Chasing Daylight

Skai, December 10, 2014

  I GAZE AT ALL THE DIFFERENT PEOPLE AS I WALK PASSED THEM. There’s an old couple, maybe early sixties, who look back up at me and smile. I smile back in respect and carry on walking to the halfmark of the plane where the bathroom is.

  There is a little girl and an older boy, about sixteen maybe who are keeping to themselves, but then the little girl sees me and smiles at me, much like Danielle smiles at me. I try to smile back immediately, but I can’t feel my skin. I feel numb inside and out while I look at the girl’s face. Her hair is a caramel color, her eyes bluer than the Sky, her smile so startlingly beautiful.

  When I don’t smile back, she waves at me, and, though I don’t feel it, I see my hand above my face, waving back, and then the boy’s eyes flicker to me, and I drop my hand. His hair is the same caramel color as the girl’s and he smiles friendly at me. Hmm, people are nice mostly.

  I smile back quickly, and carry on moving. I get the bathroom, but the door is closed, and the little bright red strip is across the lock, so I stand back and wait.

  And wait.

  And wait even longer, until it’s been about ten minutes, and no one has come out.

  “Excuse me, ma’am.” I know that voice, but plays as if it doesn’t know. I look up at Tyler who squirms passed me, but then sees what I’m waiting for. “I wouldn’t use that one if I were you.”

  I look at him, clueless. And then, with a sudden jerk at my stomach, I understand what he means. A gasp escapes my mouth, and I catch my breath at the back of my throat. I suddenly feel sick to my stomach, and my legs are flimsy. He carries on walking back the way I came, until he’s out of sight, and I unclasp my bracelet. I use one of the solid charms on it to push back the red strip, until it’s fully electric green and hold the handle. But I don’t turn it straight away.

  Do I want to see a sight so ghastly? Will it stay with me forever? Will someone see it as I open the door? Or will I be able to scrape it open just enough for my eyes to burn in pain?

  I find my hand turning the lock, the door opening the smallest crack. I want to close my eyes as I peek through, but they stay open, and when I see what’s inside, I feel as dead as the body lying limp across the floor does.

  My throat burns as I stare, convulsing, at the ravaged body. This girl must have been about fifteen years old at most, her hair a wavy white blond color. Her eyes are wide open as if she were still alive, screaming in absolute terror.

  I expect to see bite marks all over her body, but there are none in sight from all the blood and where chunks of her flesh have been ripped from her body. What’s left of her is mind blowing.

  The revulsion just from looking into her eyes, forgetting everything else around them is enough to send me into complete shock horror.

  The next thing I notice is how much blood there is. It is smeared all across the cracked mirror, the walls, even the ceiling. The girl’s hair is drenched in crimson liquid. Her severed body lies scattered all over the floor, maybe a foot detached from an ankle, maybe an arm from a shoulder…I don’t want to look too closely.

  Her skin is snow-white, her lips blue from the amount of time she has been dead.

  How someone can be so monstrous!

  And for me to find out it was Tyler who had slaughtered this young girl makes the situation even more perturbing.

  For him to be so spotless, not a single mark on his skin or clothes with such serenity after making this brutal attack makes him more terrible than I would ever imagine.