Speechless

20 years later...

20 years later...

I sit on the front steps of my house, sipping my milk from its glass. The sun is out, the birds are chirping, it's seven in the morning, and I'm feeling great. Our town has expanded since Jason's death, and only for the better. We have built more buildings and even have farms to grow crops and hold meat to kill and eat later. More and more people have come to our village and more people have been cured. Libby spends most of her day in the lab we built, making more and more of the cure liquid. I usually bring her food and something to drink for lunch, and sometimes convince her to take a break. She works very hard on making cures everyday, and I look up to her for that. To think, I used to hate her guts. I had every right to, I just didn't know everything I know now; now she's my best friend.

I look into my glass and see there's no more milk left, so I get up and head inside. There's many more houses now, even roads that aren't just dirt paths. After I put my cup in the sink I walk outside and head over to the lab. I walk in and ask the front desk where Libby is. "She's in her lab, as usual." Says the women sitting there.

"Thank you," I say. She nods her head at me with a smile as I walk away toward Libby's lab. I get to her door and knock. I wait for a few seconds before Libby comes out in her lab coat, cloves, and goggles while holding a test tube.

"Oh, hey Aubrey. How's it going?" Libby asks me.

"Fine," I say, "would you like to take a break?"

"Already?" She asks. I nod my head.

"Please?" I beg. She breaths a heavy sigh.

"Fine, I'll be out in a minute." She gives in. She closes the door and I stand there for roughly five minutes until the door opens again with Libby standing there in jeans shorts and a grey t-shirt with red letters saying, And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back, so shake him off.

"Florence and the Machine? Really? That's your type of music?" I say sarcastically.

"What?" She says with a chuckle. "Maybe I like Florence, I mean, the lyrics to their songs really get to me. Or they did get to me, For all I know Florence Welch could be dead and that'd be pretty devastating, but ya know." She says.

"Fair enough," I respond. "Ready?" I ask.

"Yeah, let's go." Libby responds. We walk out of the lab and head outside. There's a dirt path that only Libby and I know about that we usually wonder down whenever she's on break, we find new things on it everyday. We begin to walk down it at a slow walk and it was silent for a while until Libby broke the silence, "How's Jim?" She asks.

"Good," I respond. "Everyday he seems to tell me about his nightmares of him killing people, devouring them to a point of no return. He doesn't know how to live with it, but he has to figure it out. He's not leaving this world, he's not leaving me." I say.

"Like Jason?" Libby adds. I stop dead in my tracks and stare at Libby, thinking of when I used to hate her.

"Did you really just say that to me?" I ask.

"I didn't mean it like that, but come on, someone had to say it. You've been really down lately, and I know it's probably because of Jason. But why? It's been like twenty years! You would think life would get better and easier from here on out." She explains. She walks next to me and sits down. I soon follow and sit next to her.

"Ya know Libby," I start. "you're kinda a bitch." She gives me the what'd-you-just-say look and I soon explain. "Don't get me wrong, I love you to death, but admit it, you're a bitch. You're also smart, a complete badass, confident, but with all that you're a bitch. That's what I really love about you, Libby, you're very unique and a bitch, but not not like a prissy bitch, like a hard core get the hell outta my way bitch. I like that. But please, Libby, please do not bring up Jason." I say.