All Good Things

“…I’m going to leave now.”

Dana and the others were stricken by the look on the teenager’s face as she said this. Suddenly, it was a different person they were looking at. Like an executioner prepared for their duty, there was fear in her eyes, and yet- that fear was tempered. It was only a breeze of it that escaped her, as she was not betrayed by this expression, but rather, supported by it, the little bit of humanity showing through making the people of Wirestone confident she would be able to complete her task, whatever horrors awaited her when she found her beloved sister.

“Where will you go…?” Dana asked, honestly. It was not clear to even her where the other girl might be at that moment. But she didn’t know her like Frankie did.

“Don’t worry.” She uttered. “I know where to look.”

Outside, pink clouds gathered. The grayness of the overcast afternoon could not hide the innards of the universe lurking beneath. It was under this cotton-candy atmosphere that Katie stood looking at the remains of the X Dreadnought, trying to cry.

What was left of the coaster remained near to the ground like a resting snake. The pathways were still visible, but strewn with the gore of metal and wood blocking any clear way forward. Whether or not the sloppy piece had been something great once, you couldn’t tell now. It appeared as little more than a playground for the damned.

For some reason, this day of all days, she couldn’t muster a single tear.

“Kate.”

Her raven hair billowed in the howling winds. Frankie swallowed throat-tears as her sister revealed herself, a lifeless, weary face resembling another person entirely gazing back at her.

She didn’t look like she craved to be released. Not anymore. Rather, the tiny eyes boring into Frankie wanted one thing- and it made her sick, even if she understood it.

“Arrow told me, Frankie. He told me we wouldn’t make it past today.”

Immediately Frankie started shivering. It felt like the wind was only growing louder and colder as she tried to speak, slashing at her skin.

“…That's okay.”

She choked out the words like she was about to cry. She was. Her parents were still at home. Cheryl was still at home.

She was never going to see them again.

“Don’t lie to yourself.” Her elder sister scolded, clenching her teeth.

“I’m not lying.”

The tears finally came to Katie. Not from herself or anything physical she saw, rather, the very implication that what had become of her and her sister’s life could ever be described as “Okay.”

“You don’t get to go again, Frankie! This is it. Last ride before the day ends.” She abruptly bolted into a screech, clawing at herself as she lurched her body forward to cry out at her sister in as wretched and forceful way as possible. “Park’s closing! What are you gonna do about it? Sit there and pretend like nothing’s happening?”

Frankie looked at the dirt beside her shoes.

“…I’m… I’m gonna try and spend it with my sister. The time I’ve got left.”

The scorching, humiliating pain of the world’s ugliest torture popped inside Katie’s bulging eye.

Frankie was smiling.

The little sister just stood there and watched for a moment as her elder started screaming. Wordlessly, she began to expel every inch of pain in her body. Every injustice she’d ever suffered, every time she’d been let down, every promise that went unfulfilled, every ride she’d never ridden. Frankie thought she was just letting it all out. Really, she was only winding up.

Katie bolted towards her sister with one outstretched hand, fingers poised as if to scratch her.

Instinctively, she dodged, standing behind Katie now, where she’d once been.

Katie twitched. Frankie gasped as she saw the ground under her, surrounding where her hand had landed. A blank crater of air had formed, the dirt displaced like a bomb had gone off where her palm had landed.

“W-what did you… do-“

Half a syllable into her last word, Katie leapt at Frankie with all the fury of a frenzied animal.

“DISMANTLE—!”