Maniac

Gone

Lizette's POV

Tally marks. Stones. Bars.

I think quietly to myself in the corner, staring at the barred window, looking out into the night sky.

Silence. Moon. Guards.

Suze--no. I can't even bear to say her name. I need to get out, but how will I if--if there's just this... beast in my way?

Parents. Dead. Gone.

She took them away from me.

Heir. Queen. Will.

My parents never left behind a will. They were too young to even think about death. I am the heir of this kingdom, and now Su--that monster--has taken my place.

Anger. Rage. Despair.

She knows this jail just adds to everything--to my feeling of--

CLINK!

I hastily get up in fright.

CLINK!

I want to scream. I want to ask who's there, but nothing comes out of my mouth.

I don't know what happened next. I moved. Just an inch for no reason at all.

An arrow flies and passes my ear, nearly missing it.

A voice from the shadows: "Aw, you're no fun."

I can't speak.

"What's wrong...?"

Steps--soft and light like that of a murderer.

It steps into the light. Monster.

"Prisoner, why do you look so surprised?"

Bow. Arrow.

"Oh, my weapon? Is that what's bothering you?"

Shining. Something shining in darkness...

"Lizette."

The sound of my name forces me to snap back into reality.

An arrow on a bow, aimed directly in between my eyes.

"I've come to take you where you belong. It's for the best, you know.

I'm silent. Stunned, even. I take a step back, and I fall to the floor.

"You know, it's really astonishing to me that you remember everything that happened nine years ago, but surely no one will believe a murderer."

I smirk.

The beast tilts her head in confusion.

"Look at us," I whisper hoarsely. "Look at us. I am a deranged lunatic, and you are a deranged murderer."

She sets an arrow to the bow.

"Look at us," I continue. "We look the same but still are different. They call me a murderer."

"You are one," Suzette answers.

"Or am I?" I get up from the ground and go closer to her, holding firmly on the cold steel bars. "Look at you."

I stare deep into her brown eyes.

"Or do you need a different mirror?" I continue as I grab the arrow off the bow.

Suzette looks down and screams, "You horrid piece of trash, give me that!"

I laugh quietly, contently.

"They call me crazy," I continue, louder, "but am I the crazy one? Or is it this beast, this reflection, this liar?"

"You monster, give that--"

"Am I a monster who forgets my parents, who is willing to kill her twin, who will stop at nothing to take control of a kingdom that was never hers? No, no, Suzette, that was you!"

She falls to the ground and screams. The moonlight from the window of my cell reveals her agony and pain.

"Look at us," I repeat. "We're gone."