Flames

Chapter Four: Flames</u>


“Celeste?”

Her body lay curled at the base of the granite stone. Dawn was just beginning when the familiar voice had awaken her.

“Kevin??”

Tears welled up in her eyes as she saw the man in front of her. He was as handsome as ever. He was so real that when Celeste reached out, she could feel him. He smelled of lilacs and carnations. Like the flowers he gave her on her last birthday.

“Celeste, I love you. I am waiting for you. Come to me when you are old, not before.”

“No, I must be with you! I must die for your memory!”

“If you died, there would be no memory left. Now go, find him.”

“Who? Kevin?! KEVIN?!!”

She was choking on her tears. He was gone. In the midst of the morning fog, he had appeared and then vanished. She held her knees to her chest and cried. She cried for Kevin. For love and fate and destiny. For pasts and futures. For lost hopes and forgotten dreams. She cried for her pain.

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She couldn’t go home. There was nothing for her there anymore. She pondered what her parents must think. They always thought her to be odd. She thought of her friends. They ignored her now because of the “morbid fixation on death” or whatever it was they were calling it. She only had herself and the fog.

She decided to wonder aimlessly. It was a good idea to her that way she did not have to pay attention to where she was going. But after about fifteen minutes, she came to the lake that she had seen so many times over the years but never visited. She sat at the edge and looked out into the murky waters. Small bass came to the surface and quickly swam away. She smiled at the simplicity and serenity of it all. She wondered why she never had spent any time at the lake before when her thoughts were interrupted.

“Celeste?”

Assuming it was her lost love once more, she turned around quickly with tears beginning again. Only, it was not Kevin. It was Justin.

“Was it not enough that you were forgiven? You must follow me now too?”

She quickly put on the blank straight expression and hid away her disappointment and sorrow.

“What? I mean… Look, I came here to straighten out my head, er, my thoughts. I had no idea you were here. Shit, Celeste. Please don’t push me away. Talk to me.”

She shook her head at him and turned back to the brackish water. She did not want anyone in her life, let alone someone associated to the murder of the one person she adored. She only wanted an escape from her own life now. Whether through insanity or death itself, she just wanted it all to end.

He could not read her at all so Justin decided to sit down next to her. He looked out beyond the waters’ edge as if trying to catch view of something. Maybe even a glimpse of the future.

“Kevin came to me in my dream last night.”

She did not respond. She continued staring at the surface of the water but was not focused on it at all. She was in shock by his words and intensely waiting on him to continue.

After a few moments of silence, he began again.

“He said that the flames in your heart mustn’t go out. That I had to promise him to make sure and in return, he would forgive me. He said that you know you are going to die if you left them fizzle out and that…”

“FUCK YOU!!”

She jumped up and smacked him across his pale, oval shaped face.

“What the hell are you trying to do? Get me to cry? Twist that fucking blade some more and see if poor lil’ Celly will turn on the waterfall. Well, screw you!”

“No… wait…I was just trying to tell you what he said in my dre-“

“I fucking hate liars! All of you are! Whispering first and now lying! Stop fucking lying! You are forgiven! Now fuck off!!!”

And inside, Justin could feel the flames inside of Celeste’s heart dimming as she turned and ran away from him.