This isn't real. This isn't real, I chanted in my head as I felt the vomit coming up my throat. I swallowed it down and squeaked again.
Archer's head swiveled back in the direction my eyes were trained and he stood up immediately when he saw the man behind him. I stood up too on legs that were shaking so badly, I didn't know if I'd stay upright, a huge surge of adrenalin rushing through my system.
The man didn't even seem to see Archer just in front of me and to my right, his eyes still focused only on me.
"You ruined my f**king life, you bitch," he gritted out. "Do you know who I am? My dad was going to hand the company over to me before you pointed your finger. Do you think I'm going to let you walk away while I lose everything?"
My mind was screaming, the loud sound of the blood rushing in my ears not allowing me to make any sense of his words.
His eyes looked bloodshot and overly bright, just like they had the last time. He was on something. Either that, or he was stone cold crazy.
Please, please be calling the police, Maggie. Oh God, Oh God, how is this possible?
And then it all happened in an instant. Something flashed in the man's hand and the room seemed to tilt on its axis as I saw that it was a gun. He brought it up and aimed it straight at me. I saw a brief flash of fire as Archer threw his body in front of mine, slamming back into me as we both went down, me falling on the floor just behind Archer.
And then I heard another gunshot and Travis's voice yelling, "I need assistance!" over the crackle of a radio.
I scuttled backwards, noticing immediately that the man who had fired at me was lying still on the floor, and that Archer wasn't moving either. I let out a strangled sob and lurched forward, reaching for him. He was lying on his side, his face turned toward the floor. I pulled him backwards so that he was on his back and let out an anguished cry when I saw the front of his shirt already soaked in blood.
Oh no, Oh God, no, no, no. Please, no. Please no.
My own sobs mixed with all the noise starting up around me now, footsteps, what I thought were Maggie's soft cries, Norm's gravely voice, and chairs scraping against the floor. But my eyes didn't move from Archer.
I pulled him into me, rocking him, smoothing my hands down his face as I whispered to him over and over, "Hang on, baby, hang on. I love you, Archer, I love you, don't you dare leave me now."
"Bree," I heard Travis say quietly, as the sound of an ambulance grew louder outside the diner. "Bree, let me help you up."
"No!" I screamed, pulling Archer closer to me. "No! No!" I rocked him some more, putting my face right next to his, feeling his rough cheek against my own, and whispering to him again, "Don't you leave me, I need you, don't you leave me."
But Archer didn't hear me, he was already gone.
CHAPTER 34
You brought the silence,
The most beautiful sound I'd ever heard,
Because it was where you were.
And now you've taken it away.
And all the noises, all the sounds in the world,
Aren't loud enough to pierce my broken heart.
I look up at the stars, endless and forever, and whisper,
Come back to me,
Come back to me,
Come back to me.
CHAPTER 35
Bree
The whole town gathered to honor Archer Hale.
The people of Pelion, young and old, came together to show their support for the man who had been a quiet part of their community since the day he was born. His silent wound, his unnoticed isolation, now understood by all, and finally, his gentle heart and act of bravery, inspired shops to close, and those who rarely came out of their homes to join with the other citizens in the largest show of support the town had ever seen. A small, silent star, always on the outskirts, hardly noticed before, had shone so brightly, that the whole town stopped to gaze upon his brilliance, to finally open their eyes enough to welcome him as part of their small constellation.
I heard again and again that my and Archer's story made people want to be better, to reach out to those no one else saw, to be friends to the friendless, to look at others more closely, and recognize pain when they came across it, and then to do something about it if they were able.
I walked in that cold day in February, Maggie on one arm and Norm on the other and we took our seats as people smiled kindly at me and nodded their heads. I smiled and nodded back. This was my community now too. I was part of the constellation as well.
Outside, the rain had just begun to fall and I heard a boom of thunder in the distance. I wasn't afraid though. When a thunderstorm comes, I had told him, I'll think of you, not anything other than you. And I always did. Always.
Archer had gone away once before–three long months where I missed him desperately every single day. This time he was gone from me for three solid weeks before he came back. He was in a deep coma and the doctors couldn't tell me when they thought he might wake up, or if he would wake up at all. But I waited. I would always wait. And I prayed and I whispered to the heavens every night, come back to me, come back to me, come back to me.
On another rainy day at the end of January, just as the thunder boomed and the lightening flashed in his hospital room, he opened his eyes and looked at me. My own heart thundered in my ears, louder than that outside the window, and I'd jumped up from the chair I'd been sitting in and rushed to his side, choking out, "You're back." I picked up his hands and brought them to my lips, kissing them again and again, my tears falling onto his fingers, his knuckles, those beautiful hands that held a whole language, that allowed me to know what was in his mind and his heart. I loved those hands. I loved him. My tears continued to fall.