Duskwood - Choose or Lose

Chapter 16

Aiden POV

"How didn't I think of that sooner!" said Cindy and Sabrina together.

The two smiled like they hadn't in a long time. I was beyond confused. Sabrina stood up, "I'll try it!" and sprinted to our guest room. Phil and I exchanged confused looks while Cindy happily hopped into the kitchen. We followed her into the kitchen and watched her for a while as she started preparing the food.

I cleared my throat, "Cindy honey? What were you both talking about?"

She turned to us with a big smile, "Oh, how could I forget you guys! Since we think Ruby is alive, Mom will try to contact her."

"Wait, hadn't she already tried that?"

"She tried something similar. She tried to look through her eyes, but it didn't work. It's possible that she didn't concentrate well enough. Otherwise, I couldn't explain it if the contact attempt should work now."

My pulse shot up, I didn't know if it was because of joy or fear. Afraid that we're just going to get bogged down in something here. Ruby would have some explaining to do if she's still alive. My head tells me it's not possible, but my heart says she's out there somewhere, living her old life on the street again.

My stomach twisted at the thought of her having to go back to this shitty life.

Were we so wrong?

But Jake held her dead in his arms.

I saw her dead and touched her.

I touched her corpse myself!

Shit, what was going on here!

Cindy seemed to have noticed that I was lost in thought because she took my hands in her soft hands.

"We need to talk to Jake!" I actually screamed.

"As hard as that may be, we can't meet with him," Cindy noted.

"What!? He's my best friend!"

Phil approached us, "Cindy's right. He'd know we were hiding something from him and it's not doing his current mental state any good."

"Aiden, do you really think Jake will benefit from knowing his friends are hiding something from him?" Cindy asked me.

"We don't have to hide anything from him!"

"Aiden, after everything we've been through, we can't tell him that Ruby is still alive. Who knows how he'll react to that? Forgot he wanted to kill himself because of her death?!"

"How do you know what it's like to be in the state of mind of attempting suicide? You have no idea!" I yelled at her, anger overcoming me.

I just saw her clench her fists, "Because I've been in this state before!"

I looked at her dumbfounded, I guess I didn't know her as well as I thought. The last thing I saw before she turned to run to the bedroom were tears in her eyes. She slammed the door with full force and Phil glared at me, pointing his finger at the door. "Go and work things out with her! It didn't seem easy for her. I'll wait here for Sabrina."

When I hesitated, Phil pushed me towards the bedroom, and I went in on my own. Cindy sat on the floor with her back against the bed. Her head lay on the mattress and the tears ran down like a waterfall. Her chest heaved frantically, she was about to have a panic attack. I sat down next to her, and she let her head fall onto my chest in exhaustion.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you that sooner," she whispered.

"You don't have to be sorry. Do you want to talk about it?"