“Nat, is that my phone or your phone?” I asked.  

“I think it’s your phone.” I looked at who it was and saw that it was the other best friend to the trio, Chloe. Chloe was Nat and my best friend. We had invited her over for the night, but she had plans with her boyfriend, Triston.

“Wonder why Chloe is calling me. Isn’t she on a date with Triston?”

“I thought so.” I shrugged my shoulders and picked up the phone.

“Hello?” I instantly heard sobs and my eyes widened. “Chloe what is it?” Chloe was one of those friends that always worried me. She had severe depression when she was in grade ten and sometimes, even though it was a year later, I wondered if she still had it.

“Triston...he broke up with me, Candace.” I heard more sobbing.

“Chloe, are you okay? Nat and I will be right over, okay? Where are you right now? Home?” I needed to get to Chloe, because I could tell something was wrong. She needed someone there to help her.

“Candace, don’t come. I can’t do this anymore. Triston….” She took a shaky breath. “Triston and I got in a huge fight. He got really angry and he…he told me to just go kill myself like I was going to last year. He told me I should just die.”

“Chloe, if he said that he wasn’t a good boyfriend anyways.” I motioned for Nat to follow me and I grabbed the keys and handed them to Nat. She understood and we ran to the car. “Just tell me where you are so I can come bring you home, okay?”

“Candace, I’m not coming home. I just wanted to call to say goodbye. I can’t do this anymore! I’m not going to be told to die one more time. I’m going to do what all those people want me to.” My eyes filled with tears.

“Chloe, no just wait. Can you explain the situation to me? Can Nat and I just come and pick you up?”

“Candace, I can’t live one more day. I just wanted to call to thank you and Nat for being such amazing best friends. I needed you all those years, and you were there for me. You were there in the darkest of times, and stood by my side when all those people just told me to die.” I remembered all the stories Chloe had told Nat and I, the texts she showed us. I never understood how people could be so mean to someone.

“Chloe, you’ve been through dark times, but you got through them. We’re going to get through this to. Just please Chloe tell me where you are.” My voice broke. I just couldn’t lose Chloe. She was my other sister to me, and we had been through too much for one bad night to end her.

“I know, Candace, I just can’t go through another bad time. I can’t do it again. You don’t understand the pain. I trusted Triston with my life, but he betrayed me. You and Nat are all I have left. Thank you for being such great friend’s Candace. You guys have made my life so great and made me feel like I had a purpose. You two are sisters to me, and I will always remember you guys. Until we meet again, Candace.” She hung up the phone and I held back a sob.

“Nat, where were Chloe and Triston going out for supper?”

“I think they went to L’Abattoir.” Nat kept driving and turned so we could get to L’Abattoir, which was a really fancy restaurant. “Candace, what’s happening to Chloe?”

“Nat, she told me to say goodbye to you and she wanted to thank you for being such an amazing friend and sister. Nat, she’s going to kill herself.” I quickly dialed 911 and told them the situation. They said they would look for her and they would track her phone. I shook my head in disbelief. Nat sped the car up and we soon arrive at L’Abattoir. Nat and I jumped out of the car and looked for somewhere that you could hide. I had no idea how Chloe was planning to kill herself, but I couldn’t let it happen.

“Candace, over there.” Nat pointed to the side of the restaurant where a mini street ran down and I saw a collection of dumpsters that were arranged in such a way that someone could easily hide behind them. I ran over to the dumpsters, hot on Nat’s heels. We both jumped up onto the dumpster and when I looked down I gasped. There lay Chloe, in her new dress that she had bought, laying in a pool of blood with a knife beside her.

I jumped down, being careful to miss Chloe and I put her head in my lap. I felt for a pulse and felt a faint one. I grabbed my phone and quickly called 911. They sent an ambulance to our area and gave me instructions. I found where she had cut herself. She had cut both of her wrists very deep.

“Are the wounds still bleeding?” The operator asked.

“Yes, really badly.”

“Do you have some clean cloth or part of a shirt that you could put on the cuts to stop the bleeding? Right now to stop the bleeding you need to put pressure on the wound. If your hands are clean, put them on the wrists and hold them firm.”

I put down my phone and grabbed my shirt. I ripped off the bottom of it and wrapped it around Chloe’s left wrist which was bleeding badly. I pulled it as tight as I could and held it. I nodded to Nat and she did the same with the other wrist, using her shirt. “Okay, we’ve put cloth over both cuts and the cloth is really tight.” I looked into Chloe’s eyes and I could see the pain.

“Candace, how could you?” She sounded so betrayed and hurt, but I couldn’t’ let her die.

“Okay, Candace are you still there?” The 911 operator asked. “You’re doing great. The ambulance should be there soon.”

“Yeah I’m still here.” I heard sirens in the distance, but I had to focus on Chloe.

“Now what you’re going to do is keep her still, alright? We don’t want her to move so just keep her still.” I looked at Chloe, but she didn’t look like she was in any shape to move.

“Okay, she’s not moving.”

“Has she lost a lot of blood?”

“Yes, there is a lot of blood here.”

“Okay, just be prepared for her to go into shock. After losing so much blood, she may go into shock. Just keep her still. The ambulance should be there any minute now.”

“Please, please my friend can’t die.” I pleaded and I wasn’t really sure who I was pleading to.

“We’re doing our best, honey.” I suddenly heard a screech of tires and I heard footsteps. Help was here. Someone was there to save Chloe. I heard the dumpsters scratching the pavement and I saw them begin to move.

Chloe’s pleading eyes looked up at me. “Candace, please don’t make me do this.”

“You don’t know this right now, but Nat and I need you. We’re going to get through this and everything’s going to be okay.” The dumpsters suddenly opened and in came paramedics with a stretcher.

“Ladies, if you could back away now that would be great. We can handle it from here. You’ve done great.”

Nat and I backed away and we saw Chloe get put onto a stretcher, and she was soon unconscious. “We can come with right?” I asked a paramedic.

“Can you follow us?” I nodded and ran to the car. I jumped in the driver’s seat and Nat rode shotgun.

“Candace, everything’s going to be okay.” I wanted to believe it but I couldn’t. I was definitely going into shock. It hadn’t affected me while I was working with Chloe, but now all I could see was her body lying in her blood. Her pleading eyes, begging me to let her die.

“Nat, can you drive?” I asked as tears filled my eyes. I normally wasn’t one to cry, but I couldn’t take what I had seen anymore. The hopelessness in Chloe’s eyes, it just showed how much she wanted to die.

“Yeah.” We switched seats and Nat looked at me. “Candace, it really is going to be okay.”

I gave Nat a half smile and I couldn’t believe how strong she was being.

The ambulance soon took off with Nat right behind. The drive seemed to last hours on end, but we finally arrived at the hospital and we saw the unconscious Chloe getting wheeled into the hospital.

Nat and I sat in the waiting room for hours, waiting for news on Chloe. Finally the doctor came to visit us.

“Girls if you would come with me. We have some things to discuss.” We walked after him like zombies and soon reached a private room. “Please, sit down.” That was not a good sign.

“I have never seen such serious cuts. She cut herself very badly and that’s very dangerous. The amount of blood she lost is unreal. We’re trying to get her stabilized, but it’s not working. Chloe doesn’t want to live, and her body isn’t accepting any blood we’ve put into her. If you would like, you may go in and see her to say goodbye.”

My eyes filled up with tears again. After all I’d done, it hadn’t been enough. Chloe was going to die. “That’s it? You’re not even going to try? She’s dying and there’s nothing you can do?”

“Candace, you have to understand that we’re doing everything we can. The chances just aren’t looking good.” I shook my head in disgust. “We really are trying. It really is a miracle that she’s lasted as long as she had. I just want you to be able to say good bye.” I didn’t have any words for that doctor, but we followed him to Chloe’s room anyways. “She is conscious so we’ll let you be alone for a bit.”

Nat and I walked in the room and Chloe’s head turned to us. I expected to see anger in her eyes, but I only saw sadness. “I’m sorry, but we couldn’t let you die.” I said sadly.

“I’m sorry that you had to see that. I didn’t want you to find me. I just wanted to thank you guys.” Chloe said.

“Chloe, I think you should know that you’re an amazing friend. I don’t know why Triston broke up with you, but he didn’t deserve you. We can get through this.” Chloe grabbed our hands.

“I don’t know what I’d do if you guys weren’t here.”

“Candace, I never have seen anyone stare so rudely at another person for two minutes!” Chad said, and I snapped out of my flashback. I chose not to respond as I remembered how Chloe had died. She went through rehab and had seemed to be alright, but one morning we got a call from her parents. Chloe had killed herself, and we had found letters in our mailbox saying goodbye.

“Now you have nothing to say?” Chad asked. He probably started to feel like he was in control.

Before I could answer Nat jumped in. “Candace, Chad we’re here and parked. Can you two just stop arguing for five minutes?”

After remembering Chloe’s death, I wanted to be nice to Nat. I wanted to honour our friendship. “Okay.” We all stepped out of the car and grabbed our bags. I made sure I didn’t look at Chad. I began to walk towards the airport entrance, but no one followed me. They were all gazing off into the distance, to the side of the airport. I walked back over to them and snapped my fingers in front of Nat’s face. She didn’t say or do anything.

“Nat, I have ice cream.” I figured that would do the trick, and it did. Nat snapped out of her trance and looked at me.

“We really have to go over there.” Nat pointed to the area that she had been staring at.

I shook my head. “Natalie Genstine, there’s obviously something wrong about that side of the building, because all of you want to go there and that can’t be a good thing.” I grabbed Nat’s arm so I could keep track of her and then I looked over at Brent and Chad. I was ready to send Chad packing, but he was gone.

“Brent, you were supposed to be watching Chad!” I exclaimed. Brent just kept staring, and didn’t seem to care that I had blamed something on him. I walked over to him, dragging Nat with me and punched him as hard as I could in the sensitive part of the arm.

“Ow!” He shook his arm, and I knew he was totally out of the trance, unlike Nat who stared at the side of the airport again. “Brent, where did Chad go?” Brent looked around and pointed.

“He’s over there, going to the side of the building.” I took a deep breath and couldn’t believe I was going over to save the person who had told me to die, but I didn’t want him to die. So I ran after him with Nat in tow and Brent right on my heels.

“Nat!” I yelled as we ran. I couldn’t catch up to Chad if I was dragging Nat. I decided to do the only thing I could and I slapped her across the face. She shook her head, and looked like she had just been woken up by a bucket of cold water.

“Why’d you do that?” She demanded.

“We need to go save Chad from whatever is hiding around the corner of the building!” I didn’t know if we’d be able to get around the building, because there were probably planes around the corner, but I figured Chad would stop at nothing to get there so we couldn’t either.

“Oh great.”

“Brent, why weren’t you watching him?” I asked. I know I hadn’t actually told Brent to watch him, but he should’ve assumed that that was his duty.

“Because I’m not his babysitter and Chad is a big boy now, Candace.”

“You really are impossible!” I grunted.

“I learn from the best.” I shook my head and began to run faster after Chad. He slowed down to a walk so I was gaining on him. I finally got to the side of the building and I looked around for Chad. I saw him standing, looking at something that seemed to intrigue him. The baby carriage was sitting under a gate, but there was definitely something strange about the baby stroller.  

I decided to look at the stroller and instantly wished I hadn’t. I wanted to walk over to it. I wanted to see what was inside of it. If I went over to it, whatever was inside could make all my problems disappear. I wouldn’t need to go on the mission and risk my life. The world could fix itself, and I wasn’t needed on the mission. My mission was done. I was not needed. The baby in the stroller needed me and I went to help it.

I slowly started to walk over to the stroller, but suddenly was hit by something. I whipped around and realized I had just been hit by a tree branch on the head. I looked up and saw Nat. I forgot all about the baby stroller and stomped over to her.

“Why in the world did you throw a branch at my head?” Nat ignored me and walked towards me. She got in a throwing position and I saw a stone in her hand. I dropped down to the ground, because I thought I was going to get hit by a stone, but I saw she was aiming for Chad. I saw Brent break into a run towards Chad and Nat released the stone, which is when everything went crazy.

I grabbed my wand, because I knew I would need it, Brent jumped to tackle Chad, Nat’s stone barely missed Chad, and Chad touched the baby stroller. At first nothing happened, but suddenly I heard a baby crying. I saw something poke its head out of the stroller. It turned to Chad and stopped crying for a few seconds, but then suddenly a very scary, very unhuman like roar came from the baby and I saw what the baby really was.

I had been right about whatever being around the corner bad, because the monster that was before me was the worst monster I had ever seen. It scared me even more than the giant chicken, and chickens had been my biggest fears only five minutes before.

The monster had a black cloak on and I could only see its face, or more lack of a face. It seemed to have eyes that floated, and they were red with thin black slits as pupils. The eyes were fairly large, and they seemed to follow me wherever I went. I could see white slits, appearing to be floating, which was the monster’s nose. Its mouth was blood red, as if it had just feasted on its latest victim. Where the rest of its face should’ve been, was a churning vortex. Its face matched the colour of its cloak, so it appeared to be invisible, and the only thing you could see was something turning, as if it were a camouflage whirl pool. I could see its hands which looked like a normal human’s hands, a very tan humans hands. The only difference was, was that it had very long fingernails that had blood underneath them. The only normal part of the monster was beneath a part of the ripped cloak. The front half of the cloak from the knees down was ripped and was gone. Its legs looked like normal human legs, almost like my legs, but a bit larger. The only difference was its feet, which were hard to see. It looked like it was floating at first, but then I looked closer and realized that its feet acted like a chameleon. It blended in with its surroundings.

I stood staring at the monster, unsure if I should think it was a human playing a prank that was really good at making costumes, or a monster. “HELP!” I heard Chad scream, and then I believed it was a monster. The monster had clawed Chad and I could see blood running down his arm. The monster was hovering over him, and I knew no human would do that.

“Ris!” Zap, I quickly said. The monster was zapped with electricity and I could see sparks. It was a powerful enough spell to kill a normal monster, but that was no normal monster. The monster seemed to grow from my spell. I couldn’t quite figure out if the monster had grown or if it was my imagination.

“Candace….” Chad gasped. “Use happy-spells.” He gasped for breath again and I couldn’t understand why he was having a hard time breathing. I had no idea what happy spells were either. I barely knew magic, so I had definitely never heard of a happy spell. I had no idea that spells had feelings, but I just went with it.

“Happy-” Chad took another deep breath. “Thoughts!”

“Arcus.” Rainbow, I tried. My only guess as to what he had meant was good things that brightened your mood. Things that made you smile.

The monster grimaced and took a step back. I heard Chad draw in another deep breath as if he could suddenly breathe.

“Papilio.” Butterfly, I said. The monster seemed to shrink back to its old size, but I wasn’t quite sure what really happened and if my eyes were playing tricks on me or not. I kept citing ‘happy’ spells and it seemed to wear the monster down. He didn’t come close to Chad again, and when Brent and Nat pitched it really began to work.

Of course just when I thought we had won, the monster fought back and grabbed Chad’s arm. It dug its nails into Chad’s arm and it began to bleed again while Chad cried out in pain. The monster then wrapped its hands around Chad’s neck and began to stick its nails into his neck.

I didn’t know what else to do, so I ran towards the monster trying to think of happy things. Just as I got to the monster Chad went limp and the monster grew. That time I was sure it actually grew. It almost seemed like it had taken Chad’s strength and made it its own.

It slowly turned to me and I heard it making noises. The noises reminded me of Darth Vader breathing. “Flores.” Flowers, I quickly said. I didn’t know what else to do. I needed to get enough time to get Chad out of the way in time, even if it meant Chad getting his wish. I didn’t want anyone dying under my watch. The flashback to Chloe had really hit me hard, and I didn’t want to see anyone else die. The monster dropped Chad and I could see fresh blood under its nails. Chad’s neck was dripping blood, but there was nothing I could do. The monster lunged at me so suddenly and I half dodged it. Its nail grazed my stomach and I almost fell over in pain. I hadn’t expected that to hurt, because I doubted any skin had been taken away, like what had happened to my shoulder with the chicken.

I looked down at my stomach and saw that my shirt was ripped and my stomach was bleeding, which was something I had never seen before.

“Soles,” Sunshine, I tried again hoping it would send the monster away. That time, the monster only grew and each time Nat or Brent hit it with a ‘happy’ spell, the monster only grew.

The monster lunged at me again and that time he got a hold of my hand. I hadn’t moved fast enough. I could feel his grip strengthening as Nat and Brent continued to hit him with ‘happy’ spells. I glanced over at the lifeless body of Chad and felt a pang of guilt. I had tried to save him, but most likely I had just gotten us both killed. Then I suddenly remembered the last thing time I had talked to Chad, I had threatened him. I had affirmed his worst fear. Chad had never belonged anywhere and I had just pushed him away again. I had rejected Chad like so many others had, and Chad would die thinking I hated him.

I suddenly gasped for breath and I felt the monster grip my neck. The grip got stronger and stronger.

“Chad, I’m so sorry.” I said with my last breaths. I looked at Chad’s lifeless body one last time and fell to the ground unconscious.