Stygian means very dark. Thats how Ryia Stewart had always described herself. Others had used the words 'weird', or 'different'. But that's not fair.
She's always felt that way. That is until she met her best - only- friend, and everything became a...
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"Honey, what's the matter?" Ryia asked her only friend, noticing that her look of confused sadness was different from how it usually was.
"I just got this weird video." Elicia replied, watching the disturbing loop of events taking form on her iPhone. She shifted the screen so that Ryia could see. The video looked like was taking from the perspective of a shotgun, slowly following an unidentified girl before taking the shot and sending the woman flying into a pile of garbage beside her.
"Oh my gods." One of the girls exclaimed, getting the attention of the few other people sitting at the diner this early in the morning. Ryia's uncle studied Greek Mythology, and so she had always believed that there were many gods and goddesses watching over her. Even if Ryia knew that the Romans killed all the Greeks and stole their religion.
"It's totally fake though." Elicia replied to her companion's outburst. "And it was probably just a prank pulled by the two other girls tagged in this video. They always think they can mess with people less popular than them."
"Yeah, but what if it wasn't."
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Two girls leaned against the graffitied walls of the grotto. They stood in comfortable silence, one watching the skaters and ink-marked people. The other stared at her phone, tilting it so that her friend couldn't the contents of her screen. Now, Ryia had a hunch as to what Elicia was looking at, but she was never one to pry. She learned early on that being too curios can hurt people.
"Elicia?"
The girl in question looked up to see a preppy blond and a girl who looked more or less normal. But stereotypes are usually wrong so she didn't judge, only glared at them like they had interrupted something important.
"So?" Elicia replied, looking back down at her phone screen. Ryia wanted to nudge her and say something about being attentive, but decided against it in the presence of other people.
"Did you see the video?" The brown haired one asked.
"What do you want?" Elicia said, answering a question with a question.
"I want to know who posted it." The girl replied, while the blond one crossed her arms and glared at the girls leaning against the wall like it was an interrogation.
Elicia smiled, looking at the girls with a look that said, 'you two are idiots'. "It's not even real."
"What about the girl?" She replied in an exasperated tone, while Elicia grabbed a hold of her best friend's wrist and fled the scene.
"Sorry!" Ryia said in a small voice to the two girls as she was being pulled along. She had always been too nice to people. I mean, what if they were psychos?
"Maybe you shouldn't be so curt."
"Maybe you shouldn't be so friendly."
Ryia wasn't taken aback by her friend's comeback. She had learned that Elicia was a defensive person from the moment she met her. After Elicia had noticed that Ryia was standing in her doorway to her room she started to murmur over her words and defend her right to do whatever she wanted in her own room. Ryia only stood there with a smirk on her face, arms crossed.
"Well they seemed pretty shaken up about the video." Ryia said. She had switched positions and was now pulling Elicia on her skateboard across the pavement.
"Yeah well it was just some stupid prank."
"Well do you know why you three were tagged in it? Do you know them?"
"No. They're popular. And it's probably someone who wanted who wanted to mess with all of us."
"Okay. I just want you to be safe." Ryia looked into her friends eyes as she dragged her.
