Masquerade - The Complete First Novel

- 18 -

(Dakota)

I park my car in the parking lot, grabbing my bag and slamming the car door. I run up to the white building and slip through the small slit in the electronic doors, "Excuse me, where are you going?" I sprint past, smashing the button to the slow elevator.

"Room 460!" I look back at the woman wearing white, she now stands up from her desk, raising a finger and trying to stop me. I ignore the woman, slipping into the elevator and clicking the number that I desire.

My foot taps, as the silence of the elevator makes me more anxious. A feeling I can only describe as fear resides within me. The steel doors open as I run out into the hallway, going right. I collided with a nurse carrying a tray of syringes, knocking her to the ground. I now ignore another woman as she curses at my actions. I continue to run, and my breath quickly shortens. I finally reach the room, showing me my worst nightmare. The barrier that was holding my tears break and black streams start to run down my face from my previously perfectly done mascara. I fall on my knees beside the bed, holding the hand of my dying baby cousin.

I pant, looking up at her. Her face was misshapen, and her eyes were bloodshot. "Hey Harper, how are you?" I tried to push back the scratchy-ness of my voice and force the tears to not fall from my eyes, but to no avail. My family was around me: my mother and stepfather who have been fostering my cousin after my mother's sister left her at our doorstep when she was five. Harper still remembers the beatings she went through with a constant drugged-up mother. Her hair was a milk chocolate brown and matched with her warm eyes. Even though she was not, she's my sister, I loved her like one.

She wasn't normally this pale, it seems like her body has been drained of blood. Most of it has though. The doctors call it Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva. Apparently, it's a very rare disease that has no cure. But they'll find one; they have too. For Harper.

Her body was in twists and turns as the disease has taken over her whole body, leaving her paralyzed. "I'm..." she finally speaks, and I grip her hand that feels more like a rock then the smooth skin I'm used too, "I'm okay, Dakota!" My tears run harder now, streaming down my face in pairs. The black water reaches my mouth, slowly rolling over the edges. I know what's about to happen, and I wish I could do something to stop it but nothing can be done. I will remember this brief visit with my sister even on my deathbed. Waiting to join her in the void that is death.

I can feel Death now, hovering over me. Its void wants to consume, but I will never let that happen. Not unless Death decides to take me first. Not unless I can be the sacrifice that must be slashed by Death's scythe to fulfill his desire of another human soul.

"Excuse me," a man pokes his head in from outside of the door, walking in. "Are we ready?" My mother nods, while I shake my head. I feel a hand land on my shoulder that must be the mans, and he speaks jumbled words that I don't want to hear, "Ma'am, the disease is traveling to her brain, if we don't do this it could be very painful for her," lies. I don't listen to lies. "Almost all of her vital organs have already grown as bone, it will take her heart and then her brain, and that will be very painful for her,"

"I'm not listening to your lies,"

"Honey," the sweet voice of my mother speaks, trying to calm me down, "It's time to go," she grabs my arm, pulling me away from her.

"No! Don't! Please!" My stepfather grabs my shoulders, pulling me out of the hospital room. "Let go of me! I can save her! No!" They close the door and leave me to cry in the hallway as they left my cousin with Death, ready with his scythe. The tears now act like glue, sticking my orange hair to my face.

I will always remember the feeling of being powerless and knowing I couldn't do anything to save my little sister. My little cousin. My world.

- - -

Her funeral was even worse. I stood there staring at the black casket, and realizing that death has won. And I really hate losing. I can't win them all. And when I can't win, it kills someone.

The line started to move, as my heart began to beat faster as I was next. My feet walked, as they clicked with the black heels I borrowed from my grandmother. And a black dress my mother made for me last night. I bought the lily's that Harper loved so much, clutched in my hands, freshly picked from my neighbors garden. Of course, I had to let Anastasia retrieve them, as I was too frightened to go and pick them myself as they were on private property.

I stepped up, watching the crying individual that was the woman that helped my parents gain custody of Harper. The woman walks away with a tissue in hand. The casket was closed. Not wanting the people to see the dead little girl's jumbled body into a mess with piles of make-up on her face and a dress to hide the twist of her body as the bone grew outwards from her spine.

I stroked the shiny, black box. My skin caught, causing a squeak that I quickly retracted from. I stared at my reflection through the shiny wood, seeing that the tears were forming in my eyes. I quickly whip them away, putting a hand where my reflection was. I let the waxy petals land on the surface of the casket, letting them rest there.

"Harper Chasity Lockwood was a girl who shall always be remembered, not because of her tragic death, but for her beautiful and happy life. She is up there with the Lord, and with the angels above. And now, let us pray," I put my head down, closing my eyes but not praying as the priest asked. I turn my head to the right, seeing my mother and stepfather. They had one arm intertwined, and both their heads down. Their eyes seemed to be holding tears, as some of them seeped through. Falling on the floor below. "Thank you, now time for the family members to say their parts."

I step up to the podium, exhaling. "Harper was my cousin, but she was also my sister. I remember when she first came to us, and I didn't think I would like having a sister, but she was my world. I devoted my life to her, and I would do anything if it means I could take her place."