“They come back here, we make it look like a suicide, and that’s that. They’re just a loner bookworm anyways. No one would say it was out of the ordinary, and then everything will be fixed.”

Kara did one last check on the noose before climbing down. She was still tense. Even though it was almost over, she couldn’t bring herself to relax. A smile was faked as she looked over to Britney, who was positively beaming. Nothing ever seemed to bring her down.

“Yeah, but Julia wasn’t always some loner. You don’t think she was, right? She’s your sister. There had to be a little party girl in there somewhere.” Britney folded her arms and smiled all the wider.

“I don’t know what they think,” replied Kara coldly. “I don’t know what Eli robbed from us, but the ritual is out there. He’s going to get desperate, start looking for new people, and Julia is in a dark place. She’s going to end up killing all of us.”

“Or just Eli,” muttered Britney. “Why was he important again?”

Kara shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. His powers didn’t work correctly on you, and we can’t risk yours not working on him. I promise that we’ll find some other way to get back at him. Maybe you can convince other people to do the ritual?”

“And risk losing my popularity?” Britney scoffed at the idea.

“We can’t let him get away with Mackenzie’s murder,” whispered Kara.

“I don’t even know who that is,” replied Britney in a careless tone.

Kara let out an annoyed sigh. “We did the ritual with him, and he…” She was growing tired of how pointless it was. No matter how many times she had tried to explain it, Britney wasn’t able to retain any of that information.

“I get it. Julia’s in a bad place now, and we can’t let her come after us.” Britney tapped a finger against her chin. “Eli took something from me, and I don’t appreciate that. So he has to pay somehow.” She tilted her head to the side. “But the problem is that he doesn’t remember me, and you’re the only one that can tie me to this problem.”

Hesitant to understand what she meant, Kara took a step back. “I wouldn’t tell anyone.”

“And once Eli’s dead, neither is he,” replied Britney. “Go up the ladder.” Kara stared at her blankly. “Keep your mouth shut and go up the ladder.”

Kara’s mind started to go fuzzy. She slowly went up the ladder, following Britney’s orders as she gave them. The noose was slipped over her neck, and she stood there, waiting for what seemed like an eternity.

There was something… Bland about this morning. The sky was a perfect white due to the cloud coverage, and that meant that there weren’t any shadows on the ground. Nothing seemed to be stirring at the moment… Even the birds seemed to be sleeping in, as Kara could barely make out the sound of any.

Julia would say that these days were her favorite. It felt like being in a different world. One where a person to simply settle back and focus on doing something without any distractions. Thinking about it made Kara laugh. Was there a time when they got along? Some simpler time long ago that Kara had somehow forgotten.

“Jump.”

Kara’s feet slipped from the ladder. The air in her throat was quickly cut off, and she began to claw at her throat in an attempt to loosen the rope from around her neck. It wasn’t a quick death. Pressure began to build up in her head, making her ears ring and tongue swell. Her feet began to kick back and forth as she flailed, making her swing back and forth underneath the branch.

The rope slipped away from her neck and she found herself falling. She collapsed on the ground and immediately began to hack and cough for air. Her hands clutched at her throat, and she was surprised to find that it was fine. No sensations of bruising or even indents of the rope.

“... Kara?”

She looked up and saw someone standing over her. “Austin?” Her vision was still blurry, but it began to clear enough for her to recognize him. “Austin!”

Austin knelt down next to her and the two flung their arms around each other, clinging to the other tightly. He inhaled the scent of her hair, relished the warmth of her body, and was thrilled with being able to simply hold her again. The two parted so that Austin good look at her face, then the two began to kiss as though a million years had passed since they had last met.

Turning away from the scene, Carter folded his arms and glanced over at Trill. “Sweet scene, huh?” So sweet that he felt like vomiting.

Trill was far from amused. The ears of his mask were twitching in an annoyed fashion, and his tail was swishing back and forth. “We have matters to discuss.”

Austin broke away and hugged onto Kara tightly. “Can’t you let her relax first?”

“How much time do you believe she has?” Trill knelt down next to them. His tail was still twitching back and forth behind him. “It will only be a matter of time before your opponent will realize what has transpired.”

Kara took a moment to understand what he meant by that. “Was that not a dream?” She blinked a few times. “... Britney tried to kill me?”

“Britney was the one that killed you?” Austin’s question made Kara stammer as she tried to comprehend what he meant by that. “You died on January twelfth. They found you behind the school, and… It’s now February 23rd.”

Kara was visibly shaking. “How am I alive?”

“Julia switched places with you,” whispered Austin.

“And you let her do that?!” Kara pushed him away and stood up. “Julia didn’t have to…” She froze up, realizing she could remember everything. “Eli is dead.” Her arms wrapped around her torso. She then looked over to Trill. “What is happening?”

Trill felt like he had given enough warning. There was no need for him to linger any longer, and there was other work he needed to attend to. He vanished in a swirl of ash. The forest around them brightened due to his absence.

Austin stood up and put a hand on Kara’s shoulder. “Let’s go back to my place. My parents are away taking care of my grandma, so it’s only me there. We’ll order your favorite pizza and we’ll go over everything that’s happened.”

Kara was still in shock, but she agreed to go with him. There wasn’t a reason to not trust him. Sure, she had offered to give him blowjobs in order to keep him silent, but all he wanted to do was talk. Talking turned into cuddling, cuddling went to making out, and everything went out of control from there.

She felt so guilty about it. Austin was Tyler’s friend, and she was Tyler’s girlfriend first. What she was going to do was go back to Tyler, but… Something within her heart didn’t want her to do that. A part of her wanted leave him and start seeing Austin. That would’ve been the wrong choice. The immoral choice. Because of that, she never wanted to try it. Even thinking about it was painful.

But she had been dead now for over a month. Tyler had moved on with Britney, and she was free to be with Austin. Truly be with him without the guilt of being an ill woman who had cheated on her man.

The two sat in the back of the van, cuddling together while talking in hushed whispers. Britney had forced Kara to kill herself because she was afraid of Julia. Julia was gone now. Kara certainly wouldn’t be friends with her after this, but there was no reason for Britney to come after her now.

As for Austin and Carter, Britney had told them to do the ritual and to say that the only cost would be to put up flyers afterward. Summoning a demon sounded ridiculous, but somehow, it made sense when Britney suggested it. That didn’t surprise Kara at all, because Britney had gotten the gift of popularity.

It naturally drew people to her, and the more they trusted her, the more control she had over them. That’s how she killed Kara, and how she was able to convince Austin and Carter to go through with the ritual. But now that there wasn’t a need to fear someone coming after them, Britney wouldn’t have to try to hurt anyone.

The ritual had gone smoothly for Austin and Carter. Austin got his face back, and Carter was told that he was immune to magic. They hadn’t tried to test it at all, but that’s what Carter had wanted. He said that he was happier not having to test it at all. He hadn’t done anything to earn a gift and Austin having his face back was enough for him.

Kara did want to go back to Austin’s place, she did, but she also wanted to see her home. Supposedly she had been dead for a while, and she wanted to make sure her parents were okay. Hearing that they had separated was shocking, but not surprising. They had been arguing more and more as of late, and last Christmas was by far the worst she had ever experienced.

Austin insisted on going with her. With Kara switching with Julia, the rules of the world had changed slightly. Britney had moved in with her mother because Britney was Kara’s best friend, and she had lost her twin sister. Kara never went to the hospital, but her father was concerned with her spending less and less time at home and felt that having Britney’s mother around would help.

All of Julia’s belongings had been shoved to a corner of the garage. They were debating donating her clothes to Eli’s sister. Her computer and sound equipment were being kept by Kara for her own at home projects.

The two of them headed up to Kara’s room and sat on the edge of her bed. She couldn’t believe anything that had happened. Not with her death, or Julia’s death… Or anyone’s death, really. Was she really supposed to move on as though nothing had happened?

“You can spend the night with me,” whispered Austin.

“That demon told you that Britney won’t remember anything. I don’t think she’ll be a danger to us anymore.”

Austin hesitated before saying anything else. “Are we together now?” He whispered. She also hesitated to say anything. “Kara, I’ve been in love with you since the second grade. Ever since you died… I don’t want to go through that again. Even if it ends up not working out in the end, I want to try to spend as much of my life as I can by your side.”

Kara squeezed his hand while studying his face. Everything he was saying sounded sincere, but… No. No, she wasn’t going to hesitate on this anymore. She leaned in to kiss him, and that seemed to be confirmation enough that everything was going to be okay.