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She didn’t mean to kill her.
Not really. But it was the only option Laurie was left with. Sofia was the love of her life, if Laurie could see any other way out, she would’ve never done it, ever. But unfortunately, it was the only way.
She remembers the first time she met Sofia clear as day. It was Halloween and Sofia had scared the living crap out of Laurie, Sofia had become a vampire, Laurie a witch, and Sofia had been lurking in the shadows for a while, following Laurie. Then she had appeared out of nowhere—okay, from the bushes—and yelled, then Laurie had yelled, and then they both laughed. Talk about a meet-cute.
They’d spent almost every day, hanging out after that.
They had their first kiss in front of the legendary haunted house in Rosyville—the town they lived in. They were returning from school and the haunted house is where they parted ways but that day before they could go their separate ways, Sofia had pulled Laurie to her and kissed her. Best first kiss.
After that, they made it official, of course only between themselves because if others ever found they would’ve been killed, hanged in the middle of the most famous Rosyville street.
Anyways, no point pondering over memories now. Sofia is gone. Forever. And she’s never coming back.
Or so Laurie thought.
The next time Laurie sees Sofia, it’s in the bell tower she threw her from.
Laurie has been going to every place Sofia and she had shared important moments, to connect with her somehow. Today’s the chance of the bell tower, it’s the place where the most important moment had been shared.
It’s the place where Laurie had killed Sofia.
Tears spring to her eyes, but no, she won’t cry. Laurie sits down and closes her eyes, tears roll down her cheeks, and this time she lets herself cry. Soon enough, she’s hysterically sobbing, Laurie hasn’t let herself truly feel the loss until now but now that she’s started she can’t stop.
“Why are you crying, darling?” A voice says, a voice that sounds oddly like Sofia. Laurie looks up to see…Sofia? Sofia’s standing above her in the black dress she was wearing a week back when she’d died. Laurie shuts her eyes. It’s not Sofia, it’s in her head, Sofia hasn’t left her mind since the day Laurie killed her, she’s just a figment of her imagination. She opens her eyes but Sofia is still standing there.
“You’re not real,” Laurie says helplessly, “You’re in my head. You have to be. I’m hallucinating, aren’t I?”
“Mhmm, you’re right, I’m not real, Laurie, I’m in your head. You asked for me, so I came.”
“What do you mean I asked for you?”
“You were missing me, obviously. You were crying, weren’t you?” Sofia bends down and wipes off a tear from Laurie’s cheek. “Which, funny, since you’re the one who killed me.” Sofia smiles brightly and fresh tears leave Laurie’s eyes and the next thing she knows, she’s sobbing again.
“I’m so sorry, Sof,” Laurie cries, standing up. “I’m sorry.”
“Mm, no you’re not,” Sofia says, and Laurie pauses.
“What? Of course, I am, I loved you!”
“You wouldn’t have killed me if you did, darling.”
“I didn’t have an option!”
“You could’ve figured it out,” Sofia says softly. “You should’ve figured it out.”
“I couldn’t have,” Laurie whispers, shaking her head. She places a hand on Sofia’s cheek, she doesn’t know how she can touch Sofia, feel Sofia if she’s just in her head, but she doesn’t dare ask, she simply remains blissful that for whatever reason she can and that’s enough. “You know that. There was no other way.”
“I don’t care, honey. Truth is, I’m pissed you killed me,” Sofia says, raising her voice, and she looks pissed all right. “You’re gonna pay.”
And with that, she’s gone.
Laurie is lying in her bed, it’s 3 a.m and she can’t get Sofia out of her mind. Or rather…Sofia’s ghost. It’s nearly impossible for sleep to come around after today’s events.
Laurie feels the wind come in through the blinds. She likes to keep her blinds slightly open to feel the air, it makes her feel good, especially after Sofia’s death, it makes her feel more connected to Sofia somehow.
She rolls over to come face to face with Sofia. Laurie gasps and immediately tries to sit up but is not allowed to by two hands that come to wrap around her throat.
“Sofia—“ Laurie manages to choke out.
Now, she’s not so grateful about the fact that not only can Laurie touch and feel Sofia but also vice versa.
“Sof please—“ Laurie says, her vision going blurry and tears escaping her eyes.
Sofia finally relents. She lets go. “Ta-da,” Sofia says, smiling and wiggling four fingers in goodbye. She disappears.
Laurie sits up in bed, coughing and sobbing. She wishes Sofia would just kill her—she deserves it anyway—instead of this torture.
Laurie gets out of bed and tiptoes out of the house.
She goes to see her best friend, Ella.
Ella is the only one who knows about Sofia and her.
It’s when she’s standing outside Ella’s house is the moment she realizes it’s three. Ella would be sleeping. But she has to talk to Ella, and she needs to talk to her right now.
Laurie opens up Ella’s house door with her hairpin and tiptoes up to her room.
“Hey,” Laurie hisses, shaking Ella awake.
“Laurie, what are you doing here?” Ella mumbles in her pillow, still half asleep.
“Ella, we need to talk,” Laurie says urgently.
Ella must sense the urgency in her voice because she finally opens her eyes and sits up in bed, yawning. She shifts making space for Laurie to fit in, and Laurie settles in beside her. “Talk,” Ella says.
Once Laurie is finished Ella is gaping at her, her eyes wide open. It takes Ella a good 10 seconds to find her voice. “You’re kidding,” she says finally.
“I wish I was.”
“Wow,” Ella sighs. “Okay, we need to do something.”
“What do you mean we need to do something?”
“I mean,” Ella replies, “We need to send Sofia away for good.”
Laurie winces.
Ella sighs. “Look, I know this can’t in any way be easy, but considering the marks on your neck, Sofia isn’t just in your head, and I know you love her, but this is the only way.”
Tears leave Laurie’s eyes. “I can’t lose her again,” she whispers.
“I know, sweetie, I know. I’m so sorry,” Ella cooes. She helps Laurie lie down in bed, pulls the comforter over them, wraps Laurie in a tight hug, and sleep finally comes around.
Laurie goes to the bell tower again the next day, because she’s still too naive, weak, desperate, and very much in love. Just as she’d predicted in her mind, Sofia shows up.
“You called for me,” Sofia gushes.
Laurie wants to roll her eyes and retort don’t be too flattered but all that leaves her mouth is a weak sigh. “Listen, Sof, this is really hard for me to do but I know I need to. You need to leave.”
“Hmm, and why would I do that?”
“Because otherwise, I’ll have to send you away,” Laurie explains flatly.
Sofia blinks, then throws her head back and laughs.
“What’s so funny?” Laurie asks, irritated.
Sofia stops laughing abruptly. “You’re serious,” she says slowly.
“Of course I’m serious,” Laurie huffs.
“You wouldn’t. You don’t have it in you, you’re still too in love with me.”
Laurie swallows. She hates to admit it but Sofia is probably right. She can’t let go of Sofia again. Sofia’s here—even if she’s a ghost and on a vengeful mission to kill Laurie—and Laurie’s too weak to let her go. But she can’t let Sofia know that, not under their current circumstances. So she straightens her shoulders, raises her chin, looks Sofia in the eye, and says, “We’ll see about that.”
Sofia didn’t take her warning and now they’re left with only one option. Kill Sofia again—or her ghost.
Ella’s right and Laurie tells that much to her. “What’s your plan?” Laurie asks. They’re in the town library researching on how to kill ghosts and haven’t found anything useful as of now.
“Well,” Ella inhales. “I don’t know. We’ll have to think of something.”
“Great,” Laurie sighs, her shoulders slumping.
After an hour of searching, Ella speaks up. “Laurie, I think you need to let her go, not physically but rather from your mind. That’s how her ghost came into being first, because you were trying to connect with her, she was in your head until she wasn’t.”
Laurie looks at Ella and tears threaten to spring to her eyes for the millionth time in the span of 3 days. “How do I do that, El?”
Ella softens, her eyes sad for Laurie, and engulfs her in a hug, and Laurie is so grateful for Ella. She doesn’t think she could make it through without her.
“Okay, so, some other plan, I guess.”
Suddenly, a light bulb goes off in Laurie’s head. “Or not! Ella, we should remove her from my mind physically.”
“What?”
“With the sword.” The sword, as in the sword Laurie killed Sofia with. It’s not an ordinary sword, no. Laurie didn’t stab Sofia with it, she said a spell, waved it over Sofia’s standing body and then threw her from the bell tower.
Sofia had been okay with it at that point, had accepted her fate with tears glistening in her eyes, but a fierce smile on her face. She’d put on a brave face for Laurie. Why doesn’t Sofia understand it now? The darkness would’ve overtaken the town, the dark monster which had been unleashed from inside Sofia because of the curse the town wizard put on her for his own fun—that asshole—would’ve killed the whole town. Laurie had tried to find ways to finish off the darkness, had tried those ways too, but none had worked. In the end, she had to kill Sofia. A bitter end.
Her father had slain the wizard after that, thankfully, but that didn’t make it hurt any less, didn’t stop the wound from bleeding.
But also, it was probably unfair of Laurie to expect Sofia to understand the love of her life killing her just because she had once.
“Laurie!” Ella says, snapping her fingers in front of Laurie’s face, breaking Laurie from her reverie.
“Sorry, um, I think I zoned out.”
Ella looks at her with sad, understanding eyes and Laurie wants to scream.
Laurie clears her throat. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Laurie climbs the steps leading to the top of the bell tower, clutching the sword in one hand, her steps as heavy as her heart.
Ella and she had gotten the sword, searched for the spell, and now it was almost midnight, the same time as when Laurie had killed Sofia the first time.
Ella is not with her, Laurie had asked to do this alone, and Ella had respected her wishes.
Laurie reaches the top, and shuts her eyes, focusing on Sofia. When she opens them, Sofia is there.
“Hey Sof,” Laurie says softly, her voice already wet with tears. She has no energy to be taunting or mocking. She’s about to lose Sofia again and she only wants to be her raw self in front of the love of her life.
“Hey,” Sofia replies, and she’s still mocking.
“I warned you, now this is goodbye.”
Sofia opens her mouth to give a taunting retort but stops short when she spots the sword in Laurie’s hand. Sofia takes a step back. “Why are you here?” She asks through gritted teeth, and she sounds almost afraid.
“I’m here to make good on my promise. I’m sorry, Sof, I really didn’t wanna do this, but it’s the only way I’m left with, it’s the only way you’ve left me with.”
Sofia laughs harshly and Laurie flinches. “Oh yeah, just like it was the only way you were left with the first time around you killed me?”
Laurie can only nod helplessly as fresh, burning tears leave her eyes.
Spontaneously, Laurie lurches forward and presses her lips to Sofia’s, pulling Sofia against her. Sofia stiffens then relaxes, kissing Laurie back. And Laurie knows, in that moment, that Sofia still loves her. She didn’t want to make this any harder than it already was but she had to taste Sofia one last time.
Laurie pulls away first. “I’m sorry, I love you, Sofia,” She sobs. She grabs Sofia’s hand, closes her eyes, whispers the spell, and waves the sword between their bodies.
When she opens her eyes, Sofia is not there anymore.
Laurie crumples to the ground and sobs, chanting Sofia’s name and confessing her love in the cool night air.
But Sofia doesn’t show up again.