December 30th, 2016

Kinsky, California, USA

God’s in his Heaven…

Maria didn’t end up pressing the send button. In fact, she didn’t bother sending any messages at all. She couldn’t help but notice that Cole had been the same way – his regular checkup messages had gone quiet now. She knew he was near the end, and that he knew she had caught up. It was a thought that simultaneously terrified her and, in an odd sort of way, calmed her. Part of her was satisfied with knowing the truth, with giving him the chance to run away. The other part vehemently criticized her for that thought, calling her a coward, demanding her to tell him to come. But what eventually set her off wasn’t the anger – it was the curiosity. 

That morning, on the 30th, she suddenly spurred to action. Her messages with Cole, which she had practically avoided the existence of for those past three days, she opened up and hurriedly sent one single message.

| Can you come to the house today? We need to talk.

Cole, meanwhile, was writing. He had been for days now. Writing on discarded notecards, letterprint, printing paper. Some days he would write all day, only to throw out the entire thing and start over. On his desk he had a small toy chest, gifted to him long ago by Marion for his birthday. In that chest he now kept some of these notes, locked away. He was nearing the end of his time writing. It was deemed fate that his phone should vibrate with Maria’s text at that moment. 

When he read it, he felt, perhaps surprisingly, numb. It was clear she was thinking of what he was worried about, no matter how much of the real truth she actually knew. He sent her a text back, sealing his fate ceremoniously.

| Okay. When do you want me to come?

Her reply was almost instantaneous.

| Now.

The boy hesitated, for a moment. But he quickly picked himself up, getting out of his chair and throwing the remaining notecards inside the chest, making sure to lock the lid closed. 

He wasn’t ready. But he was as ready as he ever would be.

He wanted to talk to Maria, even if it was the last time he would ever get a chance to do.

…

Cole reached the house roughly 15 minutes later. Mrs. Cortez’s car wasn’t in the driveway, but the old green coupe he had gifted Maria was. He took out his phone while still sitting in his driver seat, sending off a text to the girl.

| I’m here.

He waited for a while, but received no response. Watching the windows of the house he saw the curtain ruffle and for a moment spotted a figure walking in the direction of the front door. Cole decided to get out.

He walked up to the front steps when suddenly the door opened. He looked up to see Maria, standing in the doorway, looking down at him. She was wearing her white dress.

He struggled to find any words to say. “Is it alright… if I come in?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Wh-what?”

“Why didn’t you say that you came by the house, on the 22nd?”

Cole took a step back. His mouth opened, but he hesitated.

“I… I thought you knew.”

“Bullshit, Cole. If I knew that would have been completely relevant to the case. You just never brought it up.”

“I… I’m sorry.”

There was a pause. Maria turned her eyes to the floor of the porch, holding something in. After gaining her composure, she spoke again.

“Cole.”

“…Yeah?”

Both teens looked up at the same time, and in turn Cole’s eyes interlocked with Maria’s. 

“I want you to tell me everything this time,” Maria said. “I want you to tell me everything about your relationship with Anita. And this time I want you to leave nothing – and I mean, nothing – out.”

At first, Cole didn’t speak. He didn’t intend to. But as he gulped down his throat, and his eyes stayed locked on to the girl he now knew so well, he began to change his mind. He thought about all the notes he had written, and rewritten, and written again – all the time he spent, thinking of how to structure his thoughts, and how they all fell to the wayside. Yet this was his chance. Perhaps the last good one he’d get. He decided to speak.

“It’s… it’s true that, Anita and I… we had a special relationship,” he began. “But it isn’t what you’re thinking. Not at all. You see… she and I, we built a trust in each other… it was different. It was unique, far from anything I’ve had with anyone else. Not with Marion, not with you, not with… not with Lukas and Kat… I can’t even describe it, the way I felt around her…”

At this point, Cole began to choke on his own tears. “And… when I heard what had happened… it killed me inside. I had no idea what to think, no idea what to say. I was angry, and sad, and confused. The same as you, except I kept it all bottled up. I took all that energy I had and converted into helping. I desperately wanted to help, Maria. It was all I ever wanted to do. All that time I spent, investigating with you, asking people, trying to find an answer… I did that genuinely. I accused Lorenzo because, at the time…” 

The boy’s whole body shook. Tears fell down his cheeks and down to the muddy ground in front of him. His throat tensed up and his voice began to break down even further.

“I-I-I th-thought it was Lorenzo, b-because… I thought it c-c-couldn’t be me. I-I knew A-Anita, I-I thought… I th-thought I kn-knew I couldn’t have c-caused her th-that much pain. But the more I thought about it… th-the more I thought about it… the more I realized that… i-it was me. I caused this, and I screwed everything up. A-and I would give anything… everything… to keep e-everything together.”

The boy fell to his knees. He bent forward as he grasped strongly the dirty grass which made up the lawn. 

“P-please. That’s all I want. For things to stay the way they are. To have everything I love that’s left – Kat and Lukas, you, our friends, our family, Kinsky, everything… to hold it and to keep it. That’s all I want. Please… c-could I still have that?”

There was a silence. The air was thin and the trees did not stir. The ground was cold and moist but there was no rain. He turned up his head… he saw Maria, staring straight back, her eyes empty.

“Get out.”

“B-but… Maria…”

“GET OUT!”

Her voice shot off a boom which rumbled through the forest. The crows left their perch and the trees rustled in their absence. The air among the porch turned warm.

Cole stumbled backwards, falling on the muddy ground before quickly picking himself back up, and in his terror – his anguish – he rushed back towards the car, making sure to keep his eyes on Maria, who watched his movement carefully just the same. He got back in the car and drove off. As the car pulled back into the street, he took one last look back at the house. The girl was still there, standing in that same spot, watching him, silent, still, cold.