Sara and Freyja reach the car and back out of the driveway before Sara notices Grace isn’t with them. “Shit! Where’s Grace!”

“I saw her run into the woods, she’s safe!”

“I can’t leave her!”

“We can’t stay here, Sara!”

Sara tightens her grip on the steering wheel. She doesn't know what to do. Sara knows how lost Grace must feel right now, how broken she is. She can’t leave the sister who adopted her. “Go back into town, I’m going to go find her!” She tells Freyja as she opens the door.

“Sara!”

“I can’t leave her!”

Freyja shuts up and sees the determination in Sara. “Okay, be safe,” She says calmly.

Sara smiles at her and turns around to run into the forest.

-

Cody is starting to lose himself. He spent the past few years learning how to control that rage that can get out of control. This time, it’s okay to let go. He has to knock Lyle down if anyone is getting out of here alive.

Lyle throws the first punch but Cody blocks it with ease. He follows up with a sidekick that connects to Lyle’s ribs. Cody gives him a mean right hook and follows up with a left jab. Lyle backs off and shakes it off. Cody tries to follow up again but misses his swing. Lyle knees Cody in the stomach and grabs him to lunge him to the ground. Lyle moves in as Cody tries to get up only to be head kicked. Cody swings at the air and Lyle sides kicks him in the arm. The two start exchanging blows without even bothering to block each other at this point. Cody is too exhausted. Lyle is starting to get winded. He sees Cody’s slow moment and grabs his neck to chokeslam him to the ground. The impact knocks the air out of Cody’s body, incapacitating him.

Lyle chuckles, “You’ve gotten better. Sad that it isn’t enough.”

Cody groans unable to speak. He looks around and sees the bodies of everyone who tried to help. Still, it wasn’t enough. Is this really it? He thinks. I couldn’t protect her. I couldn’t protect my friends. Goddamnit.

“Who would have thought a bunch of kids would give me so much trouble?” Lyle says to himself as he searches for the gun. He spits out the blood from his mouth. “Cody, your dad’s name is Jesus, right? It’s really hard not for it to be personal between you and I but your dad makes that impossible,” Lyle picks up the gun from the ground and notices his other one is nowhere to be seen. “You die first,” he points it at Cody’s head. Lyle screams in pain as the blade strikes deep into the bone of his ankle. Jerrica pulls it out right before Lyle turns around and kicks her in the stomach. Before Lyle can aim at Jerrica, Chris grabs him from behind and the two stumble to the ground. “Just die already!” Lyle shoots his gun and the bullet hits Chris’s thigh.

Chris wallows on the ground trying to hold the pain from his thigh in.

Lyle gets back up trying his hardest to ignore the immense pain in his ankle. He doesn’t see Emily who is getting up. “Just a bunch of fucking kids!”

Emily sees Andrew is getting up as well. I have to fight. I have to be strong. I have to live! Is all she thinks about. Lyle is too big for her to even stand a chance, but she still tries. Emily stumbles towards him, lucky that he’s unable to hear due to the rain. I refuse to be weak. I refuse to be scared. Emily uses the last bit of her strength to swing her leg forwards, kicking Lyle in the balls.

The pain almost overtakes the pain in Lyle’s ankle. He turns around to swing at Emily but misses before falling from all the pain. “You cunt!”

Emily falls to the ground. I hope that was enough.

Lyle’s entire body is radiating in agony as he gets back up only to see that Andrew is the only one left standing. He sees the ultra-violence in Andrew’s eyes. Finally, he’s unable to defend himself as Andrew tackles him to the ground.

Andrew’s unable to think. Everything he does is pure instinct as he’s just an animal fighting for his survival. He pummels Lyle’s without leaving space for anything else to happen. He pummels Lyle until Andrew see’s nothing but red and the exhaustion catches up to him.

Jerrica gets up in pain and watches.

Lyle coughs and groans in complete agony, barely being able to see anymore. He knows he’s lost. Still, he can win, even now. He sees the killing intent on Andrew. “You don’t have the guts,” Lyle barely manages to say to him.

Andrew barely makes out Lyle’s words. “What?!” he yells getting up.

“You don’t have the fucking guts to kill me, you fucking pussy,” Lyle coughs laughing. “You’re fucking shit.”

“I’m shit?! I’M SHIT?!” Andrew gets down and grabs Lyle by the collar. Andrew loses his sight and everything just becomes blank to him. “Do you know who the fuck I am?!” Andrew shoves Lyle back into the ground. A fleeting thought of Jerrica runs through his mind. He breaks through that barrier. “I’M CHAMPAGNE!” Andrew starts to slam his fists unto Lyle’s now unrecognizable face. In a fit of pure rage, Andrew wraps his hands around Lyle’s neck and starts to squeeze as hard as he can.

Another thought of Jerrica runs through him. Back then, when Jerrica told him she loved him despite everything, he didn’t know how to feel about it. He was happy, angry, confused, and sad. He told her that she shouldn’t. He’s a devil. Jerrica said she didn’t care as long as he didn’t hurt people anymore. He told her; that he killed someone before. He killed because he was told to. He was repaying a debt he didn’t like. That’s when Jerrica should've left. She should’ve said her goodbyes and left him to wallow in his self-disgust and hatred by myself. But she didn’t.

This. This is right, isn’t it?

It’s exhilarating. It’s taking much longer than Andrew would've thought, but he isn’t stopping. Lyle has to die or else it won’t end.

Jerrica watches in horror. Andrew has completely lost himself. She screams for him to stop but her words don’t reach him. She knows he’s no devil and he can still be saved.

Cody gets back up and walks over to Emily to check up on her. He’s letting this happen. Emily is still conscious but to hurt to move right now. Chris is holding his thigh, watching Andrew end it once and for all. Everyone can feel the rain slowly come to a stop.

“You okay?” Cody says to Emily the moment he reaches her.

Emily looks up at him and sees all the blood on his face. She smiles and nods. The two turn to Andrew.

Jerrica gets back up and runs towards Andrew as her words continue to phase through him. She wraps herself around Andrew, crying, “Please just stop,” whispers in his ears. The moment she does, Andrew let’s go.

He let’s go.

-

Freyja reaches the end of the dirt road where she stops because the blue and red lights are finally heading her way.

Sara gets lost in the forest and screams for Grace but there’s no one to hear her words. She spends some time wandering around looking for her little sister but finds no sign of her. Eventually, she finds herself near the dirt road again. This time the abandoned house is swarmed by police cruisers. Her heart stops as she fears the worse but walks towards them to find the end.

Jerrica kisses Andrew’s forehead. It’s finally over. All they’re waiting on is the ambulances. The police officers take care of Chris’ wounds the best they can and take statements from everywhere else including Freyja and Sara who arrive. Nobody can say a word.

Andrew lets Jerrica rest her head on his shoulder. He plays around with his mouth trying to find all the cuts he has. The taste of his blood won’t leave. He checks Jerrica’s wounds and finds that it’s nothing major. “You’re so stubborn, you could have gotten yourself killed,” he tells her.

“Yeah well, there isn’t anything that we can’t do together.”

Andrew scoffs then smiles at his fiance. “Glad you stuck around. There isn’t a world where I can live without you.”

“Rare for you to be soft,” Jerrica giggles.

Andrew chuckles, “Yeah well, a lot of things happened tonight.”

Emily stands up from the ground. Her entire body feels like the cracks from its glass can shatter at any moment. Tonight has been too much for her. This entire day has been too much. She thinks about the day where she was shot and the day she got in the car accident. Both of those days pale in comparison to now. Her tears start to join the light rain now present.

Cody stands in front of her completely exhausted and sore. He’s pretty sure parts of his body are broken but can’t tell where. All he cares about is the fact that they all got out of this alive. He got Emily out alive even though she refused to run away.

“It almost happened again,” Emily whispers to him. “Everything was almost taken from us again.” She cries as Cody lets her rest her body on his chest. “It’s all too much.”

Cody doesn’t say anything and lets Emily cry on his chest. He knows exactly what Emily is thinking. She can’t stay in this town. It’s never been good to her, even now it almost killed her. He isn’t good for her. Cody hugs her, just this once and maybe even for the last time. Emily just cries harder and thinks about all the mistakes she made over the past three days.

Emily can now leave knowing that maybe for the first time in her life, she’s strong enough to face the world alone.

Chris thinks about the words Lyle has said. Nobody seems to believe his thoughts about Marina. Chris knows otherwise so should Andrew. That girl is special and is meant to change the world. He’s just a guy who overthought everything about existence but for once, all he cares about is going home to have a warm dinner.

-

Grace runs and runs deeper and deeper into the forest. She runs until her lungs can’t hold her air anymore. She collapses near the creak. Her pants to catch her breath only makes her panic even more. Everything that is happening is entirely her fault. She trusted Felix and now all of her friends are probably going to die.

She only thinks about his words. If only she was stronger. If only she didn’t try to be well-liked. It’s too late now. She’s been manipulated to be someone she doesn’t like. She’s tired of it. There was just so much she did to be cool that Grace never once thought about if it really was the best for her.

Grace feels the rain slowly becoming docile. Suddenly the darkness doesn’t seem so frightening and she finds herself in the open field where the old Treehouse once was. Further north she finds the new one Cody had built over the past three years. She’s been here a couple of times before but not since it’s been completed. It’s much nicer than she expected. She sits over the entrance and dries her tears. Dirt and mud cover almost every part of her clothes.

Her hands are stiff and rigid. The gun she holds weighs more than she ever would have thought. It’s a crown that she holds. It’s a power that she has. For the first time today, she feels like she has some resemblance of control. She should be back at the house helping her friends out. She could have used the gun on Lyle but she knows she’s just a coward. Grace stares at the gun in her hand. The darkness down below has never felt so inviting. The darkness consumes.

Felix wasn’t who he was. She’s left up here with no explanation and she doesn’t know where any of her friends are. In a month she will be left alone to manage herself. All she wants is to be that little girl where nobody had any expectation of her; where she has no responsibilities and didn’t have to do all these things to be liked.

This whole night has been her fault as she led Lyle here; the monster she has heard about all through her school years. Now as tomorrow comes, she will have to live with whatever happened. Her friend might be dead. Lyle might come back to get her. She’ll just be a slave to him.

Grace looks west, where all the police lights are being lit up. Everyone is over there, dead, and it’s all her fault.

Grace thinks about me. The memory of gunshot and the splatter of blood on Grace plays back on a silver screen. Grace becomes frozen when she realizes she still doesn’t know why

I did it. If Elizabeth hadn’t done that, where would I be now?

I’m tired. I’m really tired.

Is this what depression feels like? No. Sara wasn’t like me. Sara was much worse and she is still here. So why? Why am I like this? There needs to be a reason. Why am I shaking?

Grace shakes as she points the gun towards her temple. She starts to cry.

It doesn’t fucking matter. I’ll be dead. Fuck everyone. I don’t even have to deal with it. This will solve all problems. I don’t ever have to be afraid again. I don’t have to live to see the future.

Grace's eyes widen.

She drops the gun, letting it hang on her arm. Grace stares at the ground again.

Everyone tried to speculate my death with their ideas of what happened. The most common was the drugs spun me out of control. Others thought it was because I didn’t want to become a teenage mom. Cody and Emily seem to think it was because I couldn’t bear Cody loving Emily.

My parents blamed the community and everything around it.

I’ve witnessed it all over the past four years.

They’re all wrong.

Eventually, everyone knew the truth. I was out of control, lost, and hated what I had become. There are only two things that happened to me that I wish would've gone differently. The first is when I tried some of Chris’s LSD.

I was walking back into my room after thinking I was coming down. Inside wasn’t anything special. The room is just white and is always dimly lit. There's a bed with pink sheets and next to it is a desk with a laptop. Around the walls are posters of various things, none of them important except my Emmah one. Emmah is a rising star that keeps a low profile but makes life-changing music. To me, she’s nearly flawless and I considered dying my hair a dark brown just so I could look like her. I entered my room and there was this woman in a white dress standing in front of and looking at my Emmah Melody Ryan poster. She had the same stunning white dress as the one Emmah had in the poster. This woman was blonde however and looked nothing like her. I didn’t know who she was.

“Life is beautiful. Really, it is,” She said in an almost angelic voice. I don’t think she was ever real. The woman seemed to be a bit transparent and somehow I didn’t mind that she was in my room. The colors coming around her were friendly.

I recognized her words. They’re from a movie Cody and I watched a while back. The words she spoke startled me like she knew exactly what to say to get inside my head.

“Life is great,” She continued.

The movie was ‘Gummo’. A movie that made me weirdly fascinated after finishing it.

“Without it, you’ll be dead,” I finished for her.

“Life is beautiful, really, it is. Filled with beauty and illusions,” The woman walked up to me and hugged me.

And an explosion of memories all at once. I remembered everything and all things at once. Things I was never there for, things I wasn’t even born for. An explosion of emotions and ecstasy. I saw all the good, all the bad. I saw the world without me. I saw the world with me. Either way, it kept spinning.

I saw hollow eyes with somber grins. I saw worn eyes with calm and warming smiles. I saw scared eyes and a calendar date, August 27th. I saw pissed off eyes just longing for someone to say “It’s okay.” I saw demons surrounding eyes of curiosity. I saw Cody’s eyes longing for everything to go back to the things they were.

I walked into my room again.

In my room, there was this woman in a white dress standing in front of and looking at my Emmah poster. She was wearing the same dress as the poster and her blonde hair was perfectly straight.

“Life is beautiful. Really, it is,” She said in an Angelic voice. “Life is great,”

“Without it, you’ll be dead,” I finished for her.

“Life is beautiful, really, it is. Filled with beauty and illusions,” The woman walked up to me and hugged me.

Again.

I walked into my room again.

In my room there was this woman in white standing there, waiting for me. This woman was blonde and was wearing this stunning dress that I spent days looking for online but never found.

“Life is beautiful. Really, it is,” She said as an angel. “Life is great,”

“Without it, you’ll be dead,” I finished for her.

“Life is beautiful, really, it is. Filled with beauty and illusions,” The woman walked up to me and hugged me.

Once more.

In my own head, I could hear that song from the opening of the movie. I didn't know what it was called but after a few days I found out it’s ‘I love my little rooster’ by Almeda Riddle. It’s creepy and I didn’t want to hear it. But it seemed fitting as well.

I walked into my room.

In my room, there was this woman in white waiting for me. She was smiling and her iris’ were silvery white. She was paler than me, almost like a ghost. This woman was completely in white. She was stunning.

“Life is beautiful. Really, it is,” she said softly, “The mask fits so snug and safely.”

“Filled with beauty and illusions,” I said.

She shook her head. “Alcohol doesn’t heal cuts.”

“The darkness that consumes.”

“The shadows and glooms.”

“Broken, oh so broken.”

The woman in white walked up to me and hugged me. “Everything is pretty in the dark.”

Another explosion. I’m shot up high in the air, breaking the ceiling and out into the atmosphere. From there to the darkness of space and go beyond. Into a nebula unto a black hole where it’s just a tunnel. I was speeding by as everything around me passed by like speeding street lights in the night sky. Everything raced by and everything felt right. Everything felt so eternal.

I heard the ocean and nothing else.

I crashed back into my room where I entered my body. It was a sudden stop in a speeding car where I could feel the whiplash in my own body. I blinked and everything went back to normal. The walls were still slightly moving and I was still focusing on very small things but everything was back where it should be.

There was no woman in white.

That was the first day my guardian angel appeared before me. I should have listened to her.

The other was the moment I saw someone die. We were stuck in traffic by a red light on 7th and Pine. I could hear the faint sounds of police sirens in the distance as the light refused to go green. Lyle said, “Are you fine to do this for a while?”

“Yeah.”

The sirens got a bit closer and I got a little nervous for no reason. I thought that they were coming after us, but instead, it was this black motorcycle. I couldn’t take that image out of my head for days.

This black motorcycle was speeding towards us in a blink, running the red light. In under a half-second, it was t-boned by a car and the driver flew off the motorcycle that seemed to me a couple of dozen meters, landing beside the SUV.

The driver of the car was visibly unconscious with a deployed airbag; the front of the car completely totaled. The motorcycle was in pieces all around us. The driver of it was beside us, his body in shambles with blood everywhere. All his limbs seemed to be bending in ways they were never meant too, like a puppet

His face was unrecognizable. No, that's too easy. It was in shambles. His head looked like it was cracked in half. I could see everything. Lyle looked over and his facial expression didn't even change. I couldn’t imagine mine as I was trying to forget the exposed brain I had just witnessed.

I accidentally took a peek and could feel myself trying not to gag. My mouth instantly was filled with so much excess saliva that I had to spit it out.

“Relax,” Lyle said. “It wasn’t us. You should be thankful.”

“He’s dead!”

Lyle grinned, “This won’t be your only.”

Those words haunted me. Lyle was right. It wouldn’t be my only death. Just days later he convinced me to kill for him. I saw what I’ve become. I saw the monster he was making me become. I couldn’t live with it. Everything just piled on top of that and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I hated who I’ve become.

Sometimes, just like Grace, the future is too terrifying to face. Just another victim of neglect.

-

Everything has become too much. Grace wonders if Lyle could help her become a person that isn’t insecure anymore. Maybe there’s a world where she doesn’t have the fear of growing up, moving out. The fear of trying to graduate college, get a job, a boyfriend, a marriage, a kid, a mortgage. All of that disappears if Grace would just let him break her.

But Grace Ciotta is already broken.

Cody walks over to Chris who’s unable to get up. “How are you holding up?”

“Dude, do you really have to ask?” He chuckles.

Cody joins him. “Yeah, sorry. Thanks, you saved us.”

Chris shakes his head. “I think maybe we all played a part. Before I was so worried about making mistakes that it caused me to worry and made them anyway. Now I see that we alone have the power to decide what happens next.”

“Oh yeah?”

Chris looks at Emily who’s being checked upon by a police officer then back at his friend. “That includes what she wants to happen next,” he motions his head towards her. Cody looks back for a moment. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I’m going to finally do something with my life. Maybe even help the world.”

Cody smirks, “I’ll hold you to that.”

Sara walks up to her brother and Jerrica. “You had me worried. I’m glad everyone’s safe.”

Andrew smiles. “All in a day's work, Sis.”

“Don’t say it like it was so casual,” Jerrica rolls her eyes. “There's no situation where anything that happened wasn’t frightening.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Sara laughs nervously. She feels bad that she wasn’t there to help. Was it a selfish thing to do? She asks herself but concludes that it’s the only thing Andrew would want. She leaves her brother so he can be alone with Jerrica for a moment. Freyja still needs to be checked on.

“Did you find Grace?” Freyja asks her.

“No, but I told some of the guys who she is. There should be two officers looking for her,” Sara shakes her head. “How are you holding up? I’m sorry you got dragged into all of this.”

Freyja half-smiles, “Honestly my heart feels like it’s still trying to rip out of my chest, but I’m okay. I’m more worried about you.”

“Never better. There’s no more demon to plague me.”

“So it’s all over, huh?”

Sara grabs hold of Freyja’s hand and smiles. For once there isn’t anything in the back of her mind telling her that life isn’t worth living. There’s still a lot of things Sara has to endure but she knows she has to support to be able to face it.

Would Mom be proud? If she was still alive would she tell me that she’s proud that I’m able to stand up? I hope she's in a better place. I hope she found her peace.

“Yeah,” Sara sighs out of exhaustion. “But everything is going to be okay now. I have you.”

Freyja grins and the two share a kiss.

Andrew sees the two and cheers them on, catching the attention of almost everyone on the scene.

“Do you have to be so loud?” Jerrica giggles.

“I would be lying if I said no.”

“At least you’re honest,” Jerrica bites her lip but winces at the pain she still feels on her stomach. “I hope Grace is okay.”

“She’ll be fine. Grace is stronger than she knows.”

“So are you. I’m really proud of you today.”

Andrew thinks about what he almost did today. He wasn’t going to stop. It was a thrill that he wanted to continue; the end to everything. But Andrew is the child he was before. Still, the disappointment hasn’t left because Jerrica is the only reason why he did stop.

“Can I tell you something?”

Jerrica lifts her head slightly from his shoulder. “Hmm?”

“There isn’t anyone in the world who would put up with my bullshit as much as you, Jerrica. I love you, don’t ever forget that.”

Jerrica closes her eyes and smiles. “I love you too, Andy.”

Emily stares at Cody’s dead eyes. He’s been through so much. He fought so hard. “I’m going to live alone for a while,” She tells me. “I think. I think it’ll be better for both of us if we don’t see each other for a while. I have some things I have to figure out.”

Cody’s childhood friend can barely look him in the eyes, but he understands. “Yeah, it’s okay. There’s a lot of things we both need to do.”

“Maybe in a year or two. Drop by to New York, maybe we can work something out. Maybe by then, we’ll have something worked out.”

“Yeah, maybe…”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“Eventually. How about you?”

“Not even close,” Emily laughs. “I just need to figure out who I am. I spent so long letting myself be weak because of my sickness, letting it control my life, letting me rely on others to carry me. It’s time I walk on my two feet.”

Cody smiles and gains a bit of energy. “I’ll cheer for you.”

“What about you? What are you going to do?”

“Sleep for a couple of days,” he chuckles. “Then after that, I got a tour and who knows. Life sometimes moves too fast to stop and think about all that.”

“I’m sorry things aren’t going as you wanted.”

Cody closes his eyes and shakes his head. “I have the same problem as you, Ems. I can’t live without you, but I’ve been learning. You’re right, we both need to be better people. I try too hard, maybe that’s why everything I touch eventually goes to shit.”

Emily holds Cody’s hand for the last time. “Let’s find each other a couple of years from now. Who knows? By then we’ll be the best version of ourselves. I’ll be waiting.”

A gunshot from deep inside the forest grabs everyone’s attention.

The darkness is more inviting than ever. The mind of Grace Ciotta is too scrambled to make any coherent thought. The only thing she knows is that the Devil doesn’t need any I-told-you-so’s. In the end, it’s nothing but cheap talk and wasted breaths. A woman with broken wings knows the best of steel nets and frayed respect. Her hands are one that begs and ones that forget. Everyone loves a mess and she intends to give them one they’ll never forget.

She looks up, letting the now drizzle sprinkle over her as sparkling mist. The blue-green earth gives her a final kiss and she feels that jump off a fallen chest right before the hit. Grace takes a deep breath and accepts that there isn’t a God that can answer her prayer.

Grace smiles and aims the gun.

She shoots.

Grace’s body falls down from the treehouse.

The rain finally stops.