𝗥𝗘𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗘𝗦, 𝙅𝙊𝙃𝙉 𝘽 ¹.

𝙭𝙭𝙞𝙭. 𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚

( 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙒𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙔 𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙀. )
▬▬▬∘◦ ☆ ◦∘▬▬▬

ORANGE, RED, AND YELLOW tones swirled perfectly together, allowing the sun to sit just above the horizon, dimly shining throughout the land of Outer Banks, the happiest place on earth, which indicated that night time was slowly beginning to approach the residents of Kildare county. The long, eventful day would soon come to an end and tomorrow would be a completely different day.

The sunset reminded Jaylene of the good days. The hot, summer days when she was just a clueless child who would run around all day in the sun with all the other children who lived in Figure Eight. Back when she had no idea how cruel the world truly was. The age of innocence, that's what it was.

Children were the innocent creatures of the world. They didn't know about the darkness that lured through the shadows all day, everyday. And that was because they didn't have to. No one should ever have to worry about having the image of a deceased body implanted into their brain, playing in a loop and slowly beginning to drive them insane.

But that's exactly what was happening to Jaylene Rosewood every single time she closed her eyes.

She didn't have any tears left to cry anymore. She wasn't sad either, which was strange. The sheer amount of trauma she'd endured had been enough to rip the sadness out of her. If anything, she felt this deep hatred for herself for not being able to help Susan Peterkin when the woman was desperately clinging onto her life on that runway. There was nothing she could've done to stop the bullet from piercing into her skin, she knew that. But she felt like she was somehow responsible for not staying with Rafe just a little bit longer earlier that day so that he wouldn't have done what he did.

If Wheezie hadn't shown up, Jaylene and Rafe never would've known that Ward and Sarah were gonna head to the Bahamas. Jaylene wouldn't have left and probably would've wasted the whole day at the Glissons' home. She wouldn't have put two and two together and realized that John B was telling the truth about Ward. That the man was in fact a cold-blooded, selfish murderer who didn't hold a single ounce of remorse in his body.

But would've didn't exist. It was impossible to go back in time to completely change certain events that had already occurred.

All Jaylene wanted was to forget. But she knew that there was only one way that could happen and she wasn't planning on falling back into her old habits that nearly left her dead.

Then again, that wasn't her decision to make. She had little to no self-control right now.

No matter how hard she tried pushing those tempting thoughts away, they refused to slip from her mind. They were there, relentlessly taunting her in hopes that she'd give in and intoxicate herself with something that would temporarily make her forget, taking the emotional pain away from her so that she wouldn't hate herself as much.