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As Pearl stomps angrily over the hill, Gem crosses her arms, and yells: “Serves you right!”
She stops. “Excuse me? You die to your snail and see how you like it!”
“Oh, I dunno, you two v.s. one me – after everything – then you try to act all buddy buddy like nothing’s changed, then you start spreading rumors about us stealing cows? Clearly you knocked a screw loose.”
Pearl tilts her head – it’s clear she heard, but it still isn’t sinking in.
“By the way, we’re enemies now!” Gem adds. As if it isn’t obvious.
They have to be. It’s all they can be now. Gem tells herself this every time she sees her face and feels her heartstrings tug.
She hears the explosion, but doesn’t realize what’s happened until she sees Pearl hovering around the car, her eyes dark and her smile wide. Pearl chases her relentlessly – tells her she wants to take a bite out of her. Pearl wants to kill her, and a little part of Gem wants to let her.
Later, after Scott’s sacrifice, when she’s regained an ounce of herself, Gem sees her in the distance from atop the car. The red vines creep up her leg, threatening to take hold again. She catches Gem’s eyes, pretending she wasn’t looking. Gem knows the truth. She wonders if Pearl resents that she wasn't the one to get her in the end.
She thinks about calling out to her; thinks better of it.
After everything, Gem still likes seeing her.
It’s poetic, actually, the way they’re ripped apart just as Gem’s starting to accept that. She watches Pearl from the void, out on the island of azaleas, and wishes she was there.
Next time, she won’t hesitate to take her hand and burn it all down together.