The darkness that lurks beneath

Just a normal day ( or so I thought)

The melancholic sound of my early morning wake up call drones above the sound of my roaring thoughts. I open my emerald green eyes and hit the stop button. I sit up and tie my long, wavey hazel brown hair up into a scraggly bun whilst I say to myself " today will be better" in the hope that today will not be as bad as yesterday or any of my past. I get up gracefully as if nothing is wrong. To anybody outside I am a content and joly person with not a care in the world, but is that really me?

I get changed into my crisp, bottle green school uniform and apply enough make up to cover the darkness within so nobody will see. I slowly walk down the mahogany stairs into a luxurious, ivory kitchen to find my small bowl of fruity museli and a crystal glass of cold water awaiting my arrival. My mother comes over and sits next to me at the granite counter and turns on the TV.

The news reporter said " It's been 5 years since Dutch Davis was found after she was kidnapped for 7 years by John Collins who is getting released later on today". My mother turned it off and reminded me that I needed to leave for school. So I kissed her scared frail face and left for school.

I need to put a brave face on today. Nobody is to know. I kept reminding myself all the way to school. I walked through the  grass green gates and headed straight to assembly where I always went on a Monday morning as my form group had our house assembly in the hall every Monday.

A long few minutes later our horrible form tutor Mrs Cams came in and told us to all stand in a single file line and head straight into assembly. My heart was pounding outside my chest. I could barely breathe. We all sat down in the small, itchy, scratchy chairs. Our focus shifted to the screen in front of us. It said "assembly focus: friendship". A sigh of relief when I realised that it wasn't about the usual awkward topics or any long boring PowerPoint presentations on school life updates.

Everyone was in and silent. When suddenly on the screen was my photo, my real identity and my victim impact report was beaming on the screen for everyone to see. My heart was pounding, I was shaking and I got up out of my seat and ran to the nearest exit. Unfortunately I was stopped outside by one of the assistant heads who I really liked. I couldn't breathe and I was gasping for a breath of air. She came over hugged me tightly and told me to slow my breathing down.

After she got me to become a little calmer she diligently took me to her spacious office and called the police as I'm in witness protection and my identity has been leaked to everyone.