MALUM

Chapter 5

Ava stared at Delilah with a cold, intense stare as her head slowly wandered back into reality. She couldn't tell if it was out of anger, fear, or confusion. Perhaps it was a terrible blend of all three—a terrible blend of emotions that almost made Ava feel like she wanted to vomit. Still holding her grin, Delilah raised her eyebrows and looked away in a cute, playful way. But Ava wasn't amused in the slightest.

"What did you mean Delilah...?" Ava asked again sternly.
"Well. The school and police didn't take you seriously. So what if there was a second victim?" Delilah said, and she shrugged it off. Anger immediately found a home inside Ava's throat.
"What are you saying? Are you saying that there was another victim?! He did this to someone else?!" Ava said, trying not to break down.
"No. Probably not. Maybe. But they think there is now." Delilah said.
"What are you trying to say?" Ava said more sternly.
"I may or may not have come forward and said that he did stuff to me as well to make them take it more seriously," Delilah said.

Ava immediately started to fume with anger and rage like a tea kettle on a hot burner. So many thoughts and feelings rushed through her body and mind. She felt anger beyond comprehension, discredited for actually being a victim while someone she trusted would lie about it, and felt a sense of almost disgust. No words in the English language could accurately describe just how betrayed and hurt she felt at that moment.

"Why the fuck would you do that?" Ava said as tears began to roll down her cheeks. Delilah's face had changed completely.
"Wait, what? Why are you upset?" Delilah asked.
"Why am I upset?! Why wouldn't I be upset?! This doesn't help!! If anything, it hurts my case!" Ava said, feeling her face turn red and hot with anger.
"How would it hurt? Av, this asshole needs to pay for what he did to you..." Delilah tried to explain in a calm tone.
"Delilah... the school knows we're friends. The cops know we're friends. Everyone knows we're friends. All this does is hurt my case." Ava said in a much calmer tone as she tried to calm herself down. She almost sounded like she was explaining it to a toddler or a small child.
"OK, and? So what? Do you think the cops know what is happening in a city this size?"
"I don't think you understand how much that hurts me! You can't just lie about something like that!" Ava said. Getting angry herself, Delilah stood up from the loveseat she was sitting on.
"Jesus Christ, Ava! I lied to help you!"
"And I appreciate you wanting to help! I don't want to be discredited like that!"
"I feel like you never appreciated it when I tried to help you, Ava!" Delilah said as she tried to gaslight her.
"I never said that!"
"Yeah!? It certainly feels like that!"
"You know damn well I appreciate you, Delilah! I'm just telling you how I feel!"
"Oh yes! Let's all bend over backward so Ava can feel better! So she can feel safe! SO SHE CAN FORGET!" Delilah screamed as she stomped her big foot hard enough to rattle the nearby fixtures and items on the living room's coffee table and end tables.

But what had happened was much more sinister than that. As Delilah screamed the last part, her face looked... off. She was distorted slightly. Something about her face didn't look like the Delilah that Ava knew. Ava almost lost the words in her mind as her face had gone completely blank. Tears flooded her eyes as her anger immediately shifted to another colder tone: fear. That face. It was off. Disturbing. Not right. There had been Nothing natural or normal about that face. She almost resembled what you'd see hiding in your closet or under your bed. The image burned into her mind in one-thousandth of a millisecond.

The odd twisted face, the veins that subtly made themselves known on their big thick neck. And the eyes. My God, the eyes. Not the eyes of a person that loved and held close to her. No, they were the eye of something ancient. Evil has sometimes scared off people and the like since the beginning. She almost resembled the eyes of a wild, caged animal looking to score its next dinner. They were hungry eyes. Starved eyes that Ava couldn't seem to get out of their mind. Before she could process what happened, Delilah angrily stormed out of the apartment, leaving the front door wide open behind her. Trying to find the words, Ava choked out, "Delilah, wait!!" Before running after her into the apartment building hallway. But almost like she was Harry Houdini, she had disappeared for a solid second. Ava broke eyesight of her. The second Ava saw Delilah walk out the door and turn past the doorway out of sight, it was as if she had disappeared entirely and evaporated into thin air without even a trace of her presence. Standing there in almost complete shock, she looked around as if she were being pranked. Perhaps it was part of some elaborate, odd, practical joke, and Delilah would jump behind and scare her.