Alternative

| Chapter Twenty Four

Sunlight beams through white clouds on a clear day. I stand and stare at the birds flying through the sky. They're chirping at each other, playing on a wonderful summer day.

It makes me smile.

"Our teenage years will be over before we know it," a voice says next to me. I don't look at who speaks, even though they continue. "Do you think life gets better after this?"

"Define better?" I laugh at my question as I watch two other birds join the playful soaring. "I think adulting needs to come with a contract or something."

"Oh?" It's a girl who's talking to me, but the voice isn't familiar. For all I know, she's a stranger looking for conversation. "Well, I think I have to agree with that, you know. Adulting looks hard."

I laugh again. "Yeah. And scary."

Lowering my head, I plan to give my attention to the girl who seems to want mine. But the second my gaze pulls away from the sky, I see an ice cream truck with a broken sign. A girl stands next to the window. I can tell the man at the window is apologizing to her.

Did she want what's not available? That truck never works right.

"Why do you think it's scary?" the girl next to me asks.

Again, I don't look at her. I'm focused on the girl by the truck. She's beautiful, timid, with her hand to her lips as she tries to decide what to order. I want to get closer and say hi.

But if I walk away from this other person, will I be rude? I haven't even looked at her yet.

"No, not scary." I check my jeans, my shoes, and my shirt. I look presentable, I can do this. "Just unexpected."

With a deep breath, I plan to step forward. No need to say goodbye to the person I don't know; I didn't even tell them hello. The girl I want to talk to is just feet in front of me, and all I have to do is walk over and introduce myself.

But a hand reaches out to grab me. I look down at slender fingers with nails painted bright pink. Like bubblegum. My gaze follows the hand until I look at a teenage girl just around my age. Her eyes brighten as I turn. Her mouth opens as she gives me the biggest smile.

I slip back, pull my arm out of her grip, and say, "Sorry," I point back to the truck, "gotta go."

Her smile fades. Her eyes darken. And her pink nails scratch at the sides of her jeans. "Gotta go..." I hear her whisper as she walks away. "Always gotta go..."

|||

"Rayna, what are you most scared of?"

I sit on the couch as men in uniform cover Elizabeth's body. Blood puddles on the floor under her, and despite the dark blanket they place on top of her, I still see it seep through. Red over wooden floors.

"That's a dumb question."

"We needed an ambulance at the scene, sir. Officer shots fired. The victim was armed and dangerous."

The officer with the weapon, the one who fired the gun, stands beside my front door. His hand is on his head as he stares at the dead body. Another officer, a woman, rubs his shoulder.

It was another officer who made the call back to the station. As he speaks into his phone, he looks at me, shakes his head. "We're going to wrap up what we can here before the rest of the team arrives."

For ten minutes, the officers talk to each other, review the scene. Like the man at the door, I can not pull my eyes away from her body. I feel as if, though dead and covered, she's looking at me from underneath that blanket. A part of me feels as if she will pull it away and attack me one more time.