The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Ellie
by Kendra Hale

When I think of Ellie I think of her standing high on the edge of the waterfall, the wind carrying her ebony hair away from her smiling face. Her amber eyes catching the light and her espresso colored skin glowing as the sun kissed it. The waterfall had always had a calming element to it and being just thirty minutes from our small town, it made for the perfect getaway for a pair of bored seventeen year olds. 

I had loved Ellie for years, not that I would have ever been brave enough to tell her how fully she was intertwined with my soul. From the first day,at my fifth birthday party, she stood out amongst the other girls. She shone even then with her genuine smile. I was done for and at first it all started as a want to be her friend. I was in awe of how graceful and easy things came to her. The grass is greener on the other side. 

I don’t want to sound like I am down on myself, my blonde hair, emerald eyes, honey skin.  I was a force to be reckoned with as well. A ball of cute and feisty energy. But Ellie, she was my goddess and I longed to worship at her feet.  Each year it became more and more evident to me as no one and nothing held my attention, not like her. I don’t know how everyone else made it look so easy moving through life, from relationship to relationship. 

I couldn’t stop from loving her laugh, her secret smile over the best bite of food, to her joy over discussing the newest book she was reading and falling in love with the characters. My favorite thing was watching her analyze anime that she loved and always could tell which character would steal her heart away, which would make her cry. 

The day my angel left this world was the same day where I remember her so clearly. What neither of us could never have known was that our waterfall, the one so peaceful and quiet… was a place for the damned. A limbo of spirit who had committed suicide out of sadness. Like the Overtoun Bridge in Scotland, our waterfall drew people in and led them to their path of demise. 

After so many had come here it had created a siren’s call of sadness, never satisfied by the offerings of those who had lost themselves to despondency. I had never understood its call until it had Ellie under its spell, she danced to the tune that the siren sang, she truly danced with death. Her funeral broke me. I wasn’t alone. 

As I walked in and smelled the lilies it became real, the air immediately went out of me and all I could taste was stagnant air. It was all I could do to stay on my feet. I saw her parents and I saw her other friends crying but I still felt on the outside. I had never told her. I had never been brave. I had lost any chance I might have had. 

It was at that moment anger built. I wanted to know why it was her and not me, why the waterfall had taken the one person who had not only made this life worth living but also made it make any semblance of sense. That made it feel sane and vibrant. That…in any way it could be beautiful. My anger was a wildfire caused by oil and it just kept burning brighter and hotter. Day in and day out, each one worse than the last because everything had changed. Like a ripple caused by the waterfall hitting the pool below, every day I realized just how much of me was missing without her. Normal things no longer carried that title… there were just empty spaces or relics left over. Vestiges were scattered over ever part of my life and all of them led back to her. To Ellie. To the person who had made the future a bright place full of memories to be made that were now hollow and grim reminders of what could and would never be.

As the weeks turned into months it became even worse. I didn’t want to eat, I could barely sleep. My parents became worried and they sent me to doctors. They really did try to help me the best they could. But talking about things and all the medications which i took willingly to show my love for my parents…she reigned supreme in everything. Every waking moment. Every sleepless night, even those drug induced. 

…I heard her call and I missed her so much. 

A year has passed, I have lost so much weight and I no longer see any beauty. No vibrance. No light. Nothing felt that same and nothing..nothing was working. 

Everyone kept saying time would heal my wounds…but how do you heal a hole that used to be a person? A person who you loved? Whose love was everything? An impactive tour de force that made your life worth living? That call comes crying again. I hear it every night when i close my eyes. 

Her smile. Her laugh. Her eyes… her beautiful eyes. 

Finally I went to her… I answered her call. 

To our waterfall. I embrace her at last and it is as if nothing has changed. My life. My love. My Ellie.

Fiction © Copyright Kendra Hale
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from author Kendra Hale:

Just Emotions:
A Gothic Bite Magazine Anthology

A collection of poetry.

 Available on Amazon!