REYNA
The sliver doors were drawn open, and the pull of the office crowd exceeded me. I watched as they paced furiously around the cubicles, dancing around each other in a sea of employees. Our eyes meet, and she walks towards me, a sad expression filling her face. She stops before me, beginning to suppress her frown. She smiles finally, and digs her hands into her jean pockets, tilting her head down towards the ground for a moment as she speaks.
"I think she hates me." She moves her head back towards mine, shaking it sightly.
"Who hates you?" I shake my head. Whoever it is, they wouldn't hate her, would they? She's a kind human being, isn't she? She's deserving, she's loyal and respective, isn't she? She wouldn't cause anyone to hate her, would she?
"My sister. My sister hates me." She froze, dipping her head downwards. "I don't know anymore, Reyna. She obviously hates me." I didn't know her enough, but when I first met her, she adored her sister. They sounded like the best of friends, and now, the love is gone, apparently. I don't know what to say.
"Helena, why does she hate you? I'm sure it's nothing, siblings always fight-" I stopped as she cut me off, opening her mouth to speak. She laces her fingers through her hair, the dark blonde strands winding around her hands. She frowns, moving her hands back to her pockets.
"Do siblings burn clothing whenever they feel like it, because I woke up and found her burning my clothes, and let me just say, she was fuming. She...she-" Helena froze, moving closer towards me. She pulled me in for a hug, and for a moment, she pressed her head on my shoulder and whispered. "She threatened to kill me."
"I'm sure she didn't mean it-" She pushed herself away from me, snapping out of her trance. She shook her head, pursing her lips as she turned slightly away from me. I'm sure her sister didn't mean this acrimony. Surely.
"No, I know her. She can get angry, and I mean real angry, and when she does, she says things that she does mean. We're no longer children, we need to learn to actually adore one another, because she's my older sister. She's meant to be there for me, you know?" Tears rush down her cheek as she speaks, her eyes focusing in on mine. She frowns, her dark coloured eyes darker than usual today. Her gaze drifts away as she finished speaking, moving to watch the whir of the office around us. "I'm not sure this place is for me anymore." I have to wake her from this daze, she loves writing.
"Helena, you love this job. Maybe you're just upset over your sister. You walk in here every day, with that high smile, and that straight hair, and you wave to every single employee...you like, of course. You sit at your desk with the same smile and the same flicker in your eyes, and you seem so happy with yourself, with everyone around you, really. I look over, and I can't help but grin, because I can see how much this job means to you. I know it's hard working for your sister, but that's how it is, and while she was appointed the charge, that doesn't mean she's in charge of how you live your life." She smiles, her cheeks blushing red. "I have an idea. You can stay at my house, because for some reason, I decided to plan ahead for my big future, and I have spare bedrooms. I'd be happy to spend more time with you."
We started walking to our cubicles, the windows shining in the iridescent light. She smiles once more, stopping at her desk and wrapping her arms around me. "Thank you, Reyna. I'd love that." I begin towards my own desk when I hear her booming voice from the hallway leading to her office.
"Helena and Reyna, can I speak to the two of you in my office?" She snaps her head towards the two of us, her eyes locking in on us. Helena freezes beside me, and she reaches out for my hand for a moment, before pulling away and stepping forward. She walks closer to her older sister, their gaze locking in on each other. She stops in front of her sister, Marie, and smirks ambitiously.
"Sure, sis, whatever you want." She steps beside her sister as I trail behind her, anxious that I had just stepped into the fire. Maybe seeing us talking together could change her thoughts about me? I'm not too sure. I want to help Helena, but I don't want to risk my job for it. These two seem to be in hot water, and I don't want to mess up what they have even further. We walk into her office, the leather chair behind her desk, pictures placed inside wooden frames, and as she sits behind the desk, her lips pursed ever so slightly, she turns to meet Helena's gaze as we sit down in front of her. She begins to speak, tapping her fingers on the desk.
"I don't want you to think that I hate you, and trust me when I say that I know what I did was wrong, but you need to know that I'm your older sister. Our parents trusted in me to look after you, and I know that I stepped too far, but they wanted me to care for you, Helena." She purses her lips and reaches out to hold her sister's hand. "You can move in with Reyna if you want, but don't think I won't still be here for you." She stands up, reaching into a drawer behind her. She releases a small bag from her grasp onto the small space in front of her sister, smiling.
"Thank you, sis. I'm glad you're letting me go, but what's this?" Helena stares down at the bag in front of her. As she focuses on the bag, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. Someone's texting me.
"Open it." Helena takes her hand into the bag and removes the item from inside, revealing a light cream blouse. She grins, turning towards her sister and I. "I felt terrible after this morning, so I bought you a new blouse. I'm so sorry about everything, Helena."
Helena stands up and moves towards her sister, reaching over for a hug. The two share a moment, and I can't help but smile, because what the two of them have, even if it may seem tired or miserable or heated, the highs in their relationship is definitely a sight for sore eyes, especially after all the fighting they had talked about. To see them together, happy and in the moment, was to see them finally accepting being together, being with each other as sisters. All Helena had wanted was for her sister to accept her. The phone vibrated once more in my pocket, as while the two weren't looking, I slipped out of the room and into the nearby bathroom. I took the phone from my pocket, reading the words on my screen. It was Grant. He began to call my phone, and I felt the cool metal against my ear as we began to talk.
"Hey, what's up? You said something was important." He sighs, and begins to speak.
"Reyna, I'm glad I could finally catch you." He stops, pausing. "Do you have the time to stop by into the hospital? It's just that-"
"The hospital? What happened, Grant?" My voice shook as I thought about what could have happened to him, to anyone I know. What if I lost someone close to me? What if my father had fallen ill again and he needed help? My breathing began to speed up, and he paused, once more beginning to speak.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Do you have time to come down? It's your friend, Faith." I froze in my position thinking about Faith. About her. I calmed myself down enough to speak once more, hoping for an explanation. What had happened to Faith Hyatt? My best friend, the girl who I trusted so much, landed herself in hospital, of all places. I can't help but think that what she did was wrong. Oh no, was she attacked? I don't know anymore, especially with some killer on the loose. The killer. I've only just remembered about her. She wouldn't hurt Faith, would she? Who am I to know what this killer would or wouldn't do? For all I know, I could be the target. For all I know, I could know the killer.
"Faith! What happened to her? Where is she?" I mumble rapidly, my voice rushed and coarse.
"She's here at the Crontill View Research and Medical Center. How long do you think you'll be?" My mind started spinning. Why was she in Crontill, when I know she couldn't? I know she wouldn't, because her parents wouldn't allow it? She should have been at home. I can only think about how furious her parents will be when they find her. She shouldn't have been here, out of her own town. It hurts me to say it, but she isn't stable without her parents. She needs them to stay out of danger, out of trouble.
"I'll be there as soon as I can." I need answers. She's my best friend, there's no need to lie to me.
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The white walls crash in on me as I step out of the hospital elevator, the sight of the white tiled floor, a rush of doctors and nurses as I step towards the room the receptionist told me. Room 212. Grant walks towards me, his leather jacket slouched over his shoulders, his dark brown hair messy and in desperate need of a cut. He smiles slightly, extending out his arms as I reach him, pulling me into a tight hug. His suave smile greets me once more as we pull apart, his hand tracing away from my back. Curtains lace the glass panelling of the hospital room, covering any view of her complexion. I reach closer to one of their covers, drawing it further away from the glass. Her nestled head rests on a light blue feather pillow, the sheets covering her body. She stirs slightly, lacing her hand over her stomach. I remove my hand from the curtain when Grant guides me towards the door.
"I think it's best if you talk to her for me. She's still a bit shook up." He presses his palms on the top of my shoulder. Carefully, I open the heavy glass doors, rousing her from her quiet slumber. She turns to face me, her light green eyes locking on mine. For a moment, she smirks, but then the pain takes over and it fades into a downcast frown. I step towards her, thinking about how she managed to land herself here, when she opens her mouth to greet me, before stopping. She shakes her head, then continues once more.
"Reyna... hey." She traces her fingers through her brown hair. "I'm sorry I had to see you this way." I didn't want to hear how she wanted to see me again. I just wanted to know why she was here, why she had been admitted into this hospital instead of her own, why she was in this town. Why she hadn't told me sooner. I hauled a chair towards the bed, sitting beside her.
"Why are you here, Faith?" She froze as I spoke, and I knew she had done something wrong. "Tell me the truth."
"Okay, you want the truth, I'll tell you the truth." She shifted slightly in the covered bed, gasping in the pain. "I came here to talk to you. I stepped into some horrible disaster at home, and I needed to escape for a while. So, I came looking for you. I was on my way to your home, when I bumped into someone. We were chatting when I was attacked. This stranger, I don't know who it was, dug the knife into my side, and I thought that was it. I thought I'd never see you again, I thought I'd never see my parents again. I thought the last person I'd see was this... maniac." Faith moved her hand towards mine as she spoke, reaching out as she spoke her horror story. Can I believe her? I focused my attention on a small notebook at the edge of her bed, a page resting open against the light blue sheets. The book, small and dark grey on the covers, looked fresh and barely empty. She had lost focus and began staring out the window hesitantly as I read the only open page of the journal. I began to read the first sentence.
I'm doing alright, I guess. The doctors are covering for me. I don't know...I don't know how long I can keep this act up, really. Telling her I have this condition, this fake liver condition, I don't know how long I can keep acting like I'm sick, because I'm not. He is. He needs the help, not me.
My eyes lingered away from the book to her face, as she calmly stared out the glass windows to her left. "How could you lie to me, Faith?" My voice raised as I began to yell at her, the emotions building under my skin. She wasn't sick, I was just an easy target for her lies. Tears began trailing down my skin as I thought about how easily she got into my head, how easily she tricked me into believing she had a liver condition. "How could you!"
She turned back to face me, her face lighting up in anger. "You have no right to read my journal!"
"You shouldn't leave it open on your bed! Thanks for lying to me, Faith." She cut me off abruptly, then paused slightly as she cleared her throat, holding further onto the wound on her side.
"I didn't mean to hurt you; I did all this to protect you..." A single tear ran down her cheeks as she continued to spread the lies. I can't trust her anymore, if she was lying about her liver condition, she could be lying about anything, everything. I cleared my cheeks, brushing away the tears. "I wanted you to stay away from this place, but you came anyway. You're always too ambitious."
"Isn't that a good thing; being too ambitious! Why did you want to keep me away from this place? What did you think this town would do to me? Kill me." She paused, raising her hand towards mine once more. I pushed her away, standing up and turning towards the doorway. She had the nerve to lie to me, and I thought she was my best friend. It sounds horrible, but for what she's done, I hope I never see her again or she dies at the hands of this serial killer, because I can't handle looking into her eyes without seeing the pain I'm feeling right now after all this. The tears would continue, like they are right now. I don't want to cry over her anymore.
"No, coming here was one of your worst ideas. I knew about her, the Devil's Bride. I knew she'd be here when you moved here, and I didn't want to lose you. I only started lying when you discussed moving away. I wanted to keep you away from this town, that killer and....him. You read my journal, you know he needs help, and you decided to walk right into his trap. That...that was his house." She wanted me to stay, so she lied to me? She couldn't just tell me to stay, she couldn't just let me know that she wanted to be with me in our old town, not here. She couldn't just tell me the truth all along. She could be lying right now. I would never know, because I never did before. She's perfect at lying.
"Enough with the lying, Faith. I'm staying in this town because I have true friends here, not back home. This is my new home now, and you can't stop me." I moved further away from her, the tears now disappeared from my cheeks. I don't need to cry over her. I reached the doorway and turned back to see her, tears dripping down her face. "Goodbye Faith."
"Reyna, you don't have to do this. You'll regret it all." She mumbled loud enough for me to understand, but she was wrong. I didn't need her. I don't need her lies. I don't need to know if she's okay anymore, because she was perfectly fine. There was no need to coddle her. There was no need to say anything to her anymore.
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THIRD PERSON
She flickered the light switch at the entrance to the basement, taking the vase of flowers and the mobile phone in her hands. She opens the door, stepping her bright red heels onto the first wooden step, the grey dust accumulating around her feet. She puckers her dark red lips as she spots the man for the staircase, his hands tied behind his back. Reaching the landing of the flight of stairs, she places the vase of yellow tulips onto a small dark brown stool and straightens her short coal black dress, pacing inaudibly towards the man on the floor, his struggles slowly becoming less fierce over the course of the year. She wondered how he managed to survive this year of torment with the bare minimums provided and the lack of sunlight. She rarely visited, choosing to allow her husband to feed, clean and chat to him. He always claimed that there was something about trapped visitors that he enjoyed, but she knew otherwise, and decided to keep his secret as he was keeping it, secret. She reached towards the man before her, after having removed a small knife from the vase of flowers, and moved closer towards his hands. He panicked, shrouding in fear, but she only laughed, retreating away from him.
"You think I'd kill you, Jasper? I thought we went over this. You're my bait. I hated our breakup, especially knowing I lost you to a....man. When you see him next, give him my kind regards. You deserve each other." He struggled to move as he listened to the words she spoke. He did miss seeing his boyfriend. He missed their moments together, and if this year had taught him anything, he knew the next time he spoke to Peter, he'd say all that he hadn't that year ago. He regretted dating this cruel woman, especially knowing he wasn't straight. That part of him memory was too painful to remember.
The woman moved closer towards him once more, releasing the phone towards him. She opened her mouth to talk once more, and holding the knife in her other hand. The coal black dress sat comfortably on her skin.
"Send him one more text, and I'll let you free. If you attempt to call for help, you'll wish you were dead."