• People say that life has a way of taking turns for the worse when you least expect it. People were right.


    I watched my breath flow out into the open air, watched the white fog that was my exhale dissipate into the emptiness that was our atmosphere. He, my former best friend, stood a few feet from me. His expression, mocking and unconcerned, sparked a familiarity inside of me. This is the way he had been for a week and four days. The span of time since she died.

    Her death wasn’t an accident, like the autopsy report claimed. No, in fact, it was his fault. The man who stood less than four feet from me. The compulsion to kill him was nearly as strong as the compulsion was to throw myself to the ground and sob. He turned to me as soon as this wary, repetitive thought crossed my mind. A small smile crossed his features.

    “Everything happens for a reason, wouldn’t you agree?”


    His voice, clear and joyous, shot through the open atmosphere. It shattered the morbid silence that lay thick in this place. It felt wrong. He saw my expression, and held out his small, tin flask to me.

    I took his flask from him, unscrewing the lid and taking a sip. Alcohol. I should have known.

    Everything happens for a reason.