Sharp Edges 🖋

EPILOUGE

EPILOGUE

The moon lit the way to the graveyard.

That was the only thing fifteen-year-old Aria Blake could think as she and Essie walked along the beach of Adara Lake together, hands clasped. One of their palms was slick with sweat. Aria couldn't tell whom it belonged to.

Probably her. Of course it was her. Yes, it was her.

She resisted the urge to wipe the moisture on her jeans.

Essie's silky hair swung back and forth, back and forth, back and forth with each doomed footfall.

Aria wished the other girl would turn back. It wasn't too late

All Essie had to do was say something different than what Aria knew she would.

All she had to do was see what Aria was desperately pleading for her to see.

All she had to do was come up with some trivial thing: "I brought you here to ask if you'll go to the Arcade with me tomorrow. I brought you here to hang out. I brought you here so we can plan your birthday party."

It would be so easy.

But the grim expression on Essie's face when she finally turned, having reached the water, said otherwise.

The moon lit the way to the graveyard...

"Let's sit." Essie whispered. 

And so, as one, the two of them crouched on rocky shore.

"We have to talk." Essie told her, placing a hand on Aria's exposed arm.

Aria didn't move away. Essie's trust felt so wonderful. No one had trusted her in a very long time. Too long.

Essie was so terribly, terribly innocent.

Aria wished it didn't have to be this way.

"You're my best friend, Vivian." Essie began. "You know that, right? I'm only trying to help."

Aria's heart rate accelerated.

Essie wouldn't say it. She wouldn't.

She couldn't.

If Essie broke the rules, there was no going back.

There were no exceptions to the rules.

Still, Aria waited under the false pretense of being calm. "Help with what, exactly?"

The edge on which Essie balanced was too thin for the other girl to see.

"I know you got caught up in things you shouldn't. But Vivi, you can still tell someone." Essie shifted. Her hand slipped away.

Say something else. Say anything else.

"Vivi," Essie's voice trembled, as if she, too, could somehow sense the wrongness of the next words that came out of her mouth, "I know about Jolie. About Jolie before. I looked it up and-" Her voice hitched. "Vivi, I-"

The name she couldn't say. The thought she couldn't voice. The rules she couldn't break.

Essie had just broken them.

Aria froze. She stood up. Essie watched as she scooped up a large stone.

"Wait," Her friend pleaded. "Don't go."

Aria turned. The rock hung limply in her grasp.

"I'm not." She said.

And she swung.

Hard.

The rock hit the other girl directly in the forehead with a sickening crack. Essie cried out and fell back, her nose spurting red- tainted, just like Aria's vision, with the horrid color. "Wha-"

Aria swung again, trying not to flinch at the shriek of pain that escaped her friend's lips. Essie stared at her, blue eyes wide. Aria should have felt triumphant- now Essie saw. Now Aria didn't have to pretend anymore. Because surely, that was all their friendship was. Pretending.

Surely. 

Forcing the thoughts from her mind, Aria brought down the rock for a third time, bashing it into the side of the other girl's face with everything she had. 

This time Essie's cheekbones shifted out of place. Her hand flew up as if to shield herself, but quickly fell limp as more blood dribbled down onto her chin. Confusion swam in those accusing eyes, accented by a clear undertone of fear. 

The next swing had Essie falling into the lake, landing unceremoniously on her back.

Aria stepped in with her, the dark blood swirling through the darker water, clinging to her skin, her flesh, her legs. Essie grabbed her ankle,  gurgling. She seemed incapable of speech.

So Aria brought the rock down on her friend's fingers, too, smashing and smashing until the brittle bones snapped and Essie's grip loosened. 

Crouching, small waves lapping at the edges of her pants, Aria propped up Essie's head and cradled it in her lap. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "I'm sorry."

Then she shoved Essie's face down into the murky water.

The girl was too weak to even struggle much- her arms flapped, her legs kicked, and she bucked pathetically, but that was it. Aria forced herself not to watch.

And when finally Essie went limp, Aria got up, mud squelching in between her toes. 

No one could break the rules.

Not even Essie. Sweet, unfortunate Essie.

Essie, who had been her friend.

But so was Jolie, and she had to pick one.

"I'm sorry." She said. The regret, the guilt, hit her with full force.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

She sat there for minutes. Maybe hours.

Then she turned her back on Essie's body and did the only thing she knew how to do:

She ran.