The autumn sky was pale orange and scattered with many a pink-tinted cloud. The air was thick with the sweet scent of maple leaves, in various shades of orange and gold in their descent to the dying grass. Little drops of dew clung to every shred of life in the semi-deserted park; the few high school students gathered there looked to the sky in hopes that the rain would hold off until long after the sun had set. A soft breeze tousled the amber hair of a fair-skinned girl in a tightly fit cotton top, who shivered with a deep scowl.

“I’m cold.” Her boyfriend wrapped his arms around her firmly, hugging her to him. She continued to pout. “A good boyfriend would offer me his coat.”

“Babe, I’m not wearing a coat.”

She rolled her eyes in disgust. “Whose fault is that?”

James slumped back against the bench with a melancholy sigh, his chestnut eyes slipping out of focus as his girlfriend prattled on mindlessly. A single owl called out in the distance to announce the setting sun, the soft tone carried by the chill breeze. The first stars were just beginning to surface, and a quiet voice echoed in his ear, “James.”

He shook himself. “What?”

She glanced at him coldly. “I didn’t say anything.”

“I thought I just heard you say…”

“You’re going crazy, James.” She sighed in annoyance. “I’m supposed to meet Jason at seven. Take me home.”

James scowled as she effortlessly hopped off his lap and leisurely headed towards his car. “Do you even love me at all, Adriana?” he asked bitterly.

Without bothering to look back, she replied, “I love cervical cancer more than I love you.”

James clenched his eyes shut angrily to the darkening world. He felt a palm brush soothingly against his skin, and his whole frame went rigid. The scent of freesia filled his nostrils as a voice murmured gently, “I loved you, James.” The soft hand continued to stroke his cheek. “Until the day I died.”

“Felicia,” he whispered, his eyes snapping open in surprise. For an instance he thought he saw two deep, silver-green eyes staring back at him, but with one blink they were gone.

“James!” Adriana shouted from across the field. “If I’m late and Jason breaks up with me I’m going to make your life a living hell!”

“Not like it’s not already,” he grumbled sourly. Warily, he pushed himself to his feet.

~

He stumbled into the blackness of his room long after midnight, his vision blurred with a night’s worth of his dad’s cheap whiskey. Tripping over a pile of dirty laundry, he caught himself on the corner of his desk with a shaky hand. His palm struck his forehead angrily in an attempt to shake the vertigo that seized him. “Stop spinning,” he slurred.

“Poor baby,” he thought he heard someone coo. He spun to face the voice, losing his footing as he did so and crashing to the floor. His head smacked against the desk, sending James into a tirade of curses.

“James? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Mom,” he snapped. “Go away!”

As he listened to her footsteps fade off, his eyes closed in exhaustion, and his arms fell limp at his sides. The very tips of his fingers brushed against a pile of papers, and he opened his eyes in surprise, picking up the stack and thumbing through it haphazardly. His hands stopped at a newspaper clipping his mom had once handed to him that he had never taken the time to read.

“Read it,” a voice whispered in his ear. James felt compelled to obey, his eyes, glazed over, skipping every other word. He had to reread the excerpt four times over before he grasped what he was seeing – it was an obituary from just a little less than a year ago.

“Felicia Antonello,” it read. “January 19, 1990 – October 7, 2007. Felicia Antonello, 17, of Salem, Oregon committed suicide Thursday night when she jumped from the roof of an apartment building. She was born in Portland to Jefferson B. Antonello of Olympia and Ariel M. Jacobson of Salem. Felicia enjoyed poetry, art and drama, and attended Salem High School. She is survived by her parents, her sister Angela, and her boyfriend, James Davis…”

A single tear fell from his eye and landed on the picture of the beautiful girl who had died. She had long, ebony hair with a perfect wave, and silver-green eyes that, even in the black and white picture the newspaper provided, seemed to dip into his soul. Her picturesque smile broke his heart, and a sob rose from him as he mourned for the girl he had loved.

“You still love me.” His eyes rose to his bed, where Felicia sat staring down at him with her accusing silver-green eyes. “And I loved you. With all my beating heart.”

James shook his head, sure he was hallucinating, but though the girl’s image faded from sight her voice remained, along with her signature scent of freesia. “Does Adriana love you, James? Does precious, pretty little Adriana, without a soul in her body, love you?”

“Why are you mocking me?” he sobbed.

“Why not?” she demanded. “You killed me.”

“I didn’t mean to!” he shouted. Furiously he threw the papers in his lap in the direction of her voice. Within moments the entire room was in disarray as he smashed, tore, and threw anything and everything that got in his path.

~

James stepped out onto the rooftop of his parents’ apartment building, nostalgia burning in his eyes. He had finally sobered up from the night before. The sun was just beginning to set, bathing the concrete in a golden hue. He remembered the scene so well; it was an evening just like the one that fateful October. The noise of the traffic below seemed so far away – all he could hear was screaming from a year ago below, as he remembered her pretty figure falling from the ledge.

“Falling?” He looked up to see her sitting on the very same ledge. “Don’t you remember, James? You pushed me.”

“Felicia…” He stared at the image before him with a mix of awe and remorse. He knew he was crazy; he knew she was dead, and he knew he had killed her. There was no way she was really sitting there in front of him.

“You let the world believe I jumped, James.” She kicked her feet unconsciously; he remembered vividly her deep-rooted need to keep moving. “My mom cried for months – you must know she blamed herself.”

“Why won’t you leave me alone?”

“And my dad,” she continued. “He won’t even talk about me anymore. It’s as if he only ever had one daughter.”

“Why won’t you leave me alone?” James repeated, now angrily.

“You robbed my family of the truth, James. You let them believe you weren’t to blame. I’m going to make sure that haunts you for the rest of your life.” She cocked her head pensively, her ebony hair falling gently over her narrow shoulders.

“What do you want from me?”

“I only want your love, your life…your sanity.” She smiled mockingly. “What are you going to do about it, James?”

James found his temper taking hold of him once more, and rushed at her furiously. “You bitch!” he shouted, pushing her just as he had that fateful day last autumn.

But this time it was James that fell from that rooftop. Felicia kicked her feet against the ledge leisurely as she watched him plummet to his death. It was a year to the day, and she had gotten what she wanted.