Tormented-Broken-Dead

"Are you still tormented?"

"Yes, I am still terribly tormented."

Macie dropped her head and stared at her fingers. She always liked to look at her hands; she imagined them to be intertwined with his fingers. A knotted mass of the most beautiful thing on earth. She was silly. The last time she saw his picture, she focused on his hands. She looked at his hands and his lips because she could not see his eyes.

Her other was quiet. Macie looked up to see the dead girl watching her. Macie wanted to say something but her words were tired. They had been coming out through her fingers in such a torrent that her brain had started to hurt.

Her other opened her lips and Macie could see the darkness. "Macie, you must put this thing to rest. You know it is for the best."

"I cannot betray him like this." Macie's face was a mess of pain. Her forehead scrunched up in defense. If her anger could make the dead girl go away then she could keep her torment. She could put it in the bone box, within the meaty drum and the dead girl could never find it. Macie could hide it.

"Macie, listen to me." the dead girl got close, close enough that Macie could smell the cemetary on her friend's skin. She was pale and her red hair contrasted with her dead flesh. Macie focused on the dead girl's freckles like before. She liked the freckles.

" Listen to me!" The dead girl touched Macie on the arm making her jump. "You have to let it go."

Macie looked into the dead girl's green eyes and grew angry. "No!"

"Macie, you are still broken."

"I know, Anna. But we are the broken girls."

Anna grew sad and then she spoke very firmly. "I am not broken, Macie. I am dead."