Username: awalkingparadox
Prompt Used: 1
Word Count: 8,290
Do you want critique: Sure!
Notes: Yeah, this is pretty long but enjoy!
Entry: Alice Grey
It was Halloween and currently I was out roaming the streets and scaring the cra- I mean “life” out of anyone I came across. Boys, girls, men, women, young, old; it didn’t matter to me who my victims were; all that mattered was leaving a trail of traumatized people behind me. It was a thrill seeing those people cower in fear and knowing that I was the one causing it, it was an even bigger thrill to know that no one would recognize me.
Who would have thought that the sweetest, kindest, smartest, and all around perfect girl of Cabell High would spend her Halloween night scaring the “life” out of people instead of staying home and passing out candy like a good little girl? No one that’s who, I’ve perfected my mask so completely that even my own family can’t tell when I’m acting. In fact, right now they’re convinced I’m spending the night with my aunt Karin who lives on the other side of town.
My aunt Karin is the most amazing aunt ever. She’s the only one who knows about the true me and she was the one who got me into Halloween in the first place. You see, I had this mask for as far back as I could remember and when I was little I couldn’t deal with the pressure of keeping it up all the time so I really got into cutting.
When I was seven, my parents and I went to Karin house to show off my newly born little sister. My Dad was disappointed that it wasn’t a boy but my Mom was ecstatic, all she could see was all the cute little outfits that she could cram us into and for three full weeks Mom did nothing but design our future wardrobe.
I digress, what was really important was when we got to my aunts’ house my parents went off in this long discussion about our futures. Then they said it, “Alexandra was born to succeed and Kendra was born to be loved.” Yeah, I’m not kidding, they actually said that while I was in the room with them.
See, my Dad owns this huge corporation that specializes in technology and as his first born child; they expected me to take over the business once I finish college. Maybe they thought that I wouldn’t understand the full implication on that statement since I was only seven but then again they knew how smart I was, I started reading when I was four for god’s sake. Whatever reason they had for saying that in front of me really doesn’t matter, what matters was what happened next.
After hearing that dreadful conversation, I excused myself to go to the bathroom and then I found my aunt’s razor blade. I snapped the casing with ease and quickly slashed my arm with one of the blades, by this point I had gotten used to cutting myself and I didn’t even flinch at the sight of my own blood. In just a few minutes the bleeding would stop, and I would have cleaned up the bathroom and then disposed of any evidence of my little act. What I hadn’t counted on was my aunt coming to check up on me, or that my aunt didn’t know the “knock first” rule and simply just barged into any room.
We were both a little more than surprised when we saw each other, and I have to give my aunt credit for not screaming when she saw me. I mean, finding your seven year old niece sitting in the middle of your bathroom with blood dripping down her arm. This would have made any girl with any paternal instinct scream in fear and have them running around in a panic.
Not my aunt, instead she closed the door behind her and took a good look at my arm before washing away the blood and bandaging it with a first aid kit she kept under the bathroom sink. She then told my parents that I would be spending the night with her and quickly shooed them out of her house. Then she sat in front of me and simply asked why. My masked didn’t just crack, it completely shattered and I spent the next three hours telling her everything wrong with my “perfect” life, but I didn’t exactly do it in a peaceful way (I still owe my aunt a new lamp). She hugged me when I was done, something I couldn’t remember my mother ever doing, and then she told me about Halloween.
From there my reign of terror started. It was only on Halloween that I could release my pent up anger and frustration without anyone knowing that it was me. It was an escape, a way for me to keep my mask and stay sane. It was a way to make everyone happy, including me. As the years passed, my costumes got more and more daring, none of those cheesy vampire and werewolf outfits that everybody else was content to wear. No, I wore costume of actual real life killers, killers whose very image made people uncomfortable. This year was the best one yet, this year I was dressed as Alice Grey.
You may not have heard of her, which isn’t so surprising. Alice Grey was a resident of the little town of Greenhorn, where my parents built their home in two years ago. Alice’s story is feared in Greenhorn simply because it happened recently, as is there are children who can remember seeing her around town before she died.
Alice had Dissociative identity disorder (DID) or what is better known as multiple personality disorder (MPD), but no one knew it. To everyone around her, Alice was just a simple girl who seemed a bit confused about what to do in the future. Alice was known for always wearing the same simple white dress and for the same pair of golden hoop earrings. One day a group four of children decided to play a prank on her and stole her earrings but Alice caught them before they could get away and that’s where her story really starts.
Alice saw her earrings in the children’s hands and then just went nuts. She attacked the children, screaming and yelling in rage, and only one of them were able to get away. That one child ran through out town, screaming for help and ten minutes later a police officer went to check out Alice’s house. The three other children were dead, stabbed to death, and Alice was nowhere to be found.
A wide scale man hunt started and for two weeks no one knew where Alice was. But that didn’t stop the killings, three more people were killed during those three weeks, each time the victim was left with a pair of golden hoop earrings. Then at the start of the fourth week Alice suddenly reappeared. She was standing on the roof of the city hall and once a large enough crowds had formed, Alice started singing. I never learned just what the song actually was, but rumors had it that the song was a curse, a curse Alice had placed on the town. Once Alice was done singing, she jumped for the roof top and died instantly, it wasn’t until later that they found out about Alice’s medical problems. This all happened just three years ago and people still haven’t recovered from the damage Alice caused.
Which is why this year Halloween was going to be the best one yet. I had found a picture of Alice and very secretly bought the items needed to make me look like an exact replica of her, as well as a fake butcher knife (but it was made of metal and looked real) as well as a gallon of fake blood. My aunt hadn’t liked my plan but she helped me anyway.
Halloween night had started and a lot of people were shocked by my outfit but said nothing since all I did was walk aimlessly around town and looked completely innocent (as far as they knew). Once it had gotten dark and more people started to appear on the streets I put my plan in action. Ducking into an alleyway where I had stashed my stuff before hand, I grabbed the packet of fake blood and tore it open, dumping it on myself and my “butcher knife” completely drenching my hands in the stuff. Once ready I reappeared on the streets and fixed my face into a crazed look.
My new appearance scared a lot of people. I almost cracked up laughing when I saw one kid wet himself at a mere glance from me. Still no one could say anything, it was Halloween and people could dress up however they wanted to, there weren’t any laws stating that I couldn’t dress up as Alice Grey. After wandering around town for a few minutes, making sure that people saw me, I went into the next stage of my plan. I started humming loudly (my aunt wouldn’t tell me the lyrics to Alice’s song but she did reluctantly hum me the tune) making sure that my motions were getting jerker and more sporadic. Once everybody seemed completely freaked out, I let out a crazy high pitch laugh and then bolted from the street.
Sure enough some people started to follow me, a lot of them looked really angry, I guess it was a good thing that I was the track captain then. I raced past a few streets and the turned to corner to my goal, the public park. I raced towards a “little kid” sitting on a park bench all by himself, and without hesitating, plunged by “butcher knife” into the little kid’s head. Behind me I heard the startled gasp of the crowd behind me. Letting out a malicious chuckle I tore my knife out and plunged it back in, again and again and again. Someone couldn’t take it anymore and I heard a scream of rage and I knew it was time to get out of here.
Dropping my knife, I bolted into the woods, my feet flying over the path I had scouted out weeks in advance. Behind me I could hear the outraged cries of the people who had chased me, but I pushed them to the back of my mind. Even as I ran I couldn’t help but laugh at the crowd’s reaction, I had to thank my aunt once this was all over, being a special effect artist really did help when I made that puppet that I hacked the life out of earlier. Bursting out from the trees my aunt was waiting for me in her small dark blue buggy, I dove into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. We were off, my aunt weaving through streets with the grace and speed of any professional race car driver and me clinging onto the head board for dear life.
The ride only lasted for ten minutes but it took a long while to get my adrenalin levels back to normal, by then my aunt had already ushered me inside of her house and got me to change. We burned the dress and I took a long hot shower, scrubbing every part of me clean. When I came out of the shower my aunt was sitting in the living room and drinking a bottle of Budweiser. She looked up when I stepped into the room and smirked.
“Want one?” I snorted and rolled my eyes.
“I’m only seventeen Aunt Karin, I’m underage,” I stated simply but my aunt scowled and glared at me.
“I thought you dropped your perfect mask on Halloween,” I rolled my eyes at her.
“Of course I did, I may not be ‘perfect’ but I’m sure as hell not stupid. I can’t afford to have a hangover tomorrow when rumors of Alice Gray coming back from the dead start to spread,” My aunt sobered for a bit and looked me seriously in the eye.
“So how was it?” I couldn’t help the wicked grin that spread across my face.
“Awesome, I swear to god that if I hadn’t already pre-planned everything then I definitely wouldn’t have gotten away unscathed,” I said as I sat myself next to Karin on the couch. Karin snorted but raised a hand and ruffled my hair. I smiled for a split second be frowning and pushing her hand away. Karin laughed and I couldn’t help the smile that appeared on my face.
“Get to sleep Alex, you have school tomorrow and you would be beyond pissed if your mask slipped just because you were tired,” My aunt said in the odd way that only she could pull off, threatening, commanding, teasing, and worried all at the same time. With exaggerated care I stood up and stretched, faking a yawn, before giving my aunt a two finger salute and heading up the stairs. Below me I could hear my aunt laughing and for a very brief moment I wished that she was my real mother.
I fell into the guest bed face down, the darkness of the room settling itself into my very bones. Now that I was alone the memories of this night was slipping away to be replaced with fake smiles and pointless double meanings. With faces that held no eyes and friends who weren’t really friends. In the darkness of the room I started humming, the same song I had hummed earlier, and surprisingly found comfort in the eerie melody. Maybe my loneliness was getting to me but I could have sworn that right before I fell asleep another voice had joined in.
Early the next morning my parents came to pick me up. I told them I spent the whole day yesterday studying in the quiet neighborhood my aunt lived in. They believed me, as far as they knew I never lied to them, and then we left to go to our house. We arrived with just enough for me to change my clothes and maybe brush my teeth before I had to leave for school. The good thing was that Cabell had a required uniform so I wouldn’t need to waste time picking clothes; the bad thing was that the uniform made even supermodels look bad.
With a sigh I changed into my uniform and quickly brushed my hair. I packed my backpack and double check to make sure everything was there, before turning to leave when something caught my attention. On my dresser was a pair of golden hoop earrings, a pair that Kendra had gotten me for my fifteenth birthday. I never wore them; Dad didn’t think hoop earrings were appropriate for one of my standing, which really made no sense since Kendra was allowed to wear whatever she wanted. My perfect mask meant doing whatever my parents told me to, if I started disobeying them now then it wouldn’t take long for my mask to crack completely. Then who knows what could happen to me, it would have been much safer to just ignore the earrings but for some reason I just could tear my eyes away from them.
If it weren’t for the hooks that broke the earring into two, they would have been perfect circles. Even on all sides, softly glowing in the morning light, a pure bright gold; I don’t know how long I stood there, just staring at them, it felt like hours, but then Kendra’s voice suddenly broke through my thoughts and I quickly snatched the earrings off the dresser and stuffed them in my pocket. Just in time, Kendra came bouncing into the room with an energy that only ten year olds could ever have. She saw me and gave a blinding smile that I swear to god will actually blind someone one day.
“Come on Alley, Mom say’s we’re going to be late if you don’t get your but in gear and hurry up!” Kendra is the only one who can get away with calling my Alley and she’s also completely oblivious to the obvious difference in the way out parents treat us.
I didn’t answer her; instead I walked out of the room and headed my way downstairs. Kendra thinks I’m the perfect older sister, the one who always plays with her, helps with her homework, and is the perfect role model, Kendra says she wants to be just like me when she grows up. I wonder if she’ll still want to if she knew just how much I truly despised her.
Mom, Kendra, and I slide into the limo that Mom insisted on using when we go anywhere and I forced myself to stare at Kendra as she rambled on about how great her Halloween was. I nodded my head in all the right places, laugh at the right times, and hum in agreement whenever I need to. Kendra asks what I did for Halloween and I told her I studied all night, Mom says that it’s only natural for me to do so and the silence falls over us. Blissful silence where I’m free to stare out the window, Kendra’s stop is first and when she gets out she looks at me worriedly.
“Are you ok?” I blink in surprise, what could have caused her to ask this?
“I’m fine, why do you ask?” Kendra is silent for a few seconds before replying.
“You’ve been stroking something in your pocket the entire ride here and you seem really distracted,” Kendra whispers to me and I blink in surprise. Kendra was right I was stroking the earrings in my pocket and I didn’t even notice; I gave Kendra a small smile.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” I state and Kendra looks at me for a few minutes before suddenly smiling.
“Ok, if you say so sis. Have fun at school!” Kendra yells as she runs away from the limo and I stare at her in confusion. Normally it’s me who’s wishing Kendra fun at school, not the other way around. I didn’t dwell on it long, it was just me and my mother now and I still have to pretend to be the perfect daughter. Putting on a fake smile I turn to face my mother who smiles back at me.
“So Mother, where are you going?” I ask politely and my mother smiles happily.
“I’m going to buy a present for your Father. He managed to complete the hostile takeover of the computer company that he was eyeing for so long.” I force myself to widen my smile and I act happy.
“That’s wonderful, we must do something to celebrate tonight,” I suggest and my mom instantly latches on to the idea.
“What a wonderful idea! I know this amazing Italian restaurant that serves that best Alfredo I’ve ever eaten,” I hate Alfredo and my Mother knows this, but I ignore the rush of anger inside of me and humbly nod my head.
“I’m sure that Father will love it,” I say trying to sound sincere and mother totally believes it. Thankfully the limo stops at my school and I quickly get out, I wish my mother a good day and then quickly made my way towards the library. Behind me I can hear the limo pull away, once I’m certain that the limo’s gone I reach into my pocket and pull out the earrings. Without a second thought I put both of them on and hold my head up high, I walked into my high school.
School was a nightmare. My “friends” all noticed my new earrings and wouldn’t leave me alone about them. My teachers really didn’t care, I did all of my work so there was nothing to complain about, what really bothered me were the rumors that sprang into life about my earrings. They were stupid rumors, from things like my non-existent boyfriend giving them to me (my dad thought I was too young to date) to them actually being tracking devices that the FBI placed on me so they knew where I was if they ever needed my help. Being the most popular girl in school had it advantages (like no one having the guts to bother you) as well as it disadvantages (having every little thing I do blown up to gigantic proportions) and it seemed that life has decided to blindside me the bad side today.
By lunch I was more than a little sick of people asking me about my earrings. It didn’t help that I had developed a headache shortly after first period for no apparent reason. Normally I bring my own lunch to eat but today I didn’t have any food with me, so I was forced to stand in line with a tray in my hand waiting for my lunch. I’ve eaten school lunch before, the food isn’t all that bad, but for some reason I was feeling incredibly uncomfortable standing in that line.
It took me a while but I eventually realized that it was the tray I was holding that made me uncomfortable. I didn’t like it, how straight the edges were, how rectangular the tray was. It was stupid, the trays never bothered me before but now I just couldn’t stop thinking about them. Such an ugly shape the rectangles were. They bend and break so easily, they were nothing like circles, circles were perfection and rectangles. Rectangles were hideous with their straight sides and sharp edges; they could never be nothing more than rectangles.
I thought I had been standing there for only a few minutes but then someone nudged me and I realized that there was nobody in front of me anymore. I had been standing there like an idiot for at least five minutes and everybody was watching me. I felt a panic bubble up inside of me and without realizing what was happening I slammed my tray down and fled from the cafeteria.
I raced into the nearest bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Quickly I turned on the sink and splashed some refreshingly cool water on my heated face. It felt good so I did it again and again. Reaching out I grabbed a paper towel and dried my face off, I glanced up into the mirror and froze at what I saw, Alice Grey was staring back at me, in the same position and uniform that I was wearing. She smiled and then everything went dark.
When I woke up again I noticed two things. One it was night time and two I was in my room. I sat up confused and ran my hand over my face, only to stop when I realized that my hands were wet. Confused I stumbled my way my private bathroom and flicked the light on as I went. Blinking by the sudden change in light I glanced up and gasped. Blood was smeared across my face, glancing down I saw that my hands were as well. I had to bite my lip to stop the scream that threatened to tear out of my throat.
I quickly turned on the sink, scrubbing my hands and face hard. Once I was satisfied that I had scrubbed off the blood, I reached for a towel and started to dry off my face. I glanced up into the mirror and froze at what I saw. Alice was staring back at me, this time she was dressed in a white dress that was stained with red blood and a crazed smile graced her lips. I stumbled backwards in shock and flinched when my head hit the wall behind me. I blinked and Alice was gone but the blood wasn’t.
I was wearing one of my night gowns, a simple white cotton gown that reached my knees and was my favorite for summer nights. Now it was covered with blood and dirt, as were my feet, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from them. I could feel my breathing speeding up and I could almost hear how fast my heart was pounding. With a small cry I tore off the dress and jumped into the shower, turning the water on as hot as it would go. I flinched when I first felt the water, but I quickly pushed it out of my mind by scrubbing my body as hard as I could.
Once I was satisfied that I was clean, I stepped out of the shower and glanced down at the dirty dress before me. I didn’t want to pick it up; I didn’t even want to acknowledge its existence but it would be worse if I just left it here. So I quickly snatched it up from the ground and threw it away in the trash bin by the toilet, I didn’t want to look at it anymore so I quickly rushed out of the bathroom.
I quickly put on another night gown I had, this one was black with black lace around the edges before turning to look at my laptop. I walked over to my desk and quickly turned on my laptop. A normal person would have tried to ignore what just happened to them, but I’m not a normal person, I needed to figure this out. As I waited for my laptop to reboot I thought of possible reasons that I could have blanked out like I did before when Alice’s face flashed through my mind.
With a sense of unease I opened a window to the internet and headed straight for Google. I hesitated for a few second before searching “multiple personality disorder” and click on the first link that popped up. As I read the symptoms I felt myself start to tremble, this was, it explained everything. It was then I noticed my cell phone, it was blinking on and off meaning I had a voice mail. Wondering who could have called me, and what I might have missed, I flipped open my cell phone and let the missed messages play. Most of them were of my parents demanding to know where I was but it was the last one that chilled me to my bones.
“Worry not little boys and girls, for bloody Alice will disappear from this world.
No more deaths and no more scream, until at last I’m set free.
On all hollow’s eve I shall raise, a single bloody act to start my reign again.
So sleep tight little boys and girls, for bloody Alice will disappear from this world.”
I was singing this song, a song I didn’t even know. In all of my seventeen years of life, I have never felt more scared than I have now. I don’t know how long I sat there just staring at my cell phone, but the harsh pounding on my door quickly snapped me out of it and I almost felt glad for the interruption. Or not, I opened my door only to come face to face with my pissed off father. This was not going to end well.
It hadn’t, apparently after I blanked out I had gone “missing” from school but was later seen with some unknown man in town, my parents heard about it and went crazy trying to contact me but I never answered. They didn’t even realize I was home until they heard my shower running. After a very violent “talk” my dad calmly walked out of my room and I was left to pick myself up.
This wasn’t the first time that we had such a “talk” but this was perhaps the worst one yet. My ribs throbbed with pain, my stomach felt like one big mass of screaming nerves, and my cheek felt like it was on fire. My father must have been amazingly pissed when he came to me; he normally never left any marks that could be visible, my father would never live it down if the neighborhood found out that he beat his own children (correction, child since I was the only one he hit).
I dragged myself back into the bathroom and quickly reached underneath the sink for the first aid kit I kept hidden there (wouldn’t want one of my “friends” to find it by accident). With a small sigh I propped myself against the wall and popped the kit open, reaching for a tube of ointment that I’ll have to replace soon. After painfully tugging off my night gown, I smeared the ointment on the bruises that were already forming, forcing myself to twist and turn to make sure I got everywhere, before I reached back into the first aid kit and pulled out a rather large bundle of bandages. With well practiced ease I wrapped the bandage around my torso and tightly secured it into place.
After putting my gown back on, wincing at the large bruise forming on my face, I left the bathroom with one last glance at the bloody gown in the trash. Another knock sounded on my door and I wearily opened it only to find my sleepy little sister. Schooling my face into a tired but slightly confused expression, I stared at my sister slightly confused what she was doing up so late. Kendra rubbed her eyes before looking at my face and suddenly gasping. This was probably the first time she ever saw me hurt; this was the first time my father ever hit me in the face, not like I could do much about it anyway.
“Are you ok Alley?” she asked, her face screwing up in concern.
I wanted to roll my eyes and say “what the hell do you think?” instead I forced a smile onto my face and said, “Yeah, I got hit in the face with a baseball after school today.”
She bought it, after all I did help out with the baseball team every once in a while and I have come home with several bruises on their behalf, but a part of me felt a bit annoyed that she dropped the subject so quickly. Kendra smiled up at me and I smiled back at her. Suddenly she frowned and looked at me in worry.
“Where were you this afternoon Alley? Mommy and Daddy were both worried about you,” I sighed and quickly made up a story that I knew Kendra would believe, it wasn’t that hard to do, Kendra would believe me if I told her the sky was made of strawberry milk.
“I helped out with the baseball team after school today and after that I went to a friend’s house to prep for the science fair,” I lied easily, I had told my dad the same thing and I knew with a single phone call I could get any one of my “friends” to agree with my story.
Kendra smiled looking relieved and I almost sagged with relief when she turned around and headed back to her room. I don’t know what I would have done if Kendra asked to sleep with me, I wouldn’t be able to hide the rest of my injuries from her if she did. With a small sigh I closed my door and sat down on my bed. My cell phone rang and I tiredly got up and picked up my cell phone from my desk. With a glance I saw that it was my aunt calling and I felt a true smile tug at my lips.
I flipped my cell phone open and fell on my bed, “I hate my dad.”
Another awesome thing about my aunt, I only have to mention my dad and she already knows what’s wrong. After venting to my aunt for about twenty minutes I ended the call and felt the smile on face morph into a frown. Feeling a bit silly, I dialed my own number and patiently wait for the voice mail to play.
“Who are you?”
I woke up to the sound of screaming, vaguely I realized it was my mother’s voice and briefly wondered what she was so worked up about before slowly getting up from my bed. With a start I realized that I was wearing another white dress (this was a Sunday dress that I wore to church) but thankfully there was no blood on it.
With a sense of dread I left my room, I saw Kendra also peeking out of her room and quietly signaled her to stay put, she nodded and ducked back into her room. I walked down the hallway, below me I could hear my mother sobbing as well as the chaotic noise of several people running around. This early in the morning the only people who would be here was our gardener, cook, and maid. The dread inside of me grew larger and as I rounder the corner that lead to the staircase, I found my hand flying to mouth at what I saw.
My father was lying crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, his leg was twisted in an odd anger, and his glassy eyes were staring straight at me. What really freaked me out was the blood that stained the front of his bathrobe and pooled around him, turning into a rusting brown color. With shaky legs I made my way down the staircase, I saw my mother crying and being comforted by our gardener but most of my attention was drawn to the still form of my father. Now that I was closer I could see that he had been stabbed repeatedly and I found myself jerking back in horror when I caught sight of two golden hoops cradled in my father’s cold hands.
The front door of the living room opened and a troop of police officers entered the living room. One of the men caught my attention, He stood tall and proud, dressed neatly in a simple brown suit with his hair cut neatly short. His age was obvious by the man’s graying hair and wrinkles on his brow. Not only that but he didn’t glance around the room like the people around him did, instead he glanced at my father and then glanced at me. When he saw me his eyes sharpened and I felt a small chill run down my back.
Not caring how guilty I looked, I turned around and raced back up the stairs. I distantly heard the man following me but I didn’t care. I ran into my room, not bothering to lock the door behind me, and quickly ran to my desk. My cell phone was flashing again and with shaking hands I flipped my cell open and listened to the only voice mail I had.
“You know who I am, Alice Gray,” my voice rang in my ears and I felt all the blood in my body go cold. I didn’t even notice when the man who had been following me barged into my room, nor did I notice when he handcuffed me and told me my rights. All I could think about was my voice ringing in my ears telling me that I was Alice Grey.
I don’t know how long I had been sitting in the interrogation room but I did know that my butt was starting to hurt. I didn’t even try to keep up my mask anymore; instead I held my head in my hands and was slowly breathing in and out. I had seen the warning signs but I didn’t think it would progress so quickly. I was knocked out of my thoughts when the door opened and the man who had arrested me stepped into the room.
He held a folder in his hands and a cup of coffee in the other. He took a sip and then sat down, opening the folder and flipping through the papers lazily. I watched him wearily and as the silence stretched on I let out a small sigh.
“So how did you know?” I smirked when I saw his surprised expression but my mirth died when that same sharpness in his eyes returned again.
“So you’re not going to deny it?” I shrugged.
“Not like I can defend myself, I have no alibi and it’s quite obvious that I have a motive. Nothing I can do about it but tell the truth and hope for the best,” He looked angry and slammed his fist on the table top causing the whole table to shake.
“Do you think this is a game? That those people lives were nothing more than your playthings? Do you realize just how serious this is?” He wasn’t yelling but it seemed as if he was, even with him looming over me so threateningly I still couldn’t help but be distracted by something he had said.
“Lives? Did someone else besides my father die?” I let my confusion show on my face and almost sighed in relief when he leaned back.
“You didn’t know?” He asked and I slowly shook my head, he stared at me for a few minutes before flipping through the folder again and pulling out a single sheet of paper.
“His name is Justin Chang, he was found dead yesterday evening in a public park. He was stabbed to death and a pair of golden hoop earrings was left in his hands. Evidence from the scene points you out as the only suspect,” I stared at the picture before me and felt myself frown at the unfamiliar face. I was staring at the picture so intensely that I didn’t notice the detective staring at me and blinked in surprise when he started talking again.
“The only problem is that you have no idea who this guy is, do you?” I blinked in surprise at the sudden calculating look in his eyes and shook my head.
“Now this brings up the question of who would want to frame you. Do you anyone who hates you enough to do this?” I couldn’t help the disbelief from showing on my face. This man had been so sure that I was the murder, even I was pretty sure that I was the murder, but now he was convinced that I wasn’t. What the hell?
“You were so sure that I was the culprit, what made you change your mind?” the man shrugged.
“You’re not sweating, twitching, or showing any signs of nervousness. Looked me straight in the eye while talking and showed no signs of lying. But more importantly, you didn’t recognize the first victim, is you were the murderer then he should have been your first victim and therefore you should have never been able to forget him, at least not in such a short amount of time, and you didn’t show any signs of recognition, not even a flicker,” I couldn’t keep the surprise off of my face and almost blushed in embarrassment when he chuckled at my expression.
“For a girl who fooled everyone around her, including her parents, you sure are easy to read,” I wasn’t sure if I should be insulted or relieved instead I decided to tell him everything I knew.
“There’s only one person who could have done this, me. I think I have multiple personality disorder,” I wanted to yell out, “I bet you didn’t see that coming now did ya!” but instead I settled for laughing at his shocked expression.
I learned that his name was Mike and that he was a senior police detective that transferred here from Vegas. He had been planning to spend the rest of his life in the relative quiet of this small town but then my case popped up and he couldn’t help but take a look at it. Maybe he ran into even crazier cases than mine, but he took everything I said very seriously and then proposed a test to see if I was as mentally crazy as I thought I was.
The test was simple, I was going to be placed in solitary confinement and I was to be monitored at all times. A therapist was to come once every day and question me about my mental state. This experiment was to last until the therapist was able to confirm my mental state. My trail would be held back until the experiment was over.
My mother had pulled a few strings and so instead of staying in a cell at the precinct, I was instead going to be staying in an apartment that was a decent size for me to live comfortably in. I was a bit surprised by this gesture from my mother; I had thought for sure that she would have been avoiding me as much as possible. After all, I wasn’t the perfect girl she wanted me to be and I was the leading subject to her husband’s murder. I should have been the ultimate failure in her eyes.
But I had long since stopped trying to figure out my mother’s motives for every gift she gave me; I really didn’t want to know what she was thinking when she gave me a box of honey dust. So I was equally surprised when I found a duffle bag filled with my clothes as well as a few of my personal items. Mike told me he had gone to my house to pick my stuff up but somehow I highly doubted it.
After I settled down in my new home I found my attention drawn to three different items on my bag. The first was my cell phone, Mike had given it back to me but only after bugging it so that the only people I could call where Mike and myself. The next was a fluffy white teddy bear, a bear I had given to Kendra when she was five and had her first nightmare. I was surprised that she still had it and I was even more surprised at the meaning behind the gesture; I was a bit confused as to why I felt so happy at the little gesture. The third one came from my aunt, it was a dream catcher and I have absolutely no clue where she got it from but I hung above my bed anyway. That night I sat on my bed, staring at my phone for a few minutes before suddenly flipping it open.
“Why?”
The days passed slowly, it had been three days since my confinement and I still haven’t gotten an answer to my question. I still suffered from random headaches and I found my discomfort with squares growing. Thankfully I didn’t blank out anymore but my sense of time was completely shot. Sometimes I would be sitting down for what I swear was just a few minutes only to find hours had passed. Other than that I spent the rest of my time bored out of my mind.
There was no homework for me to do, no clubs to help out, no little sister to entertain. What the hell was I supposed to do with all this free time? What did normal people do with all this time? How did people stop themselves from going crazy from boredom?
A week after my isolation Mike showed up with my therapist, and by the look on his face it wasn’t good news. My therapist had looked nervous and I soon knew why. Apparently I did show signs of MPD but it hadn’t progressed enough for it to be a plausible excuse for me to use in my trial. Mike didn’t want to admit it but by the way things were looking it seemed like I was going to jail.
The therapist was going to come for one more day to make a finalized assessment on my mind. Mike didn’t say anything as he left but I could tell he was angry. He still thought that I was innocent and was upset that he couldn’t prove it. After they left I spent the rest of the day with one of the worst headaches I ever had.
The next day I woke up with a pounding headache and couldn’t stop my stomach from flipping around. I stumbled into the bathroom, turning on the sink I flinch a bit when the cold water hit my face. Shaking my head and then regretting it almost immediately afterwards. I pressed my palm against my forehead and slowly looked up at the mirror and froze.
Alice was standing right behind me; she was wearing a white dress and her golden hoop earrings glinted in the light. When she noticed me staring at her, a crazed grin stretched across her face and I faintly heard a high pitched laugh before everything went dark.
When I woke up again, I was holding a bloody butcher knife in one hand and my cell phone in the other. With a start I realized that I was barefoot and wearing a white dress again. With shaky hands I flipped opened my cell phone and brought it up to my ear.
“Why not?” my voice asked me, sounding completely puzzled and I felt my blood chill at the innocent sounding question. Before I could contemplate the answer for very long the door suddenly banged opened and I flinched at the loud noise. I turned to look at the door and felt my eyes widened as I stared at Alice standing in the door way. I knew it would be pointless to yell at her, she was nothing but a hallucination my mind must have created but at the moment I could help the anger that raged inside of me.
“Why?!” I snarled raising the butcher knife and swinging it at her, I knew that it wouldn’t have done anything but then a loud crack filled the air and a burning pain flared through my stomach. I dropped my knife and glanced down to see blood spilling from my stomach. I had been shot and when I looked up again Mike was standing in the doorway. It was odd; Mike probably shot a lot of people before, so why did he look so terrified?
Epilogue:
Mike stood silently next to the crying little girl who was clinging to her equally crying mother. Mike himself had refused to cry; after all he had only known Alex for a week it wasn’t like they were friends or anything, still he couldn’t explain why it hurt so much to see her coffin lowered into the ground.
Mike couldn’t stop thinking about that night. He had known something was wrong the moment Alex had frozen in the bathroom. He had spent a week watching her every move carefully and by then he could tell her every mood simply by the way she walked. Alex had walked to her bedroom after leaving the bathroom and Mike had noticed right away that Alex wasn’t Alex anymore.
He grew even more worried when Alice opened her closet and pulled out the only white dress she had in her possession. Normally Alex would tell the camera that she was going to change before throwing a slightly see through towel over the camera, this time she simple stripped herself and slid into the dress in a well practiced move.
Mike was now convinced that this was the “Alice” Alex had told him about. Her second personality that was committing the murders. He had wanted to stop the therapist from going to see Alex today but he would hear a word of it. Mike had reluctantly agreed to let the therapist see Alex only because this could be the only chance to prove that Alex had MPD. If they could prove that then they could send her to a mental hospital rather than jail.
The therapist went in and they talked normally for a few minutes but then suddenly all of the screens went blank. Mike hadn’t hesitated to run down the hallway that would take him to Alex’s room but he was already too late. Alex was gone and so was the therapist. It had taken them four hours to figure out where Alex went. Alex had gone to Alice’s old home, which had been closed down after Alice’s death, Mike had gone in the front and he was the one who had gotten to the scene first.
Alex had been standing over the body and she had been staring at him in an odd way. Then she had screamed at him, asking him why, before swinging the butcher knife at him. Mike had reacted by pure instinct and fired before he had realized what had happened. Alex had crumpled and right before she had lost consciousness Alex had looked at him. Mike was sure that right at that moment Alex had been truly confused, as if she only just realized who she was looking at. Alex had died under the operating table.
Everybody was leaving now; soon enough Mike was left alone with the new grave. Mike sighed before pulling out a skeleton doll, he had learned from Alex’s aunt that she liked Halloween, and placing it on the grave.
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t protect you,” Mike whispered before leaving. Behind him a young girl stood behind the tombstone, her white dress swirling in an unnatural breeze. The girl smiled and very faintly a song rose over the quiet commentary.
“Worry not little boys and girls, for bloody Alice will disappear from this world.
No more deaths and no more scream, until at last I’m set free.
On all hollow’s eve I shall raise, a single bloody act to start my reign again.
So sleep tight little boys and girls, for bloody Alice will disappear from this world.”
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