The Girl

The house has a lot of benefits, one of which is her dad not sleeping next door. Jack and Poison are out, anyway, and Jillie's asleep when Girl clicks off the light and pads back into the bedroom, closing the door behind her. She's dressed in panties, one of Carson's shirts and, instead of getting back into bed, she slides across him instead, straddling his hips.

"Hi," she says, pushing her hair back out of her face.

Carson had texted her asking if she wanted to hang out, but Girl's got plans. She'd already arranged to meet Jack and take him down to the beach for the afternoon. Since she'd been with Carson, it's pretty much her favourite place. She's wearing shorts over her bikini, sunglasses pushed up into her hair, bag with snacks and sunblock swung over her shoulder. She leans against the door while she waits for him and texts her boyfriend back.

I'll see you l8er. Out with another guy xx

It makes sense when she texts him and asks if she can come over. The hallucinations have passed but Poison's got the aftermath of whatever Jack was dealing with to sort through and Girl...she finds that she has somewhere else she doesn't mind being.

She turns up at Carson's door with her backpack slung on her shoulder, her hair pulled back into pigtails. She'd just wanted to get or of the house for a while - that's the only plan that she had. She knocks his door and then leans her forehead against it while she waits for him to answer.

Mostly, she's just exhausted.
She'd thought being scared was behind her.

Girl's never had friends before. She had Cat. She had Dr D and Cola, but they were ancient. She had the memory of her family, but there had never been anyone her own age. Never anyone close. In the city, she's sort of spoiled for that, but it's Ellie that she feels closest too, Ellie that she feels confident calling her friend. Poison's at Jack's for the evening, which means they've got the place to themselves. She's going to dye Ellie's hair. They're going to get pizza. There's alcohol.

So is what it feels like to have friends.
Girl could get used to it.

Everything goes Costa Rica so quickly that the Girl doesn't even see it happen. After Val ghosted Dr D, the Girl just started walking, ignoring the distant sound of guns. She finds herself standing over a BLI goon who's begging her to help him, begging her to give messages to the girl he loves, and she finds heralded wondering what Jet would have done. He was the kindest of them all, wasn't he? What would he have done?

She's still thinking about it when the shot guts her. She hears Cola yell, but it's already too late. The Drac behind her gets ghosted. The ground throws up dry dust when the Girl hits it, hard. And then Cola's there, his mask over his eyes, and he's telling her that it's okay, and Poison used to say that too, didn't her? Poison used to tell her that everything would be okay.

Liars. Both of them are liars.

But she's sorry anyway. She’s so, so sorry.

There's a Drac, gun raised, Cola in his sights.

"Behind you," she croaks, but it's too late. He falls. Everything goes dark.

*

She wakes up to the sound of the birds, sees someone feathery and indistinct crouching over Cola's body. The mask covers her whole face. The Girl remembers the stories about the Phoenix Witch (they used to tell her them at night, last thing before bed, cuddled between their bodies on a mattress, shrouded in sheets). So Girl knows all about the Phoenix Witch: how she carries and she cares and she gets you to where you need to go, in the end.

Which means…

Oh, Cola. Poor Cola. Another one dead to try and save her. All these men that she has loved. She's poisonous. She's a death sentence wrapped in skin.

"Am I dead?"

"Not quite," says the Witch.

And then they walk.

The Witch tells her a story about a mother and a child, about brave and beautiful boys who died for nothing, in the end. About a girl who is also a bomb, in the end.

"I can get revenge for all of my friends. And destroy BLI?"

"Killing is easy. A germ can do it." Which just makes her think of Val Velocity who doesn't believe in anything he can't shoot, who missed the point of Party Poison so colossally. "You're better than that."

And then the Witch is gone and she's alone, standing over her and Cola's bodies.

Wake up, she thinks. You're not done.

Look alive, sunshine... She hears Dr D's voice echoing to her, out of the dark.

And then she opens her eyes, gasping for air and finds herself in a park, leaning back against a mailbox. Her heart almost stops all over again.


Early morning. Mist curling through grass, over trees. She's never seen anything so green in her entire life.