TH1RTEEN || ✓

CHAPTER 10: Thirteen

Ava started the van. Again, she rolled her eyes on the punchline I've just burst out.

    "How many times would you have to do that before your eyes get tired?"

    "What?"

    "You kept on rolling your eyes like all of us had done something to you. You brat."

    "Erh, I just love being grumpy with everyone. It's to show how much I love you all...yeek!"

     She shuddered and I laughed.

    "Yes, yuck. You're so cheesy today, I wonder if Rosie had lost an argument with you."

     "Oh, never argue with Rosie. She'll definitely find a way out of everything. Even if there's no hole to get away from. The only one who seems to defeat the devil in her is Monica, really."

     We were waiting for the rest of the group. They'd been taking so long inside the convenience store. It's making me cranky.

     "How's you and Sadie? Hmm?"

     I blushed. At least I think I did from the heat in my cheeks.

      But denial was the automatic route. I intensely raised an eyebrow. Forcing a look of disgust from her sly, smirking face. "What do you mean?"

     "Pfft! Don't play coy. You think I don't know romance when I see one?"

     "Romance? That's a big word."

     Ava mimicked me.

     "Of course romance. Young love. Puppy love. Come on. You two would do good together, you know. And I'm not even kidding."

     I bowed from embarassment. But I kind of wanted to hear what she thought of the idea. I wanted her advice.

     "You're not my best friend, but-"

     "Wow! You really have to scrub that on my nose. Of course! We're not best friends, Harris Cohen. We're just a bunch of acquaintances, aren't we?"

     That made me burst into fits of giggles.

     "Kidding! Of course we're friends. Thicker than water, right? So, do you think...you know...Sadie and I would make a good couple?"

     "A couple of bastards playing dumb about how they feel?"

     I gasped dramatically, placing a plam on my chest. "Watch your mouth, young lady. How dare you."

     Her chuckles sounded more lively than the vibration of the van. She had just gotten her driver's license. Excited about bragging her new-learned skill.

     "Good? Try great and cute. I know you'd do nothing to hurt or cause her to cry, wouldn't you? Because I'm planning to take up taekwondo lessons. It might come at handy if you decide to screw it up."

     I've had a feeling, well, way before, that Sadie and Ava weren't really the closest. I've seen Sadie frown at her secretly, and I've always wondered why. Ava clearly seemed to love her friend. Maybe Sadie just needed a reminder.

     "What do you think of me?  A jerk?"

     "Will you kill me if I do?" She laughed

     "Pfft! Trust me, I wouldn't do anything that can hurt Sadie. I'm a good guy."

     "Paddle your own boat, I always say."

                                 *

That was years ago. Long before Sadie had grown dark and secretive with our circle of friends. She had gone astray, but she did not want anyone to know what was going on with her. Except me.

She told me things that at first I laughed at. But she showed me the mirror. She introduced me the legends. She took me to the shrine. The shrine that even Uncle didn't know of.

Sadie took control of my mind. And what's worse? I was too weak on her to demand otherwise. When my hesitation angered her, I've lost hold of my own free will. She wanted me to help her, in exchange of her approval of me.

Yes, we were in love. However that was before. Before she came across the shrine. That's when she became dull. Her own flaws and envy turning her into a monster. She didn't have anything to do with me anymore. But she needed me. She needed what I was capable of doing. And I lost track of time. I lost the sense of what was true and good.

Kimmy, Luis, Andrea, Noah, Monica, Allison, Diya, Ricky, Rosie, Lewis, Ava

Until now, it was a mystery to me how I was able to create the journal. They were brought to life as I lie asleep. And I slowly lost them. In the shadows of my own fear, I created what was now my new reality. No one died. I did not kill anyone.

But that wasn't the case.

Even if I remembered writing those, I forgot them, one by one.

Even as I dreamt of them, they disappeared, respectively.

Every laugh, every sigh, every yell, every smile...that Saturday, it all happened in the span of thirteen days.

Mallućia was a made-up. At least that's how I wanted to believe now. Just someone the unknown refugees established as something to keep them alive. Someone that caused deaths. Someone that started silent legends. Someone that sparked temptation, bitter ambitions and hallucinations. Someone tasking us to do what's needed to be done in thirteen dawns, in exchange of something no one would no longer be alive and free once done.

I should know. I'm one of the sacrifices.

Sadie offered me and asked for my late death so she could complete the ritual with my aid. She even promised hers at the end of the century.

But she died even before she could get what she was after in the very beginning.

What's left with me now?

I'm waiting for what was to come as I mourn for my loss. For what I stupidly blinded myself with.

Two years, I believe, passed. Did I still dream of them?

Every night.

Just the same.

I always relived that get-together. That even as I rewrote it in my mind, how I manipulated my dreams to renact exactly how I wanted to, those days before I took them away were my moments of a lifetime.