Dancing with Eloise

Chapter six

Jump forward a week and this is where I stand today. Wearing black and carrying a bouquet of white roses to present to the weeping mother. 

We all stand there silently. Grace and I give each other looks of despair knowing why Eloise Martin lay still in a beautiful box made for the ugliness of death.

It was my fault.

The day after we were stranded on the highway. That's when it happened.

Nobody saw it coming, but we could all feel it. Ellie invited me and Grace over for dinner that night which I found strange, but I went along with it, not wanting her to hate me. Why? So she wouldn't spread rumors about me, the self-absorbed idiot that I was. That I am.

I got there first. There was a note on the door that said "Door's unlocked, come inside." I obeyed. There was an eerie stillness inside the house. Nobody seemed to be home. 

"Ellie?" I called softly. "Ellie are you here?"

No reply.

I poked my head into the kitchen, but there was nobody there. No food was out for us to eat for dinner. I was becoming increasingly more worried as the seconds passed. What was going on?

I ventured down the hallway calling out her name. "Ellie? Ellie?" The longer I searched, the more anxious I became until I found her room. Her name was printed on a wooden sign hanging from a nail on her door. The door was shut. I knocked. No answer. 

I turned the doorknob slowly and opened the door. I shrieked and slammed the door shut as fast as I could, my heart beating at a thousand beats per second. Just then, Grace came into the house. She rushed down the hallway hearing me scream and asked me what was wrong. I couldn't speak. I could only point and gasp at the wretched room.

She opened the door and revealed Ellie's small body hanging from an electrical cord attached to the ceiling fan.

Today, I hold the note she left in her stiff hand that night. It was folded neatly and addressed to me. 

"Dear Margie, I'm sorry I couldn't be perfect like you."