Play It By Ear

The Beginning

I padded silently into my room and held my breath as I turned on the lights. I could not knock the feeling that somebody was watching me. The slight pressure on the back of my head burned in warning. The air around me hung heavily on my skin.

The room was empty, though it did nothing to lessen my worry. Something felt off. My eyes scanned the contents of my room, and then stalled on a spot in the center of my bed. I walked over slowly, my feet moving of their own accord.

A white rose lay on my bed, its soft petals splattered with something red. As I walked closer, I was rewarded with the metallic stench of blood. Bile rose in my throat as I drew closer. Something silver flashed in the light from around the stem and it was not until I stood at the edge of my bed that I could see the delicate chain of a necklace.

I gingerly picked the flower up by the stem, not minding the small pricks of pain as the thorns tore their way into my skin. The chain of the necklace was wrapped loosely around the stem of the rose, and the pendant dangled from its tip.

A startled cry lodged itself into the back of my throat and the gift plummeted to the ground.

I pace around by the brick wall on the south side of the park, my hands clutching nervously to the delicate purple jewelry box in my hands. Where is she? I wonder as I snuggle my neck down further into the warmth of my winter coat. It was barely twenty degrees out and Jasmine was over an hour late.

This little fact does not come as much of a surprise to me, she is almost always late. I know this about her, and yet I still hope that she would have been early to our annual Christmas gift exchange. Her family travels every year from the twentieth of December to the third of January to visit family in Italy. It had been a tradition since we had first become friends then for us to meet at this park on the fourth of January at four to exchange presents.

I tug my phone out of my pocket and struggle to open it with my heavily gloved hands. It is already three past five. I groan and promise myself to leave if she does not come in the next ten minutes.

As I fight to once again get my phone back into my pocket, Jasmine’s Christmas present tumbles out of my hands and onto the soft snow at my feet. I let out a small scream and rush to pick it up. I had spent months saving up money to get it for her. It is a simple silver necklace with a white Jasmine flower pendant. We had seen it together in a store at the mall over the summer and she fell in love with it. I know that she will love it even more when she opens it.

 I pushed the memory out of my mind before it could go too far. I knew all too well what was to happen next. I bend and extract the necklace from around the stem of the rose. My thumb runs over the smooth surface of the petals and across the tiny topaz jewels in the center.

An image of Jasmine’s smiling face as she opened up the box jumped into the forefront of my mind and I quickly suppressed it. Too painful.

The feeling of being watched suddenly stops and I let out a sigh. I found what he wanted me to find. Psychological gameplay that was all he wanted me for. I was only some sick means of entertainment for him.

Something twisted in my stomach and I felt utterly sick. Without another look at the flower, I walked out of the room and into the bathroom. I plugged the drain in the tub and turned the water to full heat. 

I stripped off my clothes and let them fall in a puddle around my feet. I could feel the warm caress of my bath’s steam against my bare skin and I shivered. The house was silent around me and with a flick of my finger the bathroom was plunged into darkness.

Lowering my body into the scolding water, I felt the slight tingling numbness of the scorching hot water against my skin. My mind was too far off to fully notice though. The hard petals of the flower were digging into my palm but my grip refused to lessen. I could not let go, not again.