"Hey! Matt!" The voice went in one ear and out the other. He couldn't focus or concentrate on anything. "Matt!" it came again, this time catching his attention and causing him to jump a little. He managed to focus enough to find the person who had said his name. He looked around and towards the direction of the voice, finding Laura. Her face was twisted as she looked at him. "What's wrong?" she asked, handing him a beer from the cooler.
He opened it and took a sip, letting the flavor linger on his tongue for a moment before answering her. "She's been missing for a month now," he muttered, running a hand through his shaggy brown hair. He didn't need to say her name, Laura already knew. The entire school had known the day after she went missing. She hadn't come home that night, causing her mother to panic. It was the most interesting news and the gossip had flown through the school. The search parties had slowed now, many people believing she was long gone.
"You need to get over her Matt. She dumped you a year ago."
"I know," he sighed, taking another sip of his beer. "But it's difficult when you still love her. Even after things fell apart, I still worry about her."
"Cheer up. You just need a night to relax and forget about her. I don't like seeing you so upset."
He nodded and took another sip of his beer. "She's right. I need to just relax and stop worrying about her. And besides, a party is the best way to do it." He followed Laura towards the pounding music and let himself get lost in the party.
***
"Wake up," he heard, a distant voice that echoed in his head. "Wake up!" it came again, much louder this time. The voice sounded so familiar yet he didn't know who he could place it to. He managed to open his eyes but all the images were blurred. He thought he could just make out a person in front of him. He tried to move until he felt a stabbing pain in his right side that shot through him. He blinked a couple times until the images came back into focus. He saw ropes that wrapped around him, tying him tightly to the chair he sat on. He saw splattered blood covering his ripped jeans and then his memory came back to him. The party, the beer, the loud music, the misplaced knife; he remembered it all until everything had turned black and he had just woken up here, wherever here was.
"Finally, you're awake." The voice startled him and caused him to jump, the pain back in his side and radiating through him. His eyes wandered the room until he saw a small figure in the shadows of the back corner. It took a minute before the figure would walk out and towards him. She had a cigarette in her mouth and she was carrying the misplaced knife from the party the night before, or at least he thought it had been last night, only this time it was covered in blood. She stopped a couple feet in front of him before taking the cigarette out of her mouth. "Do you remember me?" Her voice was soft and quiet. She looked at him earnestly, waiting for his answer. He finally nodded. He could never forget the girl who had been the one of his dreams, once upon a time.
Her golden curls were no more and replaced with short, black, spiked hair. Her once sparkling blue eyes were now bloodshot and he could see the pain and sorrow in them. She no longer had her toned body but was now skin and bones. She had on black skinny jeans with combat boots that were covered in blood. And her skin tight, short-sleeved, black shirt defined each one of her ribs horribly. She now had a nose ring and tattoos down her arms. There were puncture wounds in the crease of her arm, making it look like she had been using more than he remembered. Her face was covered in dark makeup which masked her beauty. She looked completely different than she had a month ago; nevertheless, he'd never forget her. He just couldn't believe she was back and safe.
He tried to find the words to say something, but they had disappeared. His voice didn't seem to work and all his brain was capable of doing was repeating her name. It seemed to echo, making his heart begin to race and his palms become all sweaty.
"Do you have anything to say to me?" she asked. He tried to swallow to clear his throat but his mouth became dry and he had to shake his head. He wanted to speak, but he didn't know what to say.
"Should I ask how she's been since she miscarried? Left me? I can already see the answers."
"That's a shame," she said, taking a long drag of her cigarette before blowing the smoke out and flicking it to the ground, stepping on it. "I would have loved to be the one to hear your last words."
That shocked him. "Last words? She isn't actually going to kill me, is she?" He tried to move again, forgetting about the pain until it hit him. He grimaced and she grinned wickedly.
"You only had it coming," she said, looking at her reflection through the blood on the knife. "You made my life miserable; it's only fair that I make you suffer."
"How did..." he managed to choke out.
"You make my life miserable?" she finished for him, raising her eyebrow. "It was you who got me addicted to drugs by pressuring me to try it once. You pressured me into having sex with you, getting me pregnant. And my addiction to drugs caused me to miscarry, but you never seemed to care. You left me for the next girl like you always do."
He stared at her. "That wasn't true. Her friend got her addicted to drugs. She pressured me for sex. And she left me. I haven't dated anyone since she left me. And now she's blaming me for things I didn't do, at least not intentionally."
He went to say her name but faltered. It had been a year since he had said her name aloud: the day she left him heartbroken. He tried again but skipped her name. "You know I had nothing to do with any of that. I was always with you, trying to get you to go to rehab to stop the addiction. It's not like I tried to get you pregnant when you were the one who wanted to have sex badly..."
She laughed, a wicked sound compared to her normal laugh that he had always loved to hear, and shook her head. "You're lying, and liars get punished." She walked up closer to him and stabbed the knife into his left arm, causing him to scream out in pain. "You deserve this," she said again. She dug the knife deeper which put tears in his eyes. He had never been able to stand large amounts of pain. Her face was close to his and he could smell the alcohol on her breath.
"You're... you're drunk," he struggled to say. "Stop this... Y-you don't kn-now what you're do-oing..."
"I know exactly what I'm doing," she said, pulling the knife out. She grabbed his hair and tugged his head back, exposing his neck. "Say my name..." she said quietly.
"May..." he said without hesitation. She tugged harder on his hair before taking the knife and slicing his neck deeply and slowly, the blood squirting all over her. She dropped the knife as his head fell back and she stumbled away from him.
"CUT!" was shouted across the scene and Jason looked up, confusion on his and Ana's face.
"What did we do wrong?" she asked, walking off stage.
"You're supposed to make him suffer, not slice his neck and be done with it that quickly," the director said.
Ana rolled her eyes. "I thought it worked just fine," she shrugged. She then went to grab a drink as crew members were cleaning up the fake blood on Jason's neck and fixing his makeup. Ana came back and her makeup was fixed as well.
"Again!" the director called. Everyone went back to their positions. "And... Action!"
"Wake up..."
