Memories From a Dead Girl

There was still enough light to see.

So there we were, standing along the road, staring at the swamp. I touched the water, watching it ripple underneath my finger, wondering if my entire body would have eventually been down there, instead of the way it actually happened; my face stuck below the surface, causing me to drown.

"I woke up next to my car," Austin said "And saw her in the water. I was confused at first, because her position was the opposite of how I'd placed her. I laid her along the shore, with her legs in the water. But when I woke up, her head was under, and she wasn't moving."

The air was cold, but I couldn't feel it. I only knew because of how Chloe shivered. But then it occurred to me that it might not have been because of the weather, but what she was being told. How could she listen to the details of her sisters death so calmly?

"What happened with the knife?" she asked softly.

"She —that was an accident —I'm so sorry."

"So you stabbed her."

"Yes, but she was alive when I brought her over to the water."

Oh God.

I looked back at Chloe, and she whispered, "Oh God. You didn't kill her."