Love Remains the Same? {Evan}

[Caralee Emma James]

take me down like a domino

Caralee was getting a new understanding of the term “dry”. She was parched, her mouth completely dry, lips cracking from the lack of moisture. She hadn’t had water in days, not since she passed the lake towards the center of the island and not been able to find it again. All day she’d been cruising the perimeter, her eyes searching for some semblance of land at the end of the deep blue nothing but her search had so far been coming up empty. Her weary shoulders were beginning sag and she plodded along, ascending the crest of a hill where the rocky land gave way to tall, swaying grass. At the peak of the hill, she could make out some bumpy black shadows in the distance. It wasn’t much as far as land was concerned, but it was something. It meant they weren’t totally isolated.

Exhausted, the young woman dropped to her knees in the soft earth and massaged her throbbing temples. Ever since the crash she’d been suffering a perpetual headache that was only worsened by her attempts to recall the past. Her struggle was at least rewarded by snippets of memory here and there. She could remember purchasing a puppy, the day she graduated high school, and other meaningless things. None of the flashes helped explain how she’d ended up on an island. The only thing that was certain, was that she’d been on board a plane.

The ache in her head began to grow unbearable, so she laid her head on the cool grass and closed her eyes for just a moment. The black drop behind her eyelids was soon replaced by a colorful, lifelike scene. She felt almost as though she could step right into it, but then, she was already there. In the scene he was kneeling on a large white sheet, brushes and paints set up beside her. Sitting across from her, looking warmly into her eyes was a young man around the same age. She studied the figure carefully for a minute and then it clicked: Evan!

Her eyes flashed open and she sat up abruptly, his name the only thing on her mind. Evan, Evan, Evan. He’d been on the plane with her, but where was he now. Think, Cara, Think, she urged herself, trying to will back a memory of the boy who owned her heart. Very slowly it came into focus, but the image wasn’t pleasant. She could picture him beside her, his head lolled to one side with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. The realization that her boyfriend was dead rolled over her like a tidal wave dragging her under. Just like that the pain clenched her heart like a vice.

"Evan," she said, her voice a pained whisper as the tears started to well in her eyes.



Word Count: 472
Notes: Alright Faux-Evan go ahead and resurrect the dead xP

[Evan Lucas Welch]

Pain, pain, pain, That's all that passed through Evan's mind. A dull throbbing pain. His side ached. Blinking in the sun light Evan stiffly sat up and instantly regretted it. A ripping pain shot through his left side bringing tears to his eyes. Evan's mind was foggy, he only remembered bits and pieces...He looked around at the trees and felt the sea breeze against his face and some of his memories returned. Evan Welch, that's who he was, sort of. How had he gotten here? Slowly Evan got to his feet, clutching his injured side and looked around and he remembered being dropped off here on an ATV and then punched in the face and the side and then knocked unconscious. "Stupid..." He mumbled to himself. Why had he taken this job?

As quickly as he could manage, Evan worked his way up the hill where the sound of the ocean grew louder. Suddenly the ground dropped out ahead and cautiously Evan peered over the side of the cliff and down towards the water. He was on an island. Squinting out at the horizon Evan scanned the water for anything, but he saw nothing but waves and seagulls. What was he supposed to do? That knock to the head had made everything fuzzy...he vaguly remembered his interview and being shown a file with lots of different pictures of people in it. He remembered seeing the plane go down, but that almost felt like a dream, like he had watched it in a movie or on tv, not in real life.

"There is a girl that you are supposed to find, she was Evan's girlfriend, you have to make her believe that you are Evan...that he...that you, didn't die in the crash..."
The voice rang through his head as Evan walked along the cliff's edge. He didn't know where he was going or what he was looking for, he just knew he had to find somewhere safe, and he had to find the girl.

Word Count: 333

[Caralee Emma James]

take me down like a domino

It was like a vocabulary lesson; first the true meaning of dry and now pain. Just knowing that Evan was dead, that he would never smile at her again or look into her eyes, was like nothing she’d felt before. The knowledge was excruciating, a hollow pang in her chest. After the crash, while wandering around, she’d felt miserable lost but that was nothing, nothing compared to what she was feeling now. She just couldn’t get his lifeless face out of her mind. It was unreal, unacceptable.

The tears were now pouring freely from her eyes and making glistening tracks down her cheeks. Choked sobs wracked her body, but she could at least cry quietly. The cawing seagulls and rushing waves could still be heard above her sorrow. Suddenly she heard the faint sound of rustling grass, too noisy to only be the wind. Quickly she dragged the back of her wrist over her face, wiping away the tears so hopefully the stranger wouldn’t notice she’d been crying. Gingerly, she stood and made her way closer to the figure. He looked oddly familiar.

"Evan!" she cried out, thinking for a moment that it was him and then remembering that it couldn’t be, Evan was dead. "Sorry," she mumbled as she drew closer, "you just—you look like someone I knew."

An embarrassed flush crawled over her cheeks and she did her best to hold back the waterworks that threatened to burst again. She must miss him more than she even realized, to mistake this person for him. She looked at the ground, unsure of what to say now that she’d started their conversation off so awkwardly.

"My name is Cara," she offered up softly, holding out one hand in an effort to shake his. Suddenly kind of nervous, she bit her lip and waited for his response.



Word Count: 307
Notes:

[Evan Lucas Welch]

Evan heard his name and saw the girl running towards him and instantly recognized her as Caralee James, Evan's, no his, girlfriend. When she came up to him he saw her get confused, oh great, he had already screwed up. Apparently he didn't look enough like Evan to pull this off, but then a voice in the back of his head told him he had to try and sell this.

When she stuck out her hand and introduced herself, instead of taking it Evan wrapped his arms around her, embracing her warmly. His side ached but he ignored the pain and took Caralee by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

"Cara, it's me Evan, don't tell me you don't recognize me?" He smiled as best he could with his swollen cheek. "Are you ok? You don't have any major injuries?" Concern, good, you'll sound like you care, it'll sound more genuine, Evan thought to himself, he really hoped he could pull this off, the last thing he needed was to be found a fake.

To distract himself he looked Caralee over, trying to get her image imprinted on his mind. He wondered what had attracted the real Evan to her. She wasn't overly attractive, she was cute, but not gorgeous. Plain, was a word that he would use to describe her, Evan thought, average.

Word Count: 226

[Caralee Emma James]

take me down like a domino

She expected he would give her a strange look, maybe shake her hand and introduce himself in turn. Instead she was startled as he pulled her into a warm embrace. For a moment she started to sink into the hug, needing that small bit of comfort, but after that split second it didn’t feel right and she pulled back. She looked up at the guy, who really did look rather like her beloved Evan, with confusion swimming in her eyes. His eyes bore back into hers with something like determination and he told her that he was Evan. Didn’t she recognize him? Well she thought she had, but something had told her a moment ago that it wasn’t true.

"Evan?" she said questioningly, watching him with wide eyes, "but he’s… dead." It was still hard to choke out that word.

She pulled away from him, certain now that he was nothing more than a figment of her imagination. Certainly he could be real. Evan was dead, gone, never coming back. Her mind was just playing cruel jokes on her now by bringing him here as an apparition. Still, it was nice to see him smile at her again.

"I’m fine," she answered cautiously, wrapping her arms protectively around herself, "Just bumps and bruises."

What she didn’t understand, was that if her mind had brought him back, why would it do so like this? He was different, distant, and the way he looked at her lacked the warmth and love she’d grown so used to. Was this the way she pictured him in death? Unreachable? She took a step away, trying to will the apparition away with her mind.


Word Count: 278
Notes:

[Evan Lucas Welch]

"Cara, come on, I'm not dead, I'm right here. Either that or we are both dead." Evan said with a chuckle. Come on! He thought crossly, why was this so damn hard. "What will it take to convince you that it's me? The real me..." When she took a step away from him he took an equal step towards her. Secretly he wracked his brain thinking of what to say that would make her believe that he was the real Evan. He didn't know how the guy had treated his lady friend and he didn't have a clue either, he hadn't had a girlfriend in ages.

"Well I'm glad you aren't seriously hurt," Evan said taking another step towards her to cover he distance between them. He tried to make his voice sound as believeable as possible; he had only been Evan for a few hours, no, a few minutes and it was one of the most difficult characters he had ever had to play. Come on, take the challenge head on, Evan let out a heavy sigh, accidentally sending a sharp pain shooting through his ribs. The pain almost made him buckle over. He clutched his ribs, breathing heavily until the pain sudsided, the stupid asshole had punched him too damn hard, and Evan was suddenly scared that the man may have actually broken something.

After a few moments, when the pain had subsided Evan straightened up and looked at Caralee. "Are there other survivors? Somewhere where I might be able to get my side checked out?" Evan wasn't totally sure if that was a stupid thing to say, but he didn't care, he wanted to get healed up.

Word Count: 280
Notes: Screw the template

[Caralee Emma James]

take me down like a domino

She was perched on the fence, tipping dangerously close to believing him as he insisted that he was Evan, alive and in the flesh. But something kept her from falling into his arms. She took a tentative step toward him and something pulled her away again. Evan was dead. She remembered seeing it with her own eyes. And yet, right now he seemed so very real in front of her. She shook her head, a troubled expression on her face. For some reason she could explain she wanted nothing but distance between her and this... this illusion.

"You’re dead,. I saw you, you were dead, I remember." she insisted, "I’m fine" she added, angling herself away from him as he approached her.

Admittedly, part of her wanted to believe every word. Part of her wanted to collapse in his arms, sigh in relief, and know that this situation might at least be bearable. But she couldn’t do that because she didn’t believe there was any way he could truly be standing in front of her. She was considering this when suddenly Evan took a sharp breath, as if he was in pain. Concern leapt to Cara’s eyes.

"Are you alright?" she asked, worried about him and forgetting that she didn’t believe he was real, "I’m sure there are others but I didn’t run into any. Never mind that right now, sit down and let me take a look at it."

Word Count: 240
Notes:

[Evan Lucas Welch]

He was doing something wrong, Evan could tell. He could see her pulling away from him, she coud see right through his act. He was failing. He could see the director now, cutting his pay, maybe even firing him, wait - how would that work? Anyway, he needed to get his act together.

When she asked him what was wrong he shook his head to say it was nothing. "No, no, I'm ok. Don't worry about me." The real Evan would have acted tough, right? He barely remembered the guy from school and the casting director hadn't told him anything about real Evan's behaviors, I guess he was kinda dead, would be hard to ind out, he thought to himself. Evan took a quick step away from Caralee, but the sudden movement made another pange shoot through him and he decided that it might be best if he let her look him over.

Obeidently, Evan sat down and pulled off his shirt with difficulty. His side was one giant bruise, a nasty shade of blackish purple. "Well, I guess it's not nothing after all." He shot her a sheepish smile. Something really was wrong with him. Adds a whole new definition to 'as realistic as possible.'

Word Count: 206

[Caralee Emma James]

take me down like a domino

Though still suspicious about the entire ordeal, Cara could not deny that the illusion or person or whatever he was, was in pain. That alone cause her to shift gears, getting into caretaker mode which Evan had always mocked her for. She worried too much, he would say while at the same time playing up his injuries to the fullest just for her attention. He had always been such a laugh. So Cara was mildly surprised when Evan shrugged her off. He insisted he was okay and stepped away from her.

It was unlike him but that didn’t necessarily mean anything did it? People could change after a trauma like the crash. She just hoped not too much. It occurred to her that she was thinking of him with the assumption that he was in fact real, probably because she wanted badly for it to be true.

"Let me look," she repeated, kneeling next to him while he wrestled his shirt off. She might have offered assistance if he were acting less strange. But she felt more like a stranger to him than his girlfriend. His entire side was an ugly purplish color, severe bruising and potentially internal damage. He needed to see someone with more experience than her.

"Okay…" she said slowly, "I think you may have internal damage but I can’t be sure. We need to find someone who knows better. How do you feel about walking?"

Word Count: 239
Notes:

[Evan Lucas Welch]

Evan nodded at her diagnoses, he figured that she was probably right. When she asked him if he could walk he tried not to look offended. Instead of answering he slowly got to his feet, swaying only a little bit. Then when he was certain that he could stand he turned to Caralee.

"Ok, I think that any other survivors might have set up a camp near the wreckage," Evan started, and that's when he realized that the crew had forgotten to mention one important detail: he had no clue where the crash site was. Now what was he supposed to do? He couldn't possibly just pick a direction and hope that that was the direction he had intended to go, plus if he picked the wrong direction Cara would pick up on something weird. Oh, great he thought, I'm screwed.

Word Count: 141
Notes: Sorry it's short I know

[Caralee Emma James]

take me down like a domino

It would have perfectly normal, and understandable given the possible severity of his injuries, if Evan was feeling unable to walk. But instead of appreciating Cara's concern or even joking about it as she would expect, he seem almost offended that she had insinuated he might not be feeling up to par. Taken aback by the reaction, Cara drew away from him slightly, flinching as though he'd lashed out at her.

He got to his feet, clearly unsteady and swaying back and forth. Pushing aside apprehension, she moved forward to be in a better position to catch him should he fall. He continued to sway around, his arms out slightly in order to balance himself. After a few minutes the weakness seemed to stop and he turned around to face her, talking about a camp the other survivors may have set up near the wreckage.

"Really?" she said softly, "I didn't see anything when I was back that way." She considered this for a moment, trying to remember what parts of the island she had actually checked out. Then there was the fact that the crash site was a good distance from their current location, and judging by the dryness in her mouth, Cara’s need for hydration my take precedence over Evan’s for medical attention.

"We’ll head back that way, but Evan," she said finally, "We need to find water first. I’m not sure I can make it much longer without it."

Word Count: 242
Notes: