THE VISION IS A PLACE | ✓ {complete}

Chapter 45 : get out of the water

    I don't remember how I got here. I'm standing on the edge of the pond's rickety dock, chest heaving, lungs on fire, staring down into the black water; the taste of blood in my mouth, eyes swollen, my pounding heart lodged in my throat. The last thing I remember of the forest was the torture of trying to leave, but the mud was holding me so tight by my ankles that I could only move in slow motion. I know I puked at some point. I think it was in the water and maybe again when I was running. I have no memory of branches hitting my skin, but I'm covered in scratches.

My mind was completely black and I don't know for how long. I could have run anywhere, but instead I ran back here, and I don't know why.

I should have run the other way. I should have disappeared into the ocean of trees. I could be lost right now. That sounds like something I want. At the very least, it would have bought me more time. I'm not ready for anything to happen yet; I know, very soon, nothing is going to be the same again.

I can still smell him on me. I desperately peel the clothes of my body.

The pendant is wrapped so tightly around my wrist that it's digging into my skin, cutting off the circulation. I don't remember doing that. I force myself to slow down enough to untangle it, wiping the tears from my eyes as I go, to be able to see it clearly enough.

When I finally manage to unwind it, I drop it onto my pile of clothes and dive into the water.

I scrub my skin with my nails, but the more I scrub, the more I realize it's not coming off and I turn frantic. There's something on me; I can't see it, but I know it's there. Or maybe it's inside of me and that's why I can't get it off. I don't know what it is. All I know is that it wasn't there before.

This is bad.

Get it off. Please just get it off—

I want out. This can be over.

I tread water, for what feels like a long time, biting at my cheeks through endless tears until I'm so exhausted that I lay back and let the water hold me. I can't stop shaking.

I stare up at the cold stars. They feel so far; farther than ever. Tiny pin pricks of cold light.

I wish my mom could see me from up there. I wish she would find me, so she could tell me what to do, but that's not what angels do. They don't tell you anything. They stay quiet and watch with their hands behind their backs. I've been trying on my end. I really have. I almost killed myself trying to find her...

Where are you, ma.

Nothing. There's nothing there. I'm just as alone as I've always been. She wouldn't be able to save him anyway...

I feel a presence.

Scared that I really am going crazy, I turn around in the water, to look back at the house through the cattails.

There's someone standing at the end of the dock. I know it's him, the same way I always know it's him. I don't know how long he's been there, watching me.

Half of my face is under the water, and I'm staring up at him. My heart is beating so fast that I'm sure he can see the water pulsating around me. He slowly crouches down next to my clothes and picks the pendant up from the pile.

This is it. It's over.

His eyes are red and knowing. With the diffuse moon reflecting off his cheekbones, he looks like a skeleton to me. I don't know how to look at anything right now and not see death—not see Kyle.

I can hear synths in the silence; an epic soundtrack to an epic end.

"Case..." he whispers.

I sink under the water and I pinch my eyes shut and scream, pushing everything I have out of me. Bubbles fly over my cheeks. When I have nothing left, I look up to the blurry surface and let myself sink farther away from it.