Eirin forced a smile. "It was nothing." She continued walking, pretending that none of that had happened. Bright blinked his eyes, confused, but he soon followed Eirin until they reached the empty street towards Eirin's house.
'I can't believe we walked all the way from the cemetery,' Bright thought as he approached Eirin. "Do you want me to—"
Eirin turned to Bright, not letting him finish what he was about to say, and said, "No. I can go home from here." Her smile looked odd, giving Bright suspicions, but he did not wish to make her explain as he knew how hard it had been for her.
"Okay. Text me when you get home." He patted Eirin's head. "We'll get over this together, okay?"
The teenage girl did not respond and only smiled as she turned around and made her way to their house. Bright watched as she moved further away from him.
'Why do I feel like she's about to leave me, too?' Bright thought with his balled fists. "Be careful!" He reminded Eirin, but he wasn't sure if it had reached her ears or not.
Eirin felt miserable, thinking how much betrayal it was to kiss her best friend's crush in front of her grave. She wanted to die more because she knew how much of a trash she had become. Her footsteps were heavy, and she could still feel water dripping from her clothes. Despite that, being drenched and cooled in the rain made her mind calm, and she started thinking deeper.
"Why did I forget about that?"
Even though Eirin wanted to rush to the house, her legs were weak after staying on the bed for almost a week.
"Eirin, dear? What happened to you? Why are you drenched? I have left an umbrella for you to use. Where is it now?"
"It flew away," Eirin said as she walked to her room.
"Take a bath first! You'll catch a cold."
Eirin sighed as she removed all her clothes and walked into the bathroom. Her clouded head started clearing up, and she didn't want to catch a cold that might disrupt her train of thought. "I shouldn't have cried and sat there like an idiot," she whispered into the thin air as she stared at her hands."
"The pain blinded me and I forgot what happened to me the past few days. What might have caused Ava's death? The answer was here all along."
As soon as she was done with the bath, she walked back into her room and saw the blue bracelet on her desk.
"Ava's bracelet!"
Eirin rushed back into the bathroom and rummaged through the drenched dress she was wearing earlier, searching for the pink bracelet Ava's mother gave her. "Don't tell me…" she stood up and quickly wore a sweater before running out of her room and down the stairs.
"Eirin? Where are you going? It's raining again outside."
"I forgot something in the cemetery. I'll be back soon."
Eleanor wondered why her granddaughter, who sounded like she had no reason to live earlier, acted like her usual self. "Did something happen?" she muttered and sighed while looking at Link and Cali, who were patiently waiting in the living room for Eirin to have a rational talk about what happened.
"I guess we have to wait for her to come back," Link said.
"Screw it," Shade said.
Eirin ran through the door, not even noticing the three people in the living room. She ran towards the bus stop and thought of how could she forget about the bracelet. The teenage girl kept biting her fingernail as Ava's smiley face flashed inside her head, which caused her to feel worse. When she reached in front of the cemetery, the rain once again soaked her, but this time it was stronger than earlier. She could barely see anything.
"Where is it?" Eirin squinted her eyes as she searched for the bright pink bracelet on the ground. "I should have brought a flashlight," she huffed.
"Miss? Are you trying to find something?" One man wearing a guard's uniform approached Eirin. "Do you need help?" He asked while Eirin eyed the flashlight he was holding.
"If I may borrow your flashlight for a bit, it would be a great help."
The guard immediately gave Eirin his spare flashlight. "What about an umbrella? You'll get sick if you keep getting wet by the rain." Eirin thanked the kind-hearted guard, but it was a bother to hold an umbrella, so she rejected his offer. "Alright, have fun." His black eyes glistened before he left Eirin as she knelt on the ground, not bothering herself with anything else but her search for the bracelet she had lost.
"Please."
The mud and rain were mixing on her body, but it did not matter. Her hands were bruised as she used them to search on the muddy ground. "Aha!" Eirin's eyes twinkled as she raised the pink bracelet covered with mud and stared at it as if she discovered a rare diamond.
The relief it caused made Eirin lay on the muddy ground with her eyes closed as the rain poured on her. "I'm sorry, Ava." Her grip on the bracelet tightened. "I just can't accept it yet."
"I'm sorry that we won't be able to celebrate your birthday together," she said, being reminded that her birthday was also the day her best friend died. She stared at the grave and caressed Ava's name. "I'm also sorry for kissing Bright, even though I know you like him."
Only the sound of the rain surrounded Eirin as she talked alone while hugging her muddy legs. "I promise that I'll remove these feelings, and I won't like him again. That's the only way I could repent."
"I wish we could have spent more time together. I really wished to live with you until we get old and if possible, we'll have our graves side by side." She chuckled. "If only I could die beside you. I wouldn't have suffered like this… but who'll be able to find out what truly caused your pain?" Those words echoed through her mind, as it was still hard for her to accept the reality.
"We will meet again, I promise. I'll make it happen."
The heavy rain only grew heavier, causing Eirin to stand and start walking away. She knew that she wouldn't be able to ride the bus because of how wet she had become.
"Be careful on your way home," the kind-hearted guard said, and Eirin just nodded.
"I want to disappear," Eirin muttered as she felt embarrassed by all the things she did while she was losing herself. She was neither accepting the reality, but she also doesn't deny it as much as before. The teenage girl was in the middle. In the back of her head, although she doesn't know how she knows she will meet Ava again.
Eirin decided to walk her way back to their house with her head filled with thoughts of thousands of possibilities that could cause Ava's passing. 'Was she attacked by that shadow-like creature when I wasn't looking?' she thought, referring to the same monster that tried to take her life.
"Or was it those red-eyed monsters?"
Shade's face flashed into Eirin's mind, causing her to stop walking. The noise of the cars on her left passing by sounded like the ringing in her ears whenever she faced death.
'He wouldn't do something like that, wouldn't he?' She started biting her fingernails as she muttered, "But how am I so sure? I don't even know him well."
Due to her distracted mind, her grip on the pink bracelet loosened, and it fell. The bracelet oddly bounced into the middle of the busy road where all kinds of cars passed and went by without minding people around.
'Shit.'
Eirin squinted, trying to see if there were any cars about to pass so that she could quickly grab the bracelet back without being hit by a car.
"What are you waiting for? It's right in front of you. Grab it."
A voice inside Eirin's head made her squint as she saw her feet moving on their own stepping into the middle of the road and the sound of them splashing through the puddled water caused her to gulp.
'Why wouldn't my legs stop?' she thought as she struggled to control her body. It was like that dream where she couldn't run away the way she wanted to.
"Grab it."
The voice inside her head repeated.
"You wanted to meet your friend again. It's your chance to be with her."
It was the voice of a man. Deep and husky, but there was a hint of cheekiness in his tone. It's like the sound of the devil trying to lure humans into their trap. Eirin could not resist the sound of the voice. It hypnotized her.
Eirin stood in the middle of the road and approached the pink bracelet lying still on the ground. She could hear cars beeping at her after swerving away, but she could not move as she crouched. The bracelet was right in front of her, but her hands wouldn't move and she could not get ahold of it.
'I'm really going to die this time!'
Eirin heard a loud beep as she could see a blinding light from the corner of her eye.
"You'll be able to be with your friend now."