The last tape

Chapter thirteen

'Skye..'

The words no longer filled the girl with fear as much as they did before, but now with a sort of curiosity. The boy who sat beside her however, was trying to hold back his anger and hurt at this girls, who he suddenly cared so deeply for, story.

'You're not bad.. you're not deserving to be on these tapes.'

A sigh of relief escaped the tense girls lips, ears perking up and head leaning forwards to listen closer,
'You made mistakes but you're not bad.'
Clay was less relieved at Hannah's words and more confused, why would she put Skye through this? Was this the Hannah he really knew..?

'Its just..'
The voice stopped for a moment in hesitation,

'You needed to know that I noticed, you needed to remember what happened and you needed to accept it before you could find a way to move on..'

A feeling Skye had never experienced shot through her body, mixing itself into her bloodstream,
That's why? Skye didn't know whether to be angry or happy, instead she still sat there, stiff and confused.

'But you also need to know what really happened that night..'

And with this Hannah began to explain the story of the party, the night of Jeff's passing, a night clay would never want to recall again however he still sat beside his friend, listening to it for the second time, doing so in moral support for Skye.
Hannah was shaking from the sounds of it as she apologised, stating over and over,

'I know what it's like to love and lose.. I'm so sorry..'

Skye was getting used to crying due to this tape by now, but these tears felt different. She finally had closure as to what happened.. which made her feel sort of happy but at the same time she now knew the way the man she loved her been killed, and that stabbed her like a knife into the heart.

'But it wasn't just this skylar dear..'

There it was again, her full name and a now iconic sarcastic tone that Skye was beginning to believe wasn't supposed to come across that way.
'Sky- what-' a sniffle sound, as if she were crying through the speakers, 'what's going to happen to me.. it's going to be painful and-'

What's going to happen to me? So Hannah must of made these close to her death. Everything was beginning to add up in Skye's head.

'And I would never wish it upon anyone and that's why- Skye- is this somehow gets to you-'
A small mumble as she interrupted herself came through, 'I don't even know if I could send this..'

'Skye if this gets to you I want you to know that someone did notice, and someone does care and even though I'll be gone I'll continue caring.'

Tears swelled themselves into the pair sitting in the garage's eyes, Hannah was pouring her heart out to them over a girl she didn't even know. Maybe this was the Hannah clay knew and loved after all.

'Please, Skye, continue living..'

Skye's breath hitched in her throat..

'Because I wish I could.'

***

'So you finally know why..' Clay sat straight now, formal like, a strange facial expression plastering himself as if he was treading on broken glass trying to be careful.
Skye couldn't speak, she wouldn't dare.
Hannah.. she felt as if she couldn't even live anymore yet she wanted to badly for Skye to instead.. it was tragically beautiful yet made the girl want to sob and sob until her eyes ran out of tears.

There was a dab of calming to Skye though, now she knew Hannah was somewhere watching over her, rooting for her happiness. The girl, she was so sweet yet her life had been ripped from her in her own hands.
To think Skye had wanted to do the same not too long ago and now, she'd never dream of it.
She now felt like she had some sort of purpose to life.. to survive. To be a survivor.
In this moment Skye realised what she truly wanted to do, to show the world that no matter what depression, bullying, assault had come her way in the past she would carry on climbing the mountain of existence until she reached the top.

And she knew exactly where to start,
'Clay,' She spoke so directly that he completely forgot his statement from before, 'Come to the police station with me.'

The boy tilted his head in confusion, obvious to Skye when then clarified,
'I'm going to make a statement against Bryce.'