Attempt
A figure stepped out of the forest, approaching quickly towards the doctor and the girl. She was frightened, but did not talk. There was no sense or intelligence in her eyes, they reflected only raw emotions. Like a baby or an animal – she cried when it was bad, smiled when good. At the moment, she was obviously scared. But she would not move. She was told not to, and she would obey that order.
The man stopped in front of them. He was young, might have been in his early twenties. He was tall, had light brown hair and flaming crimson eyes. He seemed to be intrigued by the shaking girl behind the doctor, whose face was hidden in the darkness.
„She is… quite a delicacy. Well done, Steve." –he smiled viciously.
„I don't want to see it." –he said with disgust. Now he turned to the girl. „Stay with James. He will look after you."
With this, he turned back and headed towards a prison-like building. As James walked towards the girl, fear overwhelmed her and she started to scream.
„No! NO! Stay away!"
The door suddenly banged open and Ann rushed in. She ran to the bed and hugged her shocked daughter.
„Just a dream, Alice, just a dream. Nothing's wrong, sweetheart." –she tried to comfort the girl, but her voice was trembling. She was fighting her tears.
Alice slowly became aware of what was happening to her. Nightmares. Again. Not a night passed without waking up at least once. But this was the same again. For months and months she had been seeing this one. She saw her greatest fear –not being killed by a shadowy figure, but being stripped of her self-control, becoming a wild animal, a lunatic, succumbing to this insanity poisoning her mind for years…and this fear was not fictious. She knew what she was seeing. Her future. She slipped out of her mothers embrace.
„I am fine" –she lied, weeping.
Her mother looked exactly like her: she was short, slender, and looked much younger than her actual age. Yet, her daughter's… insanity… seemed to affect her physically just as it did Alice. It took a great sacrifice to look after a sick, almost adult daughter. She was around six when Ann discovered with Peter that something was wrong with their girl. She was seeing things. Things which were not real. Epileptic symptoms, 'premonitions', paranoia…Her daughter was a lunatic, getting worse day by day. Ann knew that things cannot go on like this forever, and she had already made her tough decision.
She slowly got up from the bed. Alice turned to face the wall, trying to fall asleep again and her mother left the room.
She started sobbing. She hated to cause so much pain to her beloved ones. She was destroying the family – and she need not have overheard a conversation between her parents to know that.
„It will do good to her" –Peter tried to convince Ann, without success. Even he did not believe that.
„No, I do not allow it" –she shouted back at her husband furiously.
„It can't continue, and you know that. She's already nineteen, and she is not getting better. I know we hoped that she would grow out of it, but you can already see that it is just getting worse." –Peter yelled back at her.
„But she isn't a lunatic! What she said all came true! What if she can…if she can really…"
„Stop it! She is dangerous. Only to herself at the moment, but what if someday…"
„Enough!" –Ann cried, covered in tears.
„Look" –Peter started again, now quietly, in a calming voice. „Both of you are suffering. I can't take it any longer. I will call doctor Mendez. This will be the best for us all."
Alice woke up as a sudden brightness flowed her room. Her father was standing at the window, pulling the curtain aside. He stared at her.
She was surprised. It was usually her mother who woke her up. So this day was different. This was that day. She had seen it.
„Hurry, get dressed, we have a visitor." –Peter said, his voice reflecting no emotion. Alice knew exactly who had come. She obeyed, though.
„Alice…" –Peter threw an apologetic look at her daughter, while the girl was walking down the stairway. He was sitting at the dining table with an old man. He might have been in his forties. He was short, pudgy, had dark brown recessing hair. He was wearing glasses and had a friendly doctor-of-the-family look.
Alice did not look at them. She knew she had to go, for the sake of herself, and her family…
„So Mom couldn't bear to say goodbye and watch me leave." –it was rather a statement than a question.
„Uh…" –Peter was speechless. For a second, he wondered if his daughter really knew what was going to happen to her, if she really could see the future. He quickly dismissed these thoughts.
„So" –he turned to the doctor. „This is my daughter, Mary Alice Brandon. Alice, this is Dr. Steve Mendez. He will take care of…"
Time stopped for Alice. This she had not foreseen. So this is where the nightmare starts. Her violent death was not a fragment of her fictions after all. The last thing she saw was the two men jumping up from their seats as her eyes turned inside, everything went black and she collapsed.
She woke up on the sofa of the living room. Everything was so dizzy, she instantly knew she went into a shock and fainted. Steve Mendez. Would he be the Steve of her dreams, the one who gave her to a killer? But why would he do that? She was confused, but he didn't have time to think. She heard the two men having a conversation outside, behind the closed door. They were talking very quietly. She crept to the door and pressed her ear against it.
„Are you sure you want to do this?" –se hear the doctor ask in disbelief.
„Yes. It will be better if she thinks her daughter dead…she wouldn't have to suffer for a lifetime."
„But she will still be there, what if your wife or anybody else…"
„I have already taken good care of that" –Peter seemed determined. He had planned it well. „Accident. I will simply lie. I have already written a fake letter in your name. Oh, would you sign it please?"
Alice heard him chuckle on his last sentence. Anger overwhelmed her. This was unexpected. She had never been so betrayed in her life. She felt the world spinning and had to sit down. Would it really have been better if she had not been born at all? If her useless existence had never bothered the lives of her parents? She felt empty. Without goals, nobody to trust, love, no place to go. Only suffering would remain for her. But why to take it? Why to cling to a useless, empty life, when it is better for everyone without it?
Suddenly, she felt determined. She got up and opened the room.
Peter and the doctor were still sitting there. When her father noticed Alice, he turned to her.
„How are you feeling?" He did not wait for the answer. „I have already packed your clothes, so if you are ready…"
„Give me a minute" –she answered and headed for the kitchen.
She didn't have to look too long to find what she was looking for. She slid the knife up her sleeves.
„I'll go check my room one last time" –she said arriving in the living room once again.
„Child, I packed everything you'll need" –Peter said suspiciously.
„I just want to make sure, and…um…be right back."
„Are you all right?" Her father was now just as confused as Alice was.
„I…need a minute or two alone. In my room. Please." –she was now pleading. She felt her voice is is very wrong somehow…like a lunatic's.
Peter sighed. He guessed it would not hurt anyone to grant her daughter one last wish.
„Oh well. But hurry, the post wagon arrives soon."
He did not have to tell twice, Alice was already rushing upstairs. She went into her room and closed the door. She would have locked it if her parents trusted her enough to leave the key in it…But now, she knew what she had to do. There is not much time. She might be discovered before her death, so it had to be quick and fatal…
Slowly, she grabbed the knife, raised it pointing to her stomach, and, after a second of hesitation, with tears in her eyes, she swung it by force.
A mufled moan of agony left Alice's lips as the blade slid through her skin and penetrated her body…