The Monster of Waymore High (Part 2)

5

Manipulative. A manipulative, monster. That’s all that appeared in my head, big bold letters in a red colored font. I stood there in my daze: her arms can’t even carry thirty pounds, nonetheless, start a struggle with a one-hundred-and-thirty-pound girl. Mello would go falling down under her weight, it was no cat fight that’s for sure. But maybe Jade wasn’t fighting for her life. Mello may not be physically able to fight someone like Jade, but she might’ve tipped her off the edge mentally. Jade was probably about to break, and Mello gave that extra push. Blood would go everywhere in the pool’s waters that night – when the school dance happened. The thought reminded me of my own dilemma, sitting by the tub, staring at my reflection with a razor in hand. How did Jade feel when she was staring into the water? I wish I could ask her. Hell, I can’t even breathe to get that thought going; am I breathing? Inhale, exhale: it’s faint, but I think I’m still alive. It’s not that same type of dying feeling I got when staring at Mello’s chest – even when they’re squished now, I get no excitement from them. Mello is still staring at me. For all I know, this heavy fog that I feel enclosed around could just be a dream, and I’d wake up doing the same old things – eating breakfast, going to school, and talking with, Jade. No, this is real. It took me a while to accept that, but I came through eventually. “you’re lying”. I was still in disbelief. “No it’s true, I can tell you what happened”. Her voice was robotic, and the dullness that appeared in her eyes only deepened, despite looking more stable than she appeared in the bathroom. Those ungodly eyes. She unraveled the horror. “Well, first Jade came into the empty room with the swimsuit on, checked her back, and looked around. I told her I wanted to meet her in the pool since Josh was going to get executed because he disobeyed the rules – don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about it after. I stabbed Jade in the back, except I did that to make her think she had the upper hand. She tried to shoot at me with her gun but wasn’t as effective as my sledgehammer. I broke her arm, and she gun dropped onto the ground. She told me ‘That was stupid of me’. I looked at her and said ‘I mean you did have a gun, and a functioning arm. But no worries. I’m not going to kill you; you’re going to do that yourself’ she looked at me all goofy-eyed. ‘So, how’s your family doing?’ I asked. she said, ‘I have no family, you know that Mello’. I said, ‘It must suck living by yourself, got a lot of bills to pay and doing adult things. Can’t even do adult things at this school dance, that’s not exciting”. Now, I found that funny, but she didn’t laugh. I then said ‘Bad luck babies are just the so unfortunate – their mother dies giving birth, and they’re doomed to bring illness to the family. Your father got sick, then your brother ended up with leukemia. You got held hostage in a grocery store shooting, got home safely, but turns out your brother coughed all the blood out of himself. He died and then it was just you and your hospitalized father. You’re a burden, get over it’ then I think she cried, told me I was wrong and then I said she would get cancer later in life, and she did look hopeless. She took off her swimsuit, tied it around her head, and suffocated herself in the water. I didn’t even stop her, and I just walked out. Are you satisfied, Brandon?” No, I was not. I felt like I just listened to the devil’s sermon. No emotion in her voice at all. No bias or any fancy words to spice the story. Just straight facts. It numbed me at just how straightforward everything was. No remorse, no emotion (did I just repeat myself?), nothing. Just a few series of tones from a machine. Mello didn’t look like her old self anymore. Instead, those delicate seagull wings for ponytails turned into horns, and she became a demon. A paganistic symbol. “Did you have no remorse” I said empty minded. “No”. “Did you feel anything”. “No”. “Then why’d you kill her?”. She tuned back into her giddy-old self. “Oh, here’s the list of activities we’re going to be doing at the club, and if you could, sign your name there. Oh, you’re not going to read the list, so I’ll just tell you. Silly goose. Rule one, as you know, not hatred or discrimination for anybody, we are all people with similar goals and we’d like to think of ourselves as so. Number two, nobody is to act out against me – Mello – or disturb the stages of change that we are undergoing. Number three, everyone is to remain unidentifiable from police or authority and become students, you have to-”. “Stop.” She gave me a distasteful grin and gently laid the piece of paper to me “Please look over its Brandon; I also trust that you can come to our meeting today. We’re located in the blocked off section of the second floor. Come at nighttime – 8:30, if you come in the morning, you’ll be in trouble with us”. “Anything else you want to add, bitch?” My lips trembled; she just didn’t care. “Come as you are, your whole get-up and everything”. I didn’t listen to her: get-up was all I heard; she was completely muted from my mind. But she didn’t like that. Mello got right into my face all sympathetic, it gleamed in her eyes – it was probably just another one of her acts. “Brandon, I know this is difficult and you know it’s never been easy. But I have no choice but to recruit-”. ”No, just… you can’t, you just can’t. I’ll report you, you and your whole fucking gang of psychopaths”. “You know the police won’t intervene; they’re not allowed to handle civil matters unless they see violence”. Her confidence smeared all over her face. I see you trying to hide it Mello – you’re not slick about that. “I wouldn’t want you to hate me, that’d really get me depressed. Hey, I want to protect you, and become my new seed of change.” Seed of change? Sounds like something that happens during the harvesting season. Unless she was talking about me (which I certainly don’t doubt) then she only sees me as a product. You can’t use a sickle to break down a house, but you can definitely use one to harvest crops. See? Goes back to the whole harvest theory. I’m the seed that sprouts the crop… and Mellow is the menacing sickle, and harvest what’s planted. The idea finally sounded, sound. She’s using me. “What do you mean?” “Think of it in abstract terms. You plant a seed, it grows and become fruitful… so you have potential, that’s what I’m saying – you’re the seed, who grows and has potential, yes!”. I paused. “Potential for what?” “Change, you can bring change as the second seed of change behind Jade” Jade, worked with Mello? Here comes the sinister dying feeling again – but I’ve already become numb to it. She just talked on. “Jade was my first seed of change, unfortunately, she didn’t grow how I wanted and withered away before the harvest. Now you on the other hand have a lot of motivation behind you for change. You’re father’s abusive, your mother’s divorced and you have a dead sister to pile on your problems. I know about it, don’t think I don’t. You tried to kill yourself in the bathtub. I know because Jade told me. And your father, mother, sister, yep, all Jade. So why not try to fix it? Change your life by fixing everything wrong with it, of course, it ends the same for everyone. You go through a set of trials to make your life better before accepting change to the heart”. “What happens when it’s done?” I asked. Mello gave the ‘I think you know ‘look at me, and she was probably right. I knew. But she fired that bullet anyways. Fired it at my sanity. “You kill yourself.”

6

The girl who was now revealed to have encouraged Jade to commit suicide in the pool, was Mello. Hailie was so close to finding Jade too, maybe she could’ve been saved. That’s right, I was there too, all sucked up in the ecstasy happening in the gym. Why didn’t I go with Hailie? She even asked me if I wanted to tag along. To think I was having fun there, to think that just above me, somebody was killing themselves under the influence of someone else’s words. I was going to kill myself, not now, but soon. My future self is probably crying. There comes that black wall, that dead end that keeps appearing in my mind. It blackens my future. I get it now, the reason why Hailie was crying. It wasn’t because of what she saw at the stairs, but because Mello had actually made her life pig-slump miserable. She probably even had the same meeting – ate moldy bread and butter with honey, explained Hailie’s life story and how miserable Hailie was feeling. Then finally, told her she must commit suicide. It probably devastated her. But Mellow’s just a student. No, she’s a cold-hearted demon. Behind those big breasts of hers is nothing that can be felt, not even a pulse. She’s just a walking corpse that brings misfortune to everyone she meets with. She isn’t worth it. Josh’s words echoed in my mind. It became clear what he meant, to meet with her meant I entrusted my future with her. Kinda like sharing a destiny-bond at marriage, but something more twisted and sinister, where only one side benefits. Mello still sat there with that gleeful smiled plastered on her face. She looked rather, fragile. I imagined hitting her in the back of the head with a hammer. I imagined decapitating her head off and throwing it into a lake. I imagined shooting her in the head. I imagined running her over ribs. I… I want her dead. Battling against this monster became my life’s goal now. At first, I was going to be around. If I had let myself go in that bathtub on that hopeless half-day of school, then I’d would’ve never been able to find her. I’m glad I did. Of course, I could write a whole essay about how my plan actually fits into hers (three paragraphs total) and it’d conclude saying that I would lose in Mello’s favor. Win or lose, it doesn’t matter. Either way, I’ve started a new career as a terror to myself, and Mello was just leashing me along like a dog. Look at the scenery, she’d say and push us ‘dogs’ (seeds of change, or, whatever the fuck) into the waterfall below. Maybe the scenery will be beautiful that day. Red skies, everywhere. Just as that thought was becoming more entertaining, she hopped up from her seat and stuffed the only piece of bread in her mouth (with my saliva along with it). Grabbed her bags and ran over to the door like an anime schoolgirl, bread in her mouth, as scripted. Hard to believe anyone acted like that. She gave me a wave and looked very enthusiastic about it too – again, another one of her tricks. She closed the door and disappeared into the hallways. I was stuck there in my thoughts, found it unproductive and mindlessly walked to my third block. My third block – Visual Arts II – was probably my most anticipated class. However, I didn’t find joy to continue the project I was working on. I grabbed my current piece– a tiger in the bushes (the green is a bit too vibrant though). The corner was finished, and everything else was a pencil sketch. But I just stared at it. Time flew by, and my supplies ended up back on the shelf without a need for washing them. I got out of third block and head for my fourth. Time was much quicker as my thoughts were focused on Mello. It was starting to depress me. School was let out thirty minutes late and we were sent home. At home, I washed the dishes which have been helplessly pilled on top of each other. I washed two or three of them and stuffed them inside the dishwasher. I’d eaten a cup of beef ramen (or three) and stuffed the empty cans in the garbage. It was full, so I emptied the garbage and replaced the bag; it was five till six by then. Mello said the meeting started at eight, or was it 8:30? If I had shown up at the wrong time, then Mello and her gang would probably come kill me right at this house. Jade probably told her that as well. Here comes that shitty feeling… oh, it had already been ten minutes. What would Mello expect me to bring? She said to just ‘bring myself’, and that was all I needed. I’m surprised she didn’t want an offering gift to their ‘god-of-change’. Or whatever ideology they worshiped. If during our little picnic, Mello had more to say, then it’s probably for the worst that I missed it. The fear and anger I felt from her was too immense, there was no way to ignore those feelings. But now, I was more angry at myself (I guess it’s good motivation to have at the meeting tonight). Seven o’clock came quick, and I started for the school. I passed down the Madison’s clothing store, across Lake meadow suburbs and arrived at the intersection that divided my school and the entrance to I-34. The light turned green. I ran across, entered the ghastly parking lot (a hotspot for muggings) and climbed a tree up to the second window of the school. The light was on inside, but only the right half of the classroom was lit. my expectation were that police officers would line up in the shadows were I couldn’t see, and that Mello had already been arrested. No, executed. But there wasn’t any, no sign of a security guard either. I launched myself inside one foot after the other. The door was already opened; a lifeless hallway greeted me with open arms. The lights were still working and so was the water fountain, which I tested with a slight nudge. The window at the far end of the hall was startling. As many times as I walked down this hall, I was familiar with the bright sunshine that would always pass through. But the sun wasn’t shining. The only glow now were the lights above were the sick green lights I’d see in my bathroom. Were they always this color? I decided to explore further and was a little tempted to make a full trip around the school, then I’d become aware. There were security cameras placed everywhere, and I happened to make eye contact with one. My heart sank, but the red light wasn’t flashing. It was off, on purpose. The whole building was asleep. It would also be twenty minutes until Hailie would find Mello coming from the pool doors, and she’d run away. I walked over to that exact stairwell and just stared at the history it was trying to tell me. 7:50, I had enough time to explore. Starting up the steps and reaching out for the handle, I hesitated. Coming in for the first time, Jade’s blood could still be on the ground and the movie would just play on its own. The movie where Mello kills Jade, titled – “A gem to be treasured.” I unconsciously opened the door and the smell of bleach had hit me, but it wasn’t potent enough to grab my attention. I instead found myself mesmerized by the glow of the water as lights beamed from the bottom. It was a pretty sight. The pool area was just about as large as the gym, and different training supplies were stuffed in the corner. A few patches of caution tape were left behind and moved over to the office door. Following where the tape pointed, I found myself in a familiar spot. If I remember correctly, it was the place that Mello launched the sledgehammer at Jade’s arm. She’d be sitting right here on the floor, her foot just barely dipping into the water as she tried to rub out the pain of a shattered shoulder. The look on her face must’ve been in sorrow, seeing that heavy sledgehammer sit restlessly in Mello’s hand. Mello would speak to her, but the right words would never reach and the message she was trying to tell Jade would be blocked by pain. Pain, that was all she could focus on. It would consume her, until the very end, ending her pain by dealing with her own feelings in the worst possible way. She would end it, edging herself at the end of the pool. Tilting, then falling. I wonder what kind of face Mello had when she let her fall into the pool. Was it the same one she had when walked down the steps - the one she gave to Hailie. Following the gesture of her fall, I could see exactly where she landed, on the corner of the vent in the pool. A small bit of blood rested where she hit her head. She was probably didn’t even know she was losing consciousness. The scene told the whole story, and worst part is, Mello hadn’t lied about either part. No more business needed to be done here, so I left the pool and walked back down to the second floor. But I paused. There was, something off, that I needed to check back on. I ran up the stairs, busted open the doors to the pool and took another look into the mystifying waters. Thinking on it now, that part really didn’t make no sense. How can that be when her head was covered from the neck up? She took off her swimsuit, tied it around her head, and suffocated herself in the water. Her blood would’ve dissolved in the water. I checked again. The dry blood stain now told me something different. Somebody else was thrown in this pool. Somebody else, was missing.

7

 All the doors to the classrooms were closed. Either they had locked up for the night, or the door was open, but nobody was inside. Mello didn’t tell me which classroom the meeting was supposed to be at, so I bounced around all over the place. I searched all of the two hundred classrooms but found myself treading over the same path. I took a different route and ended up in a hallway that I used to cross into my third block. At the end of the hall, one classroom was lit. The door was open, signaling out to me: here. Might as well install big flashy arrow signs that point towards the door like they do in Vegas. Girls Girls Girls!. This was also the only hallway with its lights off. It was the brightest thing aside from the lights in the pool. No voices came from inside either, strange as seeing somebody should be inside. But then there was the clink of a desk, and then somebody’s footsteps coming at the door. A girl peaked out form the door and immediately hid herself behind the wall. I started for the classroom. My footsteps seemed to have washed the entire classroom into silence. A blonde girl – who I can assume to be Mello - kicked her feet up on the teacher’s desk and revealed herself hiding from behind the computer. She looked at me, luring me in. All I could do was walk. The darkness of the hallway faded. I entered the brightly lit classroom. Looking to my left, seven other kids were seated in their desks. Two of the students started a struggle with each other but stopped their dog fight once I caught them. They looked back at me in disapproval. Every one of them looked at me as if they caught their best friend fucking on their couch. There was this lingering suspicion hanging in the air. Mello did call me her “seed of change”, so maybe these people spited my importance? It was uncanny. I walked up to Mello trying to find comfort being near her (even if she was a monster). Her finger wagged and reeled me in by her side. She patted both hands on her lap, and looked at me with dullness, but thirst. Nothing about her approach was pure. But, refusing Mello’s orders would probably mean that she’d ‘purify’ me – meaning, I’d probably be punished with a sledgehammer to the skull. I sat in her lap. Then she leeched her mouth on mine and kissed me. It was, pleasant? “You fucking hoe!” someone had shouted. The meaning never reached me. In fact, my confusion just only got bigger (I shouldn’t even think about that). More immense, (that’s better). It began to…rise, and she drew in a large gasp. Then pain, at my bottom lip. It overshadowed the pleasantness of her kiss. I pushed back from her. Her teeth pinched onto my bottom lip and stringed off a layer of my skin, exposing the raw skin underneath. The pain was too much. It was only five seconds after that I felt it’s wrath. I was caught in another one of Mello’s tricks. But that that kiss, it seemed so innocent. I wanted it to last. Mello looked down at me. I felt a salad of emotions cross me – sadness, lust, anger. All I shamelessly felt towards her. Her voice was apathetic. “Who said you could kiss me?” Bitch, it was you who put the moves on me. If I argued with her, then her buddies in the back would only argue against me. There was no way to win this one. “I’m sorry, Mello”. I stood back up. She lead me towards my seat – third row, second seat. I tried to stop the bleeding, but that only aggravated it. Mello waltzed over to the door, shut it, and came back into the center of the classroom. There was a stool, she sat on it, and crossed her flawless legs. “Hello everyone, welcome back to another day of game club”, her voice was tender, but the pain on my lip made her sound sadistic. “Today, as we have a new member to the club. His name is Brandon-” Mello looked at me. I stood up from my chair. “Hi”. She waited, then forced a smile. “So, Brandon. What is your motivation for change?” Stupid answers only. “Life sucks” My response was too blunt. Yes, she was unsatisfied. So that’s why right after, she began to retell my life’s story. “Brandon is new, yes, so excuse him. There’s no need for punishment (god help me if she did punish me). So, Brandon – as I know – is taking it hard on his family life, he’s being beaten by his father, his mother doesn’t love him, and his sister is dead. So, you can say he’s the kind of scum we can all come to like” I didn’t care about the scum part, but about my mother not loving me, it wasn’t true. She was the one who tried to take custody of me through the whole divorce process and, whatever. How I ended up with my dad seems like a game of clue. The rest of Mello’s case, it could be argued. “On top of that his only motivation for living is gone (jade, obviously) and now he’s kind of a helpless rat. So, let’s give him a hard time, for motivation of course! So, here’s Brandon, our little baby rat. Ok, so, now; we don’t need to do a whole name telling, segment, usually because that’s just too awkward and you’ll want to forget everybody eventually. Just remember their faces. So, now I’d like to continue doing the card game we’ve been playing up until now. Since there’s a new member to this club, that means everyone loses their card, and they’d be shuffled and handed out again. Sorry, but my rules, rule.” Before I knew it, people were handing up playing cards up to the front of their row. Each card was either a king, queen, jack, or joker. Some of them had blood painted on their fronts. It was that kid, the kid wearing the puffy blue coat, he had the bloody card. Everyone in this room appeared the same: a mirror image of each other. That includes Mello too. She added a new card to the deck, shuffled it; a punk rock junkie from the corner of the room stood up and took the pile from Mello. He had a bird tattooed across his face. The bridge of his nose acted like the body, and the wings spread out under his eyelids. The very definition of spiritual, or hardcore whatchamacallit. He passed out each card to each person, his eyes looked disconnected. It was nowhere close to how Mello looked, but she seemed to be rubbing off on him. He peaked up at me from the front of my row, walked along and caught another glance at my grin. It’s like my behavior was abnormal, the perfect billboard person. I knew that I didn’t belong here. People started to flip over their cards, making “meh” or “ooh!” noise in a quiet hum that radio heads would do when they sung their favorite tune. They all sounded distressed. The kid in the back – the one with the green coat, kept staring at his desk, at the card. Wait… Gabriel? This was the same Gabriel, the one from the rumors, yeah? He stabbed a couple of football players in the locker room, free from punishment too. Why on earth was he involved with Mello? Curiosity said for me to peak at his face. But I’m afraid that if I looked at him I’d just see Mello in his empty hoodie. The only part I could make out was his hair – a dark black. He’s Asian, that’s for sure. Just as I was about to get Gabriel’s attention, Mello snapped her fingers. All of her minions immediately centered their focus on to her. The exception of course being Gabriel. Mello started back into her unusual smile. “Okay everyone, look at the card. No taksee-backsee’s… give it a good thought, how do you want things to progress? What would you consider using? The detail is in the picture. Now think about your course of action, not the whole story but just the basic idea. See where it’s going… I know you do.” My card was a king of diamonds. The king was holding axe. Mello said for us to think about our course of action. There’s not much to do with a playing card unless it’s in Vegas, or an old smokehouse. But Mello doesn’t take things literally, she called me the “seed of change” – rather odd. Think in abstract terms. Then, as soon as the meaning hit me, my brain took on a mental train wreck. The lines that made the king began to saturate and look harsh. It’s almost as if these cards had a history of violence (the bloody card – the one the blue jacket kid had - no doubt was used somewhere in some murder), passing down the torch from one generation to the next. The king was passing his bloodied axe, to me. It’s your turn – I could hear him whisper. I looked up from the card and back at Mello. She started talking about how change can benefit us all, and that we can do it, go team. She didn’t even touch on the topic of murder. We were supposed to murder someone, and yet she breezed past, it left me in a state of confusion. It was 10:00 and the meeting had been called off. People tumbled out of the door and headed for their whatever depressing hole they came from; Gabriel was still staring at the floor. I should’ve thrown a pencil at him, but Mello would’ve probably punished me. Like they do in jail, you don’t fuck around in anyone’s business. I started for the door, but Mello had stopped me. She hurried over to me. “Sorry about that Brandon, but I forgot to explain what this week’s activity is supposed to mean, or what you’re supposed to do. So, you’ve probably already caught on, but I need you to kill someone. Step one of change, get rid of any distractions that are holding you back. You must kill the right person though, because the wrong one could lead you down the wrong path. It’s okay, I know who you’re supposed to kill (…is she talking to me?)” she did… something. “Here have this pin too and place it where you killed your target. This will inform the police not to intervene, and they’ll just drop the whole case. Pass the whole stupid law. If you still don’t understand, kill your father, place the pin and walk away. Simple. Okay, by now!” She closed the door on me. My body wasn’t mine, and my mind was in another alternate dimension. Maybe a cartoon, or in the Muppets. I wouldn’t mind living life, like a mindless Muppet now. The disbelief came in waves that only brought greater despair. It hurt down the hallway, it hurt down the stairwell, and back into the night sky, it twisted my heart. I looked over at the other adjacent building. A kid with a green coat was leaning against it smoking on a cigarette. He probably had five packs loaded to last him the night. The boy took out a stick and the lighter lit up his face. It was the same kid who had never looked up from the floor, he now had a hunchback that would forever plague him. “Gabriel?” I whispered. He noticed me starting towards him and threw his cigar on the floor. His movements were sporadic. “Hey hey hey, hey. Whatare- you doin?” He came at me aggressively, fanning his lighter in my face. “Back up you little shit, y-you piss me off!” “Whatdidoo?” He turned off the lighter and shoved it down his pocket. “You ruined eberyting for me-me. You… my whole, family, knows. I, covered my tacks, and-a, I’m subpose to change, the plan-MY PLAN?“ His whole body was shaking. From the feet up, he was emotionally broken. He had crafted the best way to deceive his family and friends, then I come along. The cards had to have trigger his outburst. That’s if they did, his mind probably isn’t setup straight. I have to straighten things out right now if I don’t want to get burned. “Easy, easy. Your life has never been easy. So, I think… just, lower the-” He fired up, “NO! I about had it up to here with you, you’re a spy. That’s right, you come to jail me up, and the rest. I’ll break your ne-.” He sprinted towards me. I took a few steps back, but he came at me with a gutsy lunge, grabbed my shirt and tried to pull me to the ground. He held the lighter up to my hair. The cap was flipped open. I grabbed on to his hand that held the lighter and sunk my teeth into his hand. He only held the lighter tighter, but then there was this warmth, his hand cramped up in front of me. The lighter fell to the ground and hid itself in the dark. There was a moment of rest where I could lift myself off the ground. He got recovered quickly, as if he was trained for this, and came back at me. I must’ve scrapped my leg on the fall down because my thigh felt scaled. I’d pushed him off, and he’d repeat his tactics - get up and try to tackle me again. I read into his movements and pinned him to the ground. He didn’t move, only cursed under his breath. Then he went limp. Taken aback, I stood up and freed him to make sure I didn’t overdo the whole self-defense gig. His mouth was sealed and he stared at the ground with an obedient stare. I looked up, nothing. Gabriel went into a plank, and stuttered “I’m-m, so FUCK-ing. dun for.” Curious I checked around again, then I saw it. Me and Mello both found each other. Myself, right outside the school, and her, just barely peaking through the window on the third floor. I became aware of just how present Mello was.

8