pretty little liars ☹

chapter three

death [dɛθ];
the personification of the power that destroys life, often represented in art and literature as a skeleton or an old man holding a scythe.

alyssas point of view

"wtf," i think to myself as i fully comprehend the daunting reality that someone knows i had frauded my brothers work.

i then see my phone light up, and hear a chorus of 5 seconds of summers voices, singing my favourite song 'story of another us'. i scan the screen and see that ronan is ringing me. i answer the phone lazzily and scream:

"HUSSEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

"alyssa... ch-channel 9, the news," i hear his voice straining, and feel the tone of sadness drip off each word. realising the seriousness and dismay of this call, i run over to my tv and change the channel to 9.

what i see hits me like a bullet.

"remains of missing teenage boy, joshua regan, are found at the home of former owners, the regan family. police so far have no comment on this case, but the year wide mystery of the boy who went missing, has now come to this horrifying conclusion. police are treating this as a homicide and will be interview people who had relation to him, and saw him on the day everything went wrong. the predicted cause of death was suffocation."

"what. he's actually dead..." i whisper to myself in morbid shock. the reality of the situation hits me, alongside the crushing blow of my hopes and imagination crashing down on me. no, he wasn't out there on marvellous adventures and enjoying his life, he was simply rotting and dissolving into the dirt that encaved him, struggling to free himself and accepting his brutal and harrowing death.

i realise that my phone is still connected with ronans call, and hang up on him immediately. i sprint out the house and make my way to his hou- his old house. my head is clouded with the great memories that we had shared, and the words of friendship we exchanged. with the chilling wind blowing against me, i find myself swarmed by police and onlookers. i push my way past them, they all know i was one of his best friends anyway, so no one complains; instead they empathise.

i run to the front where the caution rope lays, and jump over it. policemen instantaneously come flooding at me, commanding that i go back past the rope. and thats when i break.

collapsing onto the  floor, the held back flood of tears is released and the police have no struggle carrying me and placing me back over the rope. yet they have the audacity to ignore my violent sobbing and trembling body. i see abaset and ronan run towards me and i just close my eyes and ignore my surroundings. i feel the chill of a strong breeze rush past me, and my bare shoulders. the breeze whispers to me with chilling breath:

"he is never coming back."

brielles point of view

"brielle, turn the tv onto channel 9 for the news," my mum screams from the living room.

"okay," i scream back, rolling my eyes. ashton just left the house and now its just me and my mum. my dad works at night and I'm an only child. i press the 9 button on my remote and see an overly cheerful news presenter talk about the efforts of a child who managed to donate $1000 to charity from fundraising. i hate news reporters; their fakeness oozes out of their pores and their smile radiates a sense of false happiness.

"this just in! the remains of missing teenage boy, joshua regan, are found at the home of former owners, the regan family. police so far have no comment on this case, but the year wide mystery of the boy who went missing, has now come to this daunting conclusion..."

i hear a glass shatter from the kitchen. i guess my mum must have heard the news to. she grabs a jacket of the coat rack, whilst im just frozen in shock. she grabs my hand and drags me into the car. no words are spoken between us, its the only way to ensure our words dont turn into cries.

we arrive at the former regan residence, and see a crowd full of onlookers peer into the garden that used to be the private, safe spot for the group of us.

emotions then boil over when i see the body bag.

i let out a welp of pain and feel my mum wrap her arms around me to support me. he's never coming back. through the glossy, tear tainted eyes i can muster to see the outline of abaset, ronan and alyssa near the ropes of the scene. i hobble my way over and crash on the rocky slates of concrete beside alyssa.

ironic, the thing that destroyed our friendship has now brought us all together.

we all just stay on the ground, with only the sound of our cries filling the eerie silence. we each reminiscing our dear friend, and the memories we had all made with him. people grieve in different ways, but we all acknowledgingly need each others support in this moment.

reality has finally sunk in for all of us; josh is dead.

ronans point of view

broken.

thats what we all are.

the only thing in my mind right now is that picture of him. josh. forever young, never to grow old, have a family, live a full life... never again will i ever experience his laugh or ever have a full conversation. i'd give anything, absolutely anything, to have one more minute with him.

the emotions are all slowly boiling down, leaving the four of us splayed over the concrete of our dead best friends house. i hear my phone vibrate from my pocket.

"probably my mum worrying where i ran off to," i think to myself as i answer the call.

"hel-lo ronan," its not my mum, but joshs mum.

"hi mrs regan," i say with a new tidal wave of emotion coursing through me.

"i just wan-wanted to let, let you and the othe-ers know, we will be holding a fu-funeral for josh in two days. you are all invited," she mumbles. through her voice, you can tell she is trembling and distraught over the lose of her son.

how selfish we all are; we are mourning our best friend, but she is crying over the death of her son.

"we would love to come," i reply. "we wouldnt miss it for the world."

"thank you ronan, thankyou for being an amazing friend to josh."

"honestly, its my pleasure." i hear mrs regan exhale a loud sob, and then see she hanged up the call.

"guys, the funeral is in two days." i say to the group.

two days to get ready to say goodbye to our best friend. to say goodbye forever.

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special thanks to @itsjustabaset for editing this chapter 🖤