The beginning to my new story
Our Time, and What Follows


Chapter #1
Eighth grade finished too quickly for my liking. We were going to freshmen next year and that made the three of us nervous. Rena and Chelsea, my two best friends in the whole world were going to be there with me though, and our friend Paul who lived down the street was going to be a junior and he already had his license since December, so he gave us rides home from school when he could and now that we were at the same school it would be easier. Paul was so cool, we got alone great, I guess because he was gay, but he was a really great guy.
He had pick his little brother up from Day-care everyday around three or three thirty, so when Chelsea, Rena, and I started track in middle school we had to walk home. We didn’t mind. If I would run three miles, I can walk one, would be what I said when Paul apologized for his responsibilities.
Today is the last day of school and Paul couldn’t wait until our final bell because his brother needed to be picked up from Day-Care, leaving the three of us to walk home after our Graduation ‘partayah’. We talked about the upcoming Graveyard concert and the lead-singer, Holly Evans. She was my idol, and I tried hard as hell to be like her. Everyone said that I look some-what like her. I had the same elbow length white-blonde hair, and the aqua eyes. But Holly was taller, she was 5”8’ and I was only 5”6’, without shoes that is, not to mention she had bigger… chest. I was more of a writer then a singer, but she wrote too. I had posters of her and her band all over my room and my locker. I was obsessed. And now she was coming here, to my town, and I had tickets! I was so excited, but I didn’t know when to wear.
“I wonder what she’ll wear…” I said aloud.
“Probably something she made, something that’s never seen the day of light, you know like last time, and it’ll be on the market in a month.” Rena said.
“I love her styles, Mom said she’d take me to her store so I could pick out some new school cloths, but they have to be the cheap ones.” I said.
“I hear that she prices her cloths like the cloths at a grocery store because she is like a billionaire or something…” Chelsea commented.
“God I hope so…”
“So, how are we getting there?”
“Paul, he’s coming too remember?”
“Oh yeah…” a van pulled up to where we were standing in front of the Elementary School playground. A man got out with a bunch of orange flyers.
“I don’t think that my mom will let me go if Paul is driving…”
“Sure she will…” The orange flyers got caught in the wind and the man is now scrambling to pick them all up. And being the good kids we are, we rush forward to help.
“Here ya go,” We hand him the stack of files that we picked up by the fence. “I think that’s all of them,”
“Thank you so much, the three of you.” He smiled wildly and opened the side door to his van. A small puppy in a cage whimpered at us. Chelsea and Rena ‘Awwww’ed at it and asked to pet it, he nodded and turned to me. “I found him outside of my house sniffing the garbage, he has no tags.”
“That’s sad, Rena, Chelsea, we have to go.”
“Oh c’mon Arista, can’t we help him find the owners?” I moved forward to grab their hands.
“No, we have to get home.” I grabbed their hands, but before I could pull them away we were shoved into the van next to the puppy. I screamed for help while fighting off the hands that were grabbing at me. Something stuck into my side and everything got a little fuzzier. I heard Rena beg of him to stop and Chelsea whimpering in the corner.
“Please, leave us alone!”
“What did you do to her? Rissy! Rissy! Wake up!” my eyes closed and I slowly started to side down into the abyss.

When I woke up I was in a basement. I looked around and saw that Chelsea was tied up next to me. I moved to help her, only to be held back by my own restraints. Somewhere upstairs Rena called for my help, and then there was mumbling and some thudding.
“No, no, no, no, no!” I chanted, trying to get out of my hand restraints. Cheap rope was what bound me to the pipes I was leaning on. All I needed to do was… bite through them? Sure why not, it was my only chance…
I started tearing the rope on my wrists with my teeth until it broke. My heart started to pound, I didn’t think that it would work. There was a knife on the table, I lunged forward to and knocked it closer to me. I hacked the rope off of my torso and my feet, and then I tried to wake Chelsea up.
“Mom, I love Graveyard and Paul is a responsible driver, I promise,” she mumbled. I slapped her.
“WAKE UP!” I screamed into her ear.
“Ris, what the fuck happened to your face?!” I reached up to the dull pain in my forehead and felt a cut above my left eye. I cut her ties and she remembered where we were, or at least how we got here. “Where’s Rena?” she asked me. I looked up just in time for Rena to scream again.
“I don’t know what he’s doing to her, I don’t want to know what he’s doing to her, all I want is to get out. Safe.”
“With her right?” I looked at her. If we could escape then we could call the police, then Rena would be alright, but if we went in for a rescue mission then it was highly unlikely that we would get out alive, she had to know that. “You can't be serious! Arista Evans! She is our best friend!”
“So we save her, or at least we try. But if we try to save her then we might not get out of here alive, it is very unlikely, and you know that.”
“She would save us.”
“I know… but really, we would have a better chance of saving her if we go now.” She shook her head at me and looked down.
“Holly would save her friends…”
“That isn’t fair! You don’t know her, she would do the smart thing!” she looked up, anger was in her eyes.
“Arista Kristyna Evans! She is your best friend!” I softened.
“Fine, let’s go.” I grabbed the knife and headed for the stairs, Chelsea was at my heels. I opened the door slowly and we found ourselves in a kitchen. Dirty dishes were everywhere, even the floor. We walked forward slowly, tying to ignore the stench coming from the sink. Chelsea made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat behind me and grabbed my hand.
“Oh god! Please! No! Not again! Please!” Rena’s screams made Chelsea jump and bump into the counter, knocking a stack of dishes onto the floor. The crashing sound was louder then the screaming.
“What the fuck?!” the man yelled. I heard him come pounding down the stairs.
“Get back downstairs!”
“What about you?”
“Don’t worry about me! I’m going to save us; after all, it’s what Holly would do.” I pushed her towards the basement door; she looked back at me then went. I stood by the counter where she had been. I felt like a warrior, defiance was in my eyes and I wasn’t afraid.
“How the fuck did you get out?” the man said when he entered the kitchen.
“I bit through the ropes.” He laughed.
“Just like the little rat you are huh? I thought you’d like it in the basement.”
“Fuck off.” The smirk vanished from his face and replaced with a twisted anger.
“Little bitch! Just like your sister!” he grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me closer to his face.
“You don’t know my mother.” I said angrily.
“You’d like to think that wouldn’t you, but there are things that you don’t know.” He pushed me towards the entrance he came through. “You get upstairs, it’s your turn.” I looked up at the stairs. “Go on, git!” he turned and went downstairs, no doubt to get Chelsea. I inhaled deeply and ran up the stairs. I found Rena tied to the bed with blood all over her.
“Rena, oh god.” I rushed forward and touched her face to wake her up. She was cold. “Rena!” I screamed at her. I shook her cold limp body, she had to wake up! We were going to the concert in week. We were going to dress alike and try to get backstage! Tears poured down my white face and landed on hers. I climbed on top of her and screamed in her face, shaking her violently. Her head just rolled back and forth, she was dead. “No!” I screamed. “No…” I was sobbing uncontrollably now. Her blood was all over my hands and face now, in my hair and all over my cloths.
“Now look at the mess you’ve made.” The Man said as he came in holding Chelsea in his arms.
“Chelsea,” I whispered. “What did you do to them?”
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with.”
“Are they, are they dead?” he smiled.
“Something I never got to finish with your sister. She got away. But now, now I can get her back. Killing you and your friends is like killing her and her spirit. But I don’t just want to kill you; I want you to experience what she did.”
“I don’t have a sister!” I screamed. I was the only child! Born and raised with no siblings! He was trying to fuck with me, make me go insane, it wouldn’t work.
“Oh I do, she ruined my life. She thought that I was dead, but the past always comes back to bite us in the ass doesn’t it?” He came at me and I pulled the knife out of my back pocket.
“One more step and I’ll cut your throat.” I threatened. He stopped.
“I don’t believe you,”
“If you didn’t you wouldn’t have stopped.” He took a few steps forward and reached out his hand.
“Give me my knife Arista,”
“No way,”
“Give it to me now!” He lunged at me and knocked me on the floor. His hands were everywhere, I couldn’t stop them. He got a hold of my wrists and tried to pry the knife from my fingers.
“No!” I kneed him in the groin but he didn’t wince, he just smiled and laughed. “You sick fucking-”
“Pervert? Yeah I know.” He laughed again and picked me up by my neck. “No more games little one, Grams isn’t waiting anymore.”
“What?” He threw me next to Rena on the bed. Her cold hand was inches away from mine. Maybe she was just sleeping… she would wake up any minute now.
On the other side of the bed The Man picked up Chelsea and set her on the bed too. I heard her mumbling; she was alive! I tried to sit up but he pushed me back down.
“Rissy?” Chelsea moaned. I heard zippers then the bed started to shake. Oh god, what was he doing to her? I was afraid to look, this was a dream, a bad, bad dream and I would wake up any minute now to dad telling me that I was late for school.
“God! No! Somebody please help me!” Chelsea began to scream. I sat up quickly and saw something I hope never to see again.
He was raping her. He had a small saw and he was cutting out her heart.
“Stop! Please! Stop!” I screamed.
“Ris, tell my parents, tell them, I, that I,” she shut her eyes and released her last breath. She was dead too.
“No! You bring her back! It wasn’t her! It wasn’t her!” I screamed. The Man looked up rather startled at what I was yelling.
“You’ll get your turn young lady, just be patient.” He laughed and smiled. He got off of Chelsea, not even putting his pants back on and left, shutting the door behind him.
I sat there and let my silent tears run down my face. I pulled Chelsea’s skirt down. Her eyes were closed and she had her half-smile on her face, the half-smile that would win anyone over. I sat there in the middle of Rena and Chelsea, the greatest friends a girl could ask for. I laid my head down on Rena’s stomach and stretched my legs out next to theirs. I wove my fingers through theirs and tried to fall asleep.
Dad was going to be so mad that we didn’t go to sleep all night, but we were just having too much fun. Rena and Chelsea stuffed themselves with pizza and Coke so they were extremely hyper just to be able to keep up with me and my eccentric personality. We had watch three old westerns on cable and played truth or dare. Rena and I dared Chelsea to call Gary Foremen and ask him if he ever found his elephants.
Chelsea has a HUGE crush on Gary. We thought it was funny when she stuttered because she was so afraid to talk to him. ‘You gotta live life in the moment, because if you don’t, then all the moments you coulda had will pass you by without a glace, and all because you weren’t looking.’ Was what I kept telling her every time Gary came into our conversations. It was from “Keep Going, You’re Not There Yet”, one of our favorite songs from Graveyard.
“Get up, keep on going, you can’t stop believing, we are the kids who can fly, but only when no one is looking, get up, we need you, no stopping now.” I sung aloud. Rena and Chelsea must be in a deep sleep, because usually they would join me, better not disturb them I guess.
I slowly sat up and grabbed the blanket on the floor. I covered the three of us with it and lay on Rena’s shoulder, holding both of their hands. We are going to fly away from this small town and become famous, the three of us and Paul, just like Holly, Kris, Kelly, and Roni, from Graveyard. We are going to meet them when we go to San Francisco and Holly will invite me to sing with her.
We are going to grow up and die together. We would be famous.


Chapter #2
It was like a party. Everyone was there, Rena, Chelsea, Paul, and even Gary. There was other people there, people I couldn’t name, but they all came and talked to me. I was the center of the room the whole time. I asked Gary to dance with Chelsea and he thanked me for the ice-breaker. He and Chelsea look really happy on the dance floor under the stars. I told Paul that I had to get home so he gave me a ride. Dad was angry that I had been gone for four days, but he was just so happy that I was alright that he didn’t punish me.
When I woke up in the morning someone was sitting on the bed with me. Their hands were holding my head and they were lying on top of me. I remember moving up and down and something sucking on my neck.

“Time for some food,” Dad opened the door. I sat up and took the plate he handed me. Pizza and chips. I thanked him and he kissed me on the forehead, telling me I was sick and that I should eat then go back to bed. I nodded, ate, and lay back down on Rena’s shoulder.
“Night Dad,” I whispered.
“G’night kiddo.”
“Don’t forget, the duck, Filbert’s in the backyard. He’s waiting for his food too.”
“That goddamn duck is dead Holly!” he yelled. I sat up and the door slammed. I was shut out in this tiny room that smelled of death. Too many lies to filter out of your head now, the walls were breathing. I had no idea how to pump on a swing. She never showed me, she never had time. I taught myself. Jesus is a lie. The world is a lie. We’re all lies. We infect everyone else and turn them into lies as well. There is nothing that I can do to change this. There isn’t anything wrong with me. I’m alive. I have to get to school. I’m late.
“School’s out, what are you thinking. You’re nuts.” Rena said. She handed me a chip off of my plate.
“Yeah you dork.” Chelsea chimed in.
“I know, old habits are hard to break though…”
“So, did you decide what you’re going to wear to the concert tomorrow Ris?”
“No, I’m gonna win it. I’ll know when I know.”
“Maybe she’ll pull one of us on stage like she does at all of her concerts… then we could sing with her!” Rena told me excitedly. “I could meet Kris, I’ve always wanted to meet Kris.”
“That would be so cool.”
“We should get to sleep before we wake your dad Ris, he’ll be really mad if he has to come back down here…” I nodded and we all curled up on my bed.
They were cold; a pale blue color filled their faces. They wouldn’t move when I asked them too. The blood all over me started to crust over so it felt weird to move. They were dead, and they took my childhood with them.
Thirteen years old. Thirteen years old and destined to die like them.
The door opened behind me. I looked away from their faces and saw The Man’s silhouette in the doorway. I looked way from him and down at my wrist, at the friendship bracelet that the three of us wore. I looked back at him, but this time he was moving in towards me.
“You’re nuts if you think you can kill me like you killed them. You couldn’t kill her for a reason, she was strong. Stronger then you’ll ever be. I have her blood. I’m strong too. You’ll never kill me.” I whispered at him. He laughed.
“You’re just a little girl.”
“She was thirteen too. She was my age. I’m not a little girl. You’re a coward. She beat you and so will I.”
“You can barely stand up.” I stood up and got off of the bed. I don’t know how I did it, but I did. I stood without rocking. Some inner strength gave me the power, and I would beat him. He walked to me and touched my shoulder.
“You’re a sick fucking pervert and you’re going to get what’s coming to you.”
“I’ll welcome it with open arms when it comes.” I punched him and he went flying back. Out of the open door and onto the banister. I walked out and stood in front of him. He looked up at me and straightened. I went to hit him again but he grabbed my wrists, I pushed him with my knee and we both went tumbling down the stairs. He landed on top of me, but I got away before he could react. I pushed him down again and knocked him over the head with a lamp. He was unconscious.
“You call those open arms?” I yelled at him. I grabbed his arms and dragged him into the kitchen, through the broken glass, and pushed him down the basement stairs. I followed him down and dragged him up to the pipes he had tied Chelsea and me up to.
I searched the whole basement until I found a few bike chains and a lock. I tied him up and locked the lock just as he started to wake up. He looked up at me and I showed him the key. Then I took the key and put it on the hook across the room from him, so he could see it. Then I dropped on my knees in front of him.
“I’ll get out of this,” I held a pocket knife I had found to his throat. “Kill me, its better then this.” I went through his pockets and found his wallet. The driver’s license called him David Shepard, but there was one behind it that called him Victor Fleming.
“What’s your real name?” I asked while taking the money from the pocket and counting it, $1105.
“Marc Slone.”
“You said before, I have a sister. Who is she?”
“You know who she is.”
“I feel an attack of dumb blonde coming on, humor me.” I dug the knife into his throat.
“Holly, Holly Something… I can't remember her last name.”
“Where is she?”
“Last I saw of her she was at Harper Wood Mental Institution.”
“Because of what you did to her… Where is that?”
“About twenty miles from here, if you let me go I’ll take you.” I laughed.
“I’m not stupid.” I got up and left him in the cold windowless basement without looking back once. I went upstairs and carried Rena and Chelsea downstairs and put them in the van we were kidnapped in. the puppy was still there, but it had food and water. It’s nice to see that Marc was kind to animals.
I set Rena and Chelsea up in a comfortable position and got into the front. I pulled out of the driveway and started down the road. I pulled into a gas station to ask for directions.
“Harper Woods?” the clerk asked me. She looked at me; blood covered me head to toe.
“It’s paint.” She nodded.
“It looks like blood…”
“Yeah, my sister wanted her room to be blood red. You know who young teen can be… I have to talk to my mom though and she shut off her pager. She’s a doctor and Harper Woods, and I’m kinda lost.” She nodded and pulled out a map. She gave me directions and I was on my way. I pulled into the driveway of the institution just as it started to pour rain. I stood outside for a few minutes and let it wash away all of the foreign blood on me. The cut over my left eye throbbed because of the acid rain, and I think it started bleeding again.
I walked in through the automatic doors and went up to the counter. The receptionist looked at me like I was crazy, no pun intended.
“Can I help you?”
“I want to know if a patient is still here; her name is Holly Evans…” Evans came out of my mouth slowly.
“I’m sorry records are private unless you’re family.”
“I’m her sister.” I looked up at her. Holly Evans was my sister. I did look like her for a reason. I turned and ran to the doors, but I was stopped by two men in white cloths.
“Is that your van outside?” They asked.
“No,”
“We saw you get out of it.”
“No,”
“Did you know that you have blood all over the back?”
“And a puppy…” they grabbed me by the arms and dragged me to the left and through a door. They threw me on the couch and I told them everything that happened. Then I started to tell them how my sister was Holly Evans and that she had gone through the same thing when they forced me into a straitjacket.
“Hold still!” the black one yelled at me. When he pulled out a needle I began to push him away. He would stick me with it and make me loopy, and then he would take me back to Hell where he would let Marc punish me with sex.


Chapter #3
I opened my eyes and tried to sit up. I was restrained to my bed.
“Aw c’mon! That’s not fair! I was sleeping!”
“About time you woke up, I beginning to wonder how much they dosed you with…” Dr. Collins, my psychiatrist, was sitting on the unoccupied bed next to mine.
“C’mon Doc, lemme outta here…” I begged.
“What will you do if I untie you?” she asked in her mater-o-fact way.
“I think I might splurge on this, but I think I might sit up.”
“Then what? Are you going to have another of your episodes?”
“You know I only have the episodes when Dr. Tyler touches me.”
“Yes, I do.” She stood up and untied my arms. I sat up and rubbed my side where the doctor has pricked me.
“What is that stuff he keeps getting me with?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to have a talk with him telling him that you're my patient, not his and that he needs to stop dosing you without my consent.”
“Didn’t you have this talk with him like fifty thousand times before?”
“I know Ari,” Ari? Ari was an unfamiliar name, it never felt like mine. “Ari? Are you alright?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I just, I can't remember.”
“Can’t remember what?” we stood up and went outside.
“I can’t remember anything. I can barely remember what I ate yesterday, and anything that happened years ago. I don’t think that Ari is my name…”
“Is that so?” we sat down at the picnic table. I looked down at my wrist band, it was black with a red strip and the words were in white. That was the highest ranking that they would give meaning that I was dangerous. I couldn’t remember what I did to get the red stripe, or to get in here for that matter. Two brightly colored butterflies flew by my face, the blue one landed on my hand, as if to consoling me for some forgotten loss.
“I can’t remember when I came here, or how old I am, or what my name is, but I know it’s not Ari.”
“You told us that your name was Ari when you came here.” She stated. “Come with me and I’ll show you.” we stood up and went inside to her office. I sat in the familiar chair in front of her desk; I remembered how many times I sat in this chair. She pushed a videotape into the VCR under the TV on her filing cabinet. The video came on, I was lying back on a couch and I was trying to get up. Three men were holding me down.
“What's your name?” a woman asked me, it was Dr. Collins.
“Ari, Arist… Ari…” I said. They had doped me up. I was falling asleep where they held me.
“Ari? Ari wake up,”
“What?”
“Where do you live? Why are you covered in blood? Is it yours? What happened?”
“No, I don’t- they, he, no, not mine, I hurt, he hurt, he took the heart…”

I've got to breathe