I crack my fingers and roll my shoulders back, stretching out the stiff muscles. Standing, I fumble my way over towards my sword, which Sebastian grabbed at the last minute and deposited to the ground before setting me down. I grab the hilt and sling the weapon over my shoulder. It slides back into its sheath. 

“Are we going to walk?” I twist back around to look at Sebastian. 

He stands gracefully, head tilting up towards the sky. “Yeah, I think we still have several more hours of daylight left. Jasper wouldn’t let me wake you up this morning.” 

I swallow thickly and turn my back to him, “This way, then.” 

I blink hard, trying to force back fresh tears. Another ambush of waterworks is slowly building up, like the water level rising against the side of a dam, and I have a strong feeling that it’ll hit again once I try to go to sleep. My hands are curled into tight fists at my sides. Just get home, I mentally repeat the words over and over, drilling them into my brain. 

I just have to get home. 

Then I can exact my revenge.