Whatever was left of them died that morning on the beach. Died as they watched Hunter Silver, the newest Forever, cradle the love of her life.
Sail tried to stop the blood but there was just too much.
Sergeant Walters knelt beside them.
‘Hell,’ he said. ‘Hell.’
He took Hugo himself. Carried him with the help of Liam up towards the old police car and sped from their lives. Mae held Hunter tightly.
She did not cry.
When the crowds began to drift away Hunter sat with Candice and Lexi, Hugo’s blood sticky on her palms as she closed her eyes and the sun warmed her face.
Mae sat on the flat rock and finished his tattoo.
This time he didn’t cry.
‘I know it was you,’ Mae said.
Felix kept his eyes on his wrist.
‘I saw you on the security tape. It’s your job, right. You collect the service sheets from the printers. You added your own. You know how the school audio system works. AV Club. I think I know why you did it. I just want … I mean, I wanted to say –’
He pressed his head to hers. ‘I wanted to give you your Forever back. But I knew only Abi could do that.’
She hugged him tightly.
They saw the Reverend standing at the water’s edge, Felix’s mother beside.
‘The last service. He won’t do it,’ Felix said. ‘The church falling, he took that as a sign. That and the fact that his son will burn. He thinks he failed.’
‘You know what you have to do,’ she said.
‘I do.’
‘You want a pep talk?’
‘I do.’
‘You helped give me my Forever. So maybe it’s time you gave them theirs.’
Felix stood. ‘Is that it?’
‘It’s been a long night.’
‘I’m no longer a virgin.’
‘How was it?’
‘Turns out Liam wasn’t joking when he said they were getting some Viagra.’
They looked over to Liam, who sat alone, as broken as Hunter.
The large cross had been rescued from outside the ruins of the church and carried by a dozen to the edge of the bay, almost touching the water.
Almost the whole town turned up for that last service on the break of the last day.
They expected the Reverend Baxter, instead they got his son.
In his white dinner suit, Felix stood on a piece of driftwood and took the microphone.
Mae sat, Stella on her lap, her hand in Sail’s.
She looked around and saw crowds gathered on the promenade, some stood ankle deep in the water.
She heard the fear in his voice as he began. ‘I used to wonder about faith. I tried to weigh up the pros and cons. Religion, and what it means. I saw people hiding behind it, using it as an excuse to commit cruelties in someone else’s name. To compare. To judge.
‘I never thought I’d be standing here like this. My father, he always wanted me to. I always said no. I didn’t want to be part of something I don’t believe in. But then I realised it wasn’t about God, your god or mine. It was about more than that. This past month I’ve seen the best of humankind, and the worst.’
Mae looked from Sail to Sally Sweeny, to Matilda and Betty.
‘Someone once told me that the closer you look, the less you see. So last Sunday I stood outside church and watched. I watched my father tell stories, I watched people draw comfort from his words. That’s all. Comfort. Hope. Faith, in people.
‘I don’t know what will happen this morning. I don’t know what happens after. To be honest, I don’t think anyone does. No matter what they promise, no matter which book they read from or which heaven they look up at. So instead of praying with you for what might be, I want you to look around now and realise what is. What you can hear and see and touch. Don’t say your last goodbye, say your first hello.
‘I’ve spent the past years trying to work out which version of myself people will see, people will like. It’s taken until now, the last hour of the last day, to work out that I am imperfectly, uniquely and gloriously me. And that my faith is in my friends. And that’s all I’ll ever need.
‘And for the briefest time, I, Felix Baxter, was lucky enough to live.’
Sail squeezed her hand as she kissed her sister’s head and breathed in the smell of her hair.
‘At least he didn’t swear,’ Stella whispered.
Felix cleared his throat and opened his arms. ‘We’re fucking amazing. Each and every one of us.’