short stories

love you to death

It was so cold and dark. That's the part I remember the most. The cold ground and the dark night. The stars weren't out. Neither was the moon. It was just the cold, dark sky. My fingers were numb and my body was so cold it should've been shaking. But it wasn't. It wouldn't shake anymore. My eyes stayed open, and the nightmare continued to play out before my eyes. I could've shut my eyes. Let myself float away until all I could feel was nothing. I could've blocked out all the horrible sounds. But I continued to stare ahead.

She was hovering over me. I could feel her breath against my cheek, fanning my face. I could feel the water dripping onto my lips and nose, splashing against my skin and running down my chin. Her lips were parted, and the noise that was arising from her throat was almost unearthly. She continued to sob something, repeatedly over and over again. Her hands shook my body, trying to find a response in me. But I stared right back at her. My eyes unblinking, my lips unmoving and my body still. I tried to cry out, to scream at her to shake out of her panicked state and help me up. I tried to curl into a ball, the pain that shivered through my body only adding to the torture of the night. But when I looked up at her, fear coursed in my veins and flooded the pain for a moment

Because what scared me the most wasn't the way her hands glowed red in the faint street light, or the way she stared horrified at whatever was below my eye level. What frightened me was the look in her eye. The look of madness, Pain, the look that told me she didn't mean for this to happen. I could see myself through her eyes. See my eyes staring with a blank vacant look. I could feel her hands gripping my arms, hands, shoulders. Forcing them to wriggle in an attempt to awaken me. An intense sadness and anger filled me as I continued to look at her. My mind was on slow motion, playing back the scene I didn't know she would ever be capable of, that my best friend could even begin to think of.....

"How could you"

My voice was only above a whisper, yet she heard it as clear as if I had shouted it from the roof tops. She continued to stare at me, her eyes angry and her fists clenched.

"I have no idea what you're talking about" came her response, smooth and rehearsed, like she had practiced it several times a day. She had always been a good liar, but even then I could pick out the truth and deception.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Spreading rumors, turning my friends and family on me, ruining my life" She sneered at me, the slight telltale signs of an oncoming smirk. "You had it coming, acting like you're perfect, like you are better than all of us. You think you're so cool don't you? Think that you can just be the perfect little girl everyone loves, huh?" by now she was screaming at me in the middle of the street.

I could see one or two people look out their windows, but most of the families here had gone out for dinner.The light was setting and it cast a dark shadow across my best friend ─Ex best friend─ making her look dangerous, deadly. Her black hair swayed in the breeze, and with the light bouncing off it, made it look like smoke. Her dark eyes were narrowed, outlined with too much makeup for her normally.

Her clothing was all wrong. Short, skimpy, flashy. Like she was trying to stand out in all the wrong ways.

I always knew that Stacy had insecurities. Everyone did. But Stacy seemed to always look towards me, as if it was all my fault her nose was slightly wonky, or the boys didn't like her as much as the other girls. I would sometimes see this look in her eyes ─ the one staring back at me now─ but I always shrugged it off. I would never have thought it was because she blamed me for the faults she had, as if I was somehow the version of herself she could never have.

I didn't see the signs that she was reaching her limit. So I continued to gape and fume at her. "You did this all because you're jealous!?" she rushes forwards and gets in my face. "I AM NOT JEALOUS!" her scream hurts my ears and I back away from her.

"You're crazy! Psycho!" I yell at her,my eyes wide and skeptical as I back away from her. She laughs, and comes closer towards me, and I try to stand my ground and not back away. "Am I Natalie? Am I really?" she asks me rhetorically. "Yes you are" I glare at her, watching as she creeps closer to me, a sinister look in her eyes.

"So I'm the crazy one huh? Just because I see through your lies and deceit and trickery. that makes me crazy right?" I stare at her in disbelief, watching her eyes flicker with something. I can't describe what it is because there are no words to." Deceit? Trickery? Stacey what are you talking about? "

She was absurd! I was her best-friend! I thought she would know that I'm not that type of girl.

"You think you're so smart, luring teachers and students and boys into your grasp don't you? Liam wouldn't even like you if it wasn't for your lies and your manipulation! He was supposed to be with me!" she was literally screaming now, each word bouncing off the houses around us and hitting me again and again.

"You have taken everything from me! EVERYTHING! And I hate you Natalie. I HATE YOU!" with one final scream she whips her hand out and smacks me right across the face. SMACK!

My hand flies up to hold it, my mouth opening wide as a groan of pain escapes. I stare at her in horror, watching her chest rise and fall heavily with anger.

She goes to grab my arm and I smack it away, making her other hand reach out and whip across my other cheek. I scream out in both surprise and pain, wincing when she grabs my arms and shakes me. "I hate you I hate you I HATE YOU!" She repeats this in my ear, and with one final push, sends me stumbling into the road. She watches and in a split second, her face switches from anger to panic.

"NATALIE WATCH OUT!" her high scream rings out right before the car coming down the road hits me full force.

I can hear Stacey screaming and brakes slamming, but all I feel is pain as I roll on top of the car and hit the windshield. It cracks under my weight and I feel shards of glass digging into my abdomen. The car jerks to a stop, and I roll forwards, smashing into the ground and hitting my head.

A scream leaves my lips and I lie there, pain gripping me as I struggle to breathe ─ my lungs are gluggy and I can't breathe ─

The car that hit me starts up again, speeding off down the road in a mad flurry. I see Stacey race towards me, screaming and crying and fear on her face. There was no more hate, just panic and fear. "Oh my god, Natalie I didn't mean- I'm sorry i-i- SOMEONE HELP US!" her voice starts to fade and the sky is dark now. I watch as she leans over me, her breath against my cheek, neck, hair. Her face was stained with tears, her lips sobbing something over and over again. But I couldn't hear her. I just stared up at her, watching as she screams into the wind for help that will not come.

I choke on my breath as blood rises up my throat and out my lips. My lungs are heavy and my body slumps, lying broken and batted there on the cold ground. And as Stacey hovers above me, and I stare up at her with cold, unblinking eyes, I realize something.

Nothing was going to change what was going to happen. I was going to die, no doubt about it. But looking up at my best friend's face, maybe this was a good thing. Maybe now she can finally have everything she always wanted. Because as a best friend, should I deny her that? That's what a best friend is for right? And she would do it for me. I know this because she was my best friend. And she always will be

Stacey was a nice girl when I met her, and even though our end was harsh and we lost the fight, I wouldn't change anything.

Because Stacey did love me once, she just got lost along the way. And I guess she never found her way back.