The girls sat in darkness, huddled together, trying so hard to quiet themselves, trying so hard to hide. Both their minds and hearts were racing as they tried to straighten their thoughts; had she seen them, could she hear them? She couldn't possibly, Marisa thought. They had been inside Alice's toy chest almost a whole minute before Alice's mommy had stormed into the room, and they hadn't made a peep since.

Almost. Alice had started crying after her mom began shouting, but all she'd let out was a scared squeak before grabbing Marisa's hand and squeezing hard. She knew she needed to be quiet, or something much, much worse than yelling would happen.

"ALICE!"

There was a loud thud outside, like something heavy got pushed over. Alice's bed? Marisa was suddenly glad they decided to hide in the chest instead, although now she couldn't help but worry that Alice's mom would knock over the chest, too.

"A-LICE!"

The smaller blonde shuddered and pulled in closer to Marisa, grabbing the other girl around the torso and hiding her face in her shoulder like she wanted to disappear. Marisa didn't blame her. Alice's mommy was just as scary as Marisa's daddy.

Stomping footsteps circled the room, pausing only to throw aside another piece of furniture, every once in a while. Marisa thought she could hear her mutter some bad words under her breath, too, when she wasn't screaming for Alice to come out from her hiding spot.

Her breath hitched a bit when she heard the footsteps draw right beside the chest, and Marisa's arms very quickly found their way around Alice in turn. Her heartbeat grew so loud in her ears she was certain Alice's mama could hear it and after everything they'd been through was she going to find them now?

And then, the door slammed.

Both girls froze.

Did she... leave?

Marisa pressed her ear to the side of the chest. She couldn't hear any footsteps, or yelling, or bad words. She held her breath, and listened as carefully as she possibly could, straining her ears to catch every last little sound... and...

... nothing.

She was gone.

Both girls let out a relieved breath, releasing the tension in their tiny bodies, Alice giggling a little through the last of her terrified tears because they'd done it, they'd finally done it, they were home free now; out Alice's window they would go and away to somewhere new, somewhere without demons in the basement and worse upstairs. Marisa put her hands up to the lid of the chest and began to push.

And push.

And push some more.

The lid wouldn't open.

Alice stopped laughing.

Marisa stared upwards at the lid in utter disbelief, before hesitantly putting a hand up to the top and pushing again. Nothing. Harder. Nothing. She slammed both hands against the top again and again and again and still nothing.

It was locked.

Both realized they must have missed the tiny, vital click of a key. Marisa's hands found their way to the sealed seam of the chest, scraping her fingers across the wood in the hopes of finding some way to pry it open, any way to pry it open, but she found none. She wasn't strong enough to break it open, out here. They didn't have any bombs that weren't pretend (and besides, it was a really bad idea to put one right next to them) and a key wouldn't help from the inside.

They came to the second realization that the air was starting to get heavy, and Alice started to cry again.

End of the line.

Marisa tried to reassure her best friend (only friend) that they were going to be okay, that there was some way they would get out of this, that someone would let them out, that this wasn't really it, and she realized there was water dripping down her own face, and she gave up trying, grabbed Alice's hand.

She hadn't really thought about... going away like this before, what it would be like. She was sure - pretty sure - kind of sure - she hoped beating up the Devil had given her back her soul, because Alice looked so scared and Marisa didn't like the idea that she would be going all by herself.

She didn't think Alice should be so scared about going to Heaven anyway, but she didn't say so, because she didn't want Alice to cry any more, and she was tired, so she laid down in the bottom of the chest and so did Alice.

And okay, Marisa was scared too, she admitted, but not about going to Hell, because she was pretty sure she wasn't going anyway and she wasn't scared of that green-haired liar, but she thinks said liar might be mad at her for hitting her so many times in that fight and also for stealing some stuff, so she might make her do harder things than bad kids usually had to do, like jumping jacks for ten years or something. Alice giggles when she says that, and smiles, and says she'd come visit her if she went somewhere else, and that she'd bring her chocolate too, because there had to be chocolate in Heaven, right?

So Marisa laughs too, and she feels dizzy and her chest hurts, like she was holding her breath too long, but she wasn't, she was breathing but that just makes it hurt more and she doesn't know what to do so she rolls closer to Alice who's breathing funny too, and she's warm and it makes her feel a little better.

She's really sleepy now, and she mumbles that Alice's mom could have at least sung them a lullaby or something, and she knows there's something really wrong when Alice still giggles very quietly even though Marisa just mentioned her scary mom. Marisa wonders if going makes you laugh, or something, for a minute until she realizes that Alice stopped laughing and she looks asleep but her belly is heaving up and down, up and down, and Marisa starts crying again and decides going away does not make you laugh.

She buries her face in Alice's hair because she likes how she smells (better than old air), and closes her eyes because she doesn't want to watch her best friend in the world die, and she shudders because she feels cold but Alice is still warm?

She wants to fall asleep before Alice's belly stops moving, so she hugs very tight to Alice, and thinks about God for a second because even though she was making jokes she really, really doesn't want to go to Hell and she doesn't want Alice to be alone, so she lets out a breath, and she stops trying to be awake and she falls into black, and maybe she is dreaming about Alice and being outside and seeing the sun and being happy.

They do not die quickly, but they die together.