The Witness

Day 8 of Captivity

Day 8

Everyone is calling me the witness. Every news station, every talk show, Melony Black, the witness. Apparently, a house on that street where Antonia lived caught me running away from Dakota, in her men's clothing. You still can't tell it's a girl from the video, but now it's been confirmed that I witnessed the murder of Antonia Hernandez.

Antonia, what an odd name. Like your parents thought you would come out a boy and wanted to name you Antony until they saw you were in fact, a girl. I wonder what she was like, why Dakota killed her, what happened between them before I showed up on the scene? Dakota has yet to talk about Antonia at all. Dakota has yet to do a lot of things today.

She hasn't fed me today, or cleaned after me, or checked on me. Nothing. After she went to the store a couple of days ago she came back with a crap ton of snacks. She left some with me in my room, as well as some more Midol, and took the rest with her downstairs. She also left the pad of paper with me and said if I ever need anything to just write it down and slide it under the door.

Yesterday she watched a movie with me, she even made popcorn.

It was miss congeniality.

I liked it, it made me laugh. I really needed a good laugh.

Today she is a no-show though.

It's already almost dinner time and she hasn't shown. I've been nibbling on snacks all day. I watched the clock on the tv turn to six and that's when I decided to look around the room for the first time.

I got up and went to the closet first.

It had lots of plastic bins filled with random items. It was clear it was used for storage. Old clothes, arts and craft stuff, camping gear, emergency survival kit filled with canned goods and water. She even had a couple of bins for donation, filled with things she planned to donate to both goodwill and the food pantry. The more I investigated the more I wondered how a girl who donates to charity and goes camping turned out to be a killer.

It really doesn't add up at all.

After the closet, I looked around the room, behind and under the dresser, in the bathroom, under the bed. But the only other interesting thing I found was a box of old books under the bed. I pulled it out. It's stuff you would have to read for school. Dracula, the scarlet letter, the outsiders, etc. I flipped through the pages until a piece of paper fell out.

It was a printed-out picture of a girl. A really big and chubby girl, blond with glasses. In red sharpie was written, how does it feel to have your own zip code?

"What are you doing?" Dakota asked.

I flinched, I hadn't even heard her come in.

"Just looking around," I said.

She snatched the paper from my hand and eyed it before making a disgusted face and crumbling it all up.

"Who was that?" I ask.

Obviously, it wasn't Dakota.

She grabbed the box of books and put it into the closet with all the other boxes and bins. Then she got to cleaning. She took out my trash because she had bought me my own little trash can to put things in. Then she took my dirty clothes and changed my sheets before vacuuming and then cleaning the bathroom.

I watched her mop then scrub the toilet and tub before wiping down the mirror. When she was done with that she made up the bed and then brought a small fridge into the room. She moved the dresser over and plugged it in before stocking it with vegetables and fruits and a small carton of milk as well as a pack of yogurt. In the freezer area, she put some frozen dinners and ice cream. Then she grabbed a brand new microwave and set it on top of the fridge.

She dusted off her hands when she was done.

She moved the tv over to a small entertainment center she bought, placing it in front of the bed and by the bathroom. Then she wiped my dresser down and placed some of those battery-operated fake candles on it and battery-operated wax melter, which also looked like a fake candle. She put a cube of wax in it before turning it on.

When she was done with all that she left the room and came back with some pizza.

"Thanks," I said.

"Sorry I was gone all day, I had classes. Since my classes last all day I thought I'd make it more comfortable for you in here."

"Can I ask you something?"

She sat next to me.

"W-why'd you kill her? You're kind of a nice person, I don't get it."

She took a deep heavy breath.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I looked away from her.

"That picture, that girl... that was my sister. Her name was Carolina. She got bullied a lot, cyberbullied, in-person bullied, at her job, at school, everywhere she went. My sister wasn't... she wasn't all there. She was mentally challenged."

"Was?"

"She killed herself because of the bullying. Antonia was the main one. She would send notes to her, like the one you found. She'd make photoshopped pictures of her looking like a cow or a hippo and post them online. She even went so far as to unscrew some screws on a chair in class so that when Carolina sat down, the chair would break. I don't know why she did, but she singled out my sister and made her a plaything. When Caroline killed herself she left a note, all it said was Antonia Hernandez wins." She finished.

"Jesus..."

"I confronted that bitch, she didn't even try to deny it. She was proud of herself, gloated about it. I don't know... it's like something in me snapped. I just knew what I had to do. So after planning what I was going to do for months I almost chickened out, until I saw Antonia had moved her attention to some other poor helpless girl. It triggered me all over again. So I dressed like a man and snuck into her house while she was gone, waited for her to come home. I waited until she was nice and comfortable before I revealed myself. Then I gave that bitch everything she deserved. I don't feel sorry at all, I'm glad she's dead, it's what she deserved."

"Did doing it make you feel better?" I ask.

She looked me right in the eyes and said, "It did."

Then she got up and left the room.