Toris eyes are fixed on Dias, she just sits and blinks. Dias room is dark now, he's been sitting here for hours just staring at her. She didn't disappear and Dia likes having her here. Nico left an hour ago. A part of Dia wanted to tell him to stop and stay...but he didn't. He didn't do it because he doesn't want to admit-
"That maybe Nico was right." Tori says.
Dia looks up shocked by the sound of her voice.
"So you talk now?" Dia asks.
Tori shifts on the stop like she's trying to get comfortable...like she's still alive.
"Well technically I could always talk." She says.
Dias eyes tear up. Hearing her talk like this...normally is enough to make his heart hurt. He clears his throat to try and hide it.
"If you call saying the same thing over and over again talking." He says.
Tori rolls her eyes.
"Yeah well you can't blame me for that" she says.
Dia stares at the light switch to get his bearings.
"What are you exactly?."
Tori blue eyes catch the light as he looks out the window.
"I guess I'm a lot of things. You're heartbreak over me dying, your fear of a future without me being in it and your guilt because you're still alive and I'm dead."
"So why didn't you talk to me like this before?" Dia asks.
"You didn't listen to what I said did you? I'm a part of you Dia, so if I couldn't talk to you normally before only you know why."
Listening to Toris words make Dias blood run cold. He starts pulling at the laces on his shorts.
"Well that makes no sense. All I wanted to do since I first saw you is talk to you."
"Okay" Tori shifts closer and commands Dias attention. "Let me make this more clear for you. If I didn't talk to you it's because you didn't want me to talk to you."
"So why do I want you to talk to me now?"
"I don't know Dia. Maybe it's because you're starting to realise that your waisting your life."
"How exactly am I waisting my life?" Dia asks angrily.
"Look around you Dia" Tori says pointing at the empty dark room. "You're sitting in a dark room depressed and alone with an unlocked door you refuse to open. It's the perfect metaphor for your life."
"I refuse to have my life judged by a hallucination of my best friend."
"Your dead best friend remember?"
Dia laughs.
"Believe me Tori I know you're dead."
"Really?. Then why am I here?" Tori asks.
"I don't know. We've already established that."
Tori pinches her temple.
"You're still holding on Dia. You've spent everyday since you left the hospital obbsesing over what happened that night. GET OVER IT!"
"That's really easy for you to say. YOU'RE NOT HERE ANYMORE!"
Tori goes silent likes she awalys does when they fight. The few times that they did it would almost always end badly. The both know what it feels like to be torn apart by words, a fact that makes them very good at doing the same to others.
"You said you wanted to die." Tori says softly.
Dia closes his eyes and pictures his mothers face in that moment. She wasn't sad or afraid that he said it,no. She was angry, like she usually is.
"So what?" Dia says.
"That was real. You said it and it was real, maybe that's why I'm here. The moment you said those words out loud it became clear. This time it wasn't a joke or something you say to try and get attention...this time you said it because it was the truth." Tori looks at Dia but he can't look at her right now. "Maybe I'm here because of that."
"So what you're here to pull me back from the edge, to tell me that my life is worth living or whatever."
"I can't make you value your own life Dia, only you can do that."
"So why are you here?"
"To tell you that even though life sucks dying is not the answer to your problems." Tori says.
"It's the end of them. The end of waking up and going to sleep with dark thoughts and even darker feelings following you around. It's a way to end the constant cycle that my life has always been."
This time Tori doesn't say anything.
"You know even before my skull cracked open I wanted to die. Life wasn't any better then and it sure isn't better now."
Dia meets Tori eyes and he finds them just at teary as his own.
"You know that already." He says.
"I chose to give up Dia. Now I'm gone. I will never laugh again, cry again..." Tori stands up and walks towards the window. "watch a cheesy romantic movie, get that little chill up my spine when I eat ice cream or come home and bitch about some stupid bigot at school with you. I don't have any of that anymore. All I have is this..."
She points at his room again.
"Darkness and artificial light."
"In case you haven't notice Dia I'm not that different. I hardly laugh, all I do is cry, I haven't been able to enjoy a movie since you died and all I do have is the same darkeness. The only different is I'm alive so it hurts more to sit in it."
Tori walks over to the picture Dia threw. She picks it up and smiles down at it tears still forming in her eyes.
"When do you think we lost it?" She asks.
Dia licks his lips.
"Lost what?" He asks.
"Our happiness...our innocent?" Tori says.
"Well I lost it in the 9th grade on the same bedside table that picture was sitting on" Dia jokes.
Tori smiles weakly. For a moment Dia begins to wonder if maybe Tori isn't as gone as he believes.
"I think it was that night." Tori says softly.
Her words spark a collage of images to flash in Dias head. The bloody sidewalk, white and red light flashing and her outstretched hand still warm reching for them. He turns away and tries to focus his breathing. The memory makes every part of Dias body shiver.
"Stop it. We swore never to talk about that" he says.
Tori doesn't even bat an eyelash.
"I remember. Except I was one who forced you to agree not to tell anyone even though you didn't want to. But I'm dead now" Tori turns to Dia all the sorrow gone from her eyes. "So what's the harm of coming clean now?"
Dias chest feels like someone is sitting on it.
"We had a deal Tori, we made a promise." He says.
"What we did was lie, like we always did." Tori says.
She walks up to Dia and kneels in front of him. It's as if her getting closer to him made the visions more intense. Dia remembers how cold his phone screen was when he dialled the number, how alarming the siren was and how incredibly pale Toris face was.
"You have to come clean Dia. Save your soul because it's too late for me to save mine." Tori says.
YOU ARE READING
She's Lying
Mystery / Thriller"Get out of the car" that's the last thing Dia can remember about the day Tori died. They say that she shot him and then herself that it was some kind of pact they had made, that they wanted to die together. But Dia doesn't remember any of that and...
