Behind the Mask

Late

A sharp sting of brilliance swiftly and instantaneously danced across the vacant road, penetrating the inky darkness of the night and illuminating a young girl perched on a curb. Fatigue enveloping her entire being from the days strenuous work, and knowing full well that more labor awaited her up the road, she grasped onto the moment and savored it like you would the last piece of chocolate. At merely 18 years of age, the girl had grown up faster than any other ordinary adolescent.

Down the road she heard the low growling rumble of the town bus bumping along the road and stood up. The bus came to a stop in front of her, its headlights casting a haunting glow about 5 feet in front of it. The old rustic doors swung open with a creak and she was greeted with an old face, both frown lines as well as happy lines adorning its pale face. An old woman with light grey hair and smiling grey eyes beamed down at her.

"Hey there Em. Hows life treatin' ya?" The old lady said in a watered-down southern accent as she beckoned the young lady onto the bus. "Sorry I couldnt get here no sooner, Paul was actin' up and you know how he gets whens hes been off his meds." She rambled on, adding a slight chuckle and shake of the head at the end of her sentence.

"Its alright Ms.Oapal, I kind of enjoyed being alone for a bit. You know, kind of peaceful like." She replied in a soft voice and a kind smile of her own while boarding the contraption.

"Alrighty then, off we go! Normal stop?" Ms.Oapal inquired peering through her inch thick lenses at the young lady through the rearview mirror.

"Yes please." Was the short answer the young lady gave before going back to staring out the everlasting dust covered windows.

The young lady, Emmalyn, was dressed in a plain white tank top, a fat face linen military jacket, dark denim jeans, and some grey canvas keds. Her dirty blonde hair was messily styled in a top knot and she wore no make-up. With her, she carried a dark grey heavy canvas messenger bag previously belonging to her uncle.

Emmalyn lay her head on the cool window pane and sighed, letting her eyes slide shut in contented exhaustion. She lay like that for what seemed to be an infinite amount of time, just listening to the rumble of the bus, feeling the light vibration it cause and letting the cool window soothe her soul till the bus came to a bumpy stop in front of an old auto shop. Emmalyn collected her things and walked to the front of the bus, however she paused just before she left.

"Thanks Ms.Oapal." She said with another kind smile.

"Sure thing suga', but I dont see why you gotta stop everytime I drop ya off to say thanks, its my job honey." Ms.Oapal replied with the kind smile that always seemed to grace her aged face.

"Just thanks, Grace" Grace being Ms.Oapal's first name. Emmalyn smiled, a rare occurrence around anyone but Ms.Oapal and her husband, Paul. She continued down the bus stairs and before leaving turned unexpectedly and said, "Oh, and say hi to Paul for me. Bye Grace, take care." Emmalyn said as she stood on the sidewalk looking up at the familiarly old face.

"I will, now you take care of yourself suga." Ms.Oapal replied eyes smiling through her thick rimmed glasses. The doors closed and Ms.Oapal drove off with one last wave and then simple disappeared around a corner, no evidence she was ever there. Emmalyn sighed, looked down, then up and around, and continued on down the road.

Emmalyn came to a stop in front of a cozy looking house. She walked to the side of the house and came to a stop beneath a window on the second floor. With a running jump, she quickly and silently scaled the wall pulling herself up on the ledge of that very window. The window, being open just a crack, was easily pulled up all the way allowing hersef just enough room to get inside.

Once inside she dashed to her dresser drawers after discarding of her bag under the bed, and took out a giant light pink shirst with navy blue hems, slipped it on over her already clothed torso, slipped out of her pants and put on some baggy light grey sweats. Checking herself in the windows reflection, so asure herself everything necessary was covered, she quickly glanced at the clock and lightly cursed under her breath at the time: 10:16. She knew there wasn't much left for her to do, she had known it since shhe was on that curb waiting for the bus. She wasnt blaming Ms.Oapal though. No. She had had to stay later than usual that night but she still couldnt help that tiny spark of hope that ignited within her teling her that she would make it on time. Decidingthat the torture that awaited her may become worse if she waited any longer, she took a calming breath, braced herself, and ventured outside of the minimal security her room supplied her.

The house was a mess to say the least.

'No doubt,' she thought, 'another one of Jacob's college parties'.

Plastic red cups littered the floor, acompanied by shattered glass from who knows what, liquor, and other identifiable liquids, no doubt vomit being one of them. All you could see was mess. Imediatly starting to get to work, Emmalyn got down and started cleaning up the mess, trying to be as quietly fast and efficient as possible.

Not more than and hour into her cleaning, Emmalyn heard someone stirring upstairs, and imediatly froze. Footsteps padded non too quietly above her and she looked up tracing where they would be all the while mentally plannig her escape. Waiting with bated breath and tense muscles for the person to leave, she was completly oblivious to the shards of glass she held in her left hand digging into her skin as she slowly stood and carefuly manuvered herself around the clutter to just behind the stairs. Where, as silently as she could, she unlocked the cupboard and slipped inside withough detection.

The footsteps started to fade along with Emmalyns anxiety when they abruptly stopped and bounded in her direction causing her breath to hitch in petrefied fear. The started down the stair, not loosing their energy until the reached the last step, where they paused. Anticpating their movements, Emmalyn slithered into a small corner of the cupboard obscured by a bunch of junk and hid. Just as she got into place, the door creaked open and a blonde mop of messy hair popped in, looked around, shook its head, and exited, retreating back to where he cae from.

Emmalyn let out a heavy sigh as she squeezed out of her hidding place after a few moment of certain silence. It was only when she had exited the cupboard and started her cleaning escapade one more that she took notice of the sharp sting inhabitting her hand due to the many, tiny cuts littering her hand with pieces of glass embeded in them. Sighing once more, she navigated herself to the kitched where she turned on the faucet and let the cold water assault her throbbing hand and clean it of any blood and getting rid of any loose pieces of glass. Seeing as it would take too long of a time she desperately couldt waste to effectively and efficiently clean the wound, she decided to just settle for ridding herself of any big pieces of glass and wrapping her hand lightly. Delicately working from then on, there were no more interruptions and she finished her work by 2:04.

Tiredly, Emmalyn tip-toed to her room and removed the exess clothes under her big shirt and flopped down on the bed, too tired to care about anything else. The day hadnt gone as bad as she would have thought it would have but it was stil a strange one. ne she couldnt wait to get rid of.

Within the next couple of hours, she had to be up and at 'em and all she could do was block everything else from her mind and let herself be absorbed by the darkness that held promisses of sleep and rest and dreams she was too tired to dream of.

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Welp, thats all folks