She was running.

Running bare-footed as fast as she could, feeling the prickly grass rubbing against the soles of her feet, trapped in a place she barely even recognised. The lack of recognition a result of the excessive foggy atmosphere engulfing her. She waved her hands futilely around herself in an almost stupid attempt to clear the haziness.

She thought she heard a shrill shriek from somewhere behind her and twirled around, fearfully. The fog dissipated in that exact moment as though someone was actively controlling her current situation and environment; almost as though she were the victim of a cruel joke.

She squinted hard into the distance and noticed a box laying there, just within her reach.

No, not a box. A coffin.

A short flight of stairs seemingly completely out of place, leading up the coffin. As she timidly walked towards it, she recognised the setting as a familiar church.

Once she reached the bottom of the staircase and eagerly placed her heel on the first step, she realised that she was unknowingly hitching her dress up to her knees and as she peered over her shoulder, she noticed the trail accompanying the dress.

She gasped. This was her wedding dress. And she'd just walked down the aisle on what appeared to be her own wedding day.

And suddenly, she heard a plethora of voices, each voice drowning out the other – voices that should've sounded joyful on such an eventful day but instead seemed to be the very product of fear and panic.

Elijah's pleading voice intermingled with Pattie's pleading voice, and then Valerie's pleading voice.

She shook her head violently trying to get rid of the noisy sounds, and as she glanced back up the stairs for a second time, she noticed a golden plaque on the table beside the coffin.

Kylie Campana

May you finally find peace in Heaven

21st April 1994 - 28th January 2018

She blinked once. And then again, and then several more times.

28th January 2018 was the very date set for her and Elijah's wedding day. She'd have recognised that date anywhere, for she had the reminder written on every calendar in their home.

What the actual fuck is going on?

She continued up the stairs, more cautiously this time, willing this all to be some kind of huge joke at her expense. But instead, she welcomed the feeling of the vomit creeping up her throat when she realised that the coffin had been left open and she was indeed, looking down at her dead best friends' corpse.

Her best friend who shocked her by being even more beautiful in death than she'd had been in life. The only difference was that the colour had drained from her face, rendering her much paler in contrast to her usual strikingly tanned skin and the slight bluish tinge of the skin around her eyes. She half-smiled when she saw that her lips were still painted red; that sinful red she'd always associate with only Kylie.

"Oh, Kylie. What happened to you? How did this...? When? Why today?" She whispered to Kylie's corpse as though she'd just jump up and be okay again.

She heard loud sobbing sounds emerge from behind her and turning slightly on her heel, she was welcomed with the view of Elijah who had now somehow appeared and was standing up behind her and staring into the coffin too. The tears rolled down his cheeks and kept on rolling.

Elijah was crying in a way Jess had never seen any man cry before.

"Elijah, please don't cry. Tell me how this happened. Why is she in there? How can she be...dead?" She cried out, grabbing his white tie, and as she did so, the tie became a murky red colour. She jumped back in shocked as she realised that the red liquid was dripping off like an avalanche of blood.

Elijah didn't appear to hear Jess's question, nor did he seem to notice the red fluid seeping down from his tie and forming puddles on the ground below him.

A salty taste was beginning to form in Jess's mouth and she realised she was crying too. She wiped away the tears from around her mouth absentmindedly, but when she brought her hand back down, she realised it was stained with blood.

Not like the fresh pools of blood dripping down from Elijah's tie but stained as though it was days old from a crime a long time committed.

From the corner of her eye, she watched as Kylie's eyes fluttered open in response to Elijah's touch and Jess was horrified by what she saw, so much so that her body bucked slightly and she toppled down the short flight of stairs until her body lay flat on the floor.

The shock came from the fact that it wasn't Kylie's warm brown hued eyes that stared back of Elijah but rather the set of eyes that she knew oh-so-well. For she saw them every single time she looked into the mirror. She'd gazed directly into her own bright green orbs.

Jess jolted upright in the bed with a start, her gasping breaths emerging from deep within her throat as though she'd just completed a whole marathon.

"Jess? Jess, what's wrong?" Elijah switched the bedside lamp on, slowly sitting up. The duvet cover fell from his body, revealing his still completely nude body from their night of passion.

Jess opened her mouth to explain the horrifying events of her dream but quickly shut her mouth as she realised she wouldn't be able to form any words. Instead, she hopped out of the bed from beneath the covers and ran into the bathroom.

She peered up at herself in the mirror and was slightly startled when she was met with her own murky green eyes. They seemed odd, wrong even after she'd seen them as a part of Kylie. As though despite the fact that they were intrinsically a part of Jess, they'd be much better suited to Kylie.

"Just a dream. It was just a dream. You're fine, Kylie's fine and Elijah's fine. Just a dream. A silly dream." She repeated like a mantra, splashing ice cold water over her face, trying to avoid gazing into her own eyes in the mirror again.

Elijah wandered into the bathroom after her. He'd managed to find a t-shirt to cover his muscular torso with but his tiredness was amplified by the fact that he'd accidentally worn the t-shirt back-to-front as well as inside-out. Jess giggled lightly when she noticed his mistake.

"Bad dream, huh?" He asked sheepishly after realising the reasoning behind Jess's giggles.

"More like a bloody horror story. What time is it?"

"Six a.m. What did you dream about then?" He gripped her wrists gently pulling her back towards their king-sized bed.

Elijah wouldn't have described himself as fickle-minded more so than just being completely lost. He believed he'd tried his best in trying to explain to Jess why they couldn't work anymore, as well as giving her numerous non-verbal cues that his interest just wasn't her anymore but with Jess, nothing ever seemed to work.

"I'd rather not talk about it." She yawned, turning onto her side.

Elijah could hear the clock ticking loudly over the unbearable silence. The silence was almost like an entire entity in itself. The silence reminded Elijah that Kylie was there. With them. Metaphorically lying in their bed between them. A constant painful barrier.

"Kylie told me...well me and Pattie what you told her yesterday. About thinking someone pushed you down the stairs that night, when...you know, it happened." He rapidly forced the words out, desperate for something, anything other than the usual silence.

Jess turned back towards him, narrowing her eyes slightly, slightly annoyed by his choice of words, "I don't 'think' it, I know someone pushed me. I know what I felt, and I felt a hand on my back."

"Okay...well, who would do that? Someone, we know...or?"

"I don't know. Maybe someone we know who isn't mentally stable, someone who might be really messed up." She continued slowly, avoiding eye contact.

"Sounds like you've already got someone in mind."

She shrugged gently, "the only mentally unstable person I know is Valerie."

"Valerie? What, Valerie as in Kylie's mother?" He raised his brows at her, surprised by her conjecture.

She nodded slowly, glancing back at him to see his expression.

"Are you being serious? You can't just accuse her. What reason does she even have in the first place?"

"I'm not accusing her. I'm merely stating a fact. Plus, you asked my opinion and I gave it to you. I've hardly filed a police report on her, have I? But I want answers, I need to know why this happened."

"I get that, I do. But she's fine now. And just because someone's suffering from depression, it doesn't mean they're going to go and throw someone down a flight of stairs. Don't you think it's more reasonable to believe this could have been a burglar?"

"Maybe, but look let's leave this. I don't want to fight. Not now." She sighed.

We're not fighting, he wanted to yell at her. How could we ever get married and stay happy when you shut me down whenever there's a slight difference in opinions, he thought to himself.

"Should we tell Kylie what we discussed last night today?" She sat up on her knees, excited and grateful for the change in the topic.

"What's the rush?" He replied, shifting uncomfortably beside her; the mere mention of Kylie sending unexplainable feelings throughout his very being.

"Well, we do need to give her some time to pack, don't we? We can't just tell her one day and expect her to be gone the next, we need to give some notice, right? So, we should just get it over and done with and tell her today?"

"I suppose so." He responded hesitantly.

Elijah wasn't at all looking forward to Kylie's reaction when she heard Jess's change of plans.

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Authors' Note: Okay, so I found this chapter a lil difficult to write and feel like it was a slight filler-like chapter hence why I added the dream sequence.

Anyway, just a heads up, I am going to leave what happened to Jess that night for the next couple of chapters but it'll be coming out with a bang, I promise so stay tuned for that ;)!

Thanks to everyone who's still stayed with me despite the huge break I took! I'm thankful for each and every one of you. It means the world to me! Please do leave comments and vote if you enjoyed :)!