Page 52 of June First

It’s a mere fissure at first, but it’s enough to cause everyone to go deadly silent. June’s eyes flare. She stares at me from a few feet away, completely still, and I feel like time stops in that moment. It’s the pause button on a movie reel. An eerie intermission. The wind howls with a timbre of terror, and the snowflakes sting my skin, and everything feels heavy. Or weightless. Or both.

The ice continues to split—ugly veins branching out, contaminating piece after piece.

“Brant…”

June murmurs my name from the middle of the pond, and it’s the frailest whimper, a fearful plea.

It’s the last thing she says before the ice collapses underneath her.

“June!”

Her scream tears through the park, then she plunges into the icy water.

I don’t think.

I just move.

Wyatt rambles beside me, “I didn’t know, dude, I just thought—”

I don’t listen.

I. Just. Move.

I race onto the ice, hoping it holds me long enough to reach her, but it crumbles quickly, disintegrating into slush.

“Brant!” Her head pops up long enough to choke out my name again, her arms thrashing wildly, and then she disappears underwater.

I follow. I crash through the arctic surface, nearly suffocating on the cold. My bones chatter. My skin goes numb. My blood swims with ice.

But I keep moving.

It’s not deep, but June is already sinking from shock. Sailing toward her, I wrap my arms around her middle and drag her up to the surface. Her skin looks discolored. Blueish…almost…

Purple.

I feel sick.

Dizziness tries to yank me back under, but I plod forward to the snowy edge, where Wyatt and his friends have already vanished, replaced by worried onlookers. Cold water and ice chunks lap at my torso, and I feel like I can’t breathe. My lungs have shriveled into glaciers.

I’m shivering. Close to blacking out. Everything is fading.

June, June, June.

It’s a miracle I reach land, somehow finding the strength to pull her up onto the snow. A man runs over and assists, bringing her out safely before helping me from the water.

I collapse.

I collapse beside her, shaking uncontrollably, rolling until I’m nearly blanketing her small frame. “Junebug…” I croak out. I tap her cheek, my fingers twining through her icicled hair. “Junebug, please. Please, please.”

She twitches.

She splutters.

She starts coughing up water, her body convulsing, then instinctively reaches for me as she gasps for breath. June tremors with cold, her deathlike fingers curling around my wet coat.

It’s all I need.

It’s all I need to know before I buckle on top of her with frigid exhaustion and slip away.

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