Ellen hadn't come today, so Alysia went looking for her.
She followed the same route down to the river. She clambered over the rocks. She searched with her eyes for the telltale ghostly brown tangles of hair.
There was nothing.
Alysia had thought that Ellen was different. She had thought that unlike her old friends, Ellen would never betray her.
She'd only known her for a couple of days, but already Ellen seemed an irreplaceable part in her life. Yet...
Where was she?
Why wasn't she here?
Alysia walked closer to the water, her hands clenched into fists. "Ellen?"
Nothing.
"Ellen, where are you?"
"Go away!" Came a choked sounding voice from behind her. Alysia spun around. And there her friend was, more solid than ever before...eyes wild and scared. "Leave!"
"Ellen, what..."
"Leave!" Ellen screeched, sounding panicked even as she moved forward. "Alysia, leave right now!"
"I don't understand."
"You have to go, Alysia, don't you see? Something's wrong, I can't-"
"Can't what?"
"I can't - can't say." Ellen looked horrified. "Aly, you have to go!"
"Why? Ellen, tell me!"
"No!" The word seemed wrenched out of her. "Alysia, go, right now!"
"Ellen, what's wrong? I'm not leaving you!"
And she wouldn't. She had far to many friends that had left her - she wasn't doing the same to Ellen.
Ellen's hands reached out. "Aly, go, you have to go! Leave! Please, please leave!"
Alysia stumbled backwards. "Just tell me!"
Ellen seemed resigned as her hands brushed Alysia's shoulders. Alysia jerked back - they felt cold and clammy and...well. Dead.
"I can't control it." Ellen's voice was flat. "I'm sorry."
She shoved Alysia backwards, hard.
Alysia fell, her body smacking the river.
(And the water was cold, so cold, and then was flailing and she was choking on a mouthful of wet dirt and murky water and - and - and)
Ellen watched her friend drown, fading even as she did so, until all there was where she stood was sunlight.
(Alysia's body washed up only hours later. Alysia's ghost just days after that)
Alysia died, and Ellen died.
(Because this story doesn't have a happily ever after)
YOU ARE READING
Water's Edge ✔️
Paranormal"Don't go near the water." Thirty years ago, teenager Ellen Harper fell prey to the roiling rapids of her town's only river. And yet still she roams the sight of her passing, neither dead nor alive. "Don't listen to the whispers." Played off as a t...
