We sat together on the messy white blanket, the bed creaking underneath us as we settled in. The curtains covered the room with an ominous shadow that made me uncomfortable. We sat there for another five minutes, the silence suffocating me. I took a deep breath, the stench of empty bottles of beer wafted through the room.
“Do you really want to go through with this?” the other person asked. “You know you don’t have to, right?”
“Yes,” I replied. “I have to…”
We stared at each other once more not knowing what to say. The other man finally picked up the device and strapped it to my head.
“See you on the other side,” he sighed.
A bright light started to appear and disappear slowly, almost like it was breathing, then the light expanded until I closed my eyes.
“Wake up dear, it’s almost time for school!”
I was already changing into my uniform, I walked downstairs and out the front door, on the way, I waved to my mum who was getting ready to leave work. The walk to school today seemed peaceful as the weather was warm, the beaming lights blanketed the earth to warm it from the memory of winter. I headed straight to class leaving my bag underneath the table, I pulled out my phone to scroll through the web.
“Hey Jararaca!” a boy shouted
I waved, it was Jay. He probably just got back from training, I thought. His blonde spiky hair always looked like he just woke up and he was loud as always. He sat down next to me and began to devour his sandwich.
“Settle down, settle down,” the teacher yelled. “Today we have a new classmate as the school has requested her to move for… personal reasons.”
A girl with long black hair entered the class, she stared at the ground and quickly walked to the back of the class. People started to give her dirty glances and started whispering, everyone knew her, or everyone knew what she did.
Jay leaned close to me, “Why does she have to be in this class, everyone knows she’s a b*tch.”
I shrugged. Everyone believes that she killed Joseph. When police arrived at the scene they found blood on her hands but into the further investigation, they couldn’t arrest her as there wasn’t enough evidence. But I knew what really happened, people twisted the story from jealousy and hatred as they all loved him, but his heart was for her. I knew it was wrong what they were doing, but what could I do, stand up and put myself in danger, make all these people turn on me as well?
Jay saw that my jaw was clenched, and my fist was shaking slightly, he asked, “Is everything alright?”
I let go, the tension throughout my body soothed, I whispered sharply, “Yeah.”
As the class ended everyone rushed to their lockers, from the corner of my eyes I saw Lavender’s locker, graffiti already covered it and comments were posted everywhere. She didn’t seem bothered though and continued to grab her stuff.
“What are you staring at?”, Jay asked as he packed his bag
“Nothing”, I replied as I walked off towards the exit I looked at her wrist, red lines, still marked with the fresh scent of blood, my eyes then shifted to meet hers. Pain, suffering and agony. They told me a story that even words couldn’t explain. My eyes fell to the ground as I walked off.
When I got home I lay on the messy white sheets, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Why though? I don’t even know her, why can’t she leave my mind. Her eyes were engraved my head, my thoughts started running wild. What could I do, how, when what… This continued I couldn’t get a grip my head started to throb, I grabbed my head in frustration I tried to shake it off, my vision began to blur, and my eyes started to water. Memories started to flood back.
I lay on the marble floor, the cold white stone began to stain red, I strained my neck to look up, a women lay on the floor, clutching her stomach, a man sat in the corner, grasping the knife in his hands, his body was trembling, his eyes were lifeless as if he was a puppet, I rose from the floor and ran to the women.
“It’s okay,” her breathing slowed as she gasped for breath. “I love you” Her eyes began to fade, she smiled as her eyes began to close. The pain started to fade, she was in peace, but my heart was at war.
“No…No, you can’t leave me…” I cried. “Please I need you, please don’t go…”
Ding. I got up and opened my phone. It was from Jay. My eyes widened, beats of sweat remained glued to my head. I ran to school. No, not again, this can’t be happening. I saw her on top of the balcony, people stood staring some people even cheered. I tried to hold the disgust from my face and pushed through the crowd, I ran forward pushing people out of the way.
“Wait,” I yelled, breathing heavily
She faced me, I froze, those eyes, no it can’t be.
“Come down it’s not too late,” I begged. “I know what’s it like, I can help”
She stared at me, her eyes seemed lifeless. She stepped one step back
“Come down, I can help I promise”
She shook her head and took another step back. As she started to lean back she smiled, that smile, I’ve seen before, the pain and the suffering. The smile to hide what lies next, the smile to leave this world.
My vision started to fade, my eyes felt like they were being forced closed and I sat there in the darkness. A light crept its way into the darkness and the same old mahogany room came started to piece its self-back together. I looked over Jay was sitting there, fidgeting with his fingers. The VR device lay in my hand, the symbol of my nightmare. My memories were like a beautiful canvas and that memory was a stain that I couldn’t remove. I couldn’t forget, not what I saw, she laid on the ground, her eyes rolled back all signs of life began to fade, the red sea that began to seep into the ground, the flashing blue and red lights, the screams and yelling. A tear began to fall, it was followed by an unbroken stream, I tried to stand but fell on all fours, clutching my mouth shut, the bile seeped into my mouth, but I tried to hold it down, but bile started to push through my fingers, tears started to cloud my vision and the stench began to infect the room. I managed to whisper…
“I’m… so… sorry…”
Written Explanation:
I chose to write about “suicide” is because it has been an uprising in the amounts of teenagers who have suffered a mental illness. I wanted to show that a person can make a difference to save a life and the consequences of not choosing too can lead to a very morbid end. Although I felt like there wasn’t enough emotion to portray to what I had in mind, I used words that had negative connotations attached to them like stench, ominous to create the atmosphere and a little bit of suspense.
I wanted to use virtual reality for the main character to watch the memory clip as I wanted to make the audience feel like that clip or what was inside had a special meaning to the main character. I also conveyed how a bystander sometimes do not put themselves in danger to help others and just stay back hoping for something to happen. The flashback when his mother died was to create a link between the deaths, to create this feeling of how it was too late to help, how we were desperate trying to get her down even though he knew she wouldn’t.
The story I based my story on a movie called “the silent voice” which depicts a story about bullying and how people overcame that. I liked how the story was powerfully written, using words beautifully to address the emotions. Although my story is weaker compared to the movie, I am somewhat contempt with how it turned out.
