𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇 | outerbanks¹

𝟢𝟧𝟨，THE EPILOUGE,

TWO WEEKS AFTER.

RENEE'S  HEAD WAS BOWED — HANDS PRESSED AGAINST THE MARBLE OF THE BATHROOM SINK

━━━ Her waterproof mascara being put through it's paces as the tears that leaked from her eyes came in waves now. They hadn't ever actually stopped since that night, when she didn't cry she would just be numb, for a moment she'd forget about it, and then. It would all come back.

Renee Lowe was numb. numb to any emotion but pain, happiness felt foreign to her and at this current moment it seemed like it always would be that way.

She hadn't seen many people: despite the numerous texts and the snaps and the dms from people she knew asking if she were ok — she kept her circle small. JJ, Pope, Kiara and her own family. That was it.

She spent her days inside, and her nights sitting on the dock waiting for a miracle — praying to a star, all of the stars for something to happen, for Sarah and John B to come back, come back home, come back to her.

And today was the day she dreaded. A day to finalise this horrible nightmare of the last two weeks — a funeral: Sarah's funeral. Although she didn't want to go, purely for the sake of having to see Ward and Rafe — she knew she had to. A final goodbye to her best friend, the one that she lost as quickly as she had gotten back.

She didn't want to cry there. Although inevitable that she would — Renee sobbed into her bathroom sink, bare fingers now tightly clenched over the side as her eyes squeezed shut. Her voice squeaked out sobs, as she relived memories. The happy, the sad, the funny, all of them. Memories that she hoped in ten or fifteen years time her and Sarah would laugh over with a glass of wine sat on the porch on one of their homes which overlooked the ocean. Ones that Renee wished she had held onto for longer.

A buzz send slight vibrations through her skin, standing up straight and wiping her eyes. Looking that her phone that sat on the counter top. She knew the icon as soon as she lingered her eyes upon it.

CONTACT: JJ 💌

JJ💌
you're gonna be amazing today, I'll come over to thornbury once it's over I miss you

JJ wouldn't come. And that was completely understandable — he was still reeling, he was angry and as much as Renee wanted to see her boyfriend at the hands of ward and Rafe Cameron's downfall. Their daughter/sisters funeral was not the place for that.

ren😍
thank you & I miss you too, how are you feeling?

JJ💌
better, but I'm not fully there yet

ren😍
it'll get easier one day,

ren😍
it'll all be easier one day

JJ💌
how do you know that?

in truth. Renee didn't and she even didn't fully believe in her own words — it didn't feel easy, it felt similar to the way when her dad died. And that was hard, Renee wasn't even really over that after two years. Renee didn't know what to say to JJ, she couldn't tell him the stuff that she didn't believe

ren😍
I've gotta go, I love you J

JJ💌
I love you too pretty girl ❤️

turning off the phone, and moving from her position in the bathroom back into her bedroom. The sun shone through, although only through the splinters where they managed to feed through due to Renee's drawn curtains.

She exhaled, facing reality as she began to open them. Letting the real world enter the place that and acted as her sanctuary. Eyes having to adjust to the light each time. A day like this would have been spent on the beach or in the pool or anything outside: but not anymore.

As she reached the window on the left side of her room, her eyes momentarily squinted. Before adjusting to the spot she had looked through so many times before — between the space of the trees was a direct view into Sarah's window, although it didn't matter now as the majority of both thornbury houses and Tanny Hills trees had to be cut down before the storm.

Renee felt the glassy eyes return as she looked into the window. The place she had last saw Sarah, now the last time ever. Where they placed their hands to show their affection for one another through the thick glass. Where they told each other that they loved one another — if Renee knew it would've been the last time it would have been sweet.

But all Renee saw was a window that would never be open to her again. Sarah cameron had unknowingly closed her window off to Renee Lowe forever.

If only Renee knew that John B and Sarah were safe, stowed away on a boat towards the Bahamas. That they were in fact alive.

If only she knew that this wasn't goodbye at all.

But instead only the beginning.