English Assessment Story
This story is for my English Assessment. Please read. This is the final copy so any last minute critique are welcome =D I'll change it ASAP. Under cut~
Marionette by Claudia Fok
When the police arrived at the small, dark apartment, the blood splattered on the wall had already dried and the young, mutilated bodies lay untouched. The window was wide open, the curtains billowing in the wind. Daniels peeked out of the window wearily, disturbed by the scene within the tiny room. Almost immediately, he spotted the murder weapon and sent a few officers down to inspect it.
When the officers reached the weapon, they were horrified. The damaged hatchet was completely caked in blood and laid abandoned, sticking out the shrub like a forgotten toy. The murderer was nowhere in sight. They examined the weapon carefully as they heard a voice that notified them through the radio about a survivor.
When they returned to the scene of the merciless slaughter, they found two of their co-workers supporting a girl who was coughing uncontrollably. She was in a state of shock, staring blankly at nothing. They enquired as to her name. She stuttered hesitantly, almost frightened, as if the slayer of her friends would come back to kill her if she replied. Slowly, she sounded out each syllable. Lara James. She began naming each of the deceased softly, tears of bitter parting forced their way into her eyes. She pointed to the boy whose heart had been ripped out of his able body. Ben Curtis. Then, her finger moved towards a petite boy lying on the bed. The petite child faced another boy whose death robbed him of his once prominent beauty. Their severed limbs lay in a heap on the floor and their eyes were damaged by frantic slashing. Those two were Leo Page and Paul Robinson. Moving across the room was a girl whose body had become sexless and almost unidentifiable. Her name was Jill Richies. Slowly, she rose, propping herself against the wall for support. She made her way towards a small study desk. When she reached it, she picked up a photograph and pointed to a young girl with white porcelain skin. Her doll-like limbs were stretched out and bent to imitate the figure of a dancing marionette. She was the murderer- …Alice Hill.
A few weeks later, Lara sat in front of Daniels with a wide spacious table in between them. She fidgeted restlessly as he asked his questions and she answered as calmly as she could. Finally, he asked the question she had been waiting for, “Why did Alice Hill spare your life, Ms. James?”
Lara finally smiled. She opened her mouth but no sound came out, so she traced the word on the table, over and over again.
Guilt.
Alice and Lara had been close friends for as long as they could both remember. Lara was Alice’s conscience and Alice grew to rely on her. Ever since they were little, Alice never understood the concept of right or wrong. In her mind, the line between reality and imagination was blurred. Hidden behind her fragile, angelic features, there lived a monster, who waited for his chance to surface. However, Lara had always held the reins as Alice’s tamer, and introduced her to the world as someone respectable. Alice had probably spared Lara because she had owed her that much. Without Lara, Alice would not have survived in the cold world of social acceptability. She probably spared her long-time companion because she had already scarred her with the screams and blood of their other friends.
The exact reason as to why Alice killed her friends was a mystery to Lara but she knew enough. Ben had been the one to trigger it, she was almost certain. She had seen them a few times, talking and laughing, she knew that Alice and Ben had been close. Perhaps Alice had found out about Ben and Jill. Maybe that was why she had invited their entire group into her apartment and she waited there, filled with malicious intentions, her beloved hatchet by her side. Each one of the hideous mutilations was a cheap imitation of how Alice felt about each one of them. There was Ben who had broken her heart, Leo and Paul who knew and saw but did nothing and Jill whose beauty and femininity sickened her. Alice loathed each and every one of them for their ignorance.
The human psyche is an unpredictable thing, Alice’s even more so. Alice was a thousand times more fragile and her lack of distinction between the laws of the world made her a million times more dangerous. By playing with emotions, Ben had opened a Pandora’s Box full of horrors. Emotions are not to be toyed with, as they could lead to an explosion, just like a spark in a room full of gunpowder.
As Lara explained all of this calmly, Daniels could not help but think back to when they had first found Lara. Her shocked expression. Her tears of bittersweet farewell. Her distant stare. Her eyes, filled with slight horror but also a glint of amusement.
“I failed to restrain her,” Lara suddenly stated. She looked up at Daniels, “Game over!” She exclaimed in mock disappointment.
Daniels stared at her, his look contorted with slight terror, “Was it a just game to you? The lives of your friends and the mental health of the one who loved you? You were her mentor!”
“It was a gamble,” Lara explained, “but that’s how I’ve always played life. It’s just more interesting that way, don’t you think? Everything else is so boring.”
Daniels motioned towards the door warily, his expression filled with anguish. Lara left as she suppressed the urge to giggle, seemingly immersed in her own delusions. As she exited the building and turned left towards home, she heard footsteps that matched her own pacing. Without turning around, she spoke.
“You must be mad. You trusted me.”
There was no reply. There was only the sound of the hatchet connecting with her skull.
Depressive stories are easy... I just tried to do something creative with it though