Sweet Deadly Lies (A Dark Academia Mystery) Watty Winner ✔️

Eight

"Are you alright?" Xander asks again. His heart races beneath my palm.

It takes a moment before I realize he's waiting for an answer. In one sudden movement, I push away from his chest and teeter back on my shins. "I'm fine."

But I don't sound fine. My voice is shaking, the words raspy and weak.

"We haven't met yet. I'm Xander Lin." He rolls to his butt and bends his knees, his arms hooking around the caps. "What the hell were you trying to do?"

"I was—" I stop. What was I trying to do? "I just wanted to see the bottom."

"And get yourself killed?"

"No!" I can feel a scowl take over my face. "I wanted to look over the edge. Is that so wrong?"

"Do I really need to answer that?" His forehead puckers as he studies me. "You came all the way up here just to look over the edge?"

"Maybe. Why are you up here?" I demand.

"I followed you."

Something inside me tenses. "Why would you do that?"

"I saw you snooping around and wanted to make sure you were okay." His eyes darken, like he's too tired to be here. Too tired to deal with the unstable likes of me. Yet, here he is. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

An ill-humored laugh slips past my lips as I turn back to the ocean. "You can say that."

Drowning is said to be one of the more pleasant ways to go. When your lungs fill with water, euphoria takes over, bathing the subconscious in peace and light. But Ava didn't drown. She couldn't have made it to the water without hitting the rocks first. For her, there was no peace or light at the end—only fear and pain.

"My sister died here. I needed to see where it happened," I hear myself say. The words are out of my mouth before I even know they're coming.

"I'm sorry," he says. His voice is thick with an emotion I can't place. "Is that why you were screaming?"

He heard me. Of course, he heard me.

Once again, fury blazes through me like a wildfire, and a smoldering heat flashes across my cheeks.

My eyes flick back to his. "I was screaming because the world is a cruel and inhumane place. And everyone you love, no matter how crucial they are to your existence, eventually lets you down."

He nods. It's slow at first, and then more persistent. "I get it. First, we're brought into this life without our consent. Then we're forced to suffer through its trials and tribulations. And when it's finally done torturing us, we die without anyone asking for our permission."

"Right?" A sting takes over my eyes. I glance up at the sky and blink away tears. "It's all one big fucking shit show."

We don't say anything for a few minutes. We just sit in the grass, an uneasy silence spanning between us, my sniffles lost to the wind.

"You know what helps?" he finally asks.

Having a drink? I want to say. But don't.

"Changing our perception. We can't control what happens, but we can control how we react. It's like when my mom died." Xander shifts his weight and looks away. "My earliest memories are of her tucking me into bed. Every night, she'd sing the same song, so much so, that I knew all the words before I could even talk. After she was gone, the only thing I could focus on was 'why did this happen to me'? It made the grief worse."

I watch as the breeze ruffles the dark waves around his face. For sharing such a personal story, Xander is surprisingly serene. It triggers my curiosity. "So, what did you do?"