...And Hell Followed With

Chapter Two:"What A Terrible Place To Be"

All she could remember now is that they had met when they were children, for whatever reason, Wes went to the same public school as she did. She knew that his parents had money and more or less seemed to want him, especially in middle school, to go to a private school of some repute, but yet a little beyond Maddi's knowledge, he never let them pull the trigger on that decision. The concept was so alien to her, "parents letting their kid make a decision" it almost seemed laughable on the face of it, no "because I said so?", must be paradise.

"Must be nice, two loving parents." she says out loud, her voice having a tone of envy within it. But the envy was directed at the universe, like she had been the butt of some cruel cosmic joke, it was a life she would never wish on her worst enemy. She finally makes it to the end of the street and turns down the long winding street towards the library. She always passed it on the way home, or many a time went in to read, something, anything, to keep her mind off her life, however even comics and manga were not cutting it most days.

As she walks by the enormous wall of windows, she looks in, curious to see what people were doing inside. Were they reading or playing on the free computers, her curiosity always got the better of her. Upon looking in she sees; many people on the ground floor, but since school was still in session, it was just adults going about their day.

She looks up to the second floor, and sees the teacher who had 'called' out from her earlier class, inside talking to someone, someone who is in what looks to be an intricate white mask. The teacher pulls out a knife, with a long curved blade, and a shiny ivory hilt, then begins to hand it over to the masked figure. Maddi is so focused on the scene that she crosses the street without looking, and before she can see the teacher hand the blade over; a car comes out of nowhere, and almost hits her.

"I'm fuckin' walkin' HERE!" she yells, in a faux Boston accent. To which the man gives her the finger. As she steps out of the way of the car, to the other side of the street, the car speeds off.

"GET A PAIR OF EYES!" The man in the car screams, as he speeds off. Maddi darts her head up to see that she missed the two figures finishing their exchange and now are gone.

"Strange." She thinks to herself, but is too engrossed by her own thoughts, to put much further scrutiny as to what the two were actually doing, and continues her trudge down the road towards her home closer to the outskirts of town; Invariably to avoid the town's center so no one of authority could catch her skipping school. As she gets closer to home, she decides to make a small stop at her favorite Burger Joint, "Icburger Ahead."

Maddi walks into the Iceburger Ahead, and the first thing she hears is the light voice of Katie.

"Maddi, how's the day treatin' ya? Shouldn't you be in school?" Katie remarks, as she wipes down the lunch counter.

"H-Hi Katie. Just... another day in paradise." Maddi replies, her voice low and forlorn. Pretending to not have heard the question about school.

"Could be worse right? You could be worrying about dying in a place like this, like me." Katie comments, giving Maddi a warm smile, obviously trying to lighten her mood; however it doesn't help in the slightest. "Anyway, the usual I presume?" Maddi just shakes her head yes, although she was not very hungry she thinks that if anything a burger might help at least get her through till Wes comes over later.

Maddi sits on the stool just looking down at the counter waiting for Katie to hand her the burger, unlike usual however, the cook brings her out her burger. The cook is a burly man, with a thick prominent cross hanging from his neck, and a shirt under his apron that proclaims "Pro-life, pro-god", which upon seeing it makes Maddi physically disgusted. He puts her food down, and he looks her in the eye.

"You're always lookin mighty fine, when you come in here." He says in a lecherous tone of voice, and looks at her up and down.

"...Thanks." Maddi responses, uncomfortably.

"...Mmmh, what I wouldn't do for a girl like you." The cook remarks under his breath as he walks away. Maddi looks at the burger, she does feel hungry but she doesn't want to eat. All food reminds her of her grandmother, and a tear begins to run down her cheek, she grabs the burger, trying desperately to eat to force herself to stop crying.

"You sometimes have to fight and fight, just to make it out of this world alive, especially if you know you're gonna lose." Proclaims an old man in black with a raven feather in his hair sitting on the lunch stool, close by. His face, partially obscured by the newspaper he was reading, which was about the war in Iraq. Suddenly a knife comes out of the kitchen and narrowly misses Maddi's head. The cooks tripped and hit a cutting board on the way down, launching the knife into the restaurant.

"Holy shit are you alright? That knife damn near, took your head off." Katie exclaims. Maddi breaks and starts sobbing. "It's ok honey." Maddi gets up from her seat, face in hand, and runs into the bathroom, locking the stall behind her.

"WHY? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME!?!?" She screams in her head not wanting anyone to hear her. Maddi wished the knife had just hit her. Maybe then she could just have died from an accident. To her it is as if fate is being cruel and laughing at her. She was begging for death to take her and it just wouldn't.

She puts her face in her hands and just begins to weep uncontrollably. She just lets the tears spill out of her, without even trying to stop herself, she just doesn't care whether or not she can be heard. She starts to think about her grandmother, and her cousin. Their lives cut short, one in pain for so many years, and the other snuffed out before her time. The thoughts just make her weep even more. She pulls her backpack from her shoulders and holds it close to her chest.

The pain will not subside, so as soon as she isn't weeping so loud, she gets up, gets out her money to pay and leaves the bathroom. She looks to make sure no one is around to see her, she darts out and tosses the money on the counter. As she leaves she hears Katie and the cook arguing.

"How many times have I told you to close, and lock that damn back door? It's that metal plate in your head isn't it." Katie says, scolding the cook.

"I told you I locked it! I keep telling you that that lock is broken." The cook yells back in frustration.

"How come when I lock it when I leave it works just fine then?" Katie asks, her annoyance palpable. Maddi can no longer hear the argument, as she heads off down the road. She is running as hard as she can, sobbing while doing so, and she comes over a small hill, seeing her neighborhood. She rounds the corner of her street, but is met with her mom's car still parked on the street.

She can't stop crying so runs down a side street. She almost falls as she sinks down to the ground. She is hyperventilating, she tries not to howl in tears, she couldn't help but think about the night before. The final straw that broke her, and made her decide to take her own life.