Chapter Three
I fisted my hair and racked my brain; Eleanor did try to teach me a little Italian but I could not recall anything other than “*add Italian phrase*.” Hello Princess. I kept thinking over and over and over again. Silenzio. I thought about it, it could possibly mean silence; actually, I am almost certain that it is silence. It soon dawned on me that I was being watched through the phase of trying to figure out what she meant. I looked over my shoulder, a sudden mist shrouded around me, wrapped me up tight. It bound me to my spot, this mist was controlling me, it wrapped around my neck, strangling me, suffocating me. I gagged and clawed at my throat; then it came, a heavy feeling on my chest, as if someone was sitting on it. Then, suddenly, it subdued.
I fell onto my hands and started gagging; I gently felt the air around me and looked through the sudden haze in my eyes. The mist moved on. I pushed myself onto my feet; there was something that caught my eye, it looked like the colour pink. I had a hunch that whatever it was had something to do with the mist. I pondered on the thought, should I go after it? Or should I just leave it be, after all. It almost killed me. My nose began to run; I raised my hand to my nose and touched the substance. It was warm and drying quickly, I ran my fingers over it and then it hit me. It was blood. I cursed, the last time I had a bleeding nose was well, when I was around nine years old. I pinched my nose and hoped for the better. I pondered for what felt like hours.
A thought then came to mind, does time even exist where I am currently stuck. Then came the feeling again, as if I was being watched. I quickly spun around to see the mist once again, it hurdling towards me like a stampede of wild horses. Fear struck through me like lightning, my feet were glued to the ground, my body shaking violently. The mist swamped me again, swarming and strangling me again, I tried to breathe through my nose and caught a whiff of cheap perfume and nail polish. I finally found my feet and one thought came to mind; run. I scrambled and stumbled over my own feet. When I had finally escaped the almost end of mist. I turned around and watched it pass over the area; that’s when I saw it again, a glimpse of pink then nothing.
I tried to think back and wonder what the pink could be tied to. I thought about the smell of inexpensive perfume and the overpowering whiff of nail polish, the smell always made me so sick. There was a thought niggling at the back of my head, perfume. Perfume. Perfume! That’s when I realised, it was all so simple. I laughed at how ridiculous it sounded, the mist is the perfume. The feeling came around, again. But this time I turned around and saw a girl in a pink dress. “Uh. Hello.” I called out; the girl just stared at me. Then, as if I was being controlled my body hurdled forward, as I was getting closer to the girl, I noticed that her dress was dripping. I felt my eyebrows knit together in confusion, a sudden smell of perfume infiltrated my nose. I stopped right in front of her, her face was familiar and the stingy smell of nail polish quickly replaced the cheap perfume.
I looked down at her thigh length dress; I now knew why it was dripping. It was dripping nail polish. Her face flickered as my chin was forced up to look at her. Only her face, it flickered from Glasgow scars reaching her ears to a normal human face. She turned up her nose in disgust at me, “Oh. It’s you. I was hoping for someone better.” She let go of my face and turned her back of me. Her hair a familiar, oily, blonde streaked hair. She bent over, flicking her hair down and then snapping back up; she twisted her hair into a messy high bun. It didn’t really suit her. Her facial features where far too large for such a small bun. Her body flickered then disappeared, “Hey! Come back here!” I shouted after her. I turned around on the spot, flicking my head numerous times to see if the perfume mist or our mysterious girl with the Glasgow grin, was still around.
Within moments, I heard a chilling shriek of laughter, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I thought to myself, I can’t see her, but she sounded so close. A thought struck me, where is the place that no one wants to look. The corner of your eye. I felt my eyes slowly flicker to the corner of my eyes; I stumbled backwards when I saw her face. She was grinning, her Glasgow scars rolled up with her grin. She materialised in front of me, her dress was no longer dripping with pink nail polish. No, this substance was red and thick; she gestured to her maxi dress of red, “Do you like it? I thought I might as well add a different touch.”
“What is it?” I questioned, “You seriously haven’t figured it out yet?” I shook my head, confused, “It’s blood. Jeez, I thought you were smart enough to figure that out.” The way she spoke was as If she were talking to a three year old. I watched as she circled me, I assumed that she was contemplating on what to do with me. As she stopped circling, she stood straight in front of me and smirked. I began to giggle as I saw what had happened to her hair, it had fallen out of her bun and every time she turned her back to me, all I could see was this massive ‘rat’s tail.’ “What’s so funny?” she hissed, “Nice ratty.” I snarled. Maybe it was the aura she was giving off, but it made me want to hate her, every bone in my body instructed me to make snide comments. She stamped her foot and huffed. She took her hair out and flipped it over again, just pulling it back into the high-bun.
“So, Madelyn. Do I look Familiar?” She grilled, I nodded and smirked, “I’m pretty sure I saw you where they keep the gorilla at the zoo.” Her eyes turned a fiery red, “Don’t tested your boundary’s kid.”
“You look younger than me.”
“I’ve been in this business before you were even born.”
“So what you’re doing is a business then?”
She dismissed the conversation with the flick of her wrist. “It doesn’t matter, but what’s important is that you see the things that you were blind to in life.” I went to open my mouth but a force shut it tight. “I’ll be doing the talking from now on.” She disappeared, my lips still stuck together. She reappeared in front of me, holding a needle and thread. My body froze; I had no idea what she was going to do with that thread and needle. She got right up close to me, she had suddenly grown at least a few more inches, she towered over me. She lifted the needle and pushed it through my upper lip, a scream erupted from my throat, but never made it past my lips. She pushed it through my bottom lip and pulled the thread through.
She continued to criss-cross the thread, shutting my lips tight. “Speak no evil.” She whispered into my ear and cut the thread. I felt the blood trickling my pierced lips. My heart picked up as she disappeared, but I was still frozen. She came back with more thread. Smirking, “this part is going to hurt.” I felt my shut tight, I could not open them. I felt the gears in my brain whirling and clicking. That’s when I felt it. The needle pierced through my left eyelid, I screamed again and again and again. She finally sewed my left eye shut, then preceded to my right up. The sharp tip of the needle felt like it was ripping through flesh, the blood trickling down like involuntary tears. Once she had finished, it occurred that I had already lost my voice.
My heart rate pick up again, my heart beat drumming in my ears. I felt her move a piece of my hair behind my ear. Her hot breath tickled my exposed skin, “See no evil.” Her voice had a quiver in it, as if she regretted what she was doing. I felt her presence walk around me and stop behind me, my body shook uncontrollably. I knew what was coming up after this. “Hear no evil.” She hurriedly shouted before something sharp was stabbed into both of my ears at the same time. I let out one last scream before nothing; silence. My body unfroze, but I still did not move, my body was still in shock and so was I. I got onto all fours and felt around, I had to rely on one of my last senses, the smell of nail polish and cheap perfume returned. My hands touched something pasty, sticky. I lifted my right hand and brought it to my nose. The overpowering stench of nail polish infiltrated my nose and instantly made my brain hurt.
