It’s my sister's.
“Clara?” I call, unable to stop the tears from falling. Eyes barely open, Clara lies still against Bunny’s torso, her skin waxy and pale and covered in blood. It leaks from the gaping hole in her heart, spilling across broken and mottled bones. “Clara,” I mutter again, afraid of the emptiness I feel radiating from her. “Please, Clara… please talk to me.”
As delicately as I can, I peel her away from Bunny, holding her tightly against my chest. “Please, Clara. Please talk to me. Please.Please.”
Hiding the anguish pouring down my face in the crook of her neck, I sob against her skin, digging my nails into her skin, hoping to transfer some of my life into her.
When she remains utterly still, my heart breaks the rest of the way, splitting entirely in two.
I lost my friend.
I lost my family.
“I should have saved you. I promised! I promised I’d save you… I’m so sorry, Clara.God.” I cry, squeezing her to me, “I’m so fucking sorry…”
I’m still hunched over, crying into my Clara’s hair, when Bunny sets her hand on my shoulder. “Cade,” she whispers, sniffling back tears, “we have to go.”
“How am I supposed to leave you?” I cry softly against her cheek, shedding all I have left. But I know it’s time. I know that, despite how much I don’t want to, I have to leave her here. I have to leave without her.
“It’s all over now, Clara,” I whisper before I go. “I hope you’re smiling again… Can you please watch over me? I want to smile again, too.”
When I lay her down gently, I whisper, 'I love you,' because I do. I love Clara like the sister she became to me. “Without you, I wouldn’t have survived.” I send my thanks to the sky above, because she believed in God and she wanted to be in heaven, even if Kassidy told her they didn’t belong. So, whatever the truth may be, I hope she got what she wanted. I hope she’s resting now.
Numb, I stand and back away, giving Bunny her time before the elevator comes to a stop. “Be ready.”
Nodding, Bunny drops to her knees, whispering words I can’t hear into Clara’s ear. When she’s finished, Bunny softly closes Clara’s lids, letting her rest completely. “You’re safe now.” Words that mirror my own. Clara was always kind. I knew that from the beginning, but seeing the agony pouring down Bunny’s face, I knew she wasn’t just family to me. It doesn’t matter that their friendship was cut short.
Bunny loved her too.
Once the doors have parted, we hurry out, but we look back together, one final time.
Bye, Clara.
It won’t be the same out there without you.
Free
CADE
Idon’t think it’s possible to feel pain at this point. My muscles are torn, my bones are shattered, and now my heart is split in pieces. My mind has completely detached from my body. At this moment, I’m simply a running corpse, following Bunny down a single, empty corridor. There’s no fire in my lungs or depletion in my chest. I could keep going, I fear, sprinting into the void. But it ends.
Of course, it fucking does.
“Fuck,” Bunny breathes, glaring helplessly at the blank wall. Her hands join mine on the solid surface, pushing and slapping, hoping for a miracle. In the quiet, her gasping, inflated chest rises and falls in panic. Somewhere in the hidden corners of my mind, I know I should help her, but it takes me a moment to get there.
“There has to be something,” she cries, bottom lip quivering. “There has to be something.” In pure desperation, Bunny launches herself into the walls, bones and skull thumping on impact. The vibrancy of her blood splashing on the wall isenough to jar me out of my stupor. Refusing just to sit back while she hurls herself forward, I join in, adding my blood to the mix.
For a solid minute or two, it’s just Bunny and me throwing ourselves into walls one after another. Even if we do succeed in busting through one of them, it won’t be with all of our skin and joints intact. Over our grunts and moans, Bunny whisper-cries, “This isn’t working.” So, we try together—one more time.
Steadying ourselves, we move as one, attacking the wall in front of us with wild, uncontrollable rage. I can see it on her face and feel it on my own that we didn’t expect much—and then it falls. Right before our eyes, the wall tumbles to the ground, blowing up in a pile of dust and fragments.
Stomach in knots, we stare into a bright and cheery kitchen, trying to digest something so foreign from what we’ve come to know—vibrant walls, wooden details, the smell of lemon—as if it were freshly cleaned.
“What the fuck?” This is the gateway to hell.
Swaying, Bunny, and I steady our breath, but on the next exhale, we book it, flying over the debris and out of a plastic screen door, running for our lives.
“Help!” Bunny shouts. “Help!”
