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Drift gazed down the cliffside, waiting to finally be alone. Any second, Aj would walk off into the bushes to lick her wounds. Drift would hike back to her dorm, having said what she needed to say. That’s what’s supposed to happen.
Her eyes remained locked on the ground. The rocks aren’t that sharp. Aj had fallen further distances before, and gotten up just fine. The other had even discreetly grabbed an ender pearl. She was just taking her sweet time. It was another way to jab at Drift, since she had refused to let the girl speak on the mountain.
Why hadn’t she gotten up?
Drift swallowed, shuffling forward slowly. “It’s fine,” she whispered. She held onto the cliffside, keeping three points of contact as she worked her way down. “She’s just messing with me, like always.”
With each step, Drift expected to reach the bottom. With each step, she realized just how tall the mountain was.
Drift pushed Aj off a cliff.
The grass brushed against her shins as she finally reached the ground. The dirt crunched as she marched towards the dented foliage. If anyone asked, she would say that her stride was steady and determined, and that her hands didn’t shake as she brought out a torch.
She wouldn’t say how her legs fell out from under her, nor would she explain the way her heart fell into her stomach.
She would ignore any questions about how Aj’s body looked, if someone had dared to ask.
Drift had always thought of bones as white, almost polished. It was the skull that hunters held up in triumph, shiny and clean and whole. It wasn’t jagged, or maroon, or sticking up from crooked legs.
Aj asked Drift to push her off a cliff.
The arms appeared better, if only for one of them being hidden under her body. Except, Aj’s chest faced upwards. Her shoulder was pulled back and twisted beneath her in a way that would be agony if she was awake.
If she was alive.
The worst part wasn’t the broken bones, or the blood, or even the way her neck twisted.
Her heart pounded, bashing against her rib cage as she stared at the other girl’s face. Aj’s hair was matted and stuck to her forehead, like she’d walked through a cobweb. Her eyes were lidded, dull and staring into nothing. Her mouth hung open, red dripping from the corners of her lips. The lips that grinned and laughed; the lips that kissed and were kissed. That Drift kissed.
The lips that were pulled upwards, smiling.
Aj asked Drift to push her off a cliff.
Drift scrambled back, her throat burning with bile. “This isn’t real,” she croaked. “It can’t be.”
She couldn’t have killed Aj. She wouldn’t walk back to the academy, followed by bloody footsteps. She wouldn’t open the door with scraped knuckles from punching the still ground. She wouldn’t stare into Aj’s eyes, knowing the other only had one more chance.
She wouldn’t have to realize that Aj didn’t want any chances.