Chapter Three

I felt the borders of the storage room door scratch the length of my body. I watched as the morning light around me transformed into the bright, lifeless glow of the fluorescent lights above us. Dawn dropped my body near the center of the room and began looking for something behind the floor mats. I thought about trying to stand up the moment I noticed her glance turn away from me, but Dawn’s words stopped me.

“I hate that you can’t understand what I’m feeling right now,” Dawn said. Her voice was just as fierce, but I could sense something else in it. “You’re so perfect. Everything just happened to go your way, didn’t it? You were born with the looks, the smarts, the athletic ability, the rich parents, and who knows how much else. The moment you open your big mouth I knew I wasn’t ever going to be as good as you. Because no matter how hard I tried, how many tears I shed, how many late nights I endured just to stay on pace with you, I was never going to reach you. And I hated it!” Dawn slammed the wall with a large, blunt object, her voice returning to the ferocity from before. I couldn’t see it from where I was laying but I could hear it loud and clear. “The worst part of it, is that everything else you ever want is gonna be given to you, just like it was given to you here. They’ll give you a great career, with a great salary. They’ll give you the perfect boyfriend, then the perfect husband, and then the perfect family. They’ll give you a happy little retirement, where you’ll spend the last remaining days of your life wondering what it would’ve felt like to slave away like me.”

“But for once in my miserable life, I have one over you.” She began to smile as she turned to me. In her hands were two objects: a large metal rod and a sledgehammer. My heart sank and my breathing became heavy. My eyes widened and I shook my head. “What’s that? Sorry, can’t hear you,” Dawn said with a cackle. “And that means you can’t stop me. I’m going to make sure this pampered, undeserving, stain on humanity never, ever gets anything again!”

She dropped the sledgehammer and raised the metal rod with two hands over my head, placing her leg against my torso. I felt the rivers of tears fall onto the ground as I tried to make my words pierce the tape over my mouth. In one swift motion, Dawn swung down and struck the right side of my head. The pain, a narrow beam the size of the rod, shot through me, spreading throughout my head. I could hear the cracks of my skull as I lost vision in my right eye. My screams bounced back into me, and its delusional relief was wasted air. She struck, again and again, making sure I could feel every single hit. My blood was splattered all over her as well as on the floor. I was at the door of consciousness, using what little strength I had left to stay awake. I could see Dawn’s heavy breathing as she stopped the assault. My body let out a small sigh of relief out of my control. I thought I had made it. Maybe this was all she was going to do. I thought she got all her anger out. Then, she took hold of the sledgehammer.

Dawn sensed the little moment I had and began to laugh.

“I can’t believe it! You thought it was over?” she said in between her cackles. She dropped the metal rod next to my legs. “I’m not even done with that thing yet. But I’ll have plenty of time to use it after I finish this next part.” She lowered the sledgehammer over my head with a gentle motion, placing the flat top over my fresh wounds. Any tears that would have been used for the pain had long since dried up. The failed screams were the only thing I could do as she shifted the hammer around every wound on my head. I wanted to make it out of this, to somehow live a normal life after some form of recovery, but the voice that told me to fight, and hope, was being drowned out by the voice in my ear.

“There’s nothing you can do to stop this. You want me to feel sorry for you because you can’t get what you want?” She put her face up against mine. “Now you know how we all felt looking up at you. Now you know how we felt as you looked down at us and laughed. Now you know what it’s like to do everything in your power to achieve something, and watch as it all falls apart, torn down by something selfish, uncaring, and unstoppable.” She kicked my stomach and yelled. “Take it! Feel it! This is what you deserve! And you can’t blame anyone other than yourself! If I’m wrong, then let someone bust through that door and carry you away!”

I felt the last strands of my survival instinct fade away. I knew there wasn’t going to be a savior. I knew that no one in this school would find me and stop this. I no longer cared if what I did was right, or if Dawn had every reason to behave like this anymore. I just wanted this to be over, by any means necessary. As Dawn lifted the sledgehammer over her head, I didn’t feel any peace. All I heard were two voices screaming at what little cognizance I had left. ‘You did nothing wrong.’ ‘You deserve everything that’s happening to you.’ The voices grew louder as Dawn prepared her swing, with a smile wide enough to make the crescent moon jealous. Dawn let out a thunderous laughter as she swung the sledgehammer down, ending everything that led us both to this point.