Malice
Her name was Alice. We called her Malice. That was our first mistake.
She was a small girl with long black hair and the deepest black eyes anyone had ever seen. She was a weirdo the strange new kid. Of course we picked on her. She didn't defend herself she just stared at you then went back to looking at the wall muttering under her breath. Rumours came and went the only one sticking was that she was a witch.
But then something terrifying happened. We called it the epidemic. People started disappearing. Students, teachers, parents and all signs pointed to Alice. She was called Malice even more. I'm one of the few who survived so now it's my turn to tell you what happened and why the name Alice is never mentioned.
We picked on her. Called her names. That was our second.
She came in the summer, her parents getting new jobs. From the moment she stepped into school everyone knew that she didn't want to be here. You could see it in her eyes. She was too good for us. Those were her thoughts and no one here appreciated that. She became the weirdo and the nut job.
She never tried to interact with us. This made our hatred for her increase. We picked on her more and more trying to get her to react which she never did. Her endless black eyes simply stared at us. Our despise grew and our taunting turned crueller. We never strayed from one name though. We always stuck with Malice. She just seemed so much like death, so full of Malice that there was nothing else we could call her.
We swapped from nut job to weirdo. We even called her an emo once. She still never responded. Maybe if she did we wouldn't have kept going. We might have stopped. But she didn't and neither did we so what if's are no good now. It was our goal to find her weakness to break her. Finally we found a chink in her impenetrable mask.
We called her a witch. We pushed her around. Treated her like she had a disease. That was our third.
Whenever we called her something or pushed her around she simply stared at us then muttered a few words. Slowly rumours started up that she was a witch. That she was putting spells on us. We began to get scared of her and we avoided her. But when nobody ended up hurt we got our confidence back.
It seemed that we got a reaction. She would glare then clench her fists every time we called her a witch. We kept doing it and then slowly we started pushing her around. Slamming her into lockers pushing her out of the way, shoving her into hallways.
Witch Girl, Witch Girl is all we would say. She stood there with her face twisted into an ugly scowl and her eyes showing something dark, something scary. Now that we knew what to say it was easy to antagonise her. We did it happily and laughed while she fumed silently. We had new goals now. We wanted to make her cry, make her feel depressed and show her that she wasn't above us. Not by a long shot.
We turned everyone against her. Everyone hated her. That was our fourth.
That was when even the teachers started disliking her and getting in on it. They had always turned a blind eye to our bullying but now even they seemed vicious. She got blamed for things she didn't do and spent more and more of her time in detention. This meant that her parents got angrier and angrier.
We got her into trouble and more letters went home. Her parents set up meetings with the school and stormed out before the end. We eavesdropped and giggled at how her parents sounded. We turned her parents against her. She became the problem child. So disappointing compared to the rest of us. Her grades slipped because we told the teachers she was cheating, her attitude was considered horrible because we managed to be little angels around the teachers.
That was when things started to get creepy. She would whisper warnings to us when we passed in the halls and her eyes promised retribution. We didn't pay attention though, didn't listen and we paid the price.
People started disappearing. Nobody knew where they went, or what happened to them.
We blamed her. That was our fifth.
It started off as students. One day they were here, the next they weren't. There were no bodies no deaths, just missing people that were never found. We began to get scared. We had always said that she was a witch but no one had really believed it. Now we were beginning to doubt that she was normal.
Then teachers started going missing. This time we found bodies. They were messed up, carved up with numbers and the word mistake scrawled messily across their bodies. It was in child's handwriting. Rumours started going around that she was the reason they were going missing, it was her witchcraft. I never believed it was her, she was creepy for sure but capable of murder? No of course not.
A couple of boys tried to prove it was her. But according to parents rumours just didn't count. Neither did the fact that she was just plain creepy. The next day their bodies were found outside the school. Still it couldn't be proven.
This was when the name started. It was like a sickness making people drop like flies. It was unknown. It was terrifying. It was done out of pure Malice. We left her alone now. No one wanted to risk ending up like the others but it didn't matter. Our past deeds were coming back to bite us. This was when I started to believe. Anyone who had ever wronged her was being punished. She was playing god.
Then her parents disappeared.
Now we were certain. By this time most of the teachers were gone and I was one of the only students left. We feared for our lives everyday never knowing if we would see tomorrow. It was announced that Alice was going to live with her aunt. We celebrated, our relief easily seen from miles away. But Malice wasn't going to let us go without one final bang.
Her name was Alice. We called her Malice. That was our first mistake. That was the thing that sealed our fate.
She came to the school. No one realised until it was too late. Turns out that she walked down the halls, twirling her knife until someone noticed her. We all ran, screaming. It was every man, women, child for themselves. We knew that escape was futile but we still had to try. I could hear their screams as I ran as fast as my legs would carry me. I knew what she was doing. She was carving their mistakes into them.
I didn't stop, no matter how much I wanted to, no matter how many screams I heard, I didn't stop until I reached the front of the school. All of a sudden the screaming stopped and I knew this was my chance. I had to get out, get out and find someone. Tell them what I had seen.
I turned and looked over my shoulder, the worst thing I cold have possibly done because when I turned back around she was there, standing right in front of me like she had been waiting for me. She was smiling, it shocked me, I had never seen her smile. It was a terrifying sight. The bloody knife in hand she started walking towards me. Then she lifted the knife high swinging it around like a toy.
It was that moment with her eyes shining with Malice and hate that she sang.
My name was Alice.
You called me Malice.
That was your first mistake.
You picked on me.
You called me names.
That was your second mistake.
You called me a witch.
You pushed me around.
You treated me like I had a disease.
That was your third mistake.
You turned everyone against me.
You made everyone hate me.
That was your fourth mistake.
You blamed me.
That was your fifth mistake.
My name was Alice.
You called me Malice.
That was your first mistake.
That was the thing that sealed your fate.