My Prince of Darkness

Chapter 1: The Emptiness of My Heart

Chapter 1: The Emptiness of My Heart

There’s this girl in the mirror, I wonder who she is. Sometimes I think I know her and sometimes I wish I did. There is a story in her eyes, lullabies, and goodbye. When she’s looking back at me I can tell…she’s hurting inside.

-Hope

Cut, cut, cut. The cold blade cuts deep into my pale skin. It leaves a trail of blood behind. Slowly, I smile in satisfaction as I feel the piercing pain. The happiness I want so badly is slowly returning. I know I look like a maniac, smiling as I cut myself. The thing is I am in such a good mood I couldn't care less. All that really matters is the wonderful feeling I have inside, nothing else. I'm going numb and my problems all seem to flow away. I cannot remember one single thing. What I had for lunch, or what had me crying just a few minutes ago. The only thing running through my head is...I'm bleeding.

Three quick knocks on the door makes me jump, breaking me out of my trance.

"Layla, honey? Can I come in?" Alice, my adopted mom asks.

"Err...just a minute." I said, looking around the room for something to quickly clean up the blood.

Two minutes passes by.

"Layla?" Alice asked again. Her voice now turning anxious. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I manage to say back as I hastily wipe up the blood with a tissue. I pulled down my sleeve hiding the newly cuts.

"Are you sure?"

I didn't answer. My eyes scanned the room for a place to stash my blade.

She instantly becomes suspicious. "Layla, open this door now!" She demands.

With a sigh, I quickly wrap the blade in one of my old shirts and shoved it under my bed.

I got up off my knees and went straight to the door. I pulled it open, only to find Alice, standing awkwardly in front of me. Her arms crossed over her chest.  

"Satisfied?" I asked sarcastically.

She studied me for a moment. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing."

She glared at me. "You're lying. Why didn't you open the door?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm not."

Why didn't you open the door?" she repeated.

"I'm sorry. I was just trying to get something on the top shelf of my closet. I didn't want all the stuff to come tumbling down." I came up with the best possible lie I could think of. I bit my bottom lip. If I smiled, she would recognize the lie.

She eyed me carefully. From the expression she had, I bet she was debating if she should believe me or not. Finally she shrugged. I tried not to look too relieved. "I guess that makes sense."

"What do you want?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I mean why did you come up here?"

"To ask if you wanted to go to the mall with me." She paused. "We haven't had one on one lately. I thought girl bonding would be nice." she smiled.

I frowned. "Why don't you ask Liz?"

Alice looked hurt. "You don't want to spend time with me?"

"No! It's not that. It's just Liz is more into the whole girl bonding thing. I don't want to bore you to death."

"You won't bore me. Come on. It'll be fun." She tried to sound convincing

I ran my hand through my hair, while I tried to come up with an excuse for why I couldn't go. I had plenty of homework to do. Yeah that will work.