As they walk along the coast, Lottie freezes. “Wait,” she says.
August turns back to regard her. “What is it, Lots?”
Marigold looks in the direction where Lottie is staring. Her heart stops—the flicker is back, beating like a heart deep within the Hazelwood Forest. The air smells different now. She waits for Lottie to comment on it, to validate that it is real and it is wicked, but she does not. The light is simply playing tricks on her again. She comes closer until the candlelight illuminates Lottie’s smirk.
“There is something I have always wanted to do,” she says, “and now feels like the perfect time and the perfect place.”
Marigold and August share a glance before looking back at her.
“Well, go on, then,” August says.
Lottie turns to face the lake. She walks to the very edge where one heavy gust of wind could send her into the water. She takes a deep breath, and she screams without mercy.
Marigold and August leap into each other’s arms like scared children. The birds in the nearby trees flee their branches, screeching and squawking in surprise. Curious creatures that were sleeping in the bushes come out to see what has caused such a sound. After a few seconds tick by, Lottie falls into a fit of laughter and turns back to her friends.
“That wassofreeing!” she says through her giggles.
Honestly, she sounds a bit like she has lost her mind. Marigold and August step back, wary of what Lottie will do next.
“I have never felt soalive,” she says in a singsongy way, turning the last word into a little melody. “You must try this,” shesays to August, taking him by the wrists and bringing him to the coast.
“Think of all the bad in the world, all the horrible things you’ve endured, all the things you know you deserve but do not have. Breathe all of that in, and then scream it out,” she says to him frantically, like she can’t get the words out fast enough.
He starts to laugh, but she grips his shoulder tightly and says, “Do it!”
Startled, he turns back to the coast, lifts his arms, and screams even louder than Lottie did. The sound makes the water ripple and the branches shake.
“How do you feel?” Lottie asks after he is done. Marigold is curious to know, too.
Like Lottie, he bursts into laughter. “I feel weightless!” he says breathlessly.
Lottie comes up to Marigold and takes her hand. “Your turn, Witch. Think of the life you left behind and let it go.”
Falling back, she says, “I am not sure I have a scream like that in me.”
Lottie grabs her by the shoulders. “Of course you do! Do not hold yourself back from this moment.”
Suddenly, this is too much. Too vulnerable. She shies away. “Perhaps I am trying to maintain a shred of my civility.”
“Fuck civility. Fuck whoever invented it,” Lottie says, sliding her hand down Marigold’s arm and taking her wrist, raising both of their arms toward the sky in triumph. “Tonight, we are shameless.” She dips her chin and looks up through her lashes. “Think of your greatest wish that you are still hoping will come true. Think of the redheaded impossible girl who has been admittedly less than kind to you.”
Marigold’s breath hitches. This feels like the closest she’ll get to an apology from Lottie, and she’ll take it. She nods, laughing.
“Breathe it in,” Lottie continues, “and then scream.”
She puts down the lantern in her other hand and follows Lottie to the edge of the water.
Deep breath.She thinks of her protective mother, her gentle father, her chaotic brother and her beautiful sister.
Another breath.
She thinks of George, her broken heart, and her curse.
Another.
Her grandmother. Her grief. All the things that she never got to say.
Another.
