Chapter 72
Ellie POV
I didn’t realize Sarah was serious about “getting fresh air” until she dragged me past the school gates.
“Keep walking,” she ordered, tugging my sleeve like an overexcited wolf pup.
“This feels illegal,” I muttered as we crossed into the outer woods. “And vaguely cultish.”
“It’s a walk, Ellie. Not a blood pact.”
“Same energy.”
Sarah elbowed me, smiling. “You need real air.’
I snapped my swim suits strap under my tank top. “So, what are these for then?”
She just grinned and kept pulling.
We walked deeper into the trees-sunlight slipping through branches like it was trying to guide us somewhere. The stones covered in moss and crawling ivy. My muscles ached from days hunched over books. My brain felt bruised. But each step loosened something tight inside my ribs.
I hadn’t seen so much green in a minute. I missed it.
“Seriously, where are we going?” I finally asked.
“A place nobody bothers me,” she said. “Except you. Because I like you.”
I snorted softly. “Lucky me.”
And then the trees thinned… and the world opened.
A clearing stretched out before us, quiet and golden, grass bending in a soft breeze. Beyond it- a lake.
Bright, glass-still, framed by rocks and dipping branches. The kind of place paintings try to imitate and fail.
For a second, I forgot how to breathe.
“You… never told me about this,” I said. I wanted to say even when we were friends before….this was new.
Sarah shrugged. “I didn’t want it ruined. But you’re worth the risk when your so stressed. I can see how hard your working for yourself now. I just…support it.”
I looked at her and she get my gaze with a warm grin. “Come on!”
Without warning, Sarah kicked off her shoes and sprinted straight into the water, her clothes flying off her in a flurry.
“Wait!” I said. “Is it-”
“It’s warm!” she shouted, splashing dramatically. “Stop being old and get in!”
“We are both teens,” I protested. “Not old.”
“Mentally? You like fifty-three. Minimum. Now get in!”
I hesitated at the shoreline, watching ripples catching sunlight. The water looked clean. Safe. Uncomplicated.
1/5
+25 Bonus
Unlike everything else in my life.
So I stepped in.
It was warm. Comforting. A little shock ran up my spine as I waded deeper, until the lake was hugging me from all sides. There were rocks, sharp and big all around butit got deep quick. And I mean quick.
Sarah splashed me immediately.
I gasped. “You did not just-!”
The splash fight was inevitable. And ridiculous. And exactly what I needed.
We laughed-loud, ugly, real laughter-until my stomach hurt and my cheeks burned and something inside me loosened that I didn’t know was clenched.
For the first time in days…
maybe weeks…
I wasn’t thinking about the test.
Or the warning.
Or Dominic’s stupid jawline.
I was just… Ellie.
When we finally drifted to a calmer spot, floating on our backs, Sarah tilted her head toward me.
“Okay,” she said gently. “Talk.”
And somehow, I did.
The words started slow, then poured out. Kinda like with Lucas, only, this time it was easier. I had practice.
The conduct warning, this midterm was Ike a guillotine blade with my name carved into it.
The exhaustion.
The panic.
The quiet terror that I might lose everything I’d worked for.
Sarah didn’t interrupt. She just listened, her hand occasionally brushing mine in the water.
“And Dominic,” she added softly. “You didn’t mention him.”
I groaned and covered my face. “Because he’s… not relevant
“Mhm.”
“He’s not,” I insisted.
“Ellie.”
“He’s just… everywhere. And I don’t understand why. I don’t want him. I don’t even like him these days.”
“But he keeps showing up,” she said.
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“Exactly.” I kicked the surface, sending little waves across the lake. “Like a very persistent rash.”
Sarah snorted. “A hot rash.”
I shot her a look. “Do not sexualize my metaphors.”
She laughed, then softened. “Maybe you two are a little fated.”
1 rolled my eyes so hard the sky blurred. “We are not fated.”
“Sure,” she said lightly, “but you’re thinking awfully hard about him for someone who’s supposedly not fated.”
“Because I have done…everything to make him get it. I…want nothing to do with him…and he’s…still around.”
Sarah raised a brow. “That sentence alone tells me you care.”
I splashed her face. “No.”
“Right.” She splashed me back. “But do you really hate him or just want some space?”
I didn’t respond. Because the truth sat heavy in my stomach.
I didn’t hate Dominic.
I hated what happened. How he used me. I guess my past life wasn’t him, him. But still… it was. In a way.
I hated that I didn’t know what I felt anymore.
When we finally climbed out of the lake, walking barefoot across the grass, water trailing down our skin, Sarah bumped her shoulder against mine. We moved our blanket to the edge of the water up on some rock, a short drop to the lake, the rocks glittering below.
“Hey, Sarah?” I asked.
“Mhm?”
“Hypothetically…” I picked up a pebble, rolled it between my fingers. “If you could do things over go back to when you were a kid would you choose differently? Or do you think the universe would shove you back into the same path no matter what you did?”
Sarah blinked slowly, pausing her bite on her picnic sandwhich. “That’s… wow.” She laughed. “Ellie, we were literally throwing rocks at each other ten minutes ago.”
“I’m capable of being deep,” I said, picking at the grapes. “Sometimes.”
“Apparently,”
“I’m trying, alright?”
She leaned back on her hands, staring at the lake for a moment as if letting the question sink all the way down to the sand at the bottom.
“I don’t know,” she admitted finally. “I think I would would just be…here. I think… everyone’s born with certain key points. Big things our souls are meant to learn, or face, or change. But the way you get there? That can shift Like maybe you were supposed to learn to love yourself from one guy from here
”
I groaned. “Please don’t make this about-”
“–but instead you learn through a break up with some other guy,” she continued, ignoring me, “in Peru.”
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I snorted, unable to stop myself. “Peru, huh?”
“I like Peru,” she said. “It feels spiritual.”
“Sure. Let’s hope my next failed relationship teaches me something on a mountaintop.”
We both laughed, the sound soft and genuine.
“Yeah,” She said almost to herself. “Same lessons. Different path. So, I don’t know.”
But then the question that had been gnawing at the inside of my ribs resurfaced.
“So…” My voice thinned. “Hypothetically. Like… someone had already lived a whole life. Made choices. Loved people. Lost people. And then got dropped right back into their childhood like none of it happened. What would that… mean?”
She didn’t laugh this time.
She just watched me, eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
“Well…” she said slowly, “maybe they missed something. One of those soul lessons. Something they were supposed to learn but didn’t. Or weren’t ready for yet. Maybe they had to go back to learn it.”
Something cold slid under my skin.
Missed something.
Failed something.
The idea sank into me like a stone falling straight through the center of my chest.
Sarah hummed gently beside me, oblivious to the storm spiraling inside my head. “Or maybe their soul wanted another shot. Another chance to make things right.”
But all I could hear was the first part.
Missed something.
I stared out over the cliff, sunlight shimmering against the water far below. My heart thudded unevenly. My skin prickled.
Then
A shift.
Small, almost nothing. A ripple in the air, a faint disturbance between the trees.
I went still.
“What?” Sarah asked.
“Shh.” I lifted a hand. Something brushed the edge of my senses.
Then-
branches snapped.
Sarah jerked upright. “Okay, nope, I don’t like that.”
4:5
Voices carried on the wind. Low. Too many of them.
I stood, heart hammering, scanning the tree line.
Shadows moved between the trunks.
Growing in number.
Growing closer.
Sarah’s hand slid into mine. “Ellie…?”
I took a step back, never taking my eyes off the approaching, shifting silhouettes.
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