Paralyzed
“Ow, ow, ow, please stop. I’m sorry, I really don’t want my hair braided right now.”
“No, c’mon it’ll look so pretty! Your hair is so long and you have such cute little curls on the bottom!”
I thanked her but I regret it so much because now she’s doing it again. Olivia’s my bestfriend but sometimes she doesn’t know when to stop. I don’t want to be mean but I really needed her to stop; and thank god she did because Josh is coming.
“Hiiii Josh! Kristen wanted to know if you guys have any Chem homework tonight?”
“Oh, uh, I don’t think so..”
Oh my God. What the hell, Liv? My face could not have turned any more red. As soon as he sat in the back with his friends I elbowed her so hard in the ribcage.
“Oh c’mon, you know you liked it,” she teased and babbled on.
I mean I kind of did..but she can’t know that. Then she’ll never shut up. Eventually we reached their stop and as they pushed through the packed aisle, she of course followed right behind him, making sexual innuendos and watching my face for a reaction. Giggling softly, I rolled my eyes away from her. Oh. My. God, Liv.
Moments later we pulled up to my stop and with what has to be luck, we all somehow managed to get off intact-er, alive. I meant alive. My hair has some popcorn in it and my shoe lace is a little torn but other than that I’m good, haha.
Of course. Everyone’s mom is there waiting to pick them up and I have to walk. Like always.
I pull my headphones out of my bag and plop them in, playing what ever TOP 40 soundtrack Spotify chooses for me today.
“Wha-what?”
The music stops. Staring down, frustratingly hitting the play button over and over again, something begins to trickles across the side of her neck. A chill runs down her spine. Cold breath in her ear, steady, light, frozen. Swiftly a hand plunges forward from around her body, smothering her face with a hand and everything left, is black.
Eyes strain to open, a blinding headache stabbing at my brain as I struggle to wake. My cheek is pressed to something cold, so cold. My arms too, my legs. I go to get up. I have to pee so bad. But they won’t move. What the hell? I pull my arms with all my strength. The smell in here is so putrid, I want to gag. Tears blurring my vision, all I can make out is the tin surface I can’t seem to evade. My eyes pull away towards my wrists. Ziptied down, skin rubbed away, plastic grinding into the flesh. Oh god, I can feel them pulsing. I struggle for what feels like an eternity when I hear a slam. Startled, I lay still. My eyes are wide open now, terrified, probably shaking and yet paralyzed from fear. Footsteps. Silence. It’s so dark I can just see the single yellow light above me, flickering in the reflection of the table when a hand begins the creep up my back slowly.
“Please. I don’t want any trouble, stop. I won’t report you, I promise.”
A sharp pain at the top of my spine.
Then down my spine in a straight line.
“OH GOD. PLEASE STOP.”
“Haha. Shhh..”
“WHO ARE YOU?”
I cry out in agony, tears blinding my sight everywhere I look, jerking in place, when he slices a horizontal line deep into my spine and I’m not jerking anymore. I’m not moving at all.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?”
“Katie, please. If you don’t stop you’ll have to be punished like them.”
“Who is Katie?”, I whimper helplessly.
A flashlight clicks on and points towards the wall.
“No, no.. Why? Oh..”
Piled against it are the mangled corpses of three other young girls. The smell.. Holding in my sobs I manage to utter out a single “sorry.”
“I bought you a new dress. Oh, it’ll look so lovely on you. This time you won’t run away. I’ve been trying to get you to forgive me but you keep leaving. I’m sorry I hurt you.” Crying apologetically, “I’m so sorry..”
He moves towards Kristen, cutting her zipties off, lifting her body from the table.
“LET ME GO!”
Kristen jerks what ever possible as hard as she can screaming in a final battle of defiance.
“NO!”
His hand quickly moves to the blade, swiftly slicing across her throat.
Sobs pierce the silence.
“I told you to stop…”