Hidden Memories
Maria, a young 13 year old girl, was frightened for the first time since that day. "Where am I?" questioned Maria. Maria looked around. There was nothing around her, but darkness. "Darkness, it's everywhere around me, is this a dream," Maria said, "yet it doesn't feel like one." Maria looked around again, all of a sudden, her memories of that day came flowing back. Every day since then, she'd been longing to forget that terrible day. I can see everyone who was there that day, even me. She saw herself getting her books from her locker and all her classmates getting their books as well. It seemed like a normal day. Her best friend, Kathy came up to Maria. "I can't wait for lunch, I'm hungry," she said. "You have English right"? Kathy wondered. ¨I want to talk to Kathy, yet it's like I'm a ghost" she thought. Maria continued to watch Kathy and herself from their talk. "Yeah, I was heading there now" Maria replied. "I'll see you at lunch," Kathy said. "And those were the last words she ever said to me," Maria thought.
It went black again. "Do you remember what happened next?" a voice said clear and loud. Maria looked around, but all she saw was darkness, "Who are you?" she asked. "Simon," he said. "It was your fault, you shouldn't have stopped that man," Simon continued. "I had to, I had no choice" Maria said. "You ruined everything" he replied. The day continued, Maria continued to watch herself in class with all her students. "Class, begin to do page forty-five in your textbook," yelled Mrs. Smith. All the students opened their textbooks. A woman suddenly came on the intercom, "This is not a drill, I repeat this is not on a drill, lock your doors, there is a man in the building and he is sh-." A loud popping sound could be heard as the line went dead. Terror could be seen in the children's eyes. "Luckily, our teacher had a walk-in closet" Maria thought. "Everyone, get in the closet and don't come out, until the police arrive!" Mrs. Smith said. Everyone heard lock the door, and more popping sounds could be heard. You could hear some of the girls crying and sniffling. "I don't want to watch this, I wanted to forget this, not remember it!" Maria said, melancholy. More popping sounds could be heard, close by. Maria could hear Kathy scream. Maria watched her old self and see the anger and hatred that rose up inside her. A loud popping sound could be heard from outside and the man walked out the door, not checking the closet. Maria whispered "everyone stay here, I'm going to fix this." Maria remembered what she thought before she left the small closet, "I can try to convince him to stop or end up hurting him, whatever needs to be done, to avenge all the people who died here including Kathy." Maria walked out and shut the door behind her. " Lock it from the inside" she whispered. Maria, filled with anger and hatred, walked out of the classroom, past Mrs. Smith, the teacher, who lie on the floor. Maria could hear every shot being fired, every second she walked over towards the sounds of the gun being fired, another innocent person ended up dead. Maria walked into the classroom. "Stop!" she yelled. The man pointed the gun towards her. A boy tackled the man quickly and the gun flew out of his hands towards Maria. Maria picked up the gun and a loud pop came out of the gun. All the hatred in Maria's eyes turn into fear.
The darkness once again came upon Maria. "Your actions have only caused you pain" Simon said. Maria tried to run away from him in the darkness, "I don't want to listen to him, I don't know what he wants either, I just want to get away from this place" Maria thought. "You can't run away from your problems, you can't pretend like nothing happened" Simon said. "What do you want me to say" Maria questioned him. "It's all your fault, I am the man you killed that day, you are the one who keeps blaming yourself for what happened that day and trying to forget about it" he replied. "He is the one who caused me pain, and I am the one who caused him the most pain" Maria thought. "It wasn't my fault, it was all your fault, you caused innocent people to suffer for no reason, for I had a purpose to destroy the one who caused the most destruction" Maria answered with integrity. "You finally understand. Goodbye." Simon said. Maria finally left the dark room and opened her eyes. She realized she was in a hospital. "You're awake. You gave us quite a scare, you fainted yesterday," her mom said. I'll get you some water" her mom said as she walked out of the room. Maria suddenly remembered the darkness that she was stuck in and the last words he said to her. "What did he mean" Maria wondered. She realized then what he meant he wanted her to stop blaming herself for what happened that day and to accept what happened that day. " Here drink up, you're probably thirsty after being asleep all this time" her mother said. Maria grabbed the cup from her hands and took a small sip. For once, her eyes were filled with happiness.