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My head whipped her direction and my teeth gritted. “She didn’t take it! I gave it to her!”
“And look what it got you in return,” she said with a severely frightening smile, gesturing toward Cricket’s grave. “You’re alone. No money. No prospects.”
I shook my head.
“What do you have to live for now?” she asked.
“I-I don’t know.”
“You have nothing to live for now, Spencer! Nothing. You shame me.” She stood from her position and slinked over to my side of the grave. “And after I tried to help you,” she whispered in my ear. “That’s the only future worth having,” she said, kneeling down and peering into the grave. “What a sweet release that would be from your pain,” she thought out loud. She looked up at me. “Don’t you think?”
I didn’t answer, could only contemplate jumping in with Cricket.
“It’d be the best thing for you,” she explained and stood. She turned her head to look at me. “Stop your misery,” she breathed over me.
I nodded and made a move to step in, my foot hung over the edge.
But suddenly something tangible fit inside my hand and I couldn’t quite make out what it was but it prickled warm. I studied my palm but it appeared empty. A fierce wind blew through the tree and the most intoxicating scent swarmed my senses.
Vanilla. Grapefruit.
“Cricket.” I smiled and set my foot back down on solid ground.
“Huh?” Piper asked, her eyes narrowed. She looked down at my feet. “Cricket’s gone,” she desperately plied. “She’s there, remember?”
“No,” I told Piper.
“Go to her,” she coaxed.
“No!” I yelled more emphatically.
“Spencer,” she frantically bid, taking my hand.
“No,” I said, shrinking out of her grasp.
I stepped back from the grave.
“Spencer,” she panicked, “what are you doing?”
“I choose life,” I told her, suddenly seeing her for who she really was.
The side of the grave began to crumble and she slipped, falling to the ground.
“Spencer!” she demanded, as the ground washed away further. “Come with me. This is the way to happiness, to relief.”
Her red nails dug into the mud, grasping for purchase, but they kept slipping.
“No, it’s not,” I looked down on her. “All that awaits me there is death and not a happy one. No. No, Piper. I choose life.”
“Spencer!” she begged feebly, her arms flailing about her, but there was nothing to hold her there.
“Goodbye, demons. I will carry you no further. You will never plague me again,” I told her as she slipped into the black chasm, screaming her shrill cry for the very last time.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I gasped awake, my chest felt sorer than I could imagine, but I was alive.
“Oh thank God,” I heard Bridge say through tears.
