CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.

[ xxii. a long street home ]

INGRID'S CALVES STARTED to burn from pedaling so hard on her bicycle. Pedaling down her hometown streets as the sun barely started to rise. Her legs started to ache from how quickly she was pedaling. As if she was running away from something, which was correct. The abandoned streets left her a nervous feeling that was only succumbed by the streetlights guiding her.

The burning feeling supplied her tears even more. It was as if Niagara Falls appeared onto her cheeks. Her eyes didn't look anywhere else besides directly in front of her. She felt as if she didn't deserve to look around, she didn't deserve to use her own eyes to see the world around her. She deserved nothing.

The images of Briar falling to the ground made her body vibrate. Feeling the vibration she felt once their body made contact with the floor. Horrifyingly watching as Devyn's freshly amputated leg kept pouring out blood all over the ground. How she became a totally different person before taking her final breath. Hearing the screams of her friends dying or witnessing something unexplainable.

     The screams replayed like an annoying record. The dissonance causing her to try and cover her ears. Remembering the way Maura's flesh covering her face was peeled off. How easily it seemed to remove someone's skin; how Maura's face was cut messily, but intricately. Exposing her tissues and teeth, her eyes bulging out even more.

Watching her slowly walk closer to her recanting Delancy's name. Delancy . . . Ingrid didn't know what happened to her. She didn't know about Delancy being tortured second by second. Minute by minute losing blood and tears by the increasing pain. How a saw managed to slice through her pelvic bone, cutting off her hip down. Stringing her like a slab of meat in the freezer in the back of butcher shops.

Watching the moment unfold of Liam stabbing Maura in the neck with a broken beer bottle. Feeling Maura's blood splatter all over her own arm. The Denali girl's body plummeting to the floor within a snap. Ingrid flinched, hearing the sound of Maura's body hitting the ground in front of her.

Ingrid closed her eyes just to see Layla's body strung up upon the wall. Bloody intestines hanging out of her open stomach. She obtained a memory of her sister, Eleanora, ranting about having to witness a surgery if she decided to go into the surgical field. Watching her older sister's face wrinkle in disgust while Ingrid's own face was plastered with a wide smile.

She completely understood why her sister was disgusted.

Her whole body started to tense up remembering the Layla scene. Her brain flash-backing on her face. How the whites of her eyes made the color of her eyes vanish. How she looked fake, abnormally unreal. That couldn't have been Layla, it couldn't have been her Layla. Ingrid shot open her eyes as she tried to catch her breath. She promised herself never to close her eyes again. That the darkness will swallow her whole like Benjamin Carmichael did.

In the back of her mind, she did want to know what happened to Melina, Calum, Harriet, and Liam. She knew they weren't alive. Nobody was ever able to make it out of the house alive. Ingrid was alive, yes, but she also wasn't. She felt dead to the point where she lost all emotional feeling. Seeing things that were too horrifying for the naked eye to even glimpse at. To hear things that were too frightening for the most horror obsessed.

Ingrid turned the corner and started to pedal faster down the street of her house. She envisioned Scout and her hanging out on the street skateboarding. She would watch him fail miserably as she would constantly perfect every trick in the book. Bragging about her success while Scout wallowed about it. She tried to muster up a smile, but was unable after being immediately reminded of their last moment together.

How she internally felt each time Scout's body hit every step. Tumbling down until he rolled at her feet; reminding her of how she used to push her toys down the steps before moving in with her aunt. The blonde's eyes widened after remembering her aunt. Oh, how she would be so disappointed with Ingrid's actions, how hurt she will be. Nonetheless, how hurt Ingrid will be if she didn't do what she planned to do.

She started to slow down as she got nearer to her house that seemed to be lit up by the streetlight. Her run down house that she was grateful for since her aunt worked so hard. She skidded her feet against the pavement. Keeping her eyes glued onto the the house on the side of her. Her heart started to sink like the Titanic, hitting the iceberg that slowly caused the ship to sink farther and farther. Getting lost in the ocean just like her sanity.

     Ingrid got off her bike in a quick motion. Dropping her bike onto the concrete. She stared at her house with wide eyes. She was scared to go near any house or any kind. Fearing something may attack her and bring her to the weeds like her friends. Ingrid's eyes threatened to have tears escape, threatening to roll down her cheeks.

     She felt her body feeling the need to collapse onto the ground. Wanting the universe to take her own life so she wouldn't contemplate doing so. A soft sob cut through the dead silence. She needed to feel something, but she needed to stop feeling. She dug her nails into the palms of her nails as she looked at her house.

     Ingrid started to become delirious from the lack of sleep. Feeling her eyes start to grow heavy, but she didn't dare to close her eyes. She didn't want to see the events again. Although, the events still played out in her mind. She needed it to stop, she absolutely needed it. So, she stepped over her bike lying on the ground and started to walk towards the door.

Carefully, she started to pull open the screen door. Turning the knob slowly, she pushed the door open. It was as if she was walking up the stairs in the dark. Cautiously stepping up, feeling as if you're getting to the last step. Stepping another step, but only to find your foot go through air. It feeling a dark feeling, a worried feeling.

Ingrid didn't bother to shut the door. The creaking of the door opening making her cringe harder. She stood on the tips of her feet, noticing how the house seemed to stay the same once she left. She looked over at the couch to see if Jane was passed out on the couch, but she remembered she was working the night shift.

Ingrid felt like a stranger to her own home. Feeling like a shadow that wasn't welcomed. She forgotten she was crying. She reached up hesitantly and felt the dampness on her pink cheeks. She had went so numb she didn't notice her swollen eyes were still crying. Ingrid bit down on her tongue. Applying pressure as she started to gently walk through the house.

She thought about going back to school. Her face being all over the news once the town finds out about the numerous deaths that happened that night. How she would lose sleep. How she would be alone. How her world would come crashing down and she would be alone with her inner demons.

The idea brought more tears to her eyes. Ingrid couldn't possibly live knowing what she saw inside the house. Feeling the same feelings she felt during her time inside. She couldn't convince herself otherwise what she was set on doing. Her mind recanted the rope that her aunt kept in the cabinet in the kitchen. Just in case of anything happening.

Staggering over to the coffee table where she saw a notebook and a pen, she grabbed them both. Ingrid couldn't contain her sobs she held in so she wouldn't make a sound. Allowing them to finally escape and break the silence as she quickly walked over to the kitchen. She didn't care that she was making noise now. She didn't care whether she traumatically died by tripping over an article of clothing.

Ingrid shakily opened up the cabinet and searched for the rope. Maneuvering her hand through the dishes guarding it, she pulled the rope out from the cabinet. She placed the paper onto the table as she gasped for breath due to the overwhelming sadness. She placed the rope beside the paper and grabbed the pen. She stopped after realizing what she was doing. Realizing everything could end right then and there. What's done is done, what's written is written. There wasn't a way of reversing.

But there wasn't a way to revive her friends.

***

Suicide was never an option for Ingrid. Sure, she would joke about it if homework was too difficult or if she was really stressed, but she was never gonna do anything. She was too much of a coward, but she didn't want to show it. Suicide is just a done deal. A life is at stake. A life that has a possibility of getting better.

But to Ingrid, it never seemed to get better.

She couldn't imagine living her life normally. She couldn't see herself sleeping peacefully without having any nightmares of the murders. She would easily be triggered into any sudden scream due to the PTSD that was created because of the house. She would feel like she'd deserve every single negative thing happen to her.

Ever since Ingrid managed to escape, her whole world was painted black and white. She was convinced she would never be able to be happy again. That nothing good will ever come her way. She'd live her life struggling till she was six feet under due to old age. She couldn't take it, she refused.

The only thing Ingrid was able to take was the rope tightening around her neck, ending her life in moments time.

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