string puppet. //

Cassandra Hussein

she was beautiful.
she was gorgeous.
everyone loved her.
she loved herself, too.
men fell to their knees when
she passed by.
women watched her in envy.

then, she met ryan.
upon first sight,
she fell in love.
she loved him and only him. she loved
nobody else.
she was obsessed, but he didn't know
who she was.
to him, cassandra did not exist.
"look at me," she
begged silently.
he never glanced at her.
"am I not pretty enough?" she thought.
he still never noticed her.
she glanced.
she stared.
she bumped into him.
but he never looked at her.
her self esteem crumbled like a wall under the push
of  never-ending time.

"I am not pretty enough."
"I am ugly."
"he does not love me."

she was going
insane.

"I must be the
most beautiful, so he can love me."
"I must be the most beautiful."
"yes. nobody else can be prettier than me."
"yes. nobody."

"nobody."

"NOBODY."

--------------------------------------

"cassandra?" her mother asked kindly.
"you haven't left your room in days!"
her door was unlocked.
"cass?" she pushed open the door.
"cassa- OH MY GOD."

there cassandra was, sitting on a pile
of naked, headless female bodies,
her back facing the door.
"am I pretty yet?" cassandra muttered, lining up
the decapitated heads of
those girls, eyes wide and mouth contorted in
a timeless scream.
there was blood everywhere, staining the walls,
almost splattering up the ceiling.
it was on her bed. the door.
the table.
slowly, she turned to face her mother.
her mother gasped.
cassandra's eyes were those of a madman,
her smile was so unsettling, and blood dribbled
out of her mouth that was pulled
into a smile.

"he'll look at me now, right?"
"there's nobody else is can look at!"
"only ME!"

then, it began to fade.

"please, love me..."
her fading voice pleaded.

"look at me..."

"please."