Jay POV
The sky above the harbor was pale gray, the first sunlight breaking through the smoke that still drifted from the ruins of the warehouse. What used to be a massive building was now nothing more than a blackened skeleton of metal beams and broken walls.
Firefighters were still spraying water on the wreckage.
Police cars surrounded the area.
Paramedics moved between people with medical kits and stretchers.
Everything felt loud.
Chaotic.
But inside me… everything felt quiet.
I sat on the back of an ambulance while a doctor wrapped a bandage around my arm.
"You're lucky," he said. "Just a burn from the heat blast."
I barely listened.
Across the parking lot, Felix and Ci-N were talking to two police officers.
Keifer stood nearby while another paramedic checked his shoulder.
Everyone looked exhausted.
Everyone looked shaken.
And everyone believed the same thing.
Hex was gone.
I stared down at the ground, my fingers tightening slowly.
No.
Something inside me refused to accept it.
Hex was smart.
Hex was fast.
Hex always found a way out.
A doctor stood up in front of me.
"You should rest for a bit," he said.
I nodded quietly.
But the moment he walked away, I slid off the ambulance.
No one noticed.
I walked slowly past the police cars, past the firefighters, and toward the docks.
The harbor water moved quietly under the wooden boards.
The early sunlight shimmered across the waves.
I stood there for a moment.
Then I sighed.
"Well," I muttered.
"Anytime now."
The water didn't answer.
I crossed my arms.
"You know," I said out loud to no one, "this would be a great time for you to jump out of the water and say something annoying."
Still nothing.
I kicked a small rock off the dock.
It splashed into the water.
I sighed again.
"Come on, Hex."
The wind moved softly across the harbor.
"I know you escaped somehow," I said quietly. "You always do."
I leaned slightly over the railing, staring at the water.
For a moment… nothing happened.
Then I noticed something.
Something floating.
Farther out in the water.
At first it just looked like a piece of debris.
Maybe wood from the explosion.
But then it moved.
My heart skipped.
"…Charles."
I stepped closer to the edge of the dock.
The object drifted slowly with the current.
My eyes narrowed.
That wasn't debris.
It looked like…
A person.
My heart started racing.
"No way…"
I climbed down the small ladder attached to the dock and stepped closer to the water.
The figure drifted slightly closer.
Dark hair.
A hoodie.
My stomach dropped.
"HEX!"
Without thinking, I jumped into the harbor.
The cold water hit me instantly, but I ignored it and started swimming.
My arms pushed through the waves as fast as I could.
"Hex! Hex!"
The floating body didn't move.
Fear shot through me.
Please… please don't be too late.
I reached him a few seconds later.
My hands grabbed his shoulder and turned him over.
My heart nearly stopped.
It was him.
Hex.
His face was pale.
Blood ran down the side of his forehead.
His arm had a deep cut across it.
And he wasn't moving.
"Oh my god… Hex…"
I grabbed him quickly, wrapping one arm under his shoulders and pulling him toward the dock.
He felt heavier than I expected.
But adrenaline pushed me forward.
Slowly… painfully… I dragged him through the water until we reached the ladder.
It took everything I had to lift him up.
But somehow I managed to pull him onto the dock.
We collapsed onto the wooden boards together.
"Hex… hey… wake up…"
He didn't respond.
My heart pounded in my chest.
"No… no no no…"
I quickly rolled him onto his back and placed my hands on his chest.
"Come on… come on…"
I started pressing down hard.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
"Don't do this," I whispered desperately.
"Not after everything."
I kept pressing on his chest.
"HEX!"
Then I lifted my head and screamed across the harbor.
"KEIFER!"
My voice echoed through the docks.
"KEIFER!"
"FELIX! CI-N!"
"KEIFER!"
"OVER HERE!"
Footsteps suddenly erupted behind me.
Keifer's voice shouted first.
"Jay?!"
They ran toward the dock.
Then they saw him.
Keifer froze.
Felix's eyes widened.
"…Hex?"
A doctor rushed forward immediately.
"What happened?!"
"I found him in the water!" I said quickly, still pressing on his chest.
"He's not waking up!"
The doctor dropped beside me instantly.
"Move."
I slid back as the doctor checked Hex's breathing and pulse.
"Pulse is weak!" he shouted to the others.
Another medic ran over with a stretcher.
Felix stared at Hex in complete shock.
"…He's alive."
Keifer knelt beside him, his expression filled with disbelief.
The medics carefully lifted Hex onto the stretcher.
His arm hung slightly to the side, blood still dripping from the wound.
The doctor turned toward the ambulance.
"Move! Now!"
They rushed him across the dock toward the waiting ambulance.
Felix followed closely.
Ci-N looked back at me.
"You were right," he said quietly.
Keifer helped me stand up.
My legs were shaking.
I watched as the ambulance doors slammed shut.
Inside, the doctors immediately started working on Hex.
I felt tears running down my face again.
But this time they weren't from heartbreak.
I whispered softly to myself.
"I knew it."
"I knew you'd escape somehow."
And as the ambulance sped away down the harbor road…
Hex was still breathing.