Underneath the Mask

Underneath the Mask: Chapter Eight

Sorry it's been forever! Here's a good chapter, I think. Although there's an itty bitty cliffy at the end :)

*******************************************************************************************************************

Chapter Eight

            Marcus stared at the picture of Her while he dug his bone handled blade into his stomach. The pain did not faze Marcus as long as he was looking into Her eyes, no matter if they were not the real thing or not. The grayish blue that circled around her pupils reminded Marcus of the pond outside his house in the winter. He remembered going out and playing with his younger brother when the pond was frozen and perfect for slipping and sliding along the slippery wet surface. Just thinking about his brother, made Marcus dig the knife into his skin even harder. He felt the tears forming in the corners of his eyes and held in a scream.

            He finally finished the A and moved in front of the mirror to admire his handiwork. The jagged letters were barely legible behind the blood seeping down Marcus’s chest and pooling on the hardwood floor.  But, he knew what they said.

The letters that were on Marcus’s mind all the time.

The letters that were etched into the back of Marcus’s eyeballs.

The letters he moaned during the night.

            J E S S I C A

Lyndon was glad it was Saturday and that he didn’t have to go to school and deal with the dreadfully boring classes, teachers, senseless drama, and especially Tulip, who was a regular pain in Lyndon’s a$$. He wished he could tell her that he was twenty six, although he was pretty sure if he did tell her, she would just increase her conquest to get Lyndon to even look at her.

            He peeked up from the covers of his bed at the window in which the cheery chirping of birds was keeping him from falling back to sleep. It looked like it was a nice day out. The sun was bright and shining and it looked like the perfect temperature for a nice run, so Lyndon, feeling like it was way past due for some working out, got out bed, pulled on a t-shirt, shorts, and laced up his running shoes.

            Now the only thing he needed was to wake up Jessica and convince her to come with him, which he almost knew was going to be close to impossible especially after what happened the day before when Lyndon freaked out on Jess for purging up her pills. He stood in front of her shut and locked door and pressed his ear to it. He heard nothing but the quiet sound of Jess breathing. She was still asleep, but Lyndon couldn’t go on his run and leave Jessica at the house by herself. What would be the purpose of having a bodyguard then?

            He took the key from the top of the door and unlocked it, making sure not to make a lot of noise and waking up Jess in the process. He opened the door and slipped inside. Jess was curled up in a ball on her bed, her long legs bent so they were pressed against her chest with her knees almost touching her chin, and her arms wrapped up in the pillow which was under her head. The comforter was flung on the floor so she had nothing covering her but the clothes on her back which were black, tiny, little short boxers with the word PINK on the butt in pink sparkles, which looked totally and absolutely wrong on Jessica, although incredibly sexy, and a black t-shirt which was way too small for her and showed about six inches of her stomach. Lyndon felt a weird sensation looking at Jessica in such little attire, a sensation which was maybe a bit inappropriate especially since he was supposed to be doing his job.

            Lyndon walked over to the corner of the bed and leaned down. “Jess? Jessica? Please, wake up.” She stirred a little bit, but ended up falling right back into that deep sleep. Lyndon tried again, this time resting his hand on her shoulder and shaking her a little bit. “Jessica, wake up.”