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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"Wait, I messed up." Ryia said, referring to the bracelet she was mending.
"How are you so bad at this?" Elicia replied, taking the strings from her hands and trying to fix the shorter girl's mistake.
A while after Elicia fixed Ryia's bracelet and handed it back to her, the two girls from yesterday showed up.
"We both got photos from M0nk3yM4nnn." Rowan said, holding up her phone towards Elicia and giving Ryia a weird look. Ryia had learned their names, from Elicia. "Did you get one too?"
Elicia took her phone out of her back pocket and gave the others a small nod. Ryia looked over her shoulder at the screen in her friend's hand.
"Today's date." Rowan said, showing the girls.
"Twelve, midnight." Hailey said, making Ryia realize that she had never heard the girl speak.
A picture of an old broken down motel appeared on Elicia's phone, jogging the memory of the best friends. Ryia shuddered, and Elicia showed them the phone. That night at the motel was awful in so many ways.
"Where is that?" Hailey asked, confused.
"I don't know."
"I do it's..." Elicia started and Ryia grabbed her hand to calm her. "It's this old motel in South U."
"That's in a really really bad part of town." Rowan said, judging-ly. "My dad is always getting called down there. Do you two go there or something?"
Glaring at Rowan, Ryia squeezed Elicia's hand and continued fiddling with the bracelet she was making. She was feeling awkward, not having a message. And being around people she didn't know was making Ryia nervous.
"Uh, we used to." Ryia replied pointedly. "Sometimes."
"People party at the hotel." Elicia said, not wanting to continue.
Just then, the shrill noise of a bell rang out across the courtyard. Saved by the bell.
"He wants us to go there tonight." Rowan said, stepping in closer to the group. 'How do we know it's a him?' Ryia thought, knowing full well that women could be creepy stalker-murderers just as well as males.
Elicia looked up at Rowan in alarm, and Hailey replied,"Screw that."
"No thanks." Elicia scoffed, shaking her head.
"Come on ladies. Let's get to class." An old police officer walked past, shooing them from in front of the 'before I die I want to' board. Ryia shrank away, letting go of Elicia's hand in the process.
"This is just getting creepier and creepier." Ryia said, smiling over at her friend who barley ever smiled.
"Let's not talk about it."
༼༽
Ryia had known for a while that Elicia was a cutter. She always despised the times in school when Elicia would come back to class after being excused to the bathroom for longer than normal people would be there for. Ryia had never asked, but had found her best friend's razor's while looking for her notebook in Elicia's backpack.
That knowledge made it much less surprising that after Elicia, who was sitting next to Ryia, checked her phone in alarm and seconds later a picture of someone who had cut themselves showed up on her desktop. Ryia recognized the specific bracelets that her best friend wore and she gasped. The other kids laughed while Elicia and Ryia sat there quiet, although no one noticed.
"What's going on? Brandon?" Ms. Dawson yelled, panicking. "Patrick, go get Mr. Bradford. Everyone stay in your seats."
Reaching over to grab her friends's wrist, Ryia moved Elicia's bracelets over and rubbed her thumb over her wrist. She could feel the scarring of the cuts that Elicia made. Elicia looked over at Ryia with the same panic as Ms. Dawson and stared straight into the other brown-haired girl's knowing eyes.
Ryia leaned over to Elicia and whispered,"What did they say?"
