A/N: I'm glad some of you are enjoying this. I hope everyone begins to like where it goes. I'm working hard on all of my stories, bare with me.

As always, I do not own "Speak", but I do own this. :)

I grabbed the knife and walked silently away from his lifeless body.

He could do no more harm to me. Everything was over.

No. No, it wasn't.

The sirens rang as I ran home.

When I'd finally made it home, my parents were long gone. Who knew when they'd be home?

I went straight to my bedroom to remove my clothes at once and shower away everything.

Not sure what to do with the pocket knife, I rinsed it off in my bathroom sink and placed it back into my top drawer.

I went back into the bathroom, naked, and got into the shower.

It was hot, steaming hot, the way I liked it…now.

When I turned around for the water to hit my back, I looked at my hands. They were covered in blood. Oh, my god. They were shaking, hard, as I placed them quickly under the hot water.

I stared at the bloody water for moments, waiting for it to go down the drain.

When it finally did, I finished in the shower and dried off.

I curled into my bed, wearing my old pajama's I'd gotten three Christmas' ago from Nana.

A chain saw broke my sleep the next morning "Ah!" I screamed when it revved up. My chest rose and fell fast from fright.

I propped myself up on my elbows in bed. I wondered if my parents were home yet.

I found my clock's digital time, 7:37 a.m. Stupid time. I'd gotten home only 5 hours ago.

The sirens were still going when I closed my eyes and it surprised me that I'd even slept.

A banging on my door restarted my heart. I jumped in my bed and said quietly, "Come in."

My dad walked through the door with a terrified face on. "Mel? Do you know what happened last night? Cops are all over the neighborhood." I shook my head. That was a lie.

I decided internally that last night never happened. That night never happened.

Nothing happened…at all, I thought.

My dad was still staring at me, while he thought about the cops I suppose. I stared back. Eventually he said "Kay" and walked out. Sigh.

I tried to go back to sleep, not even a minute passed before I jumped from the bed and went to the kitchen.

My mom, the accountant, was rounding more numbers. Ugh. She liked her job more than she liked being home. And I blamed my father. My mostly drunk, jobless, fuck face of a father; he disgusted me.

Sometimes I wished he'd never even come back. And then I blamed my mother for accepting him back. Ugh. I rolled my eyes behind my glasses.

I strode passed my mother, concentrated on work and grabbed my favorite box of cereal, Captain Crunch: Peanut Butter.

Grabbed the milk from the fridge, poured the cereal and milk in and then I grabbed a spoon and walked swiftly back upstairs, silently.

My parent's never reproduced more than me, and for that I was grateful. I could sit in my room, undisturbed by anyone. My parent's rarely-if ever-saw me from my room. If so, and I accidently passed them in the hall or the stairs they'd always state, "It's alive!" and laugh.

I munched on my cereal and stared blankly at my pink wall. I kind of wanted to repaint and redecorate my room. Hmm, maybe like a sea foam green or oooh! Eggplant!

But unfortunately redoing my room would involve speaking with my parents, which wasn't going to happen. So, goodbye dreams of a new room.

A knock at my door and my mother appeared.

"Mornin' stranger." I looked to her and gave a small fake smile and then kept eating.

"Well," she paused and I looked at her again. She glanced around my room. "I'm done with work for the day, and it's only started," she laughed. "I was thinking we could go shopping and maybe paint your room?"

I stared at her and my mouth dropped. What the fuck? My spoon plopped into my bowl of mostly milk. A dropped landed on me.

"Okay." I said. My voice was rough and scratchy.

She smiled and didn't even notice my reaction to her question because she kept looking around my dirty room. "Okay, get ready and we'll leave in an hour then." I nodded; she smiled and closed my door behind her.

We walked into Lowes and went straight to the paint section. This is so weird.

"Morning ladies, can I help you find anything?" A store guy had spotted us. He had that cheesy I-need-this-job-for-rent smile on. Ew. People were disgusting, I hated everyone.

"What color did you want, Mel?" My mom looked down to me.

"Eggplant and sea foam green."

The store was huge, but the guy found us the paint strips in no time. My mom told me to choose which shades I liked best. I pointed to the rich eggplant one.

"We'll take this one." She handed him the strips back. He went back down the aisle, we followed.

"How many gallons?" he asked, reaching for the buckets. Mom told him 2 of each.

We checked out and went to Wal-Mart. My mother insisted I get new bedding as well and maybe a chair or couch to make it "look right".

We picked out eggplant bedding with tan underlines and pattern in the middle. More pillows for my room, which matched the bedding. And a couple that were sea foam green as well. They "complimented the room". Sigh.

Afterward we went to the chair section. I picked out a light sea foam green lounge chair. I pressed on it with my first two fingers to make sure it wasn't too hard or really soft. I felt like Goldilocks. It was just right.

I pushed the cart full of my pillows, bedding, curtains and sheets. Mom had to carry the box of my chair because it wouldn't fit in the cart. I laughed, which was unusual. My mom had looked at me weird.

When we got home, we ate lunch then "got crackin'" as my father put it. I rolled my eyes and went to my room.

We took down my posters, pictures and curtains. Then we pulled my old bedding off and pushed my bed out in the hall. I hoped I wasn't going to have to sleep out there.

Panting, we took a break. It was nearly 3 in the afternoon. But we got a lot accomplished. When I say 'we', I mean my mother and myself. My dad bailed after the posters for "a job interview".

At 4 we started painting and didn't stop until around 7 or 8, I was unsure. We stood back and looked at our work. "Wow" I said almost silently. My mom glanced at me, "I know."

The way the late summer night sun hit the eggplant was amazing. And the sea foam green just complimented it. I was glad I chose these colors. I hadn't even figured if they would go together.

We waited a couple hours for it to dry, but mom told me to just sleep in the spare room down the hall for the night. But I was unsure of how I was supposed to reach the room; my bed covered the entire hallway. Maybe I'd just fall asleep on my bed.

As I crawled over my bed to reach the other side of the hall, I realized how tired I was and completely relaxed on my bed.

I curled up into a ball once more and drifted to unconsciousness.

It was as if my dreams had reminded me of what happened 3 ½ months ago and just 2 days ago.

"Hey" he whispered in my ear. "What are you doing all by your lonesome?"

Holy hell, he's fucking hot! "I'm not alone, my friends are inside." His arms slid around me, gently and he breathed a hot, heavy breath in my ear again.

"Well, I'll keep you company." He smiled as I looked at him.

I jolted up from my sleep, panting again. My eyes roamed the hallway frantically. Alone, good. I swallowed hard as I tried to control my breathing.

Before I knew it, I was unconscious again, but was thankful it was a different dream. You know, I never did believe all this bullshit about "every dream lasts 3 seconds" whatever.

He looked at me, "What? You're going to kill me now? You know you had fun that night. You wanted it."

"No. No. NO! GET OFF OF ME!" I screamed at him.

It seemed as if the dreams kept replaying over and over and over again in my head as I slept in the dark, hollow hallway.

My Dad shouting at the TV startled me awake this morning, or I should late, late morning.

Basically the whole upper part of the house was mine, and I enjoyed that. Every now and again my parents would fight and Dad would sleep in the spare room, that was normal and routine; but everything was mine.

It wasn't like we had a huge house, just 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms; plus a small basement/laundry room.

There were 2 of the bedrooms upstairs: mine and the spare, plus my connecting bathroom, which connected to the hallway as a public restroom.

The main floor had my parents' room and their same connection-like bathroom as mine. And then there was the basement.

It was carpeted, red and shaggy-like, and had wool paneled walls all around; until we redid it. Now it's dark, wood paneling and white carpet, but the small-er laundry part of it is complete cement. I loved doing laundry on hot summers, the cool cement felt so good on the soles of my feet and toes.

I got up, finally, from my smushed bed in the cramped hallway and walked straight into my bathroom.

After I took care of my morning bladder, I gazed at my newly painted room. It looked pretty because of the morning sun.

I went down stairs to my kitchen for a brunch. I gazed at the microwave, 1:14 p.m. Okay, lunch then.

I made a sandwich and silently made my way back up to my makeshift room in the middle of the hall. I crossed my legs as I sat down on my bed.

Momentarily, my Mother came half way up the stairs until she spotted me on my bed.

"What are you doing? You were supposed to sleep in the guest room." She stopped and then continued up the stairs to stand in front of me as I chewed my bread and meat.

I wasn't completely sure if I was being scolded or she was making it that I was a child. Fucking moronic people for parents, I'd say.

I shrugged, "Didn't want to." And kept eating away at my sandwich.

My Mother shook her head and went into my room. "Well, I guess we can put everything back in here…when you shower and everything. I'm running down to the store. Ask you Father to help until I get back." and then she walked swiftly down the stairs.

I assumed she told me to ask my bullshit daddy to help, because all I hear from my parents is buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I barely catch anything they say, but they're parents and they're typical responses.

I admit it's not so much of a buzz sound; it's more of a Charlie Brown wah wah-wah wah-wah sound.

I rolled my eyes as I threw my plate away and grabbed a glass of tea before returning to my bedroom.

My Father continued to shout at the television as I put my room together.

After I got my new chair and poster back up, I pulled my bed into my room.

"Mel, what ya doin'?" My 'father' called up to me. I realized that I was blaring my music and making a lot of noise.

"My room!" I called down. And there was silence from him afterward.

My parent's rarely ever spoke unless needed, so it didn't surprise me that my Dad didn't come up to help or ask me about it.

Some days I just we was never there, period.

I stood in my room as I'd finally finished it. Unfortunately, my Mother was right. The sea foam green things really did compliment the rich eggplant walls.

I plopped down on my bed and closed my eyes. Just as I closed them, his face appeared and my eyes flashed open.

I couldn't close my eyes or look at anything without seeing him. His blood on my hands, his cold dead face.

No! I told myself, you're not guilty!

A part of me believed myself, could I really becoming this insane to not believe my own thoughts?

If anything, I should feel relieved. If anything, I should be happy he's dead. But I think about his family, his parents.

No, Melodie, you're not guilty. You did the world a favor.

I tried so hard to believe myself, but it was unbearable.

I am a murderer.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this one. Kinda boring, but it's getting good, I promise. :) Dark minded people will understand. (: Review puh lease!