Cosmic Confluence is about a cosmic confluence in the sense that everything in 16 year old Mary's life is aligning and coming together perfectly whether she likes it or not. There's nothing she can do to change fate.
My vision went blank and dark with fear. I couldn't even register that my heart was beating like a drum, all of my insides were burning in terror. None of this felt like it was possible. I wanted to wake up from this God-forsaken fever dream.
"Kenzie...what?" Jaymie questioned, then turned on her phone flashlight, shining it towards my yard.
"Nobody's there." And strangely enough Jaymie was right.
Strangely.
I felt my body cool down a bit, but I know I still looked panicked.
"Well, I swear someone was standing like right there," Kenzie pointed "I don't know, I feel kinda scared now. I think we should go back inside."
"No- not back inside." I was flustered. That was obvious by how I was mindlessly making things more suspicious. Whatever. I just knew that if he really was out now, my house was the easiest trap to walk into. It's harder to run away in an enclosed space. I couldn't let any of us back inside.
"Kenzie there's nobody creeping around, you're fine. Let's go on a walk if you really can't stand staying here."
For once I was glad Jaymie was being so harsh.
"But, I sw-"
"You're being a paranoid bitch," I told her, "Let's go." Kenzie seemed like she was scalding with anger in a very silent way. I think if she knew what was going on she'd be thankful, so I didn't really care.
I know what you're thinking. Wouldn't it be so much easier to just fucking tell them? Tell them my life was absolutely at risk. Tell them their lives were absolutely at risk? How do you think they'd react?
In absolute panic and hysteria.
And that is just the truth, anybody would.
I decided to continue to hold the verity within myself, even though it was poisoning me and would soon reveal my vital signs to be in critical condition. But it was really the only choice I had.
Or that's what it felt like anyways.
You know what I mean.
My heart continued to pound.
Kenzie was walking ahead of Jaymie and I with her arms crossed. I felt kind of bad. But all that mattered, was that right now in this moment, we were safe. I started to wonder if The Man with Long Teeth had even been out there anyways. I mean, Kenzie was the only one who claimed to see anything and then he was gone supposedly after Jaymie shone a light to my yard. But I definitely suspected he really was there. Standing there. Watching. Looking. Staring. Following.
And maybe he still was.
It terrified me that I couldn't ever truly know.
It was like sitting in a pitch black room and hearing footsteps go by every now and then. You weren't sure where the person was and at this point you weren't even sure you were in a room anymore. Being in the dark in it's purest form.
It's how I felt.
And It's how it was.
"The stars are beautiful," I whispered to Jaymie. My voice was a little shaky.
"Do you think I'm good, Mary?" I'm not sure why she said that but I didn't wanna act confused.
After a long pause I finally answered, "yeah. I don't think I would've ever dated you and then continued to stick around you if you were bad."
"I mean. On the inside."
"Are your organs good? Is that what you're asking?"
"No."
"Then what are you asking?"
"I'm not sure. I just feel, like... I don't know. Like I've done something bad, and the world gets me back for it."
I couldn't understand why she was saying this all of a sudden. It had me wondering if her stepdad had done something before she came here. I'm not sure if it was good to even question it. There was a lot about Jaymie I didn't know even after knowing her for three years. There was just a lot I didn't know in general.
"I feel like I was born from different dirt. A third-degree impurity," she told me.
"I think of myself as God's unruly mistake sometimes too."
"And I'm the dying star, tragic and beautiful," Kenzie added.
I hoped tonight's fortune would favor the fuck-ups.
And then Kenzie slowed down from walking ahead of us so far. I figured it was because she wasn't mad anymore.
But fuck, was I wrong about a whole lot.
Kenzie was frozen, staring at the other side of the road.
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"w-what the fuck..." she said in a voice that sounded like she just saw someone get shot.
"It's-- that's-- from that night. It's the same thing from-- holy shit, what the fuck," Jaymie mumbled, freaking out as well.
I couldn't even speak. I just stared back at him with wide eyes and a ragged breath that was the same as someones who was shortly about to break down.
