Mystery Girl

[Ænorexorcist]

This one took me several months to finish, and I really need some advice in terms of editing. Hopefully, despite its rawness, you'll get some enjoyment out of it. I apologize for the length.

It was going to be another bland and bitter day in Gray Valley. Winter had come, and its icy fingers had choked the life from the village. The atmosphere's jaws were cold, merciless daggers that cut into even the smallest inch of exposed skin. Trees and bushes took the form of distorted and abstract wooden claws, contorting into eerie, otherworldly shapes. The sky was overcast, a colossal gray beast that hovered over the town.

She decided that this would be the best place to settle down, if only for a little while. It was completely cut off from the outside world, an anonymous mid-western town that nobody (or, more specifically, authorities) knew about. The establishment looked especially compact -- extremely limited when contrasted with the great and endless gray field it sat in the middle of. Sparse collections of dead trees decorated the town's outskirts, and she drove past them quickly, looking amongst the old, rickety houses for one which bore a "FOR RENT" sign. She found just such a sign without much trouble, and, using a cell phone that wasn't hers, called the advertised number. Several of its digits were distorted by patches of rust, so she had to guess on a few of the numbers. She guessed right, and had moved in by the end of the day. She was up all night, preparing for her first day of school in the new town.

Cedric strolled down the main street with his book bag slung over his shoulder, passing by several shops that looked like they'd gone out of business years ago but were actually up and running. Cedric often wondered why the town had always been like a corpse. For as long as he could remember, things had always looked dreary and depressing. The buildings on Main Street were all different colors -- an electronics shop had a chipped red coat of paint, and the drug store was coated in an olive green. However, the thick gray clouds destroyed any bit of vibrance that colors in the town might have had. It wasn't a wonder the town had the word "Gray" in it -- everything was so monochromatic in the dreariest of ways. It was almost magical. Cedric, not having the money or aspirations to get out of the dead, desert-like valley, had not once seen sunlight with his own eyes.

His skin was pallid and almost colorless due to an extreme lack of sun. His hair was short and jet-black. It stuck up in many places, as though he'd just woken from a restless slumber. He wore an old white T-shirt and a pair of baggy black pants held up by two dusty black suspenders. He walked past several people he recognized, nodding at them with a blank, washed-out expression.. Despite its drab and melancholy appearance, Gray Valley was a very tightly-knit community, even if its inhabitants weren't constantly beaming at each other.

After passing a plethora of familiar faces, Cedric stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the girl with the shimmering chestnut hair. He stood dumbfounded, his jaw agape and his heart thudding in his chest. His interest in this new girl was instantaneous. He viewed her in profile, taking in every minute detail about her. She had a sweet, round face, dotted with freckles. Her eyes were small and bore a light shade of brown which matched her fluffy shoulder-length hair. Her wavy locks swayed with a majestic beauty in the faint morning breeze. A thick collection of her hair fell in front of her left eye, obscuring it completely. Her skin had a healthy tan, and she wore an apple-red dress which hung down to her knees. She was a princess of vibrance and brilliant colors. Cedric had slowly been moving close to her as he admired every bit of her -- she was like a bright red rose in an endless field of brambled weeds. Soon he could see every minute detail of her form, right down to the last freckle. She turned to face Cedric and the radiant gaze she gave him had the power of the sun itself. Cedric winced at the sparkling shine in her eyes and the deep red of her lips. She was like an angel of color, sent to bring life to this graveyard of a town.

"Hiya," she said, her voice having a sweet and jubilant cleverness to it. As she spoke, her lips parted slightly, and Cedric was granted a view of her ivory-white teeth, flawless and without visible fault. "What's the matter? Have I got something on my face?" she asked, the jubilant tone arresting Cedric's complete attention as he shook his head no, but he continued to stare at her. There was a pause, while the two of them stared at each other. The ardent girl's gaze was filled with sweet amusement, while Cedric's stare was intent and near-obsessive. "You think you could show me where the school is?" Cedric nodded and motioned for her to walk with him as he stepped around her, never taking his eyes off of her. She skipped along with him, her luscious hair bouncing. Cedric, intently watching her, noticed something rather strange about her.

Not a flaw, exactly, but it did arouse his curiosity -- the lock of hair that fell in front of her eye did not move at all, as if it was permanently molded so that it obscured that portion of her face. Despite the morning breeze and her energetic way of walking, those particular locks of hair refused to move, which struck Cedric as odd, considering how the rest of her hair flowed freely. Cedric decided that it probably had something to do with the way she was positioned in relationship to the wind, but the locks still nagged at his mind as they walked towards the school together.

It wasn't until the old, brick-walled school came into view that Cedric had finally been able to speak. He introduced himself in a shaky, low voice. She said she liked his name and kept saying how appreciative she was of his escorting her. "Since we're exchanging names, I'm Phoebe." She made eye contact with him constantly. Every time he'd glance over at her, she would glance back with a very sudden and almost startling speed that would have disturbed Cedric if his senses hadn't been dulled by her beauty. It was like she was starving for the eye contact, anticipating the precise moment of his next glance at her. That wasn't too strange -- she was probably just a friendly girl. Nothing wrong with that, Cedric told himself.

They walked upon the pale cracked sidewalk together. The school loomed in the distance, complemented in its gloom by the dark gray clouds surrounding it. The building itself was positioned on the crest of a hill, blanketed with lifeless gray grass. Walking up the hill was usually a torturous experience of discomfort, since the wind would often bite Cedric's flesh the hardest during his ascension of the knoll. However, while in company with this strange new girl named Phoebe, there seemed to be a veil of warmth cast around the duo.
Cedric wasn't just oblivious to the cold, he seemed to feel the sensation not as a freezing at all, but rather a burning, a pleasant heat which made him think of the warmth of a mother's womb -- a complete envelopment, a shell of absolute euphoric separation from the harsh elements of nature. He was fascinated by the heat, entranced by it. Normally he was wearing goose-flesh as his second skin by now, but that certainly wasn't the case, not while he was with Phoebe.

Footsteps quickened as Phoebe trotted ahead of Cedric. He watched her young, energized body as it moved with life and excitement. She was filled with an alien vigor. All of the other girls Cedric had spent time with in the past were silent as corpses, never having much to say about anything, always slugging along with a meticulous slowness. Phoebe, on the other hand, was like a ball of fire, dancing and skipping as she moved, often humming an unrecognizable, upbeat tune as she moved. She looked over her shoulder, not slowing or stopping one bit as she called out to Cedric.

"Hurry up, ya slowpoke! You don't wanna be late, do you?" Cedric stood still, watching Phoebe's grace with open-mouthed awe. He sighed, closed his mouth, and mechanically checked his watch, looking up for a brief moment, making sure she'd stopped. The plain white face of the timepiece read 7:40. School started at eight. When he looked up to tell her that they had plenty of time to spare, he saw that Phoebe was at the school's front door. Cedric shivered. The bitter-cold wind was like an icy blade against his flesh.

He rushed towards her with a clusmy half-quickness, and felt the frigid air leave him, changing places with the familiar warmth. He caught up with her just as she reached the glossy black double doors of the high school. Cedric stared at their reflections, his in the left door, hers in the right. He blinked harshly. For one brief moment, her reflection seemed several shades brighter than his own. Cedric could have swore that it was shimmering. Phoebe snapped him out of his trance with a playful "Anybody hooome?" Cedric blinked harshly and opened the door for her. She nodded in gratitude and briskly strode through the doorway.

The school's hall was long and narrow, its left and right sides covered in rows of olive drab lockers. A doorway stood after every tenth locker on either side. Each door bore a small number, the first on the left being 101, and the last one on the right bore 109. Cedric made his way to locker #107, opening it while keeping his eyes fixated on Phoebe, who reached out for the locker adjacent to his. For a moment, he thought he was going to tell her that the locker belonged to someone else, but the thought was completely vanquished. Cedric was suddenly positive that no one had ever occupied the locker. Shaking off a slight dizzy feeling, he stuffed his book bag into the locker, pulling out a thick black book with pages the color of sickly skin -- yellow and pallid. He turned to Phoebe. She was holding a book exactly like his, hardcover and jet-black. However, its pages looked brand new and were dove white. Cedric opened his mouth to ask her why the text was so pristine, as Gray Valley High School hadn't ordered new textbooks since its opening (this fact was often muttered by disgruntled teachers at the school). She swiftly lifted her eyes to meet his gaze, and he closed his mouth and found it perfectly acceptable and not the least bit suspicious that her book was brand new. The school may not have had any extra books and had had to order another one, that thought raised yet another question -- how'd she acquire the book so quickly? That question was erased from Cedric's mind just as soon as it had appeared.

The classroom was a dilapidated mess. Patches of wall were peeling, revealing the soft, dirty material beneath its plaster skin. Large chunks were missing from the chalkboard. Flourescent lights buzzed above the room like flies hovering over a decaying corpse. There were five rows of desks all leading up to the teacher's desk, where a thin, wrinkle-faced, balding man sat. His eyes were hidden by the white gleam of his spectacles. Cedric felt his gaze but ignored it as he moved to his seat near the back of the classroom. All of the students were clothed in gray, white, or black. Phoebe, in her dazzling red dress and light-brown hair, stood at the front of the classroom, hands folded neatly behind her back, shifting her weight from one hip to the other. She grinned widely at the classroom, not at all phased by their blank stares of fascination and confusion. Her teeth were like a mirror -- Cedric was sure that if he stood close enough to her, he'd be able to see his own reflection in those pure white gems. Phoebe performed a kind of motionless dance, turning and twisting to alleviate her boredome, like a living marionette.

The teacher had had enough of this. "Please, miss, take your seat," he said in an old, grizzled voice that reminded Cedric of a demonic insect. Phoebe's face then transformed from the bright and cheerful display to a narrow-eyed glare of loathing. It seemed that only Cedric had noticed this sudden change, and after she looked straight at him, he forgot about it completely.

"But I haven't introduced myself yet!" Phoebe said in a cunning, sweet voice. "How are you to address me in class if you don't even know who I am?" The teacher coughed, shuffled through the mess of papers on his desk and waved his hand dismissively, sending the girl to her seat. She exhaled deeply through her nostrils and stomped over to the middle desk in the front row. A shaggy-haired boy clambered out of the desk, adjusting it for her and finding himself an empty seat near the back row. No one seemed to notice. All they could concentrate on was the blindingly bright nature of this girl.
A girl with black hair and pigtails snapped her chewing gum thoughtfully.

"We're going to talk about past religious beliefs today. Many societes, older and less educated than our own, had to rely on demons and angels to explain now scientifically proven phenomena. In the early 1700s, a great deal of men began to disappear from their homes in the night, often leaving behind only a pool of blood in their beds. Can anyone tell me what the people blamed responsible?"

The teacher stood at the front of the class, his brittle hands folded behind him. Phoebe's hand appeared in the air almost instantaneously. Cedric hadn't even been able to detect the motion she'd made, but he quickly disregarded his suspicion after she glanced back at him warmly. "Ah...you there, girl. You think you have an answer?" the teacher asked. Phoebe didn't wait for him to give her permission to speak. She stood up, slamming her cream-colored palms on the desk.
"My name is not 'girl', I'm Phoebe Tiller, and I don't think I have an answer, I know! The villagers all blamed a succubus for the deaths of those men." Phoebe sat back down in the desk, breathing heavily, looking self-satisfied. The teacher coughed, adjusted his glasses, and spoke again in his acidic voice.

"Well, Ms. Tiller, I'm Mr. Krimm, and we can get to know each other quite well today after school. I won't be talked to in that manner in my classroom. Come to my room after school. Phoebe exhaled deeply through her nose again, and somewhere from the back of the room, bubble-gum snapped. Mr. Krimm began to pace the room, his hands folded neatly behind his back. "Ms. Tiller was correct, though. Who can tell me just what a succubus is?" The room responded to Mr. Krimm's question with the enthusiasm of a slug. The only sound was the sharp snap of bubble-gum. After a long period of deadness, Phoebe's hand appeared in the air again. Mr. Krimm sighed and waved in annoyance, allowing her to speak. She stood up again, but this time she looked very pleased and excited. The answer Phoebe gave made her sound like a hyper-realistic textbook, the information appearing not as boring print but as a beautiful vocalization.

"Succubi are creatures who serve Lucifer, seducing men, especially monks, and stealing their souls in the process. They were first noted in medieval legend, and that period is the only time which--" Phoebe's explanation was cut short by a cough from Mr. Krimm. She stamped her foot loud enough for the entire classroom to hear, and sat back down.

"That's very good, Ms. Tiller. I think you've exhausted the topic for today, though. Let's move on to other medieval customs and beliefs, shall we?" Krimm's sentence was punctuated by a snap from the back of the room. He let his glasses drift down from his eyes and his cold blue glance shot at the pigtailed girl in the back of the room. "Spit that gum out, would you Molly?" he barked. All eyes except Phoebe's were on the girl in the back of the room. Her pigtails were held together by black and white checkered hairties. She had a lean but round face, pale as the moon. Her eyes were dark pools bearing a color that resembled the night sky. She wore a short-sleeve button up shirt with a neatly folded collar. The shirt was unbuttoned from the collarbone up. A gray and white plaid skirt hung just abover her knees. She stood and walked over to the trash bin, dug two fingers into her mouth and pulled out a gray piece of gum. Molly threw the gum away and returned to her seat. Phoebe was looking at her now, for she no longer felt the gaze of the entire class.

This pigtailed girl had stole away the attention, yet she looked unenthralled by the power she had momentarily held over the classroom. This 'Molly' looked like she didn't even care. Phoebe glared at her and expected the black-haired girl to recoil. She didn't. Phoebe turned around hastily. The class resumed.

At lunch, Phoebe sat at a table, surrounded by boys, one of them being the messy-haired Cedric. Molly sat alone behind her, gazing at the girl and her admirers thoughtfully. She watched as one of them fetched her another carton of milk, brought her a "less filthy" fork, took her tray up to the designated cleaning area, and pulled her chair out for her when it was time to leave. It reminded Molly of a queen bee and her drones.

After school, Phoebe broke away from the group of boys that surrounded her in the hall. Molly stood pretending to look through her locker, but she kept an eye on the group of boys. She found it quite odd that their expression had instantly gone from one of utter glee to a downcast gloom the moment Phoebe had left them. Cedric was among this group of transforming boys. "Cedric." Molly called out. He whipped his head around behind him, thinking the voice had come from Phoebe. Molly sighed in exasperation and strode over to him with her long, fawn-like legs. She grabbed him by the shoulder and he seemed to snap out of a deep trance. Cedric looked at Molly with confusion and bewilderment in his eyes, but the gaze was soon gone as Molly dragged him away from the other boys, who stood lifeless like a gang of zombies. "You want to walk home with me?" Molly asked, trying her best to give him a pleasant smile. Cedric declined, grinning widely. "The guys and I are going to wait for Phoebe," he said, turning around and assimilating with the zombie boys, who muttered in low, grim voices. They left the school together, not bothering to go to their lockers and collect their books. Molly decided she'd wait with them.

The boys stood huddled near the entrance door, while Molly sat on the front steps, pretending to read a book. She kept glancing over her shoulder expetantly, waiting for Phoebe to appear. Molly checked her watch for the fifth time. Krimm's detentions usually only lasted thirty minutes, but Phoebe had been in that building for over an hour. Maybe he'd just been especially angered by Phoebe's self-absorbed actions, but Molly didn't think their teacher would waste too much of his precious time on an unruly student.

After an eternity of anticipation from both Molly and the boys, Phoebe opened the doors of the school and stepped into the cold air. The boys flocked to her like starving crows to a bountiful cornfield, surrounding her silently and creating a kind of barrier around her. Molly watched Phoebe and the boys carefully, paying special attention to the girl with the red dress. Molly raised her eyebrows when she noticed that Phoebe's fingers were speckled with blood. Molly bit her lip and remained still. When they reached the bottom steps of the school and began to descend the hill together, Phoebe looked over her shoulder up at Molly. There was a maniacle grin on the bright girl's face. She licked her lips maliciously and returned to walking with her boys. Molly waited until the group was out of sight and rushed into the school, shoving the double doors open as she sprinted to Krimm's room.

She burst into the silent classroom. Instantly, the thick and coppery scent of blood flowed into Molly's nose. At first glance, the dead room seemed vacant. Molly noticed something white out the corner of her eye. She turned to the left and saw a skeleton, hanging upside down, its arms splayed, legs closed together. It hung from sharp metal spikes and made the shape of an inverted cross. Large pools of blood were splattered around the body. Chunks of flesh and gore swayed to and fro from the bones of the skeleton, hanging like meat on hooks. Molly eyed the remains with an understanding curiosity.

She remembered Cedric, spun on her heels, and urgently fled the school. The drones had been dismissed by their queen. Only Cedric and Phoebe walked on the sidewalk, surrounded by old houses and naked trees. Molly strayed far from them, sometimes hiding behind a house or tree whenever Phoebe would look over her shoulder. This created a problem, because Phoebe seemed disturbed by something, and seemed overcome with feelings of suspicion and distrust. She and Cedric came to a house that had a small moving truck parked in the driveway. Phoebe opened the door for him.

Molly, crouched on her knees behind a bush, saw only darkness spilling from the house. Phoebe glanced up and down the street and followed Cedric toward the house. There was a foul, retch-inducing stench permeating from the storage end of the truck. With some reluctance, Molly trudged across the unkempt lawn, keeping her head turned towards the house. The windows' curtains were drawn, and this eased her fear of detection. Breaking into a more stealthless stride, Molly made her way to the back of the trunk, where the smell intensified exponentially and burned her sinuses.

She wiped the moisture from her eyes and lifted up the latch to the sliding door of the storage bin. The rusted metal blanket opened just a bit, but the smell that emanated from the truck drastically intensified. Stifling a retch and blinking harshly to keep her eyes from watering, Molly lifted up the sliding metal door. A corpse rolled out of the truck and hit the ground with a deep, hollow squish. The body had landed just a few feet to the right of Molly. Had she been any closer, it would have fell into her. However, the girl hadn't even noticed the body that had fallen from the truck. Her gaze was fixated on the multitude of corpses inside the truck.

The interior of the storage was blanketed with carnage. Bodies were packed inside, and there was very little room for any more. Molly stared at the horrible mess with her wide, dark eyes. She quickly closed the door and stifled another retch. The smell was instantly gone, but the sick feeling in Molly's stomach was still powerful. She hesitantly looked down, only to see that the corpse had vanished. The bodies' collective stench wasn't just subdued, either. It had been completely erradicated. Molly furrowed her brow and turned around again, opening the truck's sliding covering again. She expected to see a bloodsoaked collection of bodies, but all that sat in the back of the truck were a few boxes and dusty furniture. Molly closed the door and turned around, her heart nearly exploding in shock as she was greeted by Phoebe's toothy grin. "Snooping around? That's not a very nice thing to do. I've got nothing to hide ya know." Phoebe's voice was especially malicious and dripping with sarcasm. Molly ignored the comment and stared the girl down.

"Where's Cedric?" she asked, trying hard not to strike the leering girl in front of her. Molly was sure that this evil girl had played some sort of trick on her, had planted the image in her head. Had the same thing happened in the gory classroom up at the school as well? Molly ignored that question for the moment as Phoebe answered her question.

"Ceddy's inside. He's tied up right now, and I'll try to remember to tell him you said 'Hi', but I'm always forgetting little unimportant stuff like that," Phoebe said, her hands behind her back. Her left leg was wrapped behind her right, one foot gently pressing on the other in what looked to Molly like an attempt to be cute and innocent. Phoebe didn't have very good balance in a pose like that, Molly thought. It would be so easy to push the girl over.

"This isn't about Cedric," Molly said darkly. She leaned in towards Phoebe and her dazzling white smile. Molly thought the girl's teeth were far too white and bright, so much that it wasn't natural. It reminded her of a surgeon's tools -- spotless and gleaming. She dug her nails into her palms, resisting the inferno of an urge to shove. "Why'd you kill Mr. Krimm?" Molly said in a sharp, low voice. Phoebe took a step back from the dark-haired girl, raising her palms, keeping that same wide grin plastered on her face.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Phoebe said, rolling her eyes as she spoke. She licked her lips before continuing. "Molly you've got a very active imagination, but you're right. This isn't about Cedric or any of the boys. This is about you." Phoebe pointed a slender finger at Molly, nearly touching her mouth. Molly batted the creamy hand out of her face with a half-clenched fist. Phoebe recoiled further, the grin as strong as ever, unphased by the physical contact.
"What do you mean by that?" Molly snapped. Phoebe puckered her lips and shrugged.

"Gee, I dunno. Maybe it's because you're having to compete with a girl who's far greater than you. I mean really, with those bug eyes and goat's legs of yours, it's not a wonder you don't have boys following you around like I do. I know you're jealous, but you shouldn't go accusing people of murder. That's just not normal, you know?" Phoebe patted Molly on the shoulder, but the touch was harsh and fast, as though it was trying very hard not to look like a hit with the intent of physical harm. Molly ducked away from Phoebe's hand and glared at her.

"I saw Krimm's body in the classroom. Care to explain that?" Molly asked. A faint grin appeared on her face, but it was nothing compared to Phoebe's overpowering sneer. Phoebe actually laughed out loud, a high-pitched titter that stabbed Molly's eardrums like a pair of needles. The cream-colored girl put a hand over her mouth to stifle the laughter and coughed in light amusement.

"That's not the only time you've been seeing things today, is it? I suggest you stay out of my way, or else that ugly imagination of yours will get you into deep trouble." Phoebe's words were hardly louder than a whisper, but they had the sharpness of a razorblade.
Molly gave the old house's draped windows a sideways glance, but remained silent. Phoebe's smile became wider. "Don't worry. Ceddy's just fine. I better go. Don't wanna keep him waiting, right?" Phoebe strutted to the house, but stopped abruptly and gravitated back towards Molly. "Oh...and one other thing..." Molly gave the beaming girl an icy-cold stare, her face remaining completely motionless. Phoebe's hand whipped through the air and slammed against the pale surface of Molly's face. Molly flew to the ground as if there was an attractive magnetic force between herself and the sidewalk. Molly struggled to her hands and knees, holding the right side of her face and taking harsh, injured breaths. She opened her mouth and her jaw cracked grotesquely. It felt like she'd been hit by a baseball bat. The high-pitched titter rained down upon her once more, and then all Molly could hear was the sound of tiny footsteps on dead brown grass.

Her vision was blurry and heavily distorted. Everything around her looked like smudged paint on a novice artist's easel. After a quick shake of the head, the claw-like trees, the old, smoking houses, and the gray-leafed bushes became sharp and crisp. Molly gave the house another look, rubbing the side of her face solemnly.

It was improbable that a girl of Phoebe's size could deliver such a forceful blow. But that was only one drop in the sea of blood that Molly had to traverse. She fished a stick of gray gum out of her shirt pocket. She headed back home as if the cement ground beneath her was made of glass and would shatter if she stepped on it wrong. There was a powerful fluttering in her skull. It felt like a thousand frantic and wild birds had been released within Molly's brain. The stick of gum fell from her hands before it came close to reaching her mouth. She fell along with the gum, her knees scraping harshly against the jagged surface of the sidewalk. Molly stifled the urge to vomit, completely oblivious to the bleeding gashes inflicted on her knees. She shuddered.

The images projected from her eyes to her mind began to falter and distort themselves once more, except this time it looked as though the world itself was crumbling -- not her sight. The sky flickered from its normal gray color to a harsh and hellish red, as if the heavens were a giant redlight being switched on and off at random. The houses and bushes and trees and cars temporarily adopted a color of solid black, becoming disturbing and abstract silhouettes against the dark red sky. They were winking in and out of existence, threatening to shatter and collapse. During this visual chaos, Molly would often catch glimpses of Cedric or Mr. Krimm. The visions appeared and vanished within the duration of a millisecond, and due to the powerful, arresting nature of her condition, Molly had difficulty deciphering the abrupt nature of these visions.

Despite her greatest efforts, the girl's lunch escaped from her mouth. She fell onto her back and fell into a black void of unconciousness. The only sound she heard was the sharp, crisp wail of an ambulence siren.

Molly awoke in a hospital bed, wearing an off-white gown. Her hair was no longer in pigtails and flowed down her back like an ocean of static oil. It felt like a great deal of something had been drained from her brain. She put a thin hand against her forehead and coughed harshly. The patient room smelled sterile and clean -- a processed, air-tight and surgical scent. Molly sat up in her bed and was greeted by a sharp, stabbing pain in her knees. She pulled the white blanket off and saw that her knees had been heavily bandaged. Blotches of dried blood seeped through the gauze and medical cloth. Molly sighed and lay back down, running her hands through her hair.

Exhaling deeply, she closed her eyes and saw the image of a naked skull swinging its head from side to side in a rapid shaking motion, moving so quickly that its form could hardly be called more than a bleached-white blur. Molly abruptly opened her eyes, shocked and taken aback by the vivid image of the skull. As her eyelids uncovered her dark eyes, she saw the same skull hovering over her bed, looking down at her with big black empty sockets, grinning with yellow teeth. Molly was too drained to strongly react to anything.

She lay submissively beneath the hovering skull, looking at it with a disturbed interest. It hovered close to her, so that if it had had a nose, its tip would have made contact with Molly's own. It opened its mouth and Phoebe's voice escaped from it, but there was another voice layered with the vibrant girl's. It was a deep, guttural and raspy voice that wrapped itself around Phoebe's to create a double-layered voice that made Molly tremble in the hospital bed.

"The feast has begun," the skeleton head said. The voice rattled Molly's eardrums and shook her deep in her gut. Almost tenderly, she reached out to touch the skull. Her hand passed right through it, like it was a projection. The skull vanished. Ignoring the dizzying effect such an action would inevitably inflict itself upon a person in her condition, Molly swung her bare legs out of the hospital bed. A doctor or nurse had not met with her, not while she had been awake. Her clothes lay on a metallic chair adjacent to the bed. She quickly changed back into her collared shirt and plaid skirt. Not bothering to tie her hair up again, she limped over to the door and pushed it open. Molly did not see a quiet and white hospital hallway that she expected. Instead of a finely polished floor, there was an endless black chasm which belched screams of violent anguish. There was a rusted and frail bridge which connected the open doorway of Molly's hospital room and extended out into a red horizon. The sky was the same red color it had been while Molly's vision had been distorted, but now it was a mix of grotesque black and red, looking like a diseased wound. Molly stepped out onto the rusted bridge and it shattered beneath her. She fell into the darkness, engulfed in the screams and anguish which lay within it.

She awoke with her head against the concrete. There were large, black and red scabs on Molly's long legs. She sat up, rubbing her temple and then her eyes, looking around carefully with the hope that everything was as it should be. The world was gray and calm again. It didn't take Molly long to figure out what was going on. Phoebe was inside her head, she had been all day, ever since she'd detected that Molly was at least somewhat aware of what she was trying to do. Molly was perplexed as to how the strange new girl had managed to form this grotesque mental connection with her, but knowing that Phoebe was inside her mind and manipulating her made Molly feel unclean, as if there were a large black parasite squirming around inside of her brain. Still somewhat disoriented, the girl stumbled down the street, back to her house. She felt that if anything, sleep would remedy her condition. It didn't.

Molly thrashed about on her bed, her body twitching and shuddering, looking like she was being exposed to intense electrical shocks. Her dreaming mind was devoid of coherent visions, but abstract feelings of unrest and dismay plagued her being and she was soon consciously willing herself awake not long after she'd relenquished consciousness. She sat upright and cursed Phoebe in a sharp, low voice. Molly didn't know what to do. In the blink of an eye, the strings of Phoebe's control had plunged themselves into her body, and now Molly was nothing more than a tortured and suffering marionette whose wires could not be severed.

There was no one Molly could turn to, for not a single person would believe what was going on. Molly didn't even know exactly what was going on, and an attempt to explain the surreal happenings of the day would only confuse and bewilder the recipient of the tale. Molly felt she was lost in an endless vortex of decaying reality. Laying lifeless and mentally broken in her bed, she held her hand in front of her face, wondering if the flesh and fingernails were even real, or if they were simply distortions conjured up by Phoebe. She saw a black-green sludge swimming around underneath the skin of her palm, moving like a tiny fish in an off-white ocean. She pressed her left index finger against it and it broke off into several smaller blobs which scattered down the length of her pale, thin arm. Water -- something to drink might help.

A frail hand clutched the wood-walled hallway that led from Molly's room to the kitchen. She kept her hand pressed tightly against the wall, as if to anchor herself to reality. Phoebe must have been aware of this, for the wall instantly felt wet and soft underneath Molly's hand, as if she was resting her palm on a massive open wound. She recoiled and looked down at her palm -- it was pristine, without any kind of substance on it, but the feeling was very real. Molly sighed and held herself, walking down the hall in weak, disjointed steps.
She came to the kitchen, an n-shaped extension from the left of the living room. Molly's mother, a tall-swan-like woman with auburn hair, sat on the couch watching television. She waved at her daughter, but Molly didn't dare look at her mom, not when Phoebe had such a strong grasp of the girl's senses. What Phoebe could turn her mother into was not something Molly wished to find out.

"Are you okay?..." her mother's voice called out. It was heavily distorted and tinny, as though she was speaking through a megaphone attached to a metal pipe. Molly ignored her, reaching out to the sink and turning on the water. Black sludge poured from the spout, and Molly fell to her knees, clutching the stainless steel surface of the sink. She felt a warm and gentle touch on her shoulders. Shuddering beneath the touch but powerless to resist, she allowed herself to be pivoted round by her mother. Molly shut her eyes tightly, thinking that her mother's face would be disfigured or grotesque.

"Honey, you look terrible. I think we should get you to a doctor." the distorted voice called out. Molly finally opened her eyes, and was met by a warm and comforting look of concern from her mother. In all of the uncertain reality and the crumbling surroundings, Molly was almost certain for a moment that Phoebe couldn't touch her mother. She believed this up until the point where her mother's eyesockets became blood voids which poured out strange, otherworldly insects. Molly gasped and pushed her mother away, cradling herself and rocking back and forth, wishing harder than she'd ever wished before for everything to stop. The deep and guttural voice called out to Molly, and she was sure her ears were the only pair that heard the words. "Get used to it, girl. This is the only world you'll know from now on."

The eyeless, bug-spewing woman advanced on Molly once more, and the girl passed out, her brain and consciousness exhausted from the extreme trauma she'd been subject to.

In the darkness, the voice called out to her.

"Now sleep and let me work."

When Molly awoke, she found herself in bed once more. Her head felt cloudy and ungathered. An odd and peculiar warmth was splashed across the front of her body. The sensation was comforting. Molly opened her eyes to see that the sun was shining through the solitary window in her bedroom. Ignoring her dizzy and disoriented feelings, the girl sprang to her feet and stumbled over to the dust-caked window, letting the sun envelope her lean face. Her lips formed a weak smile and she pressed a hand against the warm glass. It wasn't just the sun that made her feel warm, the entire atmosphere seemed welcoming, pleasant and hot, like a sauna.

The hall leading to the living room was vibrant and alive. Colors weren't washed out, they were bright and bold, as if they were made of color. Walls weren't made of cheap plywood, they were made of rich browns and tans. Every stain and spill on the off-white carpet seemed to glow and radiate, like puddles of shimmering liquid. The pleased smile was still on Molly's face. Everything felt so warm, so welcoming. She passed through the living room, not caring or even noticing that her mother was nowhere to be found. She moved without controlling her body, a robot whose batteries were powered by the lividness of the highly-saturated color.

Outside, the world was amazing. Trees were no longer the skeleton-like figures they had once been. They'd been reborn, transformed into magnificent, faceless creatures sporting bright pink blossoms. These blossoms would begin to glow red and then float towards the ground. Every single tree was raining with the red blossoms, a thick cylinder of falling petals underneath them all. Each time one of the red plants would fall from the glowing branch, a newly born pink blossom would take the place of the fallen petal with an almost magical quickness. Lawns weren't composed of grass, but of tiny emerald toothpicks, shimmering and glowing in the warm sun. Sunlight doused everything, drenching the entire town in its warm glory.

Molly noticed that several other townsfolk were standing outside, looking up at the sun with amazement. Many of them had never seen the glorious star, and the only ones who had seen it were either dead or very close to death. The girl failed to realize that every single person standing in the street was a woman. Molly simply stared up at the sun, not squinting or trying to block the bright light from penetrating her eyes. She wanted her eyesockets to be filled with the light so that it may flow through her entire body. She wanted the sun in her veins, in her gut, in her heart, her lungs, her brain, everywhere. Everything was so warm. The sky was cloudless and naked, its deep aqua blue exposed for all to see.

She continued to wander through the town, passing by the breathing tree-creatures and the gemstone toothpicks. At first, she thought her path of travel was completely aimless, but after a few minutes of walking she realized that there was a powerful magnetic force pulling her towards a place to the west. She couldn't quite pinpoint which building it was, but it was big. She kept on walking until she'd reached the western edge of Gray Valley. The high school seemed to radiate with light, sitting up at the top of the grassy knoll. Molly approached it, her walk turning into a jog.

The inside of the school sparkled and shimmered. Each and every locker was open, and the darkness of their interiors was illuminated with a deep, ruby-red glow. Thus, the entire hall was bathed in a warm red light. Molly passed through the main hallway, admiring her skin, so red, like a ripe tomato waiting to have a set of teeth sunken into it. A powerful calling made her jog turn into a run. She came to Mr Krimm's room, where the red glow was especially intense.
Skeletons hung from the ceiling, suspended by metal wires wrapped around their necks. Many of them still had meat dangling from their bones. Molly's euphoria was only mildly disturbed by this disturbing imagery. She looked up at the bloody bones which very much crowded the cracked ceiling. She couldn't walk without bleached-white feet brushing against her shoulders.

Something called her to move quicker, to stop admiring the bodies and continue on. At the back of the room, where Krimm's body had been, there was a doorway in the shape of an inverted cross. The red glow was darker there, less like a tomato and more like a freshly picked scab. Molly felt no apprehension. She manuevered her way through the oddly-shaped door.

The room was a vast and open chasm, a bottomless pit of crimson red. The only ground was a stairway made of bones and organs which led upward. Many of the organs looked like creatues with lives of their own -- livers writhed and wriggled, hearts pumped loudly as blood spewed from them. Molly hurriedly dashed up the carnal staircase, anxious and excited to see what awaited her at the top. As she ascended the steps, black clouds swirled around her, taking the form of grotesquely distorted faces and monsters. She paid these clouds no mind -- her main concern was the summit of these stairs. Just as she was about to reach the top, her left foot stepped on a lung and sunk into it. It made a wet crunch and Molly nonchalantly pulled her foot out of the punctured organ and continued up the stairs.
A large and expansive rusty disk made up the summit of the stairs. Molly's eyes widened at the girl sitting in a small black chair in the center of the disk -- Phoebe. She sat with her legs crossed neatly, one hand resting on the shiny black arm of the chair, the other one splayed across the top of Cedric's head, stroking his hair like one might pet a dog. Cedric's eyeballs were black in a way that reminded Molly of an alien. The euphora and pleasant warmth left her at once. Her anger forced the pleasure away and she was back to her old self, in control and very aware of how she felt about the girl sitting in front of her.

"Molly, do you like what I've done with the town? You certainly seemed to be enjoying yourself earlier." Phoebe's voice was loud and quake-inducing, the entire disk rattling as she spoke. Molly remained silent, her right fist clenched at her side. "Come now girl. You shouldn't be angry with me, for I've spared this boy. He's a good little beast, and I could use a bit of extra help here and there." As Phoebe spoke of Cedric, he seemed completely oblivious, sitting on his knees with his head bowed and his hands folded neatly behind his back. Molly raised her eyebrows.

"What have you done to him?" she called out. Her voice was small and weak in this world, like that of a choking mouse. Phoebe laughed back at the girl, causing a powerful earthquake which made Molly stumbled backwards onto her behind, which only intensified Phoebe's laughter. As Molly began to stand, Phoebe continued to taunt her.
"You stupid little girl. You show such anger and malice towards me for what I've done to Cedric, but I surely am doing him a favor. Men are beasts, you know. Stupid beasts that will never be capable of true human actualization. Merely the prototype, the first version of humankind. The muscle, the bone, the laborers. No brains, no intelligence, nothing of any real value. Just fleshly machines meant to do work. Unfortunately, they are grossly overpopulated. So one must keep their numbers in check." Phoebe stood up and began to approach Molly. Phoebe's hair twirled and rippled lightly in the air. A thick lock of hair remained stationary over her left eye. Cedric crawled along with her. Molly's eyes widened in disgusted realization.

"You killed all of the men in this town, didn't you?" Molly squeaked. Phoebe tittered and kicked Cedric affectionately. He fell over on his side, apparently injured tremendously by the light contact with the toe of Phoebe's shoe.

"I've killed no-one. I don't believe in murder. No life should ever be wasted. But the men's numbers do need to be regulated, and that's what I've done here. No one has died. Many lives have become one -- mine." Distant, slightly muted yet violent footsteps sounded behind Molly. She paid no attention to them, keeping her eyes focused on Phoebe. "I have assimilated the men's raw energy with my own powerful soul. Of course, a mortal girl like you could never understand. For your kind to understand, I must use a more crude word, a human word -- eat."

Molly's eyes opened even wider, and this made Phoebe smile. The two girls were getting closer and closer to one another, neither of them completely aware of this.

"That's right. I ate them." Molly's face contorted with disgust and she put a clenched fist to her mouth, anxiously nibbling at her knuckles. This explained everything. Why the bodies were never goreless. The many organs and bones on the stairway -- those must've been Phoebe's trophies from each man she consumed. It all made sense now. Molly rushed at Phoebe, her rage exploding in an uncontrollable inferno. Behind her, the footfalls grew louder and louder.

Molly threw a fist at the girl, but she punched something hard and hot that felt like glass. Something red rippled in front of Phoebe and then disappeared. Phoebe laughed in Molly's face, and the girl threw another punch, only making painful contact with the odd red film. Phoebe's eyes darkened and she swung her arm. It became a blade which extended the entire length of the disk. Molly fell to the ground, dodging the rust red blade by mere centimeters. Remaining low, she lunged forward, attempting to grab onto her enemy's legs. Her face slammed against the red glass which appeared for just a moment before disappearing. Phoebe's hysterical laughter shook the red chasm world.

Molly quickly sprang to her feet, ignoring the aches in her hand and face. She moved to attack Phoebe again, but there was a cry behind her. A boy she knew from her chemistry class stood at the top step, eyeing Phoebe with great admiration and awe. He made a mad dash for the girl, shoving Molly out of the way. He jumped into her arms and Phoebe pivoted around on her heels so that her back was to Molly. Wet squelching sounds echoed through the dark world that made Molly's stomach churn.

Ignoring the nausea that had grabbed hold of her and letting her anger fuel her further, Molly ran at Phoebe once more, this time extending her leg in an attempt to kick the girl in the back. Her foot made victorious contact with the girl's spine, and she flew forward, dropping her half eaten meal as she fell to her knees. Molly saw a large, blood-splattered bone laying adjacent to Phoebe which had come from the self-damned boy. She picked it up and smacked it against the back of Phobe's head, slamming her flat onto the ground. Molly continued to beat her with the bone, straddling her back and feverishly hammering the bone against the demon-girl's skull. Molly was thrown back, as if pulled by an invisible string. Phoebe slowly rose to her feet, turning around and looking over her shoulder at the girl holding the bone. Her mouth was covered in blood, and more of the crimson fluid was seeping from her hairline. She snarled maliciously at Molly, and then tapped Cedric on the shoulder, pointing at her attacker. The boy ran on all fours at Molly.

He leaped into the air, soaring towards Molly. She batted him in the jaw with the bone, and he spiraled to the ground, yelping loudly and laying lifeless on the rusty disk. Phoebe screamed, and the sound dug into Molly's gut like a giant glass shard. Black wings burst from the screaming girl's back. Her right arm became a large and grotesque claw. The lock of hair that had obscured her eye burned away, revealing a dark black orb similar to the darkness occupying Cedric's eyes. Molly snapped her gum. Phoebe flapped her wings twice, suspending herself in the air.

Without warning, she soared towards Molly, digging the claw arm into her stomach and lifting her into the air. The pain of the yellow nails skewering Molly's stomach was bright and intense. She made weak attempts to beat on Phoebe with the bloody bone, but the pain had overtaken her, washing through her body and rendering her completely helpless.

They flew through the infinite crimson abyss, and Molly felt herself slipping from the contact with the nails. She stared at Phoebe's black orb eye. It looked so fragile, like glass. Molly continued to slip from the long nails, and she knew that she only had one chance. With every ounce of strength she had left, Molly stabbed the bone into Phoebe's eye. It was too big to fit into the socket, but it made powerful contact with the orb. It shattered loudly. Black glass cut Molly's face as she stared up at the shocked face of Phoebe. The demon girl clutched her face and wailed, falling into the red abyss. Consequently, Molly fell with her. The two girls continued to fall, immersed in the deep crimson red.

The demon began to fall apart. It was like she was made entirely of glass. Shard by shard, she became deconstructed, withering away to nothing more than a falling pile of black dust. Phoebe closed her eyes and clutched her stomach, spitting blood upward as she continued to fall into the red nothing.

The world around her began to crack and shatter just like Phoebe had. Pieces of the red flew away and revealed a bright white light. Soon, Molly stopped falling and floated still, surrounded in a world of complete whiteness. All of the cuts and wounds on her body melted away. Suddenly, she was flying upward, and the spiraling, spinning like a top as she ascended at light speed. Everything went dark.

When Molly opened her eyes, she found herself sitting at the back of the classroom on the tiled floor. She quickly got up to her feet and saw that the door was gone. The classroom was empty and dark, drab like it had once been. The bodies hanging from the ceiling were absent as well. Molly dusted herself off and left the classroom, walking back out of the school. She looked down at the seemingly colorless, dead town, still clutching the blood-splattered bone in her right hand.