Until Death Do Us Part? (Completed)

Chapter Twenty Four: Friends

Suri left awhile later, not offering any explanation for her abrupt departure.

Alex, Dy and I continued staring at the place she'd been standing on just moments ago in silence, and I couldn't help but wonder if they were feeling as much at a loss of words as I was.

Finally, after a few more moments of heavy silence, I turned around to look at Alex. "I'll see you in awhile." To my relief, my voice sounded reasonably calm, even though on the inside, I felt anything but.

Alex nodded, his expressions unreadable. "Alright."

I reached down to ruffle Dy's hair, before starting to walk in the direction of the bridge, already lost in thought. I don't really remember making my way up it, but the next thing I knew, I was standing near the railing, arms folded across my chest, staring down at my reflection, which no one but me could see.

The girl peering down back at me was a stranger. I'd woken up from the accident feeling scared and lonely and angry, and aside from my hair going back the way it used to be before, there really hadn't been any changes in me. But now, there was something almost...different about my face. Something in the once bright green eyes was a little duller. More serious. The angles of my face a little less sharp.

I knew that it was impossible. I knew that I could not change physically, the party at Ghost Street had proven it. I was stuck the way I'd died in. Frozen in time, like the hundreds of souls trapped in the in-between. Unable to move forward. Heck, I was even wearing the same clothes. At least I was lucky enough to not die in my pajamas like the guy at Beth's party. At least I'd been sensible enough to put on a jeans and T-shirt while going out to buy our anniversary present.

And yet...yet I knew something about me had changed. Something about the lines on my face and the expression on my face. I'd died as a stubborn twenty two year old girl, and woken up as one too. But somewhere along the line, somewhere in the four days that I'd stayed in the in-between and learned everything and nothing at once, I'd changed. A change which the damned thing we called time brought.

I looked...mature.

Older.

I stood on the bridge for a long time, feeling a strange sort of calm settle over me. I welcomed it. Embraced it. It was better than letting myself think of what Suri had told me, at least. Better than letting my mind wander and imagine about Tris and what he had probably done to me. What falling in love with and trusting him had probably cost me.

I thought of Suri's last words to me: I don't want you to get hurt.

For some strange reason, I wanted to laugh. Because, I realized this now, she was wrong. She was wrong when she thought that not telling me about Tris's strange behaviour the past few days would keep me from getting hurt. Because in the end, I would end up getting hurt. It didn't matter if Tris had been the one to kill me or not. It didn't matter if he'd been planning on stealing my life since the first day he told me he loved me or not. None of these things mattered now.

What mattered was that I'd lost my life. That someone had stolen it from me. Someone whom I knew and someone who knew me. What mattered was that someone had snatched my life from me, without worrying about the consequences on my part. That someone who I probably cared about had used the same love as a weapon against me. A weapon they'd used to kill me.