"What's going on?" I ask him, attempting to look around all the different cars and people flooding the area.
I open the door, ignoring the cab driver as he shouts at me. I slip out onto the street, the air a little dense. My eyes widen as I walk toward the chaos, seeing a skyscraper with huge flames and smoke coming from the top of it. Large, billowing puffs of dark gray, nearly black, smoke fill the sky. People run around me, knocking into my shoulders as they attempt to get through the crowds.
My eyes are saucers as I stare at the madness in front of me. That isn't just one tower, I realize, that's two towers that are on fire. And those aren't just any towers.
That's the World Trade Center. I see firetrucks up ahead, and a cry leaves my throat, breaking through my mouth in a painful scream.
"No," I cry, walking toward the mess in front of me. People are running around in absolute terror, but it's like everything is in slow motion for me. There's no sound. It's as if the only sound I can hear are the burning flames as they scorch every inch of the building in front of me. They’re on max volume. I can hear the pops, the crackling as the wood and metal burn to a crisp.
He can't be there, can he? He was supposed to be off. He was supposed to be with me, watching me dance. Cheering me on. Sitting in his seat with a proud look on his face.
Not in this burning building. Not like this.Not like this.
There's suddenly a stillness in the air. I can hear everything and nothing at the same time. I look up at the burning buildings, pieces of white ash landing in my black hair. Tears stream down my face, mixing with the ash that fills my lungs with every breath I take.
It's almost as if I can hear a crack. A crack that fills the entire world, splitting through the seams of my entire being. My stomach hollows out, and everything in front of me erupts.
One of the towers shatter, collapsing into itself as the top floor falls, falls, falls. It echoes throughout the city, maybe throughout the entire world.
Falls.
Falls.
Falls.
There's a rumble that pounds through the streets as the tower collapses, so loudly, so incredibly loudly I can barely breathe.
The ash, rubble, and the entire world in front of me turns into a black cloud. A wave of smoke fills up the sky, tumbling toward me at a rapid pace.
My bag with my ballet uniform falls from my fingers, pounding to the ground in a soundless heap. I feel like the world slows down, everyone screaming. People start running, terror and chaos filling the streets. People are running.Away.As fast and as far away from the smoky cloud as they possibly can. Bumping into me, some people even slamming against my shoulders in an attempt to get away.
I run toward it.
I take off into a sprint, feeling like my legs are moving in slow motion as I make my way toward the building.
I know he's in there.
I know it.
I can feel him, the electricity that I've always felt whenever he's near. My heart beating heavier, faster, lighter, easier, as it always has. As it always does. As it always will.
I run, sprinting as the black cloud gets closer, the top of the building settling to the ground, the noises in the city so loud, the screams of terror, it all runs my blood cold.
Then, it’s as if everything in my lifestops.
The feeling of Roman, of his heart, of his soul connected with mine… stops.
I feel the severing of it, as if someone lifted the cord between our bodies and snipped it away with scissors. One easy clip, one building crash, and that feeling I’ve had for years, is gone.
In only a second.
A scream rips through my throat. I can feel the bloody, terror-filled scream tearing apart my vocal cords.
Suddenly, I'm lifted off the ground, a man in the crowd wrapping his arms around my waist, lifting me into the air as he sprints. My body thumps against his body, hauled up into his arms as he runs. My body flops up and down with his urgency. I reach for Roman. I beg for the feeling of him to come back, but it never does. I can barely see, barely stand to breathe as the smoke envelops us, the cloud of ash and dust tearing apart the street and everyone in its wake.
Until I can't see anything, and I hear nothing but a whoosh of dust as it powers into my ears. I scream, but I can't get a word out as my body fills with gray sand. Gray as my eyes. I hear a door open, and I'm shoved to the ground. Looking around, I see a crowd of terrified people.
The entire group curls on the ground, crying, the floor littered with rubble and glass and so, so much ash.