Renata
She had no idea where she was. She felt weightless, floating in a sea of dreamy blue. Maybe she was sleeping. That would help clear up the fog in her mind. Her eyes blinked over and over, trying to make out anything past the one singular color encompassing her vision.
Where am I?
No one or nothing answered Renata. She was cold. Very cold. Everything was wrong. She wasn't supposed to be there, a place outside of the world. Not heaven. Not earth. Not hell. Nowhere. Everywhere. Where echos ended. Where the end began.
This couldn't be it.
A warm feeling began to pull at Renata, starting at the tips of her toes and fingers, spreading upward, sinking into her with searing hooks. She wanted to scream, to make any kind of noise. She wanted to struggle, to run away. She was unable to do anything. There was nothing worse than the state of helplessness, enduring horrible torture through it all.
As it continued its path through her body, she made out a shape before her. It was a shadow of a man, only the outline. Something about him terrified her worse than the sensation running through her. He became bigger and bigger, taking up the blue, wiping it out, extinguishing it like she had been moments ago.
Who are you? It wasn't quite like a voice that entered her mind, but simply a message she understood with the kind of ease that was pointless to question.
I'm no one. Renata wasn't speaking out loud either, but she was able to communicate all the same.
Then, she was sinking and being elevated simultaneously, pulled apart and being put right back together.
Stop. Stop!
We shall see if you are no one, Ms. Jiménez.
Please, just leave me alone.
It was too late to plead...
BOOM!
Renata came gasping awake. Someone was on top of her, but they jumped just as she did. Once she recognized Diamond's fruity perfume, Renata began to sob, clinging onto her best friend with a fierce grip—not in a quiet, contained manner but without any kind of regard for how she looked or sounded. The cries burst out of her, from relief in being alive and horror at how close she'd come to death, how she touched it and felt the coldness in her still.
"Please," Renata begged, "don't let me go." It appeared her pleading had only just begun. The real question was how much more of it was there left to do?
Diamond was crying too, as incoherent as Renata. "How are you here? You were gone, Ren, I swear to God you were gone. We gotta get you some help." She felt as Diamond lifted her torn-up and blood-soaked shirt. "What the fuck. How—It's scarred over—what the fuck is going on?"
Renata looked around and realized they were in the hallway of her apartment floor, right by the elevator. While she knew she didn't necessarily have the straightest line of thought, the instinct to be within her walls of comfort instead of some numb, unfeeling hospital room was overwhelming. "Get me inside."
"Fuck that, we're going to a hospital." Diamond couldn't have made her objection anymore clear. Renata couldn't imagine what was going through Diamond's mind, but she would not concede.
"Please, just get me inside." She was already trying to sit up, in spite of it causing all kind of discomfort. Her efforts to conceal that pain failed, especially when being watched so closely.
"Are you being serious? You were just dead thirty seconds ago." Diamond put a hand on Renata's shoulder to stop her movement.
"Diamond." Renata would resort to full-on begging. She'd go kicking and screaming if Diamond didn't listen.
In just the sound of her name, everything else was openly implied and received. Diamond shook her head but her shoulders sagged in defeat. "Okay. Okay! Can you even move, baby?"
Renata immediately regretted ever suggesting movement in the first place, but she made her bed and she would woman-up and lie in it. "I think so. I just need some help." If she could beg, she wouldn't feel shame in asking for help either.
"Renata, what the fuck. Okay, wait! Hold on." Renata groaned as Diamond struggled to help her onto her feet. Yeah, not a hundred percent healed at all. "Slow down. Slow down." Once they were standing, they took a step forward. More pain sliced through her body as every shift in her body irritated her freshly-healed scars. She cried out.
Diamond froze in place, resisting against their forward direction. "That's it, we're going—"
"Don't stop. Just keep going," she gritted through her teeth.
"That's what she said."
Renata groaned. "Shut up."
They were both breathing hard as they stumbled back into the apartment. Diamond apologized profusely once she realized how much pain the fall to the floor had caused Renata. Both of them were on their backs, staring up at the ceiling in pure shock.
After a solid minute, Diamond got on her knees and crawled toward the front door. She pushed the door, causing it to slam closed, collapsing once again beside Renata.
Diamond turned toward Renata and pressed two fingers to her neck.
Thump. Thump. Thump. As though it never ceased.
"I'm here," Renata whispered, closing her eyes.
Diamond placed a brief kiss on Renata's cheek, leaving a tingling sensation behind. "You better not ever leave me again, you hear me?"
"Okay."
**********
After both of them sleeping on the floor for only twenty minutes or so, they awakened and realized they should probably get cleaned up, along with the rest of the place. First, the kitchen and living room area needed some work. In between wringing out bloody sponges and wiping up the sticky ice cream, the pair of best friends burst into tears and embraced as the situation continued to dawn on them over and over again.
They removed their clothes together and threw them in the wash. Diamond wasn't willing to let her eyes off Renata for a second, so, they showered together, washing away the death, but still it lingered inside of Renata, taunting her with glee.
Once they were both in robes, they resolved to lay on the couch together—that was until there was a heavy banging on the door. The two women jumped out of their skin.
"Police department, ma'am," A deep voice announced. "We got a call about a disturbance."
They looked at each other wide-eyed, realizing the bloody mess they must have left in the hallway. God only knew who must have heard that whole damn commotion of screaming and crying and crashing.
Diamond gave a look that said she wanted to tell the truth. Renata shook her head. "They'll put us both in straight jackets!" The pounding at the door continued.
Diamond rose up and raced toward the door. She unlocked it after gazing through the peephole and sent a lasting, confused look before opening it. She feigned confusion and did so pretty well. "Is everything okay, Officer...?"
"Officer Martinez, ma'am. This is Officer Brown. Are you Renata Jiménez?"
"No, sir." She pulled the robe tighter around her form. "I'm just visiting. Is something wrong?"
He cleared his throat. "Well, yes. We got a couple calls about some kind of disturbance on this floor. Upon our arrival, we discovered a concerning amount of blood in the hallway. The blood trail stops outside of this apartment, ma'am. Is everyone inside okay?"
Now, Diamond was finally sweating. "What?" Her mask was beginning to slip. "Yes, everyone's fine."
"Miss...?"
"Nguyen. Just call me Diamond."
"Could you perhaps get Ms. Jiménez, Diamond?"
"Uh, why?" Diamond looked around wildly—probably searching for any blood stains they may have missed. Wow, way to look unconcerned.
"I would appreciate it if you cooperated, Diamond. My partner and I would just like to make sure everyone is okay."
"Uhh..."
Renata thought she couldn't avoid joining the party any longer. "What's going on?" After hearing her own attempt at a sleepy voice, she inwardly cringed. Yeah, she too was a shit actress.
Officer Martinez had his hand resting on his gun but didn't take it out of its holster. He was on the shorter, chubbier side, but he had an honest look to him. She didn't care if he looked like Mother Theresa, nothing would have made her admit that she'd just been resurrected by some unseen force. "Are you Ms. Jiménez?"
"Yes, sir. What's going on?"
"We just want to make sure everything is okay—"
Diamond was clearly panicked by then as the words spilled out of her. "Listen, I came by a little while ago with ice cream. Ren wasn't feeling too good. We did other activities," Renata's cheeks flushed with heat at the insinuation, "and then we knocked out. That sleep after you know has you out like the dead."
She glared at Diamond who was smiling nervously. Once the cops looked at Renata for confirmation, she tried to imitate that sheepish look. "It's true. We've been inside this whole time."
They weren't convinced in the slightest. "Well then, you wouldn't mind us looking around?"
Renata knew it would be suspicious to deny them entry, but they just couldn't afford this kind of exposure. It's not like it was uncommon these days to question state authority. "I'm not comfortable with two police officers barging into my home because some weirdos left fake blood by my door. I'm sure my companion and I would not mind giving statements. Besides that, we'd like to finish our night together, alone—if that's alright."
"Okay, then, if you're sure, I'll take your statement. Brown, take Ms. Nguyen's statement."
Renata took a deep breath. Those red eyes flashed through her thoughts. An otherworldly gaze. Bastard.