A Day By The Water {open}

[Bridget Shine]

There was never anything still in the forest, perhaps that’s what Bridget loved most about it. There was always some creature stirring, the leaves dancing in the wind, and her favorite sound, the dull roar of the water fall hidden deep within the woods. It was a constant sound that filled the background of her mind, allowing her muscles to relax and her thoughts to wash away with the clear running water. It’s why she ventured out here so soon after arriving. She had hoped that it would be the key to clearing her mind and allow her to processes all the information her cousin had told her.

Only a few days back and she had only seen a single person, her cousin Ashton. She had so many people on her list to see but she didn’t know where to start, especially with all the changes that had gone on while she was away. He had given her a brief overview of what had gone down at the battle and what followed after. Well, what he knew since he kind of hid from the world for a while. Everything was so different and she felt horrible that all of her closest friends, people she had considered family thought she was dead. Not to mention they were all working through their grief and beginning to move on with their life, should she really disturb that flow?

Heaving a sigh, she sat down along the edge of the waterfall. Her pink hair was worked into a braid. With her thoughts absorbed with the simple moment of her fingers and the rushing water in front of her, she didn’t even register the sound of something shifting behind her. It wasn’t until the steps were only a few feet away that the sound finally registered, causing her attention to turn to the new arrival. “Lovely day, isn’t it?” She called quietly, finishing off the braid and placing her hat back on her head. She leaned back, her fingers digging into the earth. She wasn’t quite brave enough to see if it was someone she knew or if it was a stranger, she was almost hoping for a stranger.

[Meredith]

My name is Meredith Jade Monroe.

Meredith was aimlessly stumbling through the forest, holding a bottle of wine and wearing the awkward combination of a pair of heels and her old school uniform bearing the Ashford insignia, which announced her position as a prefect to anyone who passed her. The heels were from a mandatory meeting with Ashford officials at their headquarters. The words 'mandatory meeting' had taken on new meaning ever since she had been kidnapped and forced to live in a human-sized test tube, released only occasionally for cryogenic and electroshock tests, while her DNA was used to produce a prototype clone. Before that incident, 'mandatory' had simply meant that there was some vague notion of consequences if she did not attend. After the incident, 'mandatory' meant that she would be stuffed on a helicopter at some point and brought to headquarters in handcuffs to receive updated orders and threats in a place where the officials would have the upper hand. This usually meant a weak tranquilizer and lots of pointed shotguns.

I belong to Ashford Academy.

Her uniform no longer fit her; the skirt was too short, the chest fit too tightly, and she had long abandoned the formality of wearing it. She had gained enough leverage with the Ashford Project such that many of her outrightly defiant choices were tolerated, and an infringement as trivial as refusing to wear a uniform was easily ignored. But that afternoon, she had pulled the outfit out of the back of her closet, dusted it off, and put it on as a symbol. It was a symbol of a return: she was tired of the new "normal" on the island. The new normal of everyone she loved being dead. The new normal of chaos and fighting. The new normal of everlasting darkness. When she had first assumed her (unofficial) position as prefect second-in-command, everything had been good for a while. She and Seth were in love. There was the promise of a child, and even when that was taken away, something else of good came from it: she and Calista became 'sisters', and the prefects and Battle Front united, and there was peace.

I am their prefect commander.

Peace.

The word sounded so unfamiliar under the new circumstances. Seth was gone, probably forever. Her sanity was also probably long gone. The peace had faded. So many had died. Times had changed.

I have been here for seven years.

But she wasn't accepting it any longer. She was taking the island back, restoring what little peace they knew at the very least, and saving its prisoners if she could, even if these were the last things she did, and donning her old uniform was a symbol of that. An awkward symbol, considering how poorly it fit her body, but a symbol nonetheless.

My fiance is dead. Almost everyone I love is dead.

Coming out of her thoughts for a moment, Meredith realized that in wandering aimlessly about the forest to clear her mind, she had accidentally reached the waterfall. She had always loved the waterfall. Before the darkness on the island took over, she had come there often. It was a place she could hear her own thoughts. Everywhere else, the surrounding death overwhelmed her and rendered her incapable of focusing on anything but business. Here, she could sneak in a few thoughts about herself and rediscover her center. It also happened to be where she felt Seth's presence most strongly, since it was the last place they were together alone. That all seemed so long ago, yet it seemed fitting that upon newly finding her determination and purpose, she would end up at her old thinking place. 

But I am alive.

And even more fitting that Bridget Shine would be there. It was strange that Bridget and Meredith had never really been "best friends" or anything like that. The best words to describe their relationship would probably be something along the lines of "intimately acquainted." They were linked through several common loved ones, they fit into the same circle, and they had spent time together on more than one occasion, but paradoxically, despite being well acquainted with one another, a true bond of deep friendship had never formed. This seemed like as good a time as any to change that...

"Not as lovely as the sight of you, Bridget," Meredith greeted. Though she had heard that Bridget's disappearance and alleged death had been nothing but rumors, and the pink-haired thief was returned to the island in all her glory, Meredith had been too busy and wrapped up in her own life and problems to see it for herself. But now that she was finally seeing Bridget, it almost felt like coming home, similar to how she felt when she found time to spend with Calista. The truth was that though Bridget had never really been Meredith's closest friend... she was family. Meredith, Bridget, and Calista were some of the only survivors from the earliest wave of students. They had seen and suffered the most, and they had done it together. Survival created an unspoken bond that no amount of sleepovers or gossip sessions could achieve. Meredith sat down next to Bridget and wordlessly handed her the uncorked bottle of wine.

And their deaths will not be in vain.

[Bridget Shine]

How had so much happened in such a short amount of time? So many were gone and those who remained were beyond repair. It managed to twist her soul into new forms that she didn’t think was possible. New pain that she didn’t believe was even imaginable. All the news left a bitter taste in her mouth, but to top it all off, those who she had wished to save by cooperating with the government were nowhere to be found. The people she loved, especially a boy with sapphires for eyes, were dust in the wind. And that very thought made her want to shut everything out and never feel again.

Feelings and thoughts ran circles in her head as her fingers mechanically worked her long, pink hair into a braid. The outside world had momentarily been shut away as memories of red dresses and fireflies danced across her eyes. Then, the pain slowly began to ache through her body as she realized she would never get a chance to make memories like that again and those sparkling fireflies would only kiss her skin in far off dreams. How many times had she thought the same thing and had been proven wrong? Too many, but this time, some how it felt different. Like that angel cloaked in darkness and decay had finally won.

It wasn’t until fast approaching and uneven footsteps broke through those thoughts that Bridget dropped the braid, her hands coming to fold around her legs as her finger nails bit into the pale skin. Who could possibly be out at the waterfall right now? Bridget fully understood that it wasn’t as much as a secret anymore but she still hoped that the space was somehow less trafficked than elsewhere around the island. A familiar, yet extremely unexpected, voice danced into her ears. Bridget shifted herself to see the mighty Alpha prefect coming closer. Her old uniform clung to her curves, pulling at the wrong places but somehow still seeming to give off a professional vibe.

She couldn’t quite picture the last time she had spoken to Mer, or seen her for that matter. Had it been Pitch Black? Perhaps. It seemed the only time that Bridget ran outside of her normal circles was during world ending disasters, but doesn’t everyone tend to branch off during those times? While she couldn’t picture the not so distant past, she could see the timid and shy girl that she had first met on the beach years ago. A mousy little girl with dyed red hair and an unusual love for gummy bears, “What brings you all the way out to the water fall? Planning on giving me a detention for not being in uniform?” She added a teasing end, unwrapping herself and crossing her legs.

She took the bottle of wine, evaluating the context with a light swirl of the liquid before downing a good bit. She let the alcohol settle on her lips for a moment before handing it back to her old friend. Was friend the correct word? They might have been good friends oh so long ago but where did they stand now? After all, the bad blood that ran between them wasn’t easily forgotten. Yet, as they sat there Bridget didn’t feel any negative emotion towards the girl, nor from her. Perhaps, after everything that happened it would still be possible for them to get along, “When did you get back?” She questioned softly, her electric blue eyes falling on the commander.

[Meredith]

The scattered sounds of the forest seemed to syncopate with Meredith's heartbeat while the dull roar of the waterfall melded with the buzzing in her mind. All of it seemed to come together, forming a chorus of dissonance that served to mute any individual noise until Bridget spoke.

“What brings you all the way out to the water fall? Planning on giving me a detention for not being in uniform?”

Her voice snapped Meredith out of the short-lived trance, and she jumped a bit, seeming to suddenly remember that she wasn't alone, courtesy of the full bottle she had already downed. She thought about the question for a second before waving it off, indicating that she could not have cared less about Bridget not being in uniform. Just to make her point of how little she cared, she hastily unbuttoned her own uniform jacket, yanked it off her arms, and carelessly threw it to the side, revealing that underneath, the all-powerful and respected leader was wearing a tank top decorated with a picture of a giant colorful gummy bear instead of the expected white blouse. 

“When did you get back?”

As for the question of when she had escaped her test tube at the Ashford facilities and made it back to the island, Meredith tried searching her brain for the correct answer, but the inebriation wouldn't let her dig very deep, and her life had become a confusing, chaotic blur of death and paperwork anyway.

"I don't know," she slurred briefly, resting her chin on her knees. She would have taken her bottle back, but something in the back of her mind said she'd already had too much, and something about Bridget's face told her the pink-haired girl had just as many sorrows to drown at the moment.

"It's just us now," Meredith finally said softly. Her voice was calm and even, rather than full of distress, but it was empty; a hollow echo of the warmth she used to emanate when things were better. "Even Cali is gone. What are we going to do?"  Though Meredith knew that it would be a slight exaggeration to say that she and Bridget were close, it had been so long since the "queen of the prefects" had felt anything but alone. So many were dead. Calista was nowhere to be found, likely plucked off the island to be sold as a military weapon, just like Seth before her. She wondered if Bridget perhaps felt similarly, having returned to the island only to learn of Chandler's unfortunate fate. Despite having a reputation of being dignified and reserved, both physically and emotionally, Meredith decided to throw that to the wind and brazenly rested her head on Bridget's shoulder. If the younger girl thought it was weird and awkward, well, Meredith was willing to take that risk. She needed a friend.

[Bridget Shine]

It wasn’t every day that you saw the head of the prefects completely drunk off her ass. This was the first and probably wasn’t going to be the last time that she saw this new side of Mer either but Bridget wasn’t one to complain, especially as she took a sip of the alcohol and let the comforting burn slide down her throat. When her attention off the bottle now firmly in her hands, her gaze switched to Meredith once more and she nearly burst out in laughter. The gummy bear shirt was so fitting for old Mer. For the Mer that Bridget had met centuries ago on that beach.

Grinning widely, Bridget adored the fact that she had uncovered a memory that didn’t make her chest clench up in pain. She reveled in it for a moment or two until Meredith had settled next to her. “I love the shirt,” she nodded a bit in the direction of the colorful gummy bear. However, the fun and games couldn’t last forever as another question came to the forefront of her mind. When had Mer gotten back? Before or after her own arrival? She hadn’t seen much of anyone lately so she really had no guess. Not to mention the last time she was on the island she thought the prefect commander was on the other side.

But as Bridget watched Meredith struggle to come up with an answer a small frown came to her lips. She couldn’t remember, whether that was from the booze or from something else she wasn’t sure. That uncertainty left a rather nasty taste in her mouth for the moment, so to counter it she took another swig hoping to ease the tension building in the corners of her mind. Placing the bottle on the ground next to her, on the side Mer wasn’t. She couldn’t have them both be completely intoxicated if there was any hope for a safe trip back to the school. Bridget was kind of surprised Mer hadn’t snapped her ankle on the way here in those heels.

Quietly, she listened to Mer ask a question that Bridget simply didn’t have the answer too. She already felt out of place on the island. Like she was part of a world that had long since passed and would find no place in this one. The pink haired girl suspected that her friend felt the same as she felt the weight of Mer’s hair lean on her shoulder. She didn’t wiggle, she didn’t flinch but instead she placed an arm around Mer’s shoulders and squeezed it, trying to be as comforting as possible. “I don’t know but we’ve survived this long… I think we can manage for a little bit longer.”

She stayed there quietly for a moment, focusing on the running water not a foot from them. Finally, she swallowed the lump in her throat and glanced over at Meredith. “Hey, Mer?” she questioned softly, not bothering to hide the fear in her voice, “What do you mean by ‘Even Cali is gone’? What happened?” The pink haired girl was aware most of her friends where gone, the guy she had fallen for was gone again, and her family was uprooted and ripped to shreds. The one thing she hadn’t heard was that Cali, the commander of the battle front was ‘gone’. She hoped that it meant she was just hiding out somewhere but she had a sickly feeling that she was being far too optimistic.

[Meredith]

When Bridget complimented her shirt, Meredith had to look down to see which one she happened to put on that day, and upon noticing that it was her beloved gummy bear tank top, she chuckled quietly to herself. It was a rather perfect coincidence, she had to admit, considering their meeting so long ago in front of another body of water. How long had it actually been? It must have been years, but it felt like a lifetime. Back then, Bridget was just a pink-haired girl with a fear of water and a penchant for sarcasm, and Meredith was just an awkward little creature with a strong love for gummy bears and very poor social skills. Bridget was merely a supporter of the Battlefront, and Meredith only had dreams of becoming a prefect to make her late twin sister proud. Who could guess that in time, Bridget would come to be the Battlefront's second-in-command for a time, and Meredith would be the one and only leader of the prefects? And who could guess that they would once again find themselves sitting side-by-side, finding unlikely companionship, but under such different circumstances...?

“I don’t know, but we’ve survived this long… I think we can manage for a little bit longer.” It was such a simple answer: that anything, terrible or not, could happen, but whatever it was, they'd just find a way to survive. That unsugarcoated truth was oddly cathartic for Meredith to hear, especially with Bridget's arm wrapped around her shoulder. It was a strangely comforting experience, leaning against a friend and being neatly tucked under her arm. Even though Meredith and Calista had been close, both girls were so reserved that the love between them had never translated to the hugs and snuggles that most sisters indulged in freely. It was certainly new to Meredith to let someone in. She was so used to being the strong leader, the protector, that she had no idea how affection-starved she had been for the past few years and how much she missed the simple act of being held and comforted by someone else. The sweet moment combined with the alcohol to miraculously synthesize a few tears, a rare occurrence for the queen of repression. The tears rolled down Mer's cheeks and onto Bridget's shoulders. A sober Meredith would have been mortified, but intoxicated Meredith realized that it was no secret to the circle of prominent prefects and Battlefront members that the prefect leader, behind the carefully constructed facade, was a mess. And anyway, she was already drunk off her ass and letting herself be cradled like a little girl; what were a couple of tears? 

"Hey, Mer? What do you mean by 'Even Cali is gone?' What happened?” 

The question forced Meredith to sit up and quickly dry her eyes. Had Bridget really not heard? Her eyes widened as she realized she would be the one to deliver the news of her close friend's disappearance. She paused for a moment, mentally composing herself before she spoke.

"Oh, Bridget. I'm so sorry. The government took her. She's gone," she answered, forcing her words to be crisply enunciated, a stark contrast to her previous slurring. At the very least, Bridget deserved to have the news delivered clearly and swiftly, not mumbled incoherently, which would only give the girl a chance to doubt what she heard, stretching out the blow of the bad news.

Meredith could count on one hand the number of times she had truly interacted with the Battlefront's former second-in-command, beyond hello's and other brief exchanges, but from those few encounters, she did know that Bridget processed grief differently from other people, and as much as she knew Bridget loved Cali, she doubted that the pink-haired vixen would suddenly display an outpouring of grief or want to have an impromptu heart-to-heart. Still, she waited, ready to switch roles and be the comforter, or whatever Bridget happened to need, if anything.