EPILOGUE
Plus 3 Months
“Buddy, just lift it from the back,” said Buff.
“No way—” Aaron’s golden arms flexed against the solid brass. “You got to pull from the front.”
Aaron collapsed, pulled off his goggles, and wiped his forehead. He gasped for breath. The sun kissed the tops of their heads.
He grinned and high fived his best friend.
Behind them, the Bermuda surf was already washing away the deep gouge they had left in the sand.
Buff peered at him over the top of the corroded brass eyepiece. “Let’s go down and get the rest of the treasure.”
“Give me a minute,” said Aaron.
Aaron gazed at a cluster of palm trees. They had grown right up to the water’s edge. Some fallen coconuts floated in the shady shallows beneath them. Beyond the palms, the white shoreline curved out of sight on its way around the tiny island.
Their 28-foot sailboat, Endless Honeymoon, was just visible around the bend—a wedding gift meant for Amber and Clive that she had managed to hold on to.
Buff’s half, Daisy, scampered out of the jungle. The little redhead hardly made it up to Buff’s biceps.
“That is so cool! What’d you guys find?” she said.
Buff picked her up with one arm. She giggled and tried to escape.
“Buddy, care to explain our find?” said Buff
“It’s an aitherscope, probably eighty years old,” said Aaron, beaming at them. “We found it in the wreck.”
“Aitherscopes didn’t exist eighty years ago,” she said.
“Yeah, Buddy, don’t you remember that lecture?” Buff dropped her in the sand, flicked some sludge off the eyepiece and pressed his eye to the lens. “I wonder . . . ”
“Buff, there’s no way—”
“Yep. Still works,” said Buff.
Daisy looked through next, and her eyes widened. “Buffy, it’s your eye!”
Buff turned the color of a ripe plum and tackled her onto the beach.
Buffy.
Aaron had to hold his nose to stop from cracking up. He tried the aitherscope after Daisy, while the two of them rolled around on the sand. It didn’t hurt anymore, not like it used to.
Static.
“Still nothing,” he muttered.
Then somebody jumped at him from behind. He spun and caught her, and she tossed wet blonde hair out of her eyes and kissed him with salty lips.
“Want to see what I got you?” Amber whispered in his ear, still panting from her dive. She leaned over, exposing her glistening back, and half of a faint white spiral caught the sunlight under her bikini top.
Even though Clive was dead, the scar hadn’t fully healed. It was now a permanent reminder to both of them of how close she had come—and how they weren’t like other halves. They had earned the right to love each other, and for that, every second they spent together was precious.
Amber held out a starfish for him. “Isn’t she cute?”
Aaron glanced between Amber and the starfish. “I do see the resemblance.”
“Oh, do you?” She brought out a sea cucumber next. “Well this one looks like you.”
Aaron narrowed his eyes at the slimy, spotted slug. “Good to know you’re not just with me for my looks,” he said.
“Actually, it’s mostly just your looks,” she said with a sly smile. She peered sideways at the aitherscope. “You know, I haven’t looked through one of these since my birthday.”
She leaned toward the eyepiece.
And Aaron’s heart clawed itself into his throat. He grabbed her arm. “Amber, forget it—”
But it was too late.
“Wow,” she said, blinking into the eyepiece. “Aaron, that isn’t your eye.”
“Whose is it?” he croaked.
“It’s just static.”
Aaron exhaled his relief. “Come on,” he said, grinning. “I saw an underwater cave we can explore.”
Amber wrapped her arms around him again. “Is it private,” she asked.
“It’s an underwater cave.”
She bit her lip. “So really private?”
“That’s why we’re exploring.”
The ocean glittered in her eyes. “Is that all we’re going to do?”
***
The first sign that something was off came late July, when they were back in Tularosa. Aaron sensed it first. They were walking out of the Arlington Theater, oblivious of the crowd—when he felt a gentle tugging at the back of his skull.
Then he saw him.
For an instant in a shop window’s reflection. Across the street, standing in the shadows. A gray hoodie, pale blue eyes.
Aaron spun, but there was no one.
Just shadows.
Aaron took a deep breath and squeezed Amber closer to him. It was only his imagination.
People didn’t live on after half death.
Only Aaron did that.
THE END