Pretty Dead by Francesca Lia Block

happened?” he asked me. There were tears in his eyes. “Tell me what happened! Who did this to her? Was it him? Did he kill her and bring her back? Did I bring her back because I wanted her so much?”
    “I’ll tell you,” William answered, stepping between me and Jared. “Charlotte killed your Emily. Or almost killed her. I came along just in time. I saw that pretty face, those sweet eyes and lips. I knew I couldn’t live without her, and I heard her ask for it. ‘On nights like this, when everything is so beautiful, I want to live forever.’”
    The room seemed to be growing smaller. “What did you say?” I grabbed William’s arm, but he brushed me away like an insect.
    “So I made her,” he said. “But it was almost too late. Too much damage had been done. I had to make a bargain, an exchange.”
    “What are you talking about?” I lunged at him, and he caught me in his arms. “That thing you said! About Emily wanting to live forever. You heard her say that? She said that to me.”
    “Yes, darling. I was watching it all.”
    “You were there? How dare you! You have always tried to control me. Always!”
    William smiled. “Perhaps. But look what you have received now. Look what I have given you.”
    And he touched a finger to my cheek, wet it in my tears, and dabbed the salty substance onto his lips.

Rage
    T hat night Emily had brought her boyfriend, Jared Pierce, over to my house. They’d already been drinking when they arrived and stood swaying on my doorstep, giggling, a bottle of red wine in Emily’s hands.
    I remember thinking, You are so lucky, Emily. You are both so lucky.
    She didn’t need to bother with makeup or pretty clothes. He loved her in a baggy sweatshirt, cutoffs and sneakers. She barely came up to his armpit. He was so tall that even I felt small next to him, almostpetite. I loved that feeling.
    “Can we go swimming in your pool, Char?” Emily cooed. “Please?”
    I let them in and we drank the wine and ate some caviar.
    “Ooh, salty fish eggs, yum,” Emily said. At that moment she sounded childish to me in an affected way, not like her lovely, innocent self. Jared didn’t say much at all, but I could feel him watching me, and I could tell Emily noticed. Her eyes flicked back and forth between us like black butterflies.
    “You’re so dressed up!” she said in a hard little voice full of italics. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without makeup and jewelry. It’s so grown-up of you.”
    Jared looked nervous, picking up on the female tension. It was hard to miss, more obvious than the huge antique-jade necklace I wore.
    “Put on Interpol!” Emily squealed. She was taking off her baggy sweatshirt. Under it she had a boy’swhite undershirt and no bra—the usual. She ran outside. “It’s cold! But the water’s warm. Oh my God! Jared, come on!”
    He followed her out there. He’d hardly said a word to me the whole time. I watched them strip. His body looked huge next to hers. He got in the pool and held her, and I knew that under the water she was wrapping her legs around his waist.
    I came and stood by the pool. The garden lights streaked the water with pale, shaking light. I undressed slowly, expecting them to watch me, but Emily pulled Jared around so his back was to me, and she started kissing him. Neither of them saw my perfect white body, naked and glowing in the night like a rare flower that, if plucked and consumed, could bring eternal life. They have no idea what they are missing, I thought.
    But the truth was, I was the one missing out. And I knew it.
    I remembered that day by the lake so long ago, older than human memory. Monster memory, it was.But I was not a monster yet. I was a girl as beautiful as a flowering tree, undressing for a boy as beautiful as a lake. And as much as I was a part of the trees and he was a part of the lake, we were even more a part of each other. I was a girl diving into the blue water, splashing and swimming and happy and