"Friend"

The wind was stalking and the cold was blistering as we grabbed ahold of the dock. Our hands quickly sheathed in ice cracking as we pulled ourselves up. We sat down trying to shake the water and ice off of us we must have swam a good 4 miles before we got here.

The marina was vacant, giving off an eerie thick mist due to the cold and wind. There was only a couple of boats and a small lighthouse with no one in it, this place almost looks abandoned the warehouses were boarded and the dock lamps were extremely dim, some were burnt out.

I turned to crucifere, she had an irritated look on her face and I knew exactly why, she had never ran away from anyone trying to kill her they were usually the ones retreating but because Hecate’s daughters were a part of the trap there was little we could do. Deep down she knew that this was our only option and she knows that it will not happen again.

I lightly wiped her face breaking off shards of ice like pieces of glass off a tile floor. She started to shiver, I pulled her closer to me trying to have her absorb my warmth she held me tightly burying her head in my chest. I cradled her close and she wrapped her legs scissor like with my hips. We were silent for a bit, I did not want to break her concentration trying to combat the cold, though crucifere was tougher than anyone, even me in some cases, she was still human and that meant she was susceptible to the elements, however they did not affect me.

“We should leave” I said to her. She held me tighter.
“Let’s not yet, this is the first time we have been completely alone I want to cherish this moment even though the circumstances are a bit harsh hehe” so typical of her I thought to myself.

We sat a bit longer together, her shivering stopped she almost looked cozy. She looked up at me and asked “What is on your mind?”

“Do you really want to know?” I said

“Hmm must be good, having to ask me that” she giggled

I smiled lightly “well, have you ever been close with anyone? Like someone you confided in?

“You mean like a friend?” she asked

“I guess we can start with that” I murmured

“Yes I had only one, her name was Emily…Emily Naviwrath” she said painfully

I held her hand tightly “What happened with her?

“It is a long story” she whispered

“I think we have time love”

“Well, she is kind of the reason I ended up in Spemnon” she said. “It was November 4, 11 years ago, we were 9 years old…

“Hi Emily, You look so pretty!” I squeaked happily. Today was a very special day it was my best friend Emily Naviwrath’s birthday. Emily was a very beautiful girl. She had straight jet black hair, a pearly white round face with glistening purple eyes. She was also a very shy and timid girl but oddly she was very popular. Everyone loved her she had so many friends even people from other school districts knew who she was.

Though she knew so many people I was her only best friend, we even had a blood oath with each other to strengthen our friendship. Trying to explain herself to her parents out of that wound was not easy. I told her parents it was from the thorn stems trying to pick roses. As for my parents they could have cared less if that wound was on my throat.
Emily was the only one who really understood me and she never judged me but then again she didn’t know ALL of my secrets though deep down I sometimes suspected she did. But because of that I never tried to hurt her as deranged as I was I would hurt people that looked at me wrong but not Emily, not even when she made shy little jokes to me about my bloody red hair saying things like “your hair looks like birds nest made of red string or a lions mane covered in blood” I would just laugh and hug her.

Though one time a teenage boy saw me vulnerable like that once he ended up missing and the whole town went on a huge search to find him. Stupid unlucky boy if only he hadn’t seen me haha well wrong place wrong time. But if they found him, half the town would have been convicted because they all ate a piece of him on “Town Barbeque Burger Day”.

But today I had a very special surprise for Emily, a surprise that would forever bond us and become one and only true friends. I told her I planned her whole birthday party and for her to stay at her aunt’s house after school while I prepared and decorated the house with her parents.

When I went to go get Emily at her Auntie Sheryl’s house she seemed so excited, when I saw her face I just smiled knowing she would love her surprise, “Happy Birthday Emily!” I squealed as I hugged her she held me tightly and held my hands and we jumped together in unison. Emily looked at me shyly and she turned her head towards her aunt’s room then she looked back at me “I need to tell my auntie you’re here and were ready to go”
I chortled a bit “Oh no she snuck out to be part of the hiding surprise, she is probably at your house now”
She seemed a bit dumbstruck “But she told me that she was getting ready for the party not even 5 minutes ago and her car is still parked outside” she murmured

“It’s ok I saw her as she was sneaking out the back” I smiled

Emily just shrugged her shoulders and smiled again. When we got to the sidewalk I took a look back at the house.
“Wait here for just a minute; I think I saw the backdoor unlatched”

I ran gingerly towards the back and opened the kitchen closet where the broom and mop were stored. There was Emily’s aunt gagged with the dirty towel I found outside and tied up. She was panicking and tearing hysterically. The gag was full of saliva and her eyes were bulging out of their sockets and her nose was bleeding slightly from the pressure of her trying relentlessly to scream for help through the gag. I looked down at her and tapped my index finger to my lips“Tsk tsk” I stepped towards her beautiful set of chefs knives and pulled out the biggest and sharpest one.

“How rude of me, I almost forgot about, you are part of the surprise as well” I said cheerfully
She jerked her head back as I swiftly drove the knife through her throat, a small gurgling sound accompanied by tiny bubbles from her final attempt to scream busted through and blood started to leak slowly down to her chest. I giggled and shut the small closet door and ran back to Emily.

We practically skipped all the way back to her house as we got closer she whispered to me “oh I don’t see any decorations outside, they must be all inside huh?” I turned to her and smiled “yes they are all inside” as we got nearer to the house I could tell Emily was getting tense the whole house seemed uncomfortably silent almost dead.
Emily knew how I was and that little bit of belief that I felt she had inside her of how deranged I was seemed to have awakened.

Her little hand started to squeeze mine with an insane amount of force “what did you do…?” she trembled.

“It’s a surprise silly! Open the door and find out” I smiled

She pushed open the door and a hot wave of moist thick putrid air slashed her face. She choked on the air and her eyes widened with terror. The room was enveloped with blood. Limbs, hands and feet were all over the place, torsos were nailed to the walls and above them read signs that said “pin the limb on the torso” over by the presents table was a severed head of the person the present was from on top of the gift.

She started to hyperventilate savagely she shakily grabbed for her inhaler in her jacket and sucked in a huge gulp of air and she looked at me with the most fear I have seen in anyone’s eyes. I froze in confusion and I began to cry this was not the reaction I had wanted and I surely did not want to be the cause of this to my best friend.

“How could you do this!?!?!” she screamed in agony

Never have I heard Emily scream like that, especially with that amount of conviction and hatred. She started to fume turning bright red she clawed at my arms and dug her nails deep into my skin tearing off a huge chunk off of each arm. I writhed a bit but it didn’t hurt as much as the emotional damage I did to her.

“I did this for us, so we can be one and only friends”

“You murdered everyone I know! Even my parents!” she cried hysterically

I slowly backed away from my friend as she walked over to her parents severed heads placed trophy-like in the middle of the beheaded mountain. She looked them in the eyes only to imagine the pain they went through she grabbed them and she sat down, legs crossed and set them in her lap. Blood started to ooze out of their necks and drape slowly over her tiny thighs. She cried silently this time holding them closely to her face, and then she started to shudder wretchedly.

“You…will…pay…for…this…” she crazed

I shivered with bliss. It was a challenge and I smiled with such elatedness my psychotic tendencies were starting to take over. I shyly stepped over and looked down on her and her bodiless parents.

“No one threatens me” I giggled

Emily started to heave heavily, she stood up and met my gaze her eyes were extremely bloodshot she had the look of a predator hungering for prey and her neck was riddled with veins from holding in her primordial screams, it looked like a tower wrapped in vines.

“For your sake, you better kill me now because if you don’t I will find you and I will kill you.”

I smiled insanely, this was too good but then reality struck me I have done something terrible to my one and only friend my conscience was heavier this time and I cried again. My ever changing emotions alone would drive anyone crazy.

“I’m so sorry Emily…” I said genuinely “I thought you would love this”

She screamed again louder than a banshee would and I ran, ran faster than I ever had until my lungs burned and shriveled up in my chest, and I knew that as long as I shall live that agonizing scream of terror, hatred and murder would forever haunt my mind.