Exile ✷ Ethan Landry

𝟬𝟭𝟱 the ghosts of her past

EXILE,
fifteen

DEATH WAS EVERYWHERE. And it was almost her turn. She couldn't wait anymore. At first, she wasn't ready to accept her fate. There was a point in time where Eden wasn't ready to die. She didn't want to die in Woodsboro. Didn't want to die so young.

Now she wishes that she died in Woodsboro.

She wished she died before the paramedics arrived. Her life isn't worth anything anymore. People only like Eden because she's a survivor. Even if she's somebody who didn't deserve to live. They think it's so magnificent just because of one thing.

They don't know about the nights she couldn't sleep. Those same nights where she was sitting up, staring at the wall as she felt nothing but shame. Obviously they don't know about the haunting images of her dead friend group. Of course they don't know about the sleepless nights. Nights where she had to comfort Cale after he had awoken from a horrifying nightmare.

It never got better. Sometimes Eden wondered why she didn't give up. She was so close to giving up. So fucking close. She was about to. About to forget about it all.

Ethan saved her. The boy who is currently standing behind her, peering over her silhouette. His hands are inches away from her hips, desperately trying not to place them firmly on her lower body.

Eden can't think straight. Gale, Gale, Gale. She only can think of Gale. She's begging for the woman to pull through. It's Gale Weathers.

"She'll be okay, Eden." Ethan whispered to her, noticing how she was anxiously playing with the rings scattered along her fingers.

Cale was currently bouncing his leg up and down, chewing on his bottom lip. Eden tried her hardest not to look at him. If she did, she'd probably break down.

He looked horrible. Dead eyes, dry lips, pale skin, and bags under his eyes. Cale would never be able to live in peace. This would never end.

Just when life was getting better.

Eden walked away from Ethan, just before she sat down next to Cale. A sigh left when she adjusted her position, slightly lifting her body off of the chair. Her hand raked through her wavy hair, a tired look in her eyes.

"We'll never get out of this." Cale whispered, voice below a whisper. His eyes were on his dirty high tops that were covered in dirt, mulch, and possibly a little blood. "We'll never be free."

A gust of cold air interrupted Eden's thought process when the door to the apartment complex swung open. Danny, Sam's hookup, was standing there, worry creasing his features. When the door closed, Eden could barely hear the sounds of sirens wailing in the distance. She couldn't see the flashing red and blue lights.

She hated the colors red and blue, now. Hated how those colors will always remind her of these events. The first time she was sitting on her porch, wrapped in her favorite blanket as the cops questioned her father, Darren Miller.

Eden just watched. Watched as he begged the cops to believe him. He didn't mean to hit Eden's mother. He promised he was just mad. Eden believed him at first. Believed all of his lies. When he hugged her, she remembered how much she craved her father's attention.