"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Arielle... Happy birthday to you!"
It was Arielle's 18th birthday... Oh, I remember it as if it was yesterday. We weren't many, Arielle never had many friends. I, and my boyfriend, George, were some of her only friends. If not the only ones. I played with a loose thread on my dress, and nervously I swept my eyes over the few people who attended the party. No surprise that her family had come, uncles, aunts, grandparents. And of course her parents. Her mom sat with an uncertain look on her face. And her father was closed in himself - as usual. It wasn't much of a party feel over this get-together. Nothing like people would expect a 18th birthday party to be like.
"Now, darling, are you ready for your gifts?" her mother said with an excited voice. She almost bumped out of her seat with thrill, and I swear she was at least ten times more buzzed about the whole thing, than Arielle.
Yes. That was the thing about Arielle. She wasn't like any other girls. Well, she used to be like me once. I remember her happy face so clearly. Her girl-next door look, and how her beautiful, blonde hair swept over her blue eyes when it was windy. She was actually one of those few girls who looked beautiful from the nature's side.
But after she met Jean, things turned, if possible, more than up-side-down. She met Jean when she was 15. He was that dark, mysterious, and not to mention older guy everyone was kind of afraid of, but still admired; he was extremely good looking. But not in a fancy, sissy-boy-ish way. But in a dark, handsome way. The way he looked at you... it could give you goosebumps. His dark eyes hidden by a cloud of dark hair, they were so intense. No wonder Arielle fell in love with him.
He was also a lot older than her, 22 when they met. She was 15. Jean made her do things. Absolutely, girlfriend-boyfriend thing, they did. Legally speaking, he was taking advantage of her. And religiously talking, she was doing a sin.
But he also made her do Other things. Spooky things. Thing I never understood before it was too late.
The first time I noticed something wrong, was when she dyed her beautiful hair. Everyone adored it. But now her hair was coal black. Just without a warning - it was raven black. Later, she cut it. The long hair, that reached to her petite waist, was now in a dramatic bob.
I was waiting for her at her home the day she cut it. Her mom had dished up something sweet, French Macaroons. She was a master chef, and her desserts were amazingly delicious. I remember sitting by the table, listening to her mother's chit chat about everything between earth and heaven, when Arielle entered the door. Her mother lost it. At first she was yelling, so loud, and the she started weeping. She cried as she held Arielle's wrists, not letting her go.
I found that it was in my place to leave when she slapped Arielle.
It didn't take long before she started dressing in black clothing too. It made everyone rather surprised, because she was one of the sassy, pretty rich girls. I even remember the first time she wore a black shirt. She had been bugging me about some kind of band I'd never heard of. So, acting as a real best friend, I found an authentic shirt on eBay, and gave it to her. To be honest; that was one of the last times I saw her really smile.
The changes kept coming; little by little she became darker - both physically, and mentally.
Someone from the outside would just wave it away and say that, 'psh, no worries, she just became a little emo or something, nothing to worry about, it is just a phase'. But no - it wasn't a phase. Soon all her friends were slipping away. I never had the heart to let her go, and many times I thanked God that I hadn't; mostly at her suicide attempts. I had stopped her 3 or 4 times from doing it.
Her parents were loosing it. Her father was of the silent type. Now, he wasn't reachable. Her mom was hysterical. She was so loud, and cried and yelled when she was taking. She often came by and cried and asked my mom for advice. Only that my mom never knew what to say. I felt so sorry for them both.
"I'm sorry, Celin, I really am, but I can't help you - Marie isn't in that kind of phase. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, don't cry, please..."
This happened while Jean stood and watched it all unwind. I didn't see him much, which was weird because she always talked about him when we were together. I guess I had my life, and she... had her.
The scariest change, though, was when she started talking about different occult sects. She talked about afterlife, ghosts, different kind of rituals, vampires, and, freakiest of all; rats. She said that rats were magic creatures, and that they were way too underestimated.
"If I was to choose what kind of creature I was to be, I'd choose a rat", she used to say.
I don't know what they did in that sect, I never accepted when she invited me to join, but I know they did horrendous things. One night, she came in my room through my window; we used to do it like that when we were younger, at it was stuck as a tradition. She was talking about this eve's meeting, when the scarf she had tied around her neck slid of. She had dozens of macabre bite marks there, some of them even bleeding. When I tried to ask, she just locked herself in the silent shell, and after a couple minutes she left, without even saying goodnight.
"Now, Marie, it's time for your gift" her mother said to me, with a smile on her face. I glanced carefully at Arielle, just to make sure she wasn't frowning or mad. She had the usual no-expression expression on her face, so I got the courage, and gave her my little gift.
She opened the red wrapping with her long, slender and black-polished nails, and revealed the little, box the paper had hid. Inside the box were two red earrings, tiny flowers with red petals, and in each petal a deep red crystal. In the middle was a dirty-yellow center, and all together it looked delicate, but still giving a statement. I was surprised to see Ariellee forcing a smile, surprised to even see her trying. What blew me away was that she actually replaced the heavy, dark silver earrings with the flowers. I had to go over to her and give her a real hug, which, of course, she didn't respond to. I didn't get hurt by it anymore. It was just... Ariellee.
A couple weeks after her birthday, something awful happened. It made her mom even more broken than ever; I overheard her talking hysterically with my mom. Over a cup of hot coffee, she said;
"It's it for Arielle. She has lost it, Amy, lost it. I don't know what to do anymore! She... she broke into a house yesterday, can you believe it? A house! She stole their precious jewelry, and wouldn't have been caught if it weren't for the surveillance cameras around the house. She's in jail, Amy, in JAIL. What do you say about that?! What have I done wrong?
"And that is not the worst part; she had to see a doctor when she was caught, and you know what he said, Amy...?" her voice broke on the last word, "You know... what he said? He said that Arielle needs to see a psychiatrist. That there is something wrong with her... mind!"
I had lost everything I held when I heard that, and got in my car to drive to the prison as fast as I could. It didn't take me long before I got a visitor card, and got to Ariellee's cell. She was over 18, so no longer a minor. She lived in an ordinary cell.
It made me break down to se her black head bend down in a corner of the room. I was on my knees and tried to meet her eyes.
"What have you done, Arielle? What? I thought... I didn't think you would break into someone's house! Arielle, talk to me... TALK TO ME!!!" I shrieked the last words and it made her react. To see her laughing... I didn't expect that. She was humming at first, but quickly got hysterics.
She laughed, and the laughter echoed in the metal walls of the cell. She never let go of my eyes.
"Marie..." she said, still with some laugher left in her voice, "I TRIED to make you understand. I TRIED to get you to talk with Jean. Ohoho, believe me, I TRIED. But you never, not even once, listened. You could behehe... like... like me, you could become what I am about to be, but now it is too late. Too late for YOU. Oh, what a pity. You are just an other human living to me, and NOTHING else. Do you hear me?! NOTHING ELSE. NOTHING! NOTHING! NOTHING!" That was when she got the attack. She was shaking, and no longer meeting my eyes. If I had something to say, I would say that she was...possessed.
I believed the psychiatrist's words; she was not well. I didn't try meet her eyes, not even once. I ran away, and cried my eyes out, as I heard her voice echo in the large prison. I heard her voice, loud and angry, repeating Nothing more aggressively for each time.
I was out, and drove home.
It was about a week since I last saw Arielle, and I was in the living room with George. We were watching the news. The clock rang eleven times, and the news began. They were talking about some kind of astronomical occurrence that would happen about midnight this night. Some planets and stars that were in line, about something I didn't understand. It was interesting, though, because it was a once-every-1000-year phenomenon.
It was the next news that surprised, and made me alarmed.
"Someone broke in to the local prison earlier this evening, and there are no numbers on how many prisoners that have escaped. Guards say the power went off for about fifteen minutes, and that there was nothing to hear. When the lights later went on, dozens of the cells in the prisons were empty, and reports say that many thieves, rapists, mentally ill people, and even murderers are out on the loose. We, on the behalf of the major, advise everyone to keep their houses locked, and not move outside the home until the situation has calmed. It is still a mystery how the prisoners have escaped".
We were out of the house within seconds, driving through the empty streets.
After half an hour we were about to give up, when we saw a crowd of people in one of the back streets. We didn't drive too them, but kept a distance.
I was terrified over the fact that all of them were dressed in black, and that the leader seemed to be tall, dark and mysterious, with a petite little girl clenched around his waist.
He was saying words neither I or George understood, and seemed to have a power over the people standing around him, a hypnotic power, including Arielle.
"Wersula will be proud of you! At exactly 12 PM, you will change. And you will change to the better!"
We parked the car away from their sight, and crept to watch them. I noticed that many of them had black suits, prison suits, with numbers on the back. Some of them were dressed in black tuxedos, and some in the same gothic clothes as Arielle used to wear, only that now she also was in the prison suit. They all had the same hypnotized expression, the same emptiness in their eyes.
George pinched me, and whispered that it was five minutes until 12. And after he said it, the people in the crowd moved, and stood in what looked like some kind of formation. The time went slowly, and I saw that Arielle and Jean were the closest to us. I shook where I stood, and George kept his hands tightly around me.
And then it began. The big clock on the church started ringing. One time. Two times. I started crying. Three times. Four times. I got out of George's hold. Five times. Six times. I began running. Seven times. Eight times. I shrieked Arielle's name. Nine times. She saw me, and I realized that she was crying. Ten times. She stretched her hands out to me, and I ran into her grip. Eleven times. Jean grabbed my shoulders and whispered 'It is too late'. Twelve times.
I stood with Jean's big hands hard on my shoulders, and I heard George yelling at him. He didn't move, his grip was hard. I felt like an idiot, couldn't do anything. Arielle's grip loosened, but not in the way it should. It felt like it was crumbling. I looked up, and met her eyes. She was smiling. No, she was grinning. While I was stepping back, Jean let go of me. I stumbled and George held my hands, and I observed Arielle, with horror in my eyes. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think.
She WAS crumbling, indeed. But not into pieces.
Her arms, her long, slender arms, turned into dozens of rats. The same happened with her legs, hundreds of rats. She and the crowd behind her turned into... rats. The last thing I saw was her face. She smiled at me, and then she wasn't Arielle anymore. She was hundreds of disgusting, crawling rats.
I screamed, and dug my head into George's hard, safe chest, but he didn't move. He was as terrified as I was. The rats kept running around our feet, I felt the tickling sensation as tiny feet and tails swept my bare skin through my sandals. They were disappearing into different streets, and soon the only thing left was one rat, which stood on his two back legs and watched us. I saw it, and started screaming.
"GET OUT OF HERE! I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU! GET. AWAY!"
And it ran away. I was left alone with George, and Jean. He was standing a bit away from us, with one arm crossed over his chest, and the other over his mouth, as if blocking a laugh.
"WHY?!" I cried at him.
"The same thing has happened in London. In New York. Tokyo. It has happened in big cities, in small towns. Everywhere. Now, we can observe. We can observe everyone. Everywhere."
He stretched out his fist toward me, and unclenched it. Inside were two, red flower earrings.