II Hiding
Madelyne didn’t answer the phone at first. They could wait and talk to her later. She was talking to Melody and had taken her meds. She felt tired. The meds made her foggy.
She lay in bed. She wore a bra and panties, both red. She had a black blanket on top of her. Her pillow was small and thin - she hated big, fluffy pillows. She glanced at the room around her. Everything was as it should be. She glanced at her phone.
The phone rang in her hand.
She should answer it.
She couldn’t handle a phone call right now. She was too tired.
The phone kept ringing.
The phone was small and black and insistent. It controlled her life. Truth be told, she hated the damned thing - she wasn’t beholden to it the way people said about teenage girls.
She looked at the time. 1:34 a.m. She was mildly drunk and had taken medications that weren’t supposed to be combined with alcohol. She might not remember this tomorrow. She answered the fucking phone.
“Yes?” Madelyne asked.
“Hey,” Mitchell said. “Someone in a bear mask butchered Shotgun and stabbed Caitlyn. Almost killed her. She’s in surgery.”
“I will stop by in the morning,” Madelyne said. “I need to sleep. I’m so sorry.”
“You are a megabitch,” Mitchell said.
“No, my bestie,” Madelyne said. “I just need to sleep.”
“No,” Mitchell said. “You don’t. You don’t need to sleep. Jesus, you don’t even fucking care. This is why people question you as the fearless leader of the drama kids. I don’t know why I defend you. You can’t even bother to show up?”
“I will show up in the morning,” Madelyne said.
“You don’t care.” “I do, though. Good night.”
Madelyne collapsed back into sleep.
She woke up eight hours later.
Melody sat cross-legged at the end of the bed. She smiled.
The bitch - Melody - was wearing a black robe. She gave two thumbs up to Madelyne.
Melody was a pretty teenage girl, a waif of a girl, someone who never ate. She had skinny curves, a body no one would see, and dark hair to her shoulders. She was the bane of Madelyne’s existence - but one could not exist without the other.
“You refused to go to the hospital,” Melody said. “You needed your beauty rest.”
“You know damn well I can’t function in the middle of the night,” Madelyne said. “You know damned well I can’t just wake up in the middle of sleeping.”
Melody laughed. “I’m going to go to Mars and visit friends,” she said. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Mars isn’t a place people visit,” Madelyne whispered. “Quit making fun of me.”
Melody winked. “Oh, you are a clever one, knowing what’s real and what’s not. I’m impressed. I still want you to kill yourself, but I’m impressed.”
Madelyne got up, wearing the red bra and panties. She walked out of her bedroom and towards the bathroom to take a shower.
Madelyne suddenly saw Ai standing there. Ai wore a lady’s business suit, respectable clothes for the go-getter that she was. She had expensive diamond earrings, and the outfit was a name brand, an expensive one. She held her phone in her hand.
“Holy shit, you were talking to whom?” Ai asked.
“I was talking to myself,” Madelyne said.
“No,” Ai said. “Someone was here.”
“What? No. No one is here,” Madelyne said.
“Someone named Melody, your friend Melody,” Ai said.
“I can’t let you meet her,” Madelyne said. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m going to point out that you have a secret life with a secret friend that we aren’t allowed to know or meet,” Ai said.
“This is ridiculous. What is the truth about you? What is going on? People are getting attacked, and you have something going on, and you can’t tell us.
I’m telling everyone everything that I know. Unless you level with me.”
“Oh, you will, will you?” Madelyne asked.
“Don’t. Don’t tell anyone about me being troubled.
I am trying my hardest to keep everything together; I’m trying to help everyone, be a benevolent leader of all the drama kids and everyone at New Liberty High School.
I can’t do that if you are destroying or undermining me or telling lies about me.
” “I want to meet Melody. Is she here?” Ai asked.
“No,” Madelyne said.
“I swear that I thought that she was here,” Ai said.
“You will never meet my troubled friend Melody,” Madelyne said.
“Why?” Ai asked.
“Because she is dangerous,” Madelyne said. “She is a risk. She can hurt me if she so chooses.”
“I can protect you from her,” Ai said.
“No,” Madelyne said. “You cannot.”
“Forget about this for now. Let’s go to the hospital.” “Agreed,” Madelyne said. “Let me shower and change. Ten minutes.”
“I’ll wait outside,” Ai said.
Madelyne showered and then walked into her closet and grabbed herself some clothes - gray pants and a nice black shirt - and put them on.
She grabbed a black purse and put her phone and wallet inside the purse.
She glanced in the mirror and made sure to look barely acceptable.
She opened up the cupboard to take out the bottles of pills, took out the morning pills, and drank them with some water that she had on her desk.
The morning meds didn’t make her groggy or foggy or tired - they even helped her to focus and face the day somewhat.
Then she walked outside of her bedroom to see Ai.
Melody had somehow snuck away - even though there was no other exit to the bedroom.
Ai stood there, wearing perfect clothing and smelling flawless.
She had long dark hair and a backpack on one shoulder with her computer and purse and various other necessities in it.
She was the genius. She had been elected the president of the local high school’s honors society and was managing the peer tutoring program.
They walked downstairs to the front foyer of Madelyne’s family’s home. Her father, an overweight man of fifty, walked up to her and hugged her.
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked.
“I’m great, Dad,” Madelyne said.
“Jesus,” Ai said. “Your friend is in the hospital.”
“And I’m dealing with it by realizing that she will be fine,” Madelyne said. “I’m fine, Daddy. Everything’s going to be okay.” “Good,” her dad said. “Good. I just worry so much.”
“No, Daddy,” Madelyne said. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine. Our friend will live. The slasher killer will get correctly arrested by the police. There’s very little risk that he will actually attack me or Ai.”
“Right,” Ai said. “You are curiously positive and optimistic in the face of overwhelming doom, Madelyne.”
“I fight,” Madelyne said. “I fight for success. I don’t just let the bad people win. I fight back. This is me, manifesting that we will win this thing. Okay?”
Ai nodded. “Agree to disagree. Let’s go to the hospital. You don’t understand. I’ve done the numbers. People are going to die. More people are going to die. This person will burn the place down - metaphorically or literally.” They waved to Madelyne’s dad as they walked out of her house.
“Goodbye, Ai,” Madelyne’s dad said.
The girls walked out of the house and into the suburb of New Liberty. Madelyne got into the driver’s seat of their SUV, and Ai got into the passenger seat. They attached their seat belts, and Madelyne pressed the button to turn on the vehicle.
Driving to the hospital didn’t take long. They drove through the suburb of New Liberty while chatting about Caitlyn.
“I wonder how she’s going to feel about this,” Ai said. “I bought her roses. I hope she likes them.”
“You are hopelessly in love with her, aren’t you?” Madelyne asked.
“Yes,” Ai said. “I am in love with her. She slept with someone else, and I don’t care. I need to forgive her. I need to be with her somehow, for some reason. I don’t understand why or how. I have to forgive her.”
Ai had been in a cabin for a week. At first, Alexis and a young man - a teenager - had held her down and given her instructions. She pretended to follow along. Then they untied her and gave her instructions. They had a bug on her at all times. Someone obsessed with watching everyone.
She didn’t know if she would do what she was told or not.
She was confused and scared - especially because the boss had stabbed Caitlyn.
Ai didn’t like Caitlyn getting stabbed - not for any reason.
Ai didn’t want to follow any more instructions.
She looked for ways out - she was smart enough to escape any mental programming.
They walked into the hospital. The hospital was an enormous white building with many wings and levels to it, many stories tall and several basement floors.
Everything looked intelligent and professional.
There was a large entry area for the emergency room.
Fifty to one hundred people could sit in chairs, and several nurses and orderlies looked busy.
Annoyed people waited to be helped while playing on their phones.
The hospital was circular rather than square, with curved walls all around its exterior for some reason. They walked inside and felt comforted.
Something unexpected happened. They saw someone they knew in the waiting room of the hospital's emergency room. Madelyne walked up to Westfield.
Westfield looked broken. He wore faded blue jeans and a comic book T-shirt. He had messed-up hair that looked permanently disheveled. He looked down at the ground. Madelyne couldn’t believe how devastated he looked.
“What are you doing here?” Madelyne asked. “Thanks for showing up.”
“I’m not doing so hot, Mads.”
“Westfield, hon, tell me what’s wrong.”
Westfield looked around.
“I had a bad DUI.”
“I’m sorry,” Madelyne said.
“Thanks,” Westfield said. “A week or so ago. I’m finally having the leg checked out.
It seemed okay at the time. I just want to, you know, sit here with my anti-alcohol medication and my anti-depressants and think about how bad life can get.
I take classes. They try to tell us not to drink. The classes are okay, I guess.”
Madelyne whispered into his ear. “I will always love you and be on your side, no matter what,” she said.
“Thanks,” Westfield said.
“You are welcome,” Madelyne said. “It’s us drama kids against the universe.”