Rest in Peace

---Indigo---

The fire burnt high on the funeral pyre, sending orange sparks up into the night sky. We stood in a ragged semicircle around it, paying tribute and saying goodbye to our fallen friend. Ashley's shoulders shook as she cried an endless stream of tears. Rachel stood next to with Ashley, with an arm around her friend. Her eyes weren't dry either.

Beside Rachel and Ashley stood Lucian, his eyes hollow and staring deep into the flames, but also not really seeing the flames. One of his best friends is dead. Never again will they laugh together or fight for the last chicken drumstick. Never again will they share a grin or lift the spirits of the team through their playful antics. It was as if a part of Lucian had died along with Jason.

I stood next to Aaron, who looked at the flames eating at Jason's clothes with the same expression as Lucian. There is something between boys that we girls cannot fully understand. They have their own language, their own "bro code", and inside jokes that seem so foreign to us. Their bonds are forged through iron and smoke and a code of honor. In a matter of seconds, Aaron and Lucian had lost a dear friend. The amount of pain they are in must be unfathomable, for they witnessed the death of their best friend and could not do anything about it.

It had seemed so unreal as we ran to the clearing. Strangely, the Evils vanished into the trees as soon as everyone reached Jason's body, leaving us alone. Ashley sobbed over Jason's limp form, shaking his shoulders and crying for him to look at her. There was a knife buried in Jason's chest—stabbed right into his heart. Blood seeped all over the front of his shirt. Jason's eyes looked up at the towering trees blankly, devoid of all traces of life.

Aaron skidded to a halt a few feet away from Jason and Ashley. He stared down at Jason's unmoving figure with disbelief, frozen in shock. "…Jason?"

Lucian sank to his knees beside Jason and grabbed his friend's wrist. He searched for a pulse desperately. Jason's hand drooped limply in Lucian's grasp. Ashley's shoulders shook as she cried, still cradling Jason's upper body in her arms. Slowly, Lucian folded Jason's arm over his stomach, before lifting a trembling hand and closing Jason's eyes. A choked sob escaped Lucian's throat.

"Please, Rachel, bring him back. I'm begging you, Rachel. Please!" Ashley looked up at Rachel with teary eyes. "Please, Rachel!"

"I can't." Rachel whispered, her eyes filling with regretful tears. "I can only heal, not bring back the dead."

"Just try! Rachel, please, bring Jason back!"

Rachel knelt down and place her hand on Jason's still chest, willing the magic to flow. We waited, hoping and praying that the yellow magic would have some magical effect on Jason. The yellow sparks flowed from Rachel's fingertips, but they merely danced along Jason's wound before fading away. Rachel shook her head sadly and forced herself to meet Ashley's hopeful eyes. "I can't."

Suddenly, the silence in the forest was too much. Rachel took a shuddering breath. "I'm sorry, Ashley."

Ashley's heart shattered through her eyes. She held Rachel's gaze for a second longer, before dropping her gaze to the pale face of Jason. "Jason…oh, Jason," she murmured sadly. "I never got to tell you how I felt."

The wails came then, as Ashley clutched Jason tightly to her and wept over his dead body. No one could keep their eyes dry. We huddled in a small circle around Ashley and Jason, and mourned the untimely death of a good friend.

It was the first time I saw Ashley lose control. She began to quake uncontrollably as she cried. Then a circular wave of purple magic emitted from her and knocked the rest of us a good fifteen feet backwards. Flying out from somewhere in the trampled undergrowth, Ashley's lost wand returned to her hand. She shot streak after streak of magic at everything she saw, blasting down trees and sending rocks flying. She could not hear our shouts over the chaos, and if she did, she ignored us. We cowered down in the bushes and waited it out.

Finally, the storm subsided. Ashley's wand rolled onto the ground as she crumpled, entirely spent, still holding Jason in her arms.

Then it was all a blur. With all our horses gone, we had to walk the rest of the way out of the Desederium Forest. Aaron and Lucian carried Jason's body between the two of them on a makeshift stretcher, with Jason covered by his own jacket. Eventually we emerged into the outside world, with the afternoon sun shining upon us and the silhouette of Devil's Peak in the distance.

We walked until the sun set and Desederium Forest could no longer be seen behind us. We trudged slowly, silently on the dirt road that was barely walked, with trees standing at attention on either side. It was like coming out of a forest only to enter another one, but no other forest could ever be as frightening as the Desederium Forest.

We set up camp by the side of the trail under a blanket of stars. Ashley refused to talk to anyone; instead, she stayed by the side of Jason's cold body, rocking herself and crying softly. Aaron suggested we give Jason a proper funeral.

"No hero is complete without a hero's farewell," he stated. "Jason deserves a safe and smooth passage into the afterlife." It was decided that a funeral pyre would be made, and we would say our goodbyes.

As I watched the flames turn Jason into ash, I silently said my goodbye. 'Jason, you were perhaps the strongest one out of the seven. I always thought you would be one of the three who made it to the end, but I guess life is full of unforeseen cruel twists. I'm sorry we didn't reach you in time. I'm sorry we were too far away to do anything.'

I closed my eyes, and memories of our happy days back at the Academy flashed in front of my eyes. 'You had so much potential, Jason. You had such a bright future. I saw how you look at Ashley, and I know for a fact that she returns the feelings. Did you get to tell her how you felt? Did you get to say goodbye? She cried so hard, Jason. She begged Rachel to bring you back, but Rachel couldn't. Perhaps, if Katherine was here, she could've worked her magic and maybe you could have walked the earth again. There are so many what-ifs, so many alternate endings, but we'll never know.

'We will find the mysterious figure who threw the knife and kill him. We will seek revenge for you. But for now, I hope that you are at peace. I hope that the place you went to is a better one than where we are now. At least you won't have to face Lord Victor, and all the obstacles that will come before.

'Please watch over us and comfort Ashley. Comfort Lucian and Aaron too, while you're at it. We all miss you so much already, Jason. I hope there are as many chicken drumsticks as you want in the afterlife.

'Rest in peace, Jason.'

The juniper branches that made up the pyre blazed brightly. I watched as the handful of white flowers we placed on Jason slowly turned to ash.