Playing Favorites

Chapter XII - Reunited

After I was sent to investigate more about the Pensborough family, it became clear to me that none of them knew of June Pensborough's whereabouts since December 30th.

-

It's dark.
I can still hear her calling my name.
Over and over again.
Her voice is stuck in my head.
But she is not calling my name anymore.
And I will- I will never see her again.
"What I would do to be able to hear your voice again." I think over and over, and over again.
...
I wish I could go back, and thank you. I should have thanked you for everything.
I wish I could make you smile.
All I can think about is you.
But I can't go back.
And here I am, free-falling into the unknown.
Wishing that I could fall into your arms.
Then I would truly be at home.

I hear another voice.
"Come in" she says.
This voice is familiar.
It sounds, just like the voice in inside my head, but it's completely different altogether.
Sometimes I-- I just forget who I am.
With only your voice in my head reminding me of my name.
The memories are still there.
But even so, my life was still unimportant and meaningless.
I didn't even know who I was back then.
Not that it matters anyway, I am left here to rot.
...
I'm scared.
What happened before?
What happened just a few hours ago?
I feel light headed.
I was in a room? Alone I think.
No, I wasn't alone.
Her lifeless stare still haunts me.
Blue eyes, like the sky.
I forgot there could be something so blue.
All I saw was darkness, and the colour red when it was invited by a blade.
But in her eyes I saw the colour blue.
The eyes I once wondered who did she look at with them. Who did her eyes belong to?
She was put next to me, her skin was pale and dusty, like the cement ground we both sat on.
I thought she was dead.
But she slowly turned her head, and stopped when she saw me.
She smiled at me.
The kind of smile that was buried under a world on sadness.
Her body, just like mine, had nothing,
just the ropes that tied us up.
I didn't see where the other person went, the woman in the mask. I just vaguely heard the door close, and, yeah.
I was too fixated on who was next to me.
"Long time no see." She said with a calm voice.
"June." I answered back, dumbfounded. I couldn't believe what, what was happening, was it all real? I still don't know.
One of her eyes slowly closed and opened again, trying to wink.
She looked exhausted.
I then realized the blood dripping down her leg, but I looked away before I could see where it was leading to.
"It's my time of the month." She chuckled.
It fucking wasn't.
Why was she smiling?
The June I knew always smiled.
But why then?
Why was she smiling?
My chest was filled with a gust of air as I rapidly felt myself start to breathe in and out non-stop.
I was hyperventilating. "No, you can't be here-why are you in here."
Her smile disappeared as she gazed at me with with a blank expression, as if she was in a daze, her head resting against the wall.
She slowly struggled to lift up her hand and to reach out to touch my face.
June then realized how it was covered in her own blood, and so she took it back.
She looked down at to where the blood had come from, right in between her legs.
"She... Put the blade in there. She-- she-- no she wouldn't have-- I told her to stop but-" June started tearing up as she put her hand which was already covered in her blood back in between her legs and the other covered her mouth.
She kept mumbling things in between her cries as blood kept dripping down her skin. "I tried to stop her-- I--"
"June, who did this to you?! Everyone calls her by your name and I never thought it would be you, and, June, June? Do you know who did this to you? Tell me." I started to freak out as I kept a grip on her, trying to keep her with me, but I was losing myself instead.
June shook her head, refusing to tell me as she tried to hold in her cries with sealed lips.

A door opens, and I come back to reality.
I am alone in a dark room.
But soon enough, the darkness of the room is disrupted by a striking light that goes through the now open door.
Am I happy to see again?
At the door stands in front of me the image of a doll, with a smile creeping up on its cheeks.
"I said, you can come in now." Says the person behind the mask of a doll.
Seeing my body that is now highlighted with the light coming from the other room, I realize I am not tied up anymore.
She pulls a rope that leads to my neck.
"Fucking move or I'll make you." She says, pulling me forwards, causing me to fall on the ground.
I breathe in abruptly and the feeling of the rough cement floor pierces and tears my skin.
I hear her breathe heavily under her mask. She touches in between her thighs with hand and swallows.
It looks like enjoyed seeing me like that that.
I get up from the ground and walk, dragging my feet along with me.
The rope around my neck feels tight even without her pulling it.
The room I enter is the same one I entered what feels like ages ago.
A long dining room table.
Plate, silverware, trays. Everything is laid out.
For one person.
There is only one seat at the farther end of the table.
The girl in the doll mask pulls back the seat and offers me to sit down.
To which I do not have any choice but to agree.
So I sit down and she pushes my seat back in for me.
The rope on my neck gets tighter as she pulls again and again.
She pulls farther and farther back, until my head is completely bent over backwards over the back of the chair.
I cannot see anything but the wall behind me.
I feel the touch of her sharp nails on my hands, then the touch of ropes.
My wrists are tied to something.
I feel completely immobile.
She sneaks up behind me.
She takes off her mask.
She whispers into my ear.
...
"I'm so happy to see you again. I missed you so much I just couldn't help myself."
Her voice is familiar.