Does this DARKNESS have a name?
This cruelty, this hatred?
How did it find us?
Did it steal in to our lives, or
did we seek it out and
embrace it?
To say the blonde had not seen this coming was a complete and utter lie. It was almost as if she welcomed it. The smart ‘little cookie’ even got a word in edge-wise before the bed of blade was planted into her stomach. Chocolate irises were vibrant with apprehension as she spun about to meet the masked predator. “So. This is how it ends.” She whispered, though her eyes began to pool with tears of cognizance. The killer wasted no further second as the weapon was deeply penetrated into skin and gut, twisted and turning metal, being certain that the tiny figure was taken out with nearly one blow. That was all it took as sharpened object was yanked from her flesh, crimson fluid oozing from opened wound descending as a pool beneath her feet.
Brooke rested her back against the brick wall, sliding downward, palms instinctively taking hold of the gash as she openly wept. But, there was no pleading that slithered from off her tongue, no. There were only bits and pieces of sadness that the truth, or at least the truth she had chosen to believe, had surfaced. She was nothing more than a pawn in this little game of cat and mouse, a tool utilized to make others hurt. What had happened to all of them to deserve such a bleak outcome? What had SHE done to deserve this?
Stifled breaths lifted from her mouth while she sobbed through the inexplicable anguish formulating due to the deepness of laceration. “I’m sorry...that I wasn’t...good enough...” she struggled to gasp as her head tilted to meet the coolness of paved wall if only to find some comfort in the very real scenario of her demise.
Oh. God. It hurt! The movies were all full of such deception. One did not merely slip away into the depths of Neverland or wherever it was they floated off to once stabbed so barbarically. It felt as though her body wasn’t even shutting down, and if it would, it would take some time as it filtered its way through the great deal of pain.
WHAT HAPPENED TO US?
That we send our children
into the world like we
send young men into war.
Hoping for their safe return.
But knowing that some will
be lost along the way...
Unlike the rest, she made no attempt to get away. With her petite body nearly slumped over she felt the murderer snatch her by the bed of her hair, forcing her to look up at them while tears streamed down her paled complexion.
They say that right before you die, your life flashes before your eyes...but as far as Brooke was concerned? She had no thought for herself, but of others. Riley -- how she should have just taken her place to begin with. That untimely death was a great unnecessary brutality and right now? Brooke wished that the culprit would just get it over with, put her out of her damn misery so she could maybe with Riles again. Maybe. She thought about Emma and how she might cope, witnessing while all of her friends collapsed all about her, honestly wondering how she might take the news once they found her mutilated body...would she care like she had cared about all the others? Would she really? Within Brooke’s mind she had found herself to be expendable, yet another marking on the murderer’s long list of victims. This was her fate, to become nothing more than a drained carcass near some back alley on the way home from yet another dreary and somehow dire basketball game. Sports were never really her thing.
Memory flashed back to Mr. Branson. Seth. ‘I miss you...’ His voice echoed like the sweetest song, and yet as one she truly detested, like that whiny Taylor Swift album that Riley couldn’t seem to get enough of. If he had cared so much, where had he been when she was faced with the great loss of her best friend? Where had he been during her father’s meeting at Town Hall? He’d disappeared just like her mother. And in that moment, as her veins ran cold and she felt life finally lifting and fading from her lungs, Brooke felt so very ALONE.
Who would miss her?
Absolutely NO ONE.
WHEN DID WE LOSE OUR WAY?
Consumed by the shadows,
swallowed whole by darkness.
Brooke had always been known as somewhat of a fighter, strong and bold, smart and courageous. But, in the past few weeks, she had that half of her character snatched away with one little poll that had circulated...and now? The entire student body would get what they desired. Brooke Maddox, the ‘high gloss queen bee’, would be DEAD within a matter of seconds.
She merely yearned for peace to infiltrate her bones, to cart her away. Long lashes fluttered as her vision finally blurred and with one remaining strike of knife upon her carotid artery (against her throat), that was it.
It had only been a matter of time, she knew.
This was the way it had to be.
And the last thought that had crossed paths with her cognizant line of thought was:
Everyone hates me...
Does this darkness have a name?
IS IT YOUR NAME?
