The Huntress Descent

The Storm: Chapter Three

"It was an accident," Poe whimpered in a state of shock. "It was an accident."

Alice was dead, her golden eyes fixed and vacant. Her chest red and still.

"I didn't mean it."

I saw as Poe clenched his teeth tightly together, exhaling a raspy groan as he tried with all his might to fill the air into his lungs. It was quite an eerie thing to watch. I felt like I was looking into a mirror and I could actually feel the anguish and fear radiating inside of him. But it wasn't me. It wasn't my panic attack. I didn't think I had ever grasped the idea that other people felt the exact same way as me. Not until I saw this with my very own eyes. The tears that fell his eyes were so familiar to me, and the panic behind those tears looked identical to the panic I had seen manifest in my own.

It was an intense moment. The urge to help him get through this conflicted with my own self barely clinging to the calm. A panicked oblivion stewed within my own chest. I felt the grips of my own panic attack starting to take over. My thoughts raced and began to clamour in my mind of the situation that we had found ourselves in.

Somewhere in those moments of panic, I heard myself repeating the words Newt had used to help my through my own: "In through your nose, out through your mouth. In through your nose, out through your mouth." Eventually, both of us calmed down. Eventually, the tears stopped rolling down the side of his cheeks. Eventually, normal breathing was restored. Eventually, our eyes showed no signs of panic. It was a telling moment for me. To see someone else experience exactly what I experienced. And the way I was able to help them, despite myself being in a mid-panic.

"We should rest for a bit before we carry on," I said to Poe. He only nodded in agreement, his eyes still fixated on the body. A second later, he silently brushed past us and walked round the other side of the building where a long shadow had been cast. I motioned for Jamie to follow him, hoping that the kid would keep an eye on him whilst I handled Alice.

It was a sorrowful sight to behold. The initial shock had now cooled off and I was now able to fully look at the body slumped against the side of the building. The golden eyes that had shone in the light had now dulled to a husk. The venomous scowl that she wore in her last moments had softened into a blank expression. Without her eyes open, and avoiding the stain of red of her shirt, she looked like she was sleeping. The effects of death had yet taken a hold of her body.

I sucked in a hot breath and willed myself to move closer to her. This was the first time I had seen a dead body. The first time had I seen death at work. I had only ever heard about it passing. How we had assumed Ben had died in the Maze when he was Banished. There was a difference between hearing about it to seeing it.

I crouched over Alice and rested a hand on her still chest. A feeling deep below wished that this was just a hoax and she would spring up any second. However, I knew that was wistful thinking. Alice was gone.

In a mark of respect, I closed her golden eyes so that she looked peaceful in her dead slumber and pulled her body down until she lay flat. There wasn't much else I could do. There was no entrance into the building, otherwise I would have placed her body inside so that it was out of the way from the weather. I ultimately would have to leave her there to succumb to the environment. I felt a tear snake down the side of my cheek and the taste of salt on my lips. It was painful to see her like this. Alone. Alice deserved more than this pathetic ending. And I couldn't give it to her.

"I'm sorry for everything I have done." It was a pitiful apology. I knew it could never make up for whatever I had done in Eden. Nonetheless it was all I could give in that moment.

I bowed my head and walked away from the body of Alice. This would be the first time I had seen a body, but I knew in my mind that it would not be the last. These Trials were going to test us and we had only just begun.