BooksBarbecue
Back Afterlove Save as PDF
Chapters (86)
  1. Title Page
  2. CONTENTS
  3. Love
  4. Before
  5. One
  6. ONE
  7. Two
  8. TWO
  9. Three
  10. THREE
  11. Four
  12. FOUR
  13. Five
  14. FIVE
  15. Six
  16. SIX
  17. Seven
  18. SEVEN
  19. Eight
  20. EIGHT
  21. Nine
  22. NINE
  23. Ten
  24. TEN
  25. Eleven
  26. ELEVEN
  27. After
  28. One
  29. ONE
  30. Two
  31. TWO
  32. Three
  33. THREE
  34. Four
  35. FOUR
  36. Five
  37. FIVE
  38. Six
  39. SIX
  40. Seven
  41. SEVEN
  42. Eight
  43. EIGHT
  44. Nine
  45. NINE
  46. Ten
  47. TEN
  48. Eleven
  49. ELEVEN
  50. Twelve
  51. TWELVE
  52. Thirteen
  53. THIRTEEN
  54. Fourteen
  55. FOURTEEN
  56. Fifteen
  57. FIFTEEN
  58. Sixteen
  59. SIXTEEN
  60. Seventeen
  61. SEVENTEEN
  62. Eighteen
  63. EIGHTEEN
  64. Nineteen
  65. NINETEEN
  66. Twenty
  67. TWENTY
  68. Twenty-One
  69. TWENTY-ONE
  70. Twenty-Two
  71. TWENTY-TWO
  72. Twenty-Three
  73. TWENTY-THREE
  74. Twenty-Four
  75. TWENTY-FOUR
  76. Twenty-Five
  77. TWENTY-FIVE
  78. Twenty-Six
  79. TWENTY-SIX
  80. Twenty-Seven
  81. TWENTY-SEVEN
  82. Twenty-Eight
  83. TWENTY-EIGHT
  84. Eleven Months Later
  85. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  86. Copyright

I look at Charon then at his boat as it bobs gently in front of him.

No.

She can’t be.

How?

Where’s her body?

I look back over my shoulder, but there’s nothing there, just the quiet push and pull of the waves behind us.

I turn my head back to the shore, wondering if I imagined it, but he’s there.

He’s definitely there.

Charon.

‘It’s OK,’ Poppy says, kissing my cheek, but all I can think is how?

When?

Somewhere in the desperate blur of panic, something begins to take focus and I remember. Poppy’s body jerking before she sank beneath the surface the second time. I thought she was teasing me, but whatever happened must have happened then. Her body went under, but her soul came back up.

No.

I was supposed to stop it.

I was supposed to save her.

I didn’t save her.

There’s a fierce growl of thunder followed by a strike of lightning so loud I’m sure the sky is splitting in two, as if it knows. I wait for the seagulls to start squealing, but there’s nothing, just this aching stretch of silence before it starts raining – quick and hard – like bullets puncturing the water around us as my feet finally find the pebbles.

‘I’m sorry,’ she tells me, frantically kissing my cheek. ‘It’s OK. It’s OK.’

I’m supposed to be telling her that.

But she keeps saying it – keeps kissing my cheek – as we walk up the slope towards him.

That’s when I see them. Dev and Esen, standing a few feet to his right, Dev’s hair the same colour as the moon watching over us and Esen’s curls as dark as the sea calling Poppy back. They begin walking towards us as we approach, reaching out to help us as our feet slip on the pebbles. Esen holds unto my arm with such urgency that I lift my chin to stare at her. She’s looking at me in a way she never has before, with this maddening mixture of sorrow and pity that would make me fall into her arms if I wasn’t so scared to let go of Poppy.

Dev is the first to say it, though. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘We didn’t know that you were already at the beach,’ Esen says then, raising her voice, loud enough for Charon to hear. ‘Otherwise we wouldn’t have bothered coming and left this one for you.’

So that’s our story, is it?

‘It’s OK, Poppy,’ Dev says with a smile that doesn’t register in her eyes. ‘Come with us.’

‘Come where?’ she asks fiercely, so fiercely that I wonder if she’s putting it on or if she really doesn’t know.

Esen gestures at Charon who is still by his boat, watching us carefully.