'Til Death Do Us Part

Seven

I shook my head. I couldn't break free. Biting down, I bit through the white fabric with my teeth. Ariana laughed wickedly.

"There!" she said. "See? You got out, you big baby!" She cackled.

Tears fell down my cheeks.

"What's going on?" I demanded. "What's happening? This room...where's all your stuff?"

She just laughed again, her head thrown back.

"You don't need anything when you're here, silly." She stood up on the bed. I could see she was wearing a long black dress that was almost sheer. It lightly blew in the breeze. "Nothing matters here, Ev. You can do whatever you want to!"

My eyes narrowed. "I don't understand."

She knelt down to where I was laying.

"Look," she said in a raspy voice. She pulled on a silver necklace hanging in her neck. "I still have it."

It was the best friends necklace I had given her.

"But I thought-" I stammered in surprise.

"Thought what? Of course I have it! We're best friends, aren't we? Forever!" she sang, and jumped off the bed without making a sound. "You can do anything here! Be anything, anyone! Like a dream! We could do anything we want to do every day, Everly. Just like old times. We can be together, just you and me! I want that so much! Don't you want that?"

I nodded. "Of course I do!" I jumped off her bed. She stood by the open window, letting the wind blow through her long blonde hair.

"Then what are you waiting for?" she asked me with her eyes closed. "Come with me!"

"I wish I could..." I whispered.

She faced me and said, "You can!"

I shook my head in confusion. "Ari," I looked into her eyes. "I can't. You're- you're-"

"Dead?" she laughed. "You can say it! It's not a secret!"

My eyes were wide. "Dead. You're dead."

She grinned widely and danced around the room. "I am! I'm dead! And it's wonderful here! The only thing missing is you! Then it would be absolutely perfect! You'll see!"

Dancing over to me, she grabbed my hands and we spun in circles. "You can come here, too! It's not that hard! It didn't even hurt, Everly. Did you know that? I felt no pain at all. I was just driving along one minute and then? Just a bright light, like a super big truck with headlights or something was in front of me and the next minute, I was here! It happened so fast." She laughed, smiling at me as we spun around.

We fell on the ground from spinning and I was dizzy. I tried to regain focus of the room.

"You want me to die?" I asked her.

She giggled. "Oh, don't make it sound like that. We all die, Everly. We all are born, we live our lives, and then we all die. Old, young, doesn't matter. You're gonna die one day just like I did. There's no guarantee you'll live to be one hundred years old! People die every day of all ages, so you, like me, could die at sixteen. One day, you'll die. Everyone will. And if I did it? You can too. If you do it soon, well...we can be together forever! And we'll spend eternity doing exactly whatever we want!"

"I don't want to die, Ari," I said sternly.

She stopped and stared at me. "Of course you do." We stared at each other in silence.

"No," I cried. "I don't!" I started to get up, but she yanked my arm.

"You can't me leave me here!" she yelled.