The Waiting Room

Chapter 10- Gone Were Her Eyes

Malia had been my neighbor, or better known for me by She was a nice and kind person in her late 30s. My sister, Sydney, and I would always come over for cookies. She use to dye her hair green for Saint Patty's day, and pink for Valentine's day. She had sleek black hair. Then we heard she was in a coma. After a few weeks, she came back. But she looked terrible. Her black hair has turned gray, and her usual smile was replaced by a grimace. Every time we came over she would twitch and go into her own world, talking about Death and a lost of hope. Sydney and I were scared, I thought of just stopping the visits but then I thought that we could help her. After a month, my mom forbid us from going there again. Our little suburban village turned into a madhouse when the police came looking for her. Then she was gone. We never saw her again. Later we heard she was in a building for what my mother called 'mentally sick' people. Now it made sense. She had gone crazy because she had been with Death. He had trapped her.

Even for her small size, Malia seemed to tower over me with her dark, looming presence. She didn’t utter a single word, but seemed to stare at me through her now dark and beady eyes. I back pedaled wuicly until I was outside of the wall and back into the room James and Crystal were in.

“M-Malia?” I stammered again. This couldn’t be her. Once she stepped into the light, I saw the fire in her eyes. What I once was determination and strength was now craze and insanity. Her used-to-be dark and envied hair was now unruly and a dull, dark color. Her once rosy cheeks were now sunken in, and a grey color. It was her plump lips that scared me the most. Well, they used to be plump, now they were think and curved into a permanent scowl of hatred. What kind of hate could this kind woman have? What had happened to her?

"Malia?" I asked, dumbfounded.  Malia just looked at me, her eyes glazed over like she had something in her head and it just kept playing over and over again. The lady that I once knew that gave me cookies had been changed by the Waiting Room, by Death. Malia looked at me then went crazy, she ran over to me and pulled my purple tank top by the strap. She shook me hard and muttered something incomprehensible. When I didn't respond, she started strangling me. I choked and tried to wiggle free from her stone hard grasp, but I couldn’t.

"Stop! Get your hands off her!" He yelled angrily, as he stalked over to her. She slowly backed off.  Her eyes were milky with confusion and craze. Suddenly her eyes turned their usual light brown again.

"Phaedra? Where's Sydney?" Malia looked around and then realization spread across her face and her eyes widened and the color drained from her face.

 "Phaedra! Get out of here! This-this.... get out!" She shook me frantically, and tears welled up in my eyes. "I don't know how," I murmured in a shaky voice. But Malia shook her head, "I didn't either. Ezro and I.... had no idea,” she said slowly. At the mention of her old friend, she set off again.

 "Ezro!" she screamed, "Move, Death's coming!" My  neighbor shook me and cried. I swallowed a lump in my throat for seeing her, or anyone for the matter, break down the way she just did. The way horror spread across her face like a wild fire was horrifying, and how she was screaming and crying brought me down. I shook away my fear, and tried to talk to her to try to trigger a memory or something,

"My name is Phaedra, my sister is Sydney. We are your neighbors. My favorite cookie is white chocolate macadamian nut. You use to have a huge stack of them in your house from making them so much. We use to talk about school and my old friends. Remember?" I shook her again as I said those words. Through Malia's tears, I could see her eyes turning back as she shook away the other memory. She nodded slowly and said,

"We lived on South Perkins St., then I got moved," she whispered. I could see flashbacks form in her eyes. I quickly held Malia, so she wouldn't fall. She seemed so weak. With unknown force, she pushed my hands off her,

"Sometimes I won't have you, Phaedra," she murmured delicately as she touched my red hair, and said, "You were always my fire in the coldest place. But I'm gone. I can't live anymore. This is the only place where I belong. A place where no one can tell me that I'm going insane. This-this is where I must stay."

Never in my life had I felt such hope fall down, not when James told me about Death, not when we were close to dying. Nothing compared to this. The only rope beside me that led to my old life and that showed that I could survive and be alive was herself crumbling. I couldn't do anything about it.

I looked up at Malia,

"Could you just stay with us? Please?" I almost begged. Malia nodded hesitantly, and pulled me into a hug. I didn't have to look at James to know he didn't like that idea. The way that Malia had acted, the way she went into the past, had probably scared him.  James probably thought that Malia was unstable. I didn't have to look at Crystal to know that she was relieved. Maybe she was scared too, but we needed someone with us for more protection for all of us.

I didn't know what game Death was playing, but I knew that it would backfire.

I hoped.