Page 87 of Our Vicious Descent
Layla’s eyes widened, and she tried to sit up, but her body tensed with pain again, keeping her in Elise’s embrace. She hissed through crimson-coated teeth. “You have to go now.”
“No,” Elise ground out. Alarms started around them, but she kept her focus on Layla, sharp and unyielding. “We go together.”
Layla shook her head. “I will only slow you down…” Realization crossed her face. “Elise. Elise,no—”
Elise nodded. Tears filled her eyes, and before she could process the emotion threatening to choke her, words were spilling out. “We share blood now, Layla. I made you a promise. I am not leaving you. So, either you get up and walk out of here with me and we go home and continue our lives together. Or we go. Together.”
Though tears streaked Layla’s face now, she still managed a watery smile and a gentle nod. “Okay.” Her hand tightened on Elise’s as the ground beneath them shook. “When we get home, we’re going everywhere. I’ve always wanted to go to France. I want you to take me to every stage you imagined yourself playing the piano on. And I want to see where you used to spend your time when we were apart.”
Elise no longer fought her tears. They flowed freely down her cheeks, splashing onto Layla’s blood and now the debris from the shaking walls around them. “That’s a lot of places, Layla.”
“I want to see everything with you, Elise,” Layla whispered. Blood covered her teeth. She coughed, and more of it spilled from her mouth. Her grip grew weak around Elise’s hand, but she kept her eyes on her, even as the light dimmed from the once-radiant brown.
Elise’s breath hitched. She leaned forward to cup Layla’s cheek as her head lolled backward. Her vision blurred with tears, but she blinked past them to find Layla’s eyes on her again. “Please stay, Layla. I can’t do this without you. I don’t want to live without you.”
Layla’s voice came out as a whisper against her cheek. “I’ll find you again. I wish we’d had more time. In another lifetime, I would show you my heart sooner. There’s so much of you in my heart, Elise…” Her hand fell from Elise’s.
Elise pressed her forehead to Layla’s as her final breath passed between them.
Even with Layla’s body in her arms now, Elise could think only of every moment that had brought them here together. From two smiling little girls to death and death’s angel. Life had taken them through tragedy after tragedy, never leaving Elise with any clear explanation for any part of it. There had only ever been one thing she was sure of.
So, as the explosions began around her, Elise pulled Layla closer to her heart and let the fire consume them both.
Epilogue
Dear Josephine,
My dove, I am endlessly proud of who you have grown into. Before anything else, I want you to know that I love you and always will. Nothing will change that, even if I am not around.
Love, I have found, does not just vanish. Even if it is overtaken by hate, love still exists. And even in death, when you lose someone, the love you have for them does not leave you.
I’m just ashes in your life now, but I hope to be remembered as something that brings you light and joy. Because it’s what you deserve. Please be happy. Things have changed irrevocably, but you will learn to navigate the changes. It will take time, but I promise you, things will get better.
Still, please let yourself feel everything. Allow the rage and the sadness and the pain. And when you start to see the light again, let yourself feel that too.
Here you can find my last words to you, and I write only the most important things for you to remember. Even when I am not with you, I am with you.
Always.
Elise
***
Josi lowered the letter and glared at the two headstones before her. She felt stupid, leaving flowers on top of empty graves every year, but she did it anyway, knowing the gesture meant more to Sterling than it would have meant to any lingering ghosts.
“It never makes me feel any better,” Josi mumbled as she tucked the letter into her coat pocket. It had grown worn over the past few years, with some of the ink smudged from her tears and the wrinkles starting to give way to full rips.
Sterling gave her a gentle look, his hands in his pockets. He had left a few roses scattered across Layla’s grave while a neat bouquet rested atop Elise’s. Josi knew why he did it; the roses spread out looked like a dancer’s paradise after a successful performance. Layla’s dancing was the only thing he truly knew about her. It was admittedly a creatively kind gesture, but Josi found that most things nolonger impressed her these days. Not much made her feel anymore.
“You have read it probably upward of a thousand times now,” Sterling said gently.
There was no real point Josi could argue with him there, but she tried anyway. “I don’t think words postmortem mean as much as the people who write them think they will,” she muttered. “And every time I read what she left me, I find new ways to believe I made a mistake in helping blow up the island laboratory.”
“Will you be a cynic for the rest of your life? Eighty years, a hundred years, a thousand years—it all sounds so exhausting,” Sterling said. “She told you to do it because you didn’t know she would be there and thus wouldn’t hesitate. You saved Harlem that night. That’s it.”
Josi narrowed her eyes at him. It wasn’t true. Josi hadkilledher sister that night. It would never matter that Elise hadtold herto do it. She opened her mouth to respond, but a warm weight settled over her feet. Josi looked down, her heart lifting when she saw Hendricks blinking up at her.
Sterling continued as she picked the cat up, his voice low and intentional. “It’s a tale for the ages. One might say it’s beautiful. A human dying for a reaper. A reaper dying for a human. It’s such a story that no one could have even imagined mere months prior to it.”
