The Evil Within

How it all began

Witch.

Amanda knew for a fact that people called her a witch behind her back. Although they would never say it to her face, their loud whispers and accusatory glances were a dead give away. Not that she cared, she'd pretty much gotten used to everything by now.

It all started during freshman year in high school when she first got into a relationship. Three days after they started dating, Nick disappeared without warning. Rumors said he died; but the body was never found.

Amanda suffered a great deal of anxiety due to his disappearance. Wild thoughts, toxic thoughts kept running through her mind. No one could explain it. Nick didn't seem troubled enough to have ran away and no one had a grudge against him to wish him dead. He simply disappeared.

That was the first incident. At least, in Amanda's memory it was, but if she thought hard enough perhaps she would remember that back in her childhood days she had a pet dog; a black terrier named Ollie who acted like her shadow. Where she went, he went. However, a week later, when Amanda was about to check on Ollie, she found him dead right outside her room.

Her piercing screams filled the entire house that early morning.

Another incident was with her Persian cat Periwinkle. Like most cats, Periwinkle was a snob but that didn't stop dear sweet Amanda to shower him with love. A month later, as Amanda was searching the entire house for him, she found his corpse on the ground right outside her window. This time though, she didn't scream. She just stood there shaking, silent tears streaming down her eyes, her tiny fists clenched.

After that she never got a pet.

Amanda was too young to remember those incidents but Nick's disappearance stood out the most to her since he was her first love and it took a full year for her to recover. In some ways it was worse than finding out that he died, because the lack of explanation gave more room to unhealthy thoughts. Little did everyone know that things were about to take a turn for the worse.

Junior year arrived and anyone, absolutely anyone, be it a boy or a girl who gets interested in Amanda and attempts to be her friend or asks her out either dies or disappears. It's usually the boys who would disappear; the girls on the other hand, would be found dead somewhere secluded. But the most disturbing thing about their deaths is that they were all naked, their hair haphazardly shaved, including their eyebrows and their breasts were sliced off from their chest.

It drove the authorities crazy. The only thing that they could come up with is that all the victims were somehow connected to Amanda. But speculation couldn't count as evidence, so they couldn't charge her guilty.

Amanda had no idea why this was happening to the people around her as well. But even though these people didn't die by her hand, she still carried the burden of the guilt; knowing that their association with her had led them to their gruesome deaths.

So, in a way, Amanda thought she deserved all the names they called her behind her back. After all, they were only speaking the truth.

She was evil.