Triangle. |Stray Kids

Twenty-Seven.

The room was filled with suffocating silence as the two friends were speechless. They were taken aback that neither of them could utter a word or deny what Lilly said.

The night by the river when Lilly got possessed by the entity that took over Chris's body, wasn't the first time the two friends watch something that terrifying happen to her. Lino was scared to death of the possibility of witnessing his friend doing something horrible again without even knowing she was doing it. It brought up all of his memories from nine years ago.

The night hell broke, he and Chris had to witness what Lilly did to her parents when she was possessed. They too watched the entity that possessed her deteriorate and disappear in the thin air as a gust of wind. That night, they agreed to keep it a secret and take it with them to their graves. Lilly has to never know about what happened to her parents. And that's why they told the police they didn't remember anything and with that, the three friends were diagnosed with amnesia because of the traumatic incidents they witnessed.

Lilly lifted her head to look at them with her broken smile. A stray tear escaped her eye and she wiped it quickly. "You were not planning to ever tell me, right?"

"Lilly, it's.. you.." Lino stuttered.

"No." Chris deadpanned. His face and attitude were back to the stoic determined version of him. "And no, you didn't kill them. It wasn't you. You were possessed. The thing that possessed you was what did that to them."

"But it was my body!" Lilly yelled. "They were my own hands that held theirs and drained lives out of their bodies. They trustingly gave me their hands. They- they.. didn't know it wasn't me. My face was the last thing they saw."

Chris didn't want her to go more. He didn't want her to dig deeper into this and blame herself. He jumped to his feet and rushed to her armchair to drop on his knees opposing her. He was still as stoic as ever, but his gentleness and worriedness were all obvious in his body language. He gently placed a hand on her knee while the other went straight to wipe her tears that were falling down her cheeks.

"Listen up, Lillian. You didn't kill them. It wasn't you in any possible way. But speaking of facts, what we did, the three of us, was what opened the gate to all of that transcendence to invade this world. So, we are responsible for what happened to your parents. Together. Don't blame yourself and don't try to carry the weight of it all alone."

"Chris is right, Lil." Lino talked as he walked to them and sat on the floor opposing Lilly, placing a hand on her other knee. "First time to agree with his straightforwardness, but he's right. We share this guilt."

"But you two have been carrying that weight all alone for those nine years." She sniffled. "I didn't know and you kept it for yourself."

"We didn't see any goodness in telling you." Lino shrugged.

"Is that why you were objecting to staying here when I came back?" Lilly questioned. "You were afraid I might find out or remember."

"It was the three of us but you were the one who paid the most." Chris sighed. "You lost your parents, you started seeing and hearing those ghosts clearly unlike us. They could possess you all they want. Your life turned upside down in a spur of a second. It was unfair."

"Lil," Lino called and his voice came out as if he was almost pleading. "Please don't let this drain you. Instead of blaming yourself, let's focus on fixing what we did. Let's start working on a plan. Let's look deep into this and gather every piece of information we have to figure things out."

Lilly's tears were still falling down her face silently. Although she lost a lot in her life, she was thankful for having those two friends of hers. They were always by her side, supporting and protecting her no matter what. Always understanding and loving. Even Chris who said that he won't be comforting her, was right now by her feet caressing and calming her down.