Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
__________
Lauren's voice shook as she spoke. "Ana, why are you in my house?" Ana didn't look as sweet as before, but she didn't look gone. She was in that state between sadness and anger.
"I thought I was wrong. I thought Joe was wrong. But it just...it all makes sense now," Ana replied, not answering Lauren's question.
She knows. She knows. She knows what I did, Lauren thought to herself. But she couldn't believe it. Maybe for a second if she closed her eyes, she would be back in her room and this was all a dream. But sadly this was reality, and Lauren was being faced with her consequences.
All Lauren could muster was one word before her throat closed up. "Ana..."
"No, I get to talk now. When my mother died--got murdered--Joe and I were the only ones who knew. He told me she was killed, but he had taken care of who did it. Surprisingly, that morning we were leaving without you. I didn't know why we were abandoning you, but...I didn't want to believe it; I couldn't. So I gave you that stuff for if you got out. But that day you came to me and told me that you were sorry for what happened to my mother, I didn't want to believe it. Only Joe and I knew...and the murderer. I kept denying it, but now I know it has to be you."
Lauren's heart began racing in her chest, watching the one person she thought she couldn't have feared raise a gun towards her head. She had a gun, she kept it from the saviors. And probably a bullet too. Lauren backed away slightly, ending up back in the hallway, but very close to the doorway.
Ana's lip trembled as she continued. "You did it. You killed my mother Lauren, you're a monster."
Monster. Lauren was a monster, and she knew it. She was a villain, and she would always be. But she thought she escaped those words; they came crawling back to her in the nightmare that was her life. All Lauren could do was shut her eyes in shame. Maybe she could sprint away fast enough. Maybe she could pull the trigger and let her die without any pain. Maybe she could escape this hell. She could practically feel herself balancing on the edge of life and death.
Lauren opened her eyes, her words fumbling out of her mouth in a plead for her life. "Ana, please...I wasn't myself back then, I was...a monster. But I've changed. You have to understand that."
Eons seemed to pass by as they stared at each other, one staring into the barrel of a gun and the other at stone cold eyes that were prepared for their death. Maybe Lauren was ready.
Ana shook her head, her voice getting louder and louder with every second that passed. "You'll never understand what it feels like to be betrayed, Lauren. You'll never understand what it feels like to have no one!"
