The cool air whipped her hair around, it was already disheveled enough. Niki would've fussed about it, Mari thought as she ran a hand through it. Her eyes found the dark leaves covering the trees of the dense forest throughout the land. The road beneath it laid hidden, the road that fixed her fate. The driver had walked loose, without even paying a penalty. It enraged Mari more. It was the only thing left for Mari to do and she failed at it. The driver's family's wealth protected him and made a case much stronger than Mari's screams and cries did. The judge and jury saw an unkempt woman, pointing fingers and breaking down every time she got air to breathe. The guilt sat heavily on her chest and there wasn't anything she could do.
It had been two days since her body was lowered into the ground to let it rest, to let the microbiota feed on it. She visited Niki multiple times, listing off what their case against the driver had progressed to but in the end, they lost. But we lost together, Niki would've said but she took the consolations along with her. Taking a long deep breath, Mari's mind flooded with Niki's smiling face calling for her. As Mari stepped forward into the void, she fell. Fell to her way to Niki to make the promise of staying together an unbreakable one.
