Her Death, My Revenge

Chapter 2: A Strange Voice

When it ended, I lay there staring at the moon and the shadows formed from the clouds. My pulse became slow. Too slow. My body laid flat on the floor, and it felt like they were disconnected.

“Hey don’t die on us now,” one of them mutters, tapping my face. “That’d be annoying.”

They leave. But I could still hear their voices carried by the wind.

“She tastes great.”

“Yea… I almost want to go back again.” I hear a chuckle follow.

“Hey! We have to be present at the party, okay. There are more girls waiting for us,” Brandon's voice says with a laugh.

The voices fade.

I wait. I don’t know how long. But long enough for the shaking to fade, long enough for the pain to settle into something dull.

I sit up. Put on my clothes. They were discarded in every direction. But I couldn't find my underwear no matter where I looked. “It's okay. You're alive, you'll get through this,” I whisper to myself, like saying it will make it true. Make everything disappear.

Every step hurts, but I walk anyway. I found myself standing close to the edge of a cliff. I bend forward with my hands on my knees, trying to breathe. The water rushes past, loud and uncaring. I remained crouched down as the harsh waves splashed water on my face. I welcomed it to wash away the feel of them from my skin.

Just when I thought it was all over…

“Lily.”

My blood ran cold.

The voice felt distant yet familiar. Although I couldn't see his face. Relief hits me so hard my knees almost give out, I had thought they came back.

“I need help, please.”

He doesn’t answer.

He stands a few feet away. I still can’t see his face, seeing as the clouds had covered the moon, making it too dark.

“Sir,” I say quickly. “ I've been r***d. Three guys. They’re gone. Young. They r***d me.” I could hardly form a complete tangible sentence as hot tears ran down my eyes.

He moved closer.

Something in my chest tightens.

“Wait,” I say. “Stop!”

He doesn’t. He pins me down in the dark. The familiar fear from earlier rushed through my body once again.

My strength was almost depleted. My legs fold as cold ground presses into my skin. I try to crawl back, but his hands shove me down again. Heavier. Stronger.

“No. Please,” I beg. My voice cracks.

He still says nothing.

I struggle weakly, as my hands grasp the fabric of his shirt. My fingers brush against something metallic, hard and cold.

A silver necklace swings into view for half a second when the light catches it. I grab onto it. But he yanks it away.

I thought I had found help but no. He does the same as the three guys. Why me? I wondered. What did I do to deserve this?

The world tipped. All of a sudden I'm falling as everything turns upside down. He had thrown my body down the cliff. As the ocean pulls me under, one thought breaks through everything else.

Why does he know my name? I wondered as the necklace flashed in my memory once again.

Ice cold water slams into my chest the second I hit the surface. My mouth closed on instinct as I had landed head first, swallowing a mouthful of water. I raise my head up for air, choking and coughing from the water I had forcibly swallowed earlier as the current drags me down.

I swung my arms in every direction I could manage just so I could grab onto something. Anything to pull me up. The pain I felt in my chest was so sharp it felt like I was being stabbed by needles.

I break above the surface as air tears into my lungs. I gasp and choke, the sound comes out wrong. The ocean current swung me sideways once more before I could grab onto a rock by the side.

“Help!” I tried to scream, but water filled my mouth again. The current pulls me under once more as I lose my grip on the slippery rock.

My shoes feel heavy as I try to kick against the raging waves. Even my clothes felt heavy on my body. I kick anyway. I force my legs to move. But they wouldn't. Refusing to function the way they should. Whatever strength I had was slipping away.

“Stay up. Stay alive.” I say in my mind.

I get pulled as the water slams me against something hard and sharp. My shoulder hits it first. The object had pierced me, drawing blood. A sharp pain explodes in my ribs and then dulls almost immediately as my body sinks. I spin, trying to stay afloat. The water presses in from every side, clouding my vision as I could not tell which way was up.

I surface again for a second time. Letting out a scream. Hoping someone would hear my cries and come to my rescue. No one does.

The sound barely escapes before water rushes back in. My throat burns. My chest feels too tight, like it might split open from something growing inside of it.

The thought of dying scared me more than I cared to admit.

I fought harder. My arms slice through the water. My fingers… grasp at nothing. The current keeps on pulling, steady and strong, like it has already decided where I belong.

My body sinks under the water as the ocean pulls me. Images flash in my eyes without warning.

The thorny garden.

The necklace.

The cliff.

I force my eyes open underwater. Everything looked dark and distorted. A faint light ripples far above me. It felt unreal. Like I was watching someone else drown as I looked up at the full moon.

I push myself up. My head breaks the surface a third time. I cough violently, my body jerks as I suck in air that barely lasts a heartbeat. I realized that I was still bleeding from the collision earlier.

“I can't die like this,” I say to myself. “I refuse to.” Anger burns in me once again, but the ocean did not seem to care. It answers by pulling me under once again.

My limbs slowed to a stop this time. The panic I felt fades into something heavier. Despair. Sadness. My thoughts stretch thin, slipping in and out of consciousness.

After a while, I hear someone calling my name. Although I couldn't tell if it was real or not.

“Lily...”