Redemption (Jane Urie) 4

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"Daniella!"  her mom called.  "Hurry up, they'll be out of everything!"

"I'll be down soon!"  She yelled in front of the bathroom mirror while applying her makeup. Almost done, but her mascara dropped to the floor.  She went to pick it up and when she rose, the reflector held two people.

Daniella stood transfixed.  Jane held a straight face.

"Daniella!" her mom yelled.  "Your father's waiting!"

"I-I'm coming!"

She applied it on her eyelashes and went downstairs to the car, climbing in the back seat.  As she buckled her seatbelt, she froze when she saw Jane outside the car window.  Even as they drove off, it stuck with her.

Pete noticed his daughter's unsettled expression in the mirror.  "Whatcha thinking about Daniella?"

"Oh, nothing.  I just hope we find everything for my dorm."

A few minutes of driving led them outside of Target.

In the store, Daniella pushed the cart as her parents filled it with commodities.

"Sweetie, why don't you pick some pillows for your bed," said her mom.

"Okay."  She left and went to the pillow aisle.  After scanning the shelves, she picked a few and turned to leave when something stopped her.  Rather, her sight stopped her.

At the end of the aisle, she saw Jane.  Giving the most intimidating glare from afar.  Daniella could do nothing but keep locked eye contact.

"Danny?   Hey, Danny?"

"Huh?"  she looked over.  Pete was shaking her arm. 

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she looked back.  Jane wasn't there.

"You sure?"

"Don't play dumb, Danny."  She felt Jane's presence behind her. "Haven't you lied enough?"

"Go away," she said.

"What, Danny?"  Her father asked, perturbed.

"Uhh, we should get out of here."  She walked off, her father trailing behind her.  After placing the pillows in the cart, she said, "I'm going to use the bathroom."

"Okay," her dad said.  "We'll wait for you on line."

Daniella nodded and departed.  She tilted forward in the sink, splashing cold water on her face. As she turned it off and straightened her posture, she noticed a familiar figure in the mirror.  She turned around.

"Why are you doing this?"   she said to her in the empty room.  "Stop it. God, stop it, please."

Jane looked over Daniella's shoulder.  The second girl turned, backing up when she saw the message in the fogged up glass:

CONFESS

She looked to Jane, who was gone, then back at the glass.  It was no longer foggy.

"No, no, no..."  She ran in the stall and climbed on the toilet to reach the window and pull herself out and into an alley in the dark.   She lost sense of her equilibrium and fell shoulder-first into the brick wall, crying as she slid down.

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