Abigail

Ella

Ella woke with a start, sweat dripping down her neck, and grimaced. Her hair was grimy, sticking to her face in wet clumps of sweat.

Damn nightmares. The details were already faded, and all she could remember was Abi's face, purple and cold, a necklace of rope pushing her skin up to puff out her cheeks. In another situation, the appearance would have been funny, but here, it was gruesome and terrifying.

Why do I keep seeing this? Abigail is fine, why would she ever kill herself? This doesn't make any sense.

For a month now, she'd been having these recurring nightmares, all featuring her best friend. She'd watched Abigail hang, slit her wrists, overdose on various types of pills and medicines, sink to the bottom of a pool and stay there, and many other horrifying endings. She didn't tell Abi about the dreams, though - Ella didn't want to scare the timid girl. She certainly couldn't imagine her optimistic friend actually taking her own life - or so she would have thought before the dreams started. Now, she had no choice except to imagine it.

After the dreams started, Ella started pressing Abigail, asking if she was alright mentally. "You know how they like to lecture us about mental health and such. I'm just making sure you know I'm always here for you."

Abi just rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm okay, Ella! I have a really funny dad, a mom who can make me these awesome sandwiches -" She waved today's masterpiece of Nutella and banana in the air - "and two amazing best friends! How would I not be okay?"

On the other side of the table, Sasha grinned, violet hair vibrant under the fluorescent lights. "Hell, yeah!"

But, despite Abigail's usual optimism, the dreams persisted. Ella didn't tell anyone. Instead, she started recording them in a journal she'd found in the back of her closet. Every morning as soon as she got out of bed, she wrote down every detail she could remember.

The details were horrible.

Ella sighed and swung her legs over the side of the bed, letting her toes dance on the cold hardwood floor until they found her slippers. She grabbed the journal off her nightstand and wrote down today's dream, then stood and went into her closet, pulling out her duffel bag. A smile settled on her face. It was Saturday, and she and Abigail were having a sleepover at Ella's house tonight.

The two girls had been having monthly sleepovers for as long as they'd known each other. Nothing ever stopped a sleepover from happening, except sickness or death.

Ella's smile faded again, and she snatched her phone from it's charging dock on her desk, sending a text to Abi. Super excited for the sleepover tonight!

A few anxious minutes passed, then her phone let out a cheerful beep.

Me, too! We're still watching Alien, right?

Duh!!! You need to see Ellen Ripley in action!!! And that awesome xenomorph!!

:D WOOT!! BADASS WOMEN!! AND ALIENS!! Hey, wanna go to our pond after lunch?

Ooh, yeah, that'd be fun! We def need to take advantage of the heat while it's still here, that's for sure.

WOOT! I'll go find my swimsuit XD

Same XD

Ella let out of sigh of relief, putting her phone down and turning to her closet. Where even is my suit? She dug through shelves until she finally found the blue and purple one-piece. She grinned and tossed it on her dresser, then started pulling out clothes for the sleepover. Tonight is going to be awesome!