𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐋 & 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 | 𝐃.𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 [𝟏]

ｐｒｏｌｏｇｕｅ

ｐｒｏｌｏｇｕｅ

       MARISSA WAS EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD WHEN she learned of the creatures that lurked in their shadows.

On the eve of the day that marked one week until Christmas in 1997, Marissa had concluded her first semester at Columbia University and began her drive back to her small hometown, Saratoga Springs, New York, for winter break. A smile crept onto her face as she drove past Christmas lights on every corner. It was the first time the eighteen-year-old had spent so much time away from her family, and she was looking forward to seeing her parents after almost four months of being hundreds of miles away.

Every morning she had thought back to when she would wake up, ready for school, and her parents would be right there by the kitchen table while her breakfast was sitting comfortably by her seat. It was challenging to get used to a changed routine when she began her first semester--over two hundred miles away. It seemed as if that was any teenage girl's dream come true, but with Marissa's dream come true, there came a sacrifice.

The girl she spent the last twelve years reading fairy tales before lifting the covers over her body and kissing her forehead was left alone. However, without her big sister to check under her bed for the monsters, she had discovered that it was all a lie. The monsters that Marissa explained were never under her bed proved to the twelve-year-old that the concept of the good guys always winning was just in the fairy tales.

       MARISSA WAS EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD WHEN she had discovered her family was brutally murdered.

Arriving home after so long on the holidays was commonly a very cheerful and positive experience for families. A reunion that was meant to be filled with smiles and laughter quickly became Marissa's worst day ever. It's difficult to pinpoint the exact moment in your life that lead to your inevitable downfall. However, walking into the room, Marissa knew she was done for when she saw her parents and her twelve-year-old sister lying dead on the floor.

How are you suppose to act in the moments that you discover your family's bodies laying there dead? Marissa stood there in disbelief, thinking back to when she had gotten off the phone with her mother just minutes before she took off in her five-hour expedition back home. Falling to her knees, Marissa speculated what would have happened if she had made it home just hours earlier.

It was easy for her to blame herself for the death of her family. Why did she think it was a good idea to spend the night on campus and attend an end of the semester party with her friends? The preceding night she thought back to, recalling all the little details that what made the night so critical for her to attend. The red one-sleeved sequin dress that fit her flawlessly in all the right places went no further than mere inches below her hips, along with the black six-inch stilettos that made her feel hell-bound.

Her naturally wavy hair that reached her shoulders bounced with every step she took. Her smoky red-eyes with sparkles glistening over her eyelids, liquid eyeliner winged as sharp as a knife, long fake lashes, and highlight cornering them, perfected her look like never before. She did not need glasses to see that from the minute she walked in men looked at her figure in lustful stares.

She looked down; her false eyelashes coated in multiple layers of mascara brushed against the bottom of her eyelids. Her black matte matched with silver nails shaped in coffins--long enough to dig deep into the flesh of her lucky victim--caught the attention of many as she brought her hand up to straighten out her dress before she advanced further into the crowd. She did not need to hold her head up high up in confidence for men to know she was, by far, the sexiest woman in the room.