Page 8 of Two Sides of Sin

“Somebody help! Call an ambulance, please! Annie!”

I broke into the clearing under the tower. The scene was a chaotic blur. In the middle of it all, June was on the ground, cradling Annie’s limp body. She was inconsolable, choking on her own sobs, her voice a heartbreaking sound of grief.

I snapped out of my shock, the need to be near her overriding the horror. I dropped to my knees beside them.

“Cain! Cain, please help me! Oh my god, Annie!” June’s eyes were wide, glazed with tears and trauma I never wanted her to know.

“What happened, June? Tell me!” I commanded, my hands already moving to Annie’s neck, searching for a pulse that was terrifyingly faint.

One of the boys was nearby, babbling into a payphone. I ignored him, positioning my hands on Annie’s chest to begin compressions. The technicality of CPR felt hollow against the weight of June’s hysterics. All I could think of—the one thought that looped like a taunt, was that I should have stopped them. I should have driven them home after the movie.

“She fell,” June choked out, the words barely escaping her throat. “From the tower… one of our friends… he dared her to climb it… Oh god, Cain... Annie!”

She continued to scream, a sound of pure, soul shattering grief. I looked down at Annie. Her eyes were half open, fixed and lifeless. A dark, sluggish trail of blood leaked from her nose and mouth, staining the grass.

I am not a religious man. I haven’t looked towards the sky for help in a lifetime. But as I pumped my palms against Annie’s ribs, I found myself praying to a God I knew had long ago, abandoned me.

Chapter 6

June

The last twenty-four hours have felt like a nightmare straight from hell, the kind where you wake up screaming only to realise you’re still awake. Every time I close my eyes, I’m back at that tower.

Her scream, it haunts me.

I don’t have words for this emptiness. Its comparable to a hollow, aching weight in my chest that makes every breath feel like I’m inhaling crushed glass. Painful and suffocating.

I sat in the sterile, humming silence of the ICU, watching her. Annie was hooked up to so many tubes and glowing monitors she looked more like a science experiment than my best friend. Behind my eyelids, our childhood was playing on a loop: the time we tried to dye our hair neon pink and ended up a muddy orange, the night we sat on the roof and pierced each other’s ears with a sewing needle and an ice cube, the whispered secrets about escaping this town together…

Now, her entire future was reduced to a flickering green line on a monitor.

I couldn’t stop. A continuous stream of tears tracked down my face, hot and stinging, dripping onto my hands. I can’t imagine a world where she isn’t in it. She’s the only one who truly understands the suffocation of my life, the only one who saw the bars of the cage the Blackburns were building around me.

I should never have let us sneak out. The guilt was overwhelming. If only I hadn’t wanted to see that stupid movie. If only I’d been the “good girl” everyone expected me to be, she’d be home in bed right now, complaining about the history assignment she has due later this week.

Nana hasn’t said a word since she arrived. She just sits in the plastic chair, clutching her silver cross so hard her knuckles turn white. Her lips move in silent, desperate pleas to a God I’m starting to resent. I’m praying too, but mine feel more like threats. If You take her, take me too.

Cain stood up from the corner. He’d been there for hours, a dark, motionless shadow guarding the door like a gargoyle. He and Julian had been taking turns, never leaving me alone for a single second. As Cain moved closer to the bed, the memory of him appearing out of the blackness at the park hit me with a sudden, alarming clarity.

“Cain,” I whispered. My voice sounded faraway, like it belonged to a stranger. “What were you doing last night? At the park?”

He paused, his dark eyes meeting mine. They were unreadable, devoid of the exhaustion that was currently crushing me. He looked perfectly, terrifyingly composed.

“Were you following us?” I pushed, my heart hammering in my chest. “How did you find us so fast?”

Cain reached out. His hand hovered near my face for a heartbeat before he tucked a stray, damp hair behind my ear. His touch was like ice. Goosebumps erupted over my skin immediately.

“Don’t worry about that now, June,” he said. “We will talk later. This isn’t the time or the place. You have more important things to focus on.”

Before I could demand the truth, the door hissed open. Julian walked in, looking unnervingly calm. He carried a bag of food for Nana and a bouquet of fresh roses for the room, as if the scent of flowers could drown out the smell of antiseptic and impending death.

“You’ve been here all day, June,” Julian said, his voice a soothing, velvet contrast to Cain’s heavy energy. He looked at Cain, a silent communication passing between them as they swapped places. “You need to head home. Just for an hour. A shower, a change of clothes, a nap. I’ll bring you right back. I promise.”

Nana looked up, nodding weakly. “Go, June. I’ll be right here. I won’t leave her.”

I hesitated, feeling like if I stepped out of this room, the thread holding Annie to this world would fade away. I walked to the edge of the bed, looking down at her. She looked translucent, a ghost of the girl who laughed too loud and always had messy hair.

I leaned down, my tears blurring her features, and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. Her skin felt cool. Unfamiliar.