Bitter

fifty-six - cal

   Lydia ran at Haley on the misty soccer field, holding a sharp piece of glass in her right hand. She didn't care that Haley had a switchblade, or that he was waiting for her with a grin on his face, tossing the blade in the air. She was sprinting and then used the mud to her advantage, dropping and sliding past Haley, slicing his leg with the glass. He cursed and I watched as he stumbled, falling forwards into the grass. Clearly he hadn't seen that coming and seeing the confusion in his eyes, the panic, showed me he wasn't invincible like he'd thought.

   Bright, white lightning flashed twice, flickering across Haley's stern, vengeful expression and just like that, his fury was forever burned into my mind. "Hypocrites!" he spat, pointing at me and then glancing back at Lydia who was shakily rising to her feet. "Both of you! You're both hypocrites!" he continued, using his strength (it seemed like he never ran out of it) to push himself to stand. "You tell me to stop! You want me to stop hurting people! But then you go and you do this! You do the exact same thing."

   Was he joking? There was no way he actually thought Lydia and I wouldn't do something about his plan to kill people. I honestly would've started laughing if I wasn't bleeding nonstop from a stab wound in my stomach. "No!" I snapped, trying my best to pick myself up off the soggy ground. I was looking right at Haley from a good distance away. "No. You can't make this our fault! This was you, West!" I collapsed again into the mud, swearing into the icy rain coming down in sheets. The blood soaking my stomach might as well have been lava because the burning was so bad, I thought for sure my skin was melting off.

   Haley was standing now, somehow trudging slowly over to me despite having the fresh slash on his thigh. "Has anyone ever told you you really need to keep your mouth shut?" he said, stalking closer until he was staring down at me, only a foot away. "Especially when you don't have any idea what's coming out of it," he muttered. I was looking up at him from the ground, hatred in my eyes. And that was when he kicked me right in the face, boot colliding hard with my nose, and I fell to the side, head smacking into the mud. The world was sideways now and Haley took another step forwards, smiling and enjoying every minute of this. He liked seeing me down, helpless, but that only fueled my hatred more and I wasn't going to give up easy.

   I was halfway there to sitting up again when Haley spun around (as if he'd heard something or someone coming up behind him) and there was Lydia, clutching the glass shard that was heading straight for Haley's chest. He caught her arm before the shard could reach him and he twisted it, leaving Lydia no choice but to let the glass piece fall from her fingers into the grass. Then Haley shoved Lydia to the ground and I completely ignored my wound screaming at me to stop moving so much. I found myself hobbling over to Haley, gritting my teeth whenever the pain surged through me. I could hear him yelling in her face, switchblade hovering over her heart.

   "You can't blame me for this! I'm not the reason this is happening! Cal chose to play hero, thinking he could save everyone. But he won't be able to save you, Lydia. You're dead now," he shouted as Lydia was forced to watch him with wide eyes and shallow breaths. "You blindly put your faith in him and now he's going to let you down! Just like your dad did!"

   I slipped in the mud, just feet from Haley and Lydia and my breath caught in my throat. My heart skipped a beat then as I realized it was all over and I was forced to watch it happen in horror. Haley forced the switchblade down into Lydia's chest and everything was suddenly so blurry. She gasped, staring up at Haley's blank gaze and that was when I cried out. Or at least I thought I did, but everything felt like a nightmare then, I didn't know what was real.

   Get up! I told my legs. Just move already! I told my body. I was powerless. Not only that, I was powerless when Lydia was dying before my eyes. "Lydia!" I shouted, voice breaking as I practically crawled towards her. "Lyd—"

   A heavy weight kicked me down again and I rolled over on my back, meeting Haley's silver gaze among the backdrop of lightning streaking through the night. "She's dead, Cal," Haley growled, "like Jason. Like Ella."

   Don't ever say her name. That was what I'd wanted to tell him, but currently it was getting a little difficult to speak and all I could do was watch Haley smile from above. The only word I could push out of me was, "Why?"

   Haley's eyebrow raised. "Why what? Why did I kill her? Why am I like this? Why is the sky blue?" he listed, then looked up at the gloomy storm clouds. "Well, it looks to be a dark gray right now."

   I wanted to kill him then. But realistically, I didn't have the strength to do that, so I used the rest of the strength I did have to force the words from my lips. I couldn't have this question unanswered.