DEVILS ♛ C. G. 〖 #wattys2018 〗

E P I L O G U E

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E P I L O G U E :
D U L C E T

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SOTC: Sunflower — Rex Orange Country
• you don't have to feel this emptiness •

❧ six months later

You'd think forgiveness would be easier than this. That you could reach into your throat and pull out a bouquet.

April felt suffocated inside her bedroom. She pulled open the window, tried to bathe in some kind of night elixir, but the air had warmed since February. This goddamn suburbia. No wonder adults drink wine at dinner parties.

She'd sworn off liquor at the beginning of the month, but as it proved more and more difficult to go to sleep, her sobriety seemed to be living on borrowed time.

Her house was nice, she couldn't deny that. Small enough for her and Elle to live comfortably, with a small television room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. During those first weeks, neither of them had much more energy than to watch old movies and play the variously themed Monopoly games stored in the cabinet.

April hardly left the house without Carl. Just to the backyard to lay out in the sun, to read a book or cloudgaze until she fell asleep.

God, she wasn't sure why she wasn't doing more. Or at least, she didn't want to put a name on it. The thought of people seeing her face, after she'd committed arson, after she'd killed people. Suburbia hid monsters like her.

But that didn't mean she hadn't tried to make things better. Just that last week, she'd found a pair of old sunglasses in a drawer, and popped out the right side lens. She'd given them to Carl as an alternative to his bare socket, a late birthday present, because his birthday was in June. And lord, he'd loved them. He thought he looked so cool.

Elle had grown back an inch or so of her black hair, which she'd buzzed up the sides. She was still petite, but she'd returned to a healthy weight, and her features had lost most of their sharpness. She'd gotten back her gorgeous smile again, the one that once seemed devilish and now was only radiant.

She left the house a little more often than April did, but that didn't stop Elle from making friends and even taking up cooking as a hobby. They would be on a canned diet if it weren't for her. There was even a girl, supposedly, as she had told April some nights ago. She's too good to be true, Elle had said. She just wanted to take it slow this time.

"Hey."

April was snapped back to the bedroom, where she had been staring out the window for some time now. She turned around quietly, saw Carl in the doorway. He had his sunglasses on, looking like a scrawny Arnold Schwarzenegger, with his brilliant grin. He held an unopened beer in his right hand.

She donned a casual smile. "Hey," she said. "I don't know why you're here, but I'm glad. Is that for me?" She pointed to the beer.

"Thought you would want it."

"Surprised you've ever held a beer in your life, cowpoke."

"That's funny," he said, handing it to her. "Because I haven't. Care to step outside?"

April laughed. "Wait, what...?" She watched as he climbed out her window, onto the roof that stuck out just outside. "My God, you're a trendsetter."

"Did I ever tell you about the time I ate 112 ounces of chocolate pudding on a roof just like this one?"

April knit her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"