16

Ronan stood behind me. His arms were wrapped around me while his chin rested on top of my head.

We found a small farm on the outskirts of New York yesterday.

The guys cleared the farm of any rotters before they put up fences around the farm. Ellie and I cleaned the house before making dinner.

They brought most of the supplies from the facility with them. It should last us approximately four months.

I like it here, it's quiet and isolated from the rest of the world.

Hopefully we can stay here for a little while.

Ellie and Cooper came walking into the living room and sat next to each other on a couch. "Where's Oli?" I curiously asked them.

"I'm here," Oliver announced his arrival. He pulled a chair out from the dinner table before sitting down on it and placing all his focus on me and Ronan.

"By the way, why didn't Luke come with you guys? Why would you leave him at the facility?" I asked the group of them and Cooper let out a heavy sigh, his eyes were brimming with tears.

Oliver who had his head resting in his hands got up from his chair to pull me into a tight hug and a chill ran down my spine as I quietly looked around the room.

Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Ellie burst out into tears and ran into Ronan's arms. "I'm so sorry, Ronan." She told him and Ronan rubbed her back in a comforting manner before shooting Oliver a puzzled look.

"What's going on?" Ronan asked Oliver.

"And why does it look like you're all hiding something from us? Where's Luke?" I asked them, my voice more demanding this time and Cooper stormed out of the room.

I frowned up at Oliver who was still holding me in his embrace.

"Ronan- I'm so sorry." Oliver uttered while looking between Ronan and I. "Luke didn't make it-- Luke's dead." He uttered and I shook my head at him in disbelief.

"What?" I heard myself asking but my voice sounded so far away.

"I'm sorry." Oliver uttered before taking a step back from me.

"No. What are you talking about? Luke can't be dead." I told him.

"He's gone, Hailey-Jade." Ellie cried out and it felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest.

I dropped to my knees and a heart wrenching scream escaped my lips. I gasped for air as it felt like my lungs had suddenly stopped working.

God no. This can't be happening.

I felt Oliver wrapping his arms around me and I sobbed into his shirt, the sound ringing through my ears.

I could hear myself crying. But I sounded like a completely different person.

Like a traumatized, horrified, broken girl.

A guilty girl, who knew that Luke was gone because of her.

He died because she left him, so careless and wrecklessly. She didn't care about what her absence would do to him.

Now she's realized that it killed him. It actually killed him. And he begged her to stay but she left him anyway.

Her last words to him was a lie.

Look at her crying for him now. As if she didn't do all those things. As if she was so innocent.

How could I have been so cruel?

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry Luke-"

I kept apologizing to Luke until I fainted. Until I felt someone carry my lifeless body out of the kitchen. I was gently placed on a bed then the world just went quiet around me.

My eyes fluttered shut and I forced myself to go to sleep because sleep is the closest I'll ever come to seeing Luke again.

Dream, Hailey-Jade. Dream so that you can see him again.