Lovely Little Lies

Just Joking Around...

Missing: Marisa Dell. Last seen on June 16th 2011, at 11:30 PM. Would now be 15. If spotted, call police immediately. Thank you for your support.  

        Sophie Allen stood outside of East High school and stared at the Missing poster in dismay. Even after two years of Marisa's absence, they still dotted about every telephone poll in the neighborhood. Why even bother with these. Sophie thought. We all know she's dead. But it didn't seem right. The all-powerful Marisa Dell, dead. Just like that. Marisa had always talked about her plans for the future, places she would go, people she would meet. The two would sometimes just sit and talk about their future. Fantasizing about the perfect guy, how he would propose, where they would live, what their kids names would be. The thought that Marisa would never ever get to do all that was sickening to Sophie. Inhumane. Who would just go and kill a seventh grader? Sophie again thought of the night Marisa disappeared. She had been thinking about  it a lot lately. Sophie had tried to pick out suspicious things about Marisa that night, but nothing came to her mind. Marisa had just seemed so... normal.

        "What happened to you?" Sophie whispered, staring at the poster. Marisa's smiling picture stared back at her. The more Sophie looked at it, the fouler her mouth tasted. She tore it down from the poll and crumpled it up in her hand. But as she crumpled it, she caught a glimpse of writing on the back of the poster. She uncrumpled it to see what was written. When she saw what it was, her eyes widened. It read: "Just a joke, huh? -A" Sophie's mind raced. The night Marisa disappeared, Sophie had said that Marisa's scream was just a joke. If they had searched more, would they have found her? Was it all Sophie's fault? A sickening feeling of guilt swirled around in her stomach. She stared at the signing of the note. "-A". Where had she seen that before? Then she remembered. Her mind flew back to sixth grade. Sophie and Marisa sat in Marisa's house, at her kitchen table. Marisa was hunched over a postcard, scribbling with her favorite red pen. Sophie leaned over to see what she wrote. The card said: "Hi Daddy! Having fun in France? It's incredible lonely here without you. Write back soon! -A"

        "A? Why did you sign it with an 'A'?" Sophie had asked.

        "Oh, cuz it's my favorite letter." Marisa replied. "A is first. A is the leader. A always wins."

        Sophie stared at the back of the poster, and the note scribbled in red pen. "Marisa?"