The Secret

Emma and Erin are best friends but Erin is keeping a secret that could ruin everything

Emma loved coming up with her own little horror stories whenever she got bored. She would sit down somewhere quiet and think of new, fun ways in which the monsters could torture their victims. Emma never let her monsters touch their prey. They were tortured mentally and emotionally. Played with until the couldn't take it anymore.

Emma never wrote down any of her stories. She tried to once. She hated it. She found it impossible to get the right words to describe the pictures she had in her head. She was not a good writer and she made peace with it. She still imagined her monsters and their prey and all the fun ways to play with them. No victims ever came out alive. The monster always won. Emma found "happy endings" terribly cliché and and thought that they don't exist in reality. Or, that's what she used to think...
"A happy ending is a matter of perspective, Erin. It's all about the way you look at it. Society has its own, very specific version of happy endings. The main character always wins. No matter what. It's like an unwritten law, Erin! That's just how it works. If you break that law, if you ever break it, you're screwed. Never break that law, Erin. God help you if you do," Emma stopped for a moment and gazed out of the window and the rustling leaves of a tree. Erin stared at her from his seat across the room. And understanding smile slowly crept to his face.
"Emma?" Erin said softly.
"Hmm?"
"You're ranting."
"You obviously don't understand."
"I understand perfectly. You want the ending to be ...different. You don't want the protagonist to win, you want them to end up miserable-"
"Well, maybe not miserable..." Emma interrupted.
"Miserable, Emma. You want the monster to have the happy ending. And every story has a monster. They're not always scary or hideous like in those horror movies you like so much. Most of the time they look just like you and I. Average human beings," Erin got up and walked over to Emma. He looked out of the window and saw a bird on a branch of the tree. "We all have a monster inside of us, Emma. It takes a strong person to suppress that monster - we call them good people. The weak people are the ones you have to watch out for. Their monsters overpower them and they become what we call bad people. You're strong, Emma. Don't ever let that change."
"Erin? Are you strong?"
He smiled and hugged her tightly. He held her at arms' length and whispered : "You tell me," before leaving.

Emma stood there, unintentionally looking at his feet and counted every step he took toward the door. Exactly seventeen. "I don't know," she said, more to herself than anyone else. She walked over to Erin had been sitting moments before. She let out a deep sigh. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and then sat down on the couch. She sat there for hours and watched the room grow darker. She thought about everything she said and everything Erin said. She realised it was all true. "There's always a happy ending in stories, in reality too. There's also and unhappy ending for the other side of the story. Every story has an ending, every situation, every part of your life. But of course, you're happy -or unhappy- ending is never truly the end. 'Happily ever afters' are the ones that don't exist." Emma was talking to the empty room. She didn't think out loud very often - she didn't like the sound of her own voice unless she was in an odd, unexplainable mood. That evening, however, she was just trying to keep the silence from devouring her and sending her into momentary depression. As soon as the room went completely dark, Emma stood up to go take a shower before bed.

Erin sat cross-legged in the middle of his bed, thinking about his conversation with Emma earlier that afternoon. He couldn't help but wonder where he'd be without Emma's guidance throughout the years. "Jail, probably,' he said and chuckled. "What do you think Abbey?" Abbey was a face he painted on his bedroom wall. It looked almost as though the face was emerging from the wall. Erin was a magnificent artist bit no one knew. Nobody. Not even Emma knew about his artistic capabilities. He used a picture of Emma to draw her long, wavy red hair and big, round, dark eyes. A picture of Miley -a girl he had dated in high school- was used for basic facial structure and her small nose. He searched through hundreds of magazines for the most beautiful smile he could find. He combined all of those features to create Abbey - the perfect girl. He painted her on the wall across from his bed. Abbey was a friendly face he created to watch over him as he slept and as a friend who would always be there when he needed someone to talk to. Emma was his best friend, but there was a secret he kept that he could never tell her.

"Monsters, Abbey! Monsters everywhere. We spoke about them again today. She was afraid of them last time and I told her there was nothing to fear. You remember that, right? Good. I told her that people always know what the monsters are after so she shouldn't be afraid. This time she was a lot more open-minded. She wants them to win, Abbey! Isn't that great?!
"I'm not a monster. I help people. They need me... Emma wouldn't understand that. I can't tell her. Her monsters aren't real. They exist only in her mind and that's where they'll stay. My monsters are everywhere around me.
"Am I strong, Abbey? Will I be able to resist? I'm not weak, I think... It's quite funny - I always thought this was all black and white, but it turns out it's actually a giant grey-area. Help me, my dear... I need you..." A tear rolled down Erin's cheek and he wiped it away angrily. "Stop smiling at me like that, you weren't even helping," he said to Abbey before turning around. He lied down on his stomach and buried his face in his pillow. He fell asleep moments later and slept peacefully all night long.

Emma got in bed around 8:30pm. She decided to read a book until 10:00pm, before going to sleep. She marked her progressed, put the book on the floor, turned off the lamp and rolled over. She lied there with her eyes closed but sleep was evading her. There was nothing keeping her awake : the night was silent, her room was dark and she didn't have any sleeping disorders. So she just lied there, sometimes with her eyes closed, sometimes staring into the darkness. After midnight she started to drift slowly into a deep sleep. She slept soundly until 10:00am, when the doorbell woke her.

Emma got up and answered the door in her pyjamas (a comfortable short and a man's T-shirt, two sizes too big). Her hair was a mess and she still was still half asleep. She peeked at Erin with one eye, half closed, and her head slightly tilted.
"Hmm?" She mumbled.
"Rise and shine, sweetheart!" Erin said cheerily. "I have a lovely day planned for us!" He slid past Emma into the house. Emma closed the front door and sleepily walked to the kitchen. She took a coffee mug out of the cupboard. "Would you like some coffee too?" she asked.
Erin had a look of mock-astonishment on his face. "Coffee? At this hour? We aren't animals, dear. Alcohol! That's how you start a day!"
"Oh, shut up, Erin," Emma said irritably and threw a spoon at him. He jumped away to avoid being hit. "Is that why you're so happy this early? Booze?"
"Nope. Just had a good night's rest," Erin said and smiled at her. "I would love some coffee, by the way."
Emma took another mug from the cupboard. "Give me back my spoon," she said while filling the kettle.
"Certainly not," Erin said and picked up the spoon. "I'll be needing proof of your violence. I'll keep it in my closer. I'll draw a face on it and name it Steve. It may never come out, though. I don't want a homosexual spoon. He'll fork my knives. Some of them are quite skew." Emma laughed. "Gods, Erin, what is wrong with you?" She giggled.
"Too much," he sighed. "But... Some of your delicious coffee can cure anything."
"Coming up," she said. They drank their coffee in the lounge, silently staring at each other. They never had awkward silences, they enjoyed each other's company even when words were not exchanged.

Emma went upstairs to get dressed after Erin made breakfast. He was softly talking to himself while he did the dishes.
"Abbey gave me all kinds of fun ideas for today and none of them involve going outside! I wonder of Emma will mind that... I don't want to go out. There are people out there... Always trying to talk to me... Do I look like a friendly person? Do I look like I enjoy the company of strangers? I should-"
"What are you mumbling about, Erin?" Emma interrupted. Erin jumped a little.
"What? Oh, nothing. You startled me."
Emma giggled. "Oops," she said and shrugged. "So... What do you have planned for us?"

Author's Note

Just something that I wrote a while back, would like to know if it's worth continuing. Friendly criticism is always welcome.