Lily knew something was wrong the moment she saw me, I could tell from the way she hugged me - but she didn't say anything, she knows me too well for that.

She's my best friend, we met on our first day of high school, sat next to each other in assembly, and that was it. She's a lot nicer than I am, but we have the same sense of humour, and I think she occasionally finds it a relief to relax her nice filter and listen to me plotting to assassinate people who chew raw carrots in the library.

After a few years, we made friends with Aiden too - or, more accurately, he made friends with us. Maybe from a lack of options. He'd been ostracised by the high school community after sleeping with a girl at a party Lily and I were definitely not invited to, and then making out with her boyfriend.

Aiden's a bit like that. Aged sixteen, most people would be satisfied with seducing just one person - but no, he had to go for both halves of the relationship. Just to prove he could, I suppose. He's the one that told the whole school about it.

Regardless, he just sat down with us one lunch, cool as a cucumber, and stole half my sandwich. Then stuck around for the next four years.

He wasn't there this morning. According to his text, he was hungover from a party (again, one that Lily and I weren't invited to - some things never change) the night before. It was just Lily and me in her family's garage. She managed to look effortlessly shabby-chic in her oversized paint-stained shirt and jeans. She made me take a quick photo of her for her blog, then got straight to work - smearing oil paints around with a palette knife on a canvas that was taller than she was, which isn't hard.

The entire room stunk of turpentine, but I suffered through it - I love watching Lily paint, and it's much easier to talk to her when she's focused on something other than you. She tends to laser in on whatever she's focusing on, and it makes me nervous when she does it to me.

Her mum stuck her head into the room after a few hours, laughed and said something in Cantonese, then noticed I was there and switched to English.

"Hi Anna."

"Hi, Mrs Sung."

"Lily tells me it's fashion to have the big glasses now."

Lily pretended to ignore us, lying on her back as she painted the bottom edge of the canvas. She conspicuously adjusted her oversized Ray-Bans.

I laughed, "Yeah, hipster."

Lily rolled her eyes at my fashion generalisation and said, "It's an accessory, Mum."

Her mum turned towards me. "She has perfect eyesight. Twenty-twenty vision."

"Mum..." Lily whined, but she was smiling. She adores her mum.

"Beauty is pain..." I said inanely, and Mrs Sung turned to go, still giggling.

"You look like your dad in the eighties, Lily. Computer programmer."

"Mum!"

But Mrs Sung was gone, and we were alone again, some indie music playing in the background. This time, Lily broke the silence. She knew better than to ask me what was wrong, but she edged around the question in the clever, Lily-way she has.

"Aiden seems a bit stressed."

"Really? I didn't think that was possible." She smiled at me patiently, and I shook my head. "Fine, you're right. Excessive partying. Aiden warning sign. I thought he was getting good marks?"

Aiden's doing psychology at uni. I have a sneaking suspicion it's more about him trying to understand himself rather than anyone else.

Lily dabbed some red paint on the end of her brush, "It's nearly the end of term. Maybe it's the exams?"

"Maybe."

She carefully avoided looking at me. "This time of year can be pretty stressful."

I fiddled with the radio. "Mmhmm,"

"Lots of people get worn out..." She trailed away suggestively and I ignored her hint.

"How are you going? Are you sorted for placement?"

Lily shot me a look, then got distracted by drip of paint. "Yeah." She answered, "Off to help cows give birth."

"When do you have to go to the abattoir?"

"End of the year."

For a vegan, Lily's strangely ok with having to dissect animal cadavers and help out at abattoirs as part of her course, but I suppose it comes part and parcel with being a vet.

I brushed my fingers along the edge of the handle from the ferry. It felt unnaturally cold. It always does.

On impulse, I pulled it out and showed her. "Lily. Look. I... found this."

She carefully extricated herself from her painting and came over to look.

"What is it?"

"It broke off the ferry."

She laughed slightly, "Hopefully not an important part..." she reached out, and touched it lightly. The handle pulsed in my hand, making me jump. I looked at Lily, wondering whether she'd felt it, but she was still staring down at it, half-smiling, a puzzled crease between her eyebrows.

"Don't you think it feels a bit - " I stopped talking when she didn't turn to look at me, and reached out to touch her arm. "Lily?" She didn't move. "Lily?"

The handle grew even colder against my skin, and darkness deepened at the edges of my vision, as though it was going to engulf us both. I jerked the shard of metal away from her, dread coiling in my stomach. She was still frozen, like a statue.

I grabbed her shoulders and shook her, "Lily!"

She gasped, and came awake. Her eyes focused on something over my shoulder, and she turned grey and took a staggering step backwards, pulling me with her.

I spun around to face whatever it was, adrenalin thrumming through my veins, but there was nothing there.

I turned back to her, "What is it?"

She was still very pale, I grabbed her hands, "Lily?"

She looked at me, then blinked a few times, her eyes wide. "Umm. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing." She smiled a little, and shook her head. "I think I just... kind of blacked out a little then. I skipped lunch earlier. It was like I fainted. There was this sound."

"What sound?"

She pulled away from me, and turned back to her painting, staring at it blankly for a moment, as though she'd forgotten what it was. "I don't know. Just a sound. I think... maybe I need to go lie down."

^^^

Author's Note:

Thank you everyone for reading! Let me know how you found the chapter, please vote or comment if you enjoyed! :)

For more Anna check out the tumblr (there's fan art there now?!): http://annawakes.tumblr.com/

Or the (super awesome) soundtracks: http://8tracks.com/annawakes