Bled Dry // Audrey Jensen

a cry for help

Unedited

Sidney didn't have a funeral. Sidney's aunt and her boyfriend quickly left town and moved to god knows where and the house was soon occupied by a friendly family of four.

Sidney's room was repainted, and the carpets replaced with wooden floors- the messages written in blood being too disturbing for the seven year old girl who now slept there.

The garden was still the same, big and open with a tree at the very back with only one branch without any protruding twigs and the letters 'S+A' carved in with Sidney's metal nail file without Audrey's knowledge.

Audrey would break into the garden most nights and sit on the branch drinking Sidney's preferred alcohol and remembering how they would sit together when they were feeling lonely and tell stories, and jokes and secrets but never the three words both of them were thinking and never got to utter until it was too late.

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NEW MESSAGE FROM: the virgin
do you know zoë vaughn ? i think i'm dating her. she wants to 'study' tomorrow (the quotation marks were included in her text) what does this mean ???

NEW MESSAGE FROM: the virgin
audrey ?? u there ?

NEW MESSAGE TO: the virgin
I don't think I am. I don't think I can be. I'm sorry Noah.

NEW MESSAGE FROM: the virgin
what does that mean ? are u okay ? please reply

NEW MESSAGE FROM: the virgin
AUDREY !

NEW MESSAGE FROM: the virgin
I'm on my way hold on

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"Oh god, oh god, oh god" Noah muttered under his breath as he briskly jogged up to Audrey's front door and knocking loudly.

No one answered.
"Fuck!" He exclaimed.
"Noah?" The pastor questioned exiting the garage, tools in hand.
"I need to see Audrey. Now. You need to let me in." Noah hurried his hands flailing in front of him.
"The door should be open--" The pastor didn't even get to finish before Noah flung open the front door and dashed up the stairs.

Making his way round to Audrey's room he didn't bother knocking as he burst in to an empty room. He scanned around before hearing a faint noise as if water was swishing around.

He thought for a moment, and decided to risk it pushing through Audrey's bathroom door to discover a bath tub filled with red water, a metal nail file stained with blood on the floor tiles and a wincing Audrey floating in the water.
"Audrey! Fuck! No, no, no, no." He chanted, grabbing onto both her wrists and a white towel staining it as he pressed it onto the vertical cuts.

He dialled '911' and they told him an ambulance was on its way. The pastor discovered his daughter and screamed with horror at the sight. Both him and Noah praying for the girl.

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"Audrey!" The gang cried with joy as she walked through the door, producing a cake with the words 'Welcome Home Bi-Curious!' written in Brooke's perfect icing handwriting.

Audrey looked around the elaborately decorated room at her friends and saw that they were happy and was glad to have gone away and gotten help, she was glad she had survived.

Emma was holding multicoloured balloons and Will was holding onto Emma.. They both looked at peace.

Brooke and Jake were suspiciously close but were still fighting over something crude Jake had said about cake which obviously was an inside joke that Audrey didn't want to know the details about.

Noah was holding his arms open and stood next to him was a colourful dark girl whom Audrey presumed was Zoë from the letters Noah had sent her.
She let out a breath and dived in, feeling safe and good again. Audrey knew she would never perfect- none of them would be but she also knew that was okay, as long as they all had each other.

Over Noah's shoulder, she also saw two boys sitting next to each other, she didn't recognise them.

"Who are they?" She nodded her head at them.
"That is Gustavo and Eli. They're cool - Stavo draws and Eli brings Emma cereal every morning but none of us question it."
"Oh"

Sidney had sacrificed herself so they could have this. They could all be happy, thanks to her. And none of them, especially the girl who loved her, would forget it.