The Mask

One Week Later

Walking through the hallways that her best friend once walked through was already hard enough on Marlene, but seeing memorial posters of Anna made everything about her days a billion times harder. Not to mention, the mandatory sessions with the school guidance counselor were such a pain. She had only been to one other meeting before the one she was currently on the way to, but she still wasn't ready to talk about anything.

"So, Marlene, are your parents still out of town?", Mr. Gibson, the counselor, asks her.

"Yes."

"Well, when are they coming back? This is serious. You need parental support."

"There's no exact date, but I guess sometime next week."

"So, who do you have supporting you through this? I want you to know that it is okay to reach out for support when you need it."

"I'm fine. I have Ben and Michelle. I'm used to my parents being gone anyways." She thinks about this as she says the words out loud. Who do I really have? Ben had not talked to her since their argument and Michelle hasn't really been around much, probably grieving.

She continues to think about this as she walks to her house, which is only a block away from the school. She feels sadness and despair taking over her body. She keeps walking towards her house in a daze, as if walking through a thick cloud of fog. Then, she turns the corner to see a figure in a black cloak and a white mask come running towards her with a knife. She screams in terror, still traumatized from the week before. She feels the blade scrape her arm and the small amount of pain from the blade makes her instincts kick in. After all she had been through, Marlene was still a fighter. In the heat of the moment, Marlene does not know what is going on. She hears the knife hit the ground and automatically uses all of her force to knock the masked murderer to the ground, too. Still acting on instinct, she rips the mask off, wanting to know the person responsible for ruining her life. She looks at the face and drops to her knees in anguish.

"Michelle?" She asks, beyond shocked.

"Okay Marlene, you caught me. So, what?" Michelle says, sounding disappointed, but not losing her normal attitude.

"You killed Anna." The realization hits Marlene. "How could you kill Anna?"

"Oh, please. I didn't kill Anna. It was your stupid, druggie boyfriend. And he wasn't even supposed to kill Anna, he was supposed to kill you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You remember when Ben left the party? Yeah, well, he didn't really leave. I caught him snorting a line in his truck. I saw He was pretty pissed. Just going on and on about how you think you run everything – which, I agree, it's so annoying." She scoffs, then continues, "I've been trying to take you down since freshman year. So, I saw this as the perfect opportunity. I didn't want to kill you at first, I was just going to steal your boyfriend, but then I saw the anger in his eyes. So, I told him to kill you. Simple as that. I admit it. I even devised a plan for him and everything. But he screwed everything up. So, I decided to finish the job myself. Really didn't expect you to have that much fight in you though..."

 Marlene does not allow Michelle to finish her rant before she runs off. Running to where? Who cares where? She wants to run away from everything- this town, her house, her school, her whole life. It isn't like she could ever get her old life back anyways, so why can't she just run to a different life? She considers this as she runs. 

She looks up. She is in front of Ben's house. She is in front of a murderer's house. His white Ford pickup sitting in the driveway means he is home. What do murderers do in their spare time?, she wonders in disgust. Some force of nature carries her feet down the driveway, up the front porch steps, in front of the door. Her hand is raised up to the glass window, balled up into a fist, ready to knock. The same force of nature makes her hand actually knock on the door. No answer. She hears no voices or footsteps or even a rustle of papers. Then once again, beyond her conscious control, her hand turns the door knob and her feet step inside. The house is eerily quiet, even if he does live alone. She tip-toes and silently looks around. She reaches the kitchen and she sees Ben sitting in a chair at the table with his head lying face down on the table. Although it is Ben, she does not know who she is looking at. She is looking at the murderer of her best friend. She steps closer to him, unsure of what move she is going to unintentionally make next. She is not thinking clearly, or really, thinking at all. She is beyond the point of anything logical. Everything she would have never expect to happen, has happened. So, she lets her body float in the direction it chooses to go. Her feet continue to step... step... step... towards the person at the table. As her feet bring her closer, her eyes notice a white and powdery substance on the table. If she had any thoughts in this current moment, perhaps she would not be surprised. Her hand reaches out to touch his shoulder.

Cold.

Cold like a December evening. Cold like Anna's body after it was no longer the Anna that Marlene knew. Cold like Ben's heart after he turned to drugs as his crutch when life got hard.

Sadly, she had seen this before.

Cold, stiff, and unmoving.