Twisted Vengeance

Ending

TW: Mentions of suicide, murder, etc.

A month had passed since Elle's death. Elle was gone, and she was never coming back. They just couldn't save her, it was the one thing they forgot. Maybe Elle got what she wanted, but no one was happy.

Emily was sitting at home with JJ on the couch. "I'm tired." Emily got up and walked into the bedroom. The scar of the bullet Elle left was still there. That probably wasn't ever going to fade away for good. The most painful scars never do.

She stared into the mirror. And she saw Elle. A sad smile printed upon Elle's face stared back at her. It was the kind of smile that means you're happy but also not happy. Emily turned around, but Elle wasn't there.

A cruel joke the mind plays on the people who win. The mind shows you what you lost. No one ever really wins, though. Because if someone loses, everyone loses something. And Emily had lost something.

She would never be the same, and that hurt her to admit. Sometimes the worst scars are the ones that people can't see. She had a physical scar, but the pain from that was over. It was done. It didn't hurt anymore. But it hurt to know that Elle was gone forever, and so were the people she killed.

There was a certain life Elle never got to have, one that maybe she wanted to create for herself. But she chipped away pieces of people and these people would never be themselves again. Lives that could never be fixed, no matter what anyone did. Lives that would hurt for a long time, and lives that would never hurt again because they were gone.

Yes, there are monsters, and it's okay to be afraid of them. But it's not okay to let them win, and it's not okay to be one. Elle let the monsters win and so she became the person she hated most.

"I just couldn't save her. It's the one thing I forgot." Emily stared into the mirror as a tear slid down her face. The same sad smile that Elle's face had shown in the mirror was on Elle's face.

Emily had shut out the feeling of Elle's passing for so long. She never even knew her well enough to say she lost a friend. It's weird how certain moments change your life forever. And how maybe if you lived one second differently, everything else would have changed, too.

If it weren't for Elle, everything would be different. But in life, that's not really how you can look at things. Things happen, and you can't go back and rewrite all the bad things to be good. But you can't write how it affects you and changes you.

For the first time in a long time, Emily had let herself think of Elle. Because the people who hurt you are the people who you really account to how you live the rest of your life too. They may have been terrible people, evil people who did nothing good. But they changed you. And it hurts to admit, but they change you. It just never really changes anyone in the same way.

"I wish we could have met before, Elle. I know I never knew you. But maybe I could have helped to save you before it was too late. We're all damaged, but I think you were hurting the most inside. I don't want to forgive you. Because you took something so precious from so many people. But I have to forgive you." Emily's tears started to flow.

"So Elle, I forgive you. I don't want to. But I think that maybe a small part of me knows why. I can't excuse what you did. I think I just have to hope you're happy. I have to hope that maybe you weren't quite the monster that I knew."

Emily turned off the light and stepped out of the bathroom. She wiped away her tears and walked through the hallways and left behind the bedroom. "Night, JJ."

JJ's response came from the living room. "Night, Em." And Emily walked back into the bedroom. The place where she had just sorted out all her complicated feelings towards what Elle had done. And she said goodbye. She let go of Elle. Elle was long gone. There are people you'll remember, but the people who hurt you are the people that are sometimes the best to let go.

Emily wasn't going to call Elle a good person. One small good thing a person does in life doesn't mean they weren't a monster. But maybe it does mean that you need to understand that they were a person too. And so Emily let go of Elle. She let go of the person who hurt her. She let go of Elle forever.

And maybe Elle let go that day, too.

Author's Note:

This is the finale of the story. I hope you all enjoyed it. I know it's shorter than most chapters, but I wanted the ending to be good. I think I did a good job on this story, but it did get kind of deep at the end. Sorry, it's so sentimental and sad, I just wanted to do Elle's amazing character some justice by bringing her back. I really wish she stayed around a little longer. Thanks for staying with me through the writing of this story. I appreciate it more than you'll ever know. I know it's been a while since I've updated it. I hope to finish the first chapter of my new story soon. I hope you guys enjoyed how I decided to end this final chapter. Let me know if you found the JJ quote I put in this chapter. I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.