I climbed to the top of the ridge and took a deep breath. The left side of my stomach hurt still. I looked down and there was blood on my white shirt. When I lifted the shirt, there wasn’t anything there, though. No blood. No mark. Nothing. But there was blood on my shirt.

I rubbed my forehead, I had a bit of a headache.

But the ridge felt good.

I took a deep breath.

I looked up to the clear sky.

Blue sky. White clouds. Almost like a picture. You know? Like something you’d find on a greeting card in some convenience store off a highway when you were filling up the tank with some gas and grabbing a snack and a soda.

“Come sit next to me.”

I jumped when I heard the voice.

I knew that voice.

I looked to my right and froze.

It was her.

It was…

“Ava?” I whispered.

She reached over with her left hand and patted the spot next to her.

Her back was to me.

She was sitting right on the edge of the ridge. Her feet dangled off the dangerous edge.

She could fall and get…

Wait. What’s happening here? Ava can’t be here. This is can’t be…

“Come on, Maddox,” she said. “We don’t have much time.”

I approached her. A wind kicked up, blowing her hair back. My nose twitched when the familiar smell of her shampoo hit me. Some kind of weird berry stuff, something that I’d never really smelled again. The scent that I would forever pin to her. It was so real.

I looked over the edge of the ridge and saw the massive drop.

Holy shit.

It was as scary as ever. Funny because now it seemed like it was miles down instead of a couple hundred feet. You’d think when we were younger it would look worse than it actually was but it was the opposite.

Ava moved her hand away and I slowly sat down.

I put my feet over the edge.

My heart was racing. My stomach was knotted up.

The damn ridge still scared me.

I turned my head and looked at her.

I caught a quick glimpse of her pretty face before the wind reversed itself and pushed her hair forward, blocking her face.

“Ava…how can this be…”

“That night wasn’t your fault, Maddox,” she said. “I’ve thought about it for a really long time. And it wasn’t your fault. I never wanted it to be your fault.”

I swallowed hard, the emotion swelling in my throat.

“Ava…”

Her left hand reached for mine.

Her hand was icy cold. And it felt wrinkled. Like it had been in water for a long time.

I shivered.

“Please don’t hold my guilt anymore, Maddox. You don’t have to. You don’t need to. You saved her. You saved her from what I became. I love you for that.”

“How do you know about Hazel?” I asked. “Are you watching…I mean, is any of that real?”

Ava turned her head. She reached across her body with her right hand and moved the hair out of her face. And there she was. She was really there.

Her pretty face. Those perfect features, like she had been specially designed. Her tiny button nose that was so cute. Her thin lips that were always the perfect color, never in need of lipstick to look better than they were. Her left ear pierced twice with little fake diamonds and her right ear pierced three times. She smiled, her teeth white and perfect. So straight after those few awkward years of wearing braces. Her soft and round chin with just the slightest hint of a dimple.

Ava.

My Ava.

She was really there.

“Maddox, anything is real, if you believe it. And I need you to believe that the past is done. You can’t go back. I can’t go back. And it doesn’t matter if we could go back and change anything either.”

“I know that. I just wish I-”

“You’re doing it again,” Ava said. “We had good times together, Maddox. And I don’t want you to think about what I did. I never meant for things to spiral the way they did. It had nothing to do with you. You gave me time, Maddox. Precious and beautiful time. When you get to this side of things, time is worthless. Time is an illusion. Time is torture. You’d give anything to look at a clock, see it move, and feel something happening. You gave that to me. And I could only see that after I was gone. Don’t make my mistake.”

“Ah, shit, Ava, nothing about you was ever a mistake,” I said. “I want you to know that.”

“Stand up with me, Maddox.”

I slid back, my legs still jittery from the cliff.

Then I stood up.

On the ridge.

With Ava.

It was hard to believe it was real. It was impossible. She was gone. I wasn’t gone.

The knife.

I looked down.

The blood on my shirt.

Fuck.

I was dead. That’s what it was. I was dead.

I looked at Ava again.

She smiled. She touched my lips and shook her head.

“Look out there,” she whispered. “To the edge. Do it for me.”

I turned my head. I swallowed hard.

I didn’t want to be dead. I couldn’t be dead. I had so much to do with Hazel.

Hazel…

“… with the green eyes,” Ava whispered.

Then she giggled.

I tried to look back but barely caught sight of Ava.

I felt her hand slam against my back.

I stepped forward.

I went over the edge of the cliff…just like she did years ago.