Chapter 5: One more time, please

Masie and Sarah's footsteps send vibrations up their legs as they walk through the high school courtyard.

"I never thought he would go that far." Sarah frets, furrowing her brows. "I always knew he was protective of her, but it's..."

Sarah was clearly lost for words.

"Hey, Matthew won't hurt anyone again, okay? I'm sure you aren't even sitting near him, hm?" Masie asks, her face showing a but of care and concern, but other then that, it was impossible to guess Masie's thoughts.

Sarah, swallowing hard, drifted her vision's focus to multiple places before landing on Masie's eyes, which are now staring at her closely, like they were burrowing deep inside Sarah's thoughts.

"Uhm.... I.. how do I say this? I got assigned to do a project with him. I mean, he's complying and does his work, yes, but whenever he even gets a glimpse of Abby It's like he goes crazy." Sarah answers, bringing one of her fingers up to her cheeks and fiddling with loose strands of her hair.

Abby. Right. The name felt all too familiar to Masie. Abby, Abby, Abby, why is Matthew like this about her, and why has she been so distant to Masie in every way? Masie smiles, trying to calm Sarah down and encourage her to keep working with him.

"Sarah, you've got the brains and beauty to take on anything in the world, you can complete this project with or without him, okay?" Masie says.

"No, no, I thank you honestly for your compliments, but I still want to work with Matthew. I don't hate him, or anything, It's his obsession over Abby. It seems unhealthy now. They're not even dating." Sarah replies, her voice a tiny bit shrill as she continues talking.

"Sarah, just.... listen, you seem really nice, and I know you're strong physically and mentally, but make sure not to get on his bad side. We both know that the kid Matthew beat up never had much of a chance with the crap he talked about Abby. Matthew can't stand that, you know?" Masie says sternly to Sarah.

Sarah stares into Masie's eyes for a minute before nodding and sighing. "I'll tell you about anything if it gets worse." Sarah says, walking ahead of Masie and waving 'good-bye' without looking back.

Checking her watch, Masie concluded that she still had 13 minutes left until the school day officially starts. Ha. That's funny. Is it actually 13 minutes. Maybe there was a handsome spirit or entity, whatever in her room that liked giving hints to her that she'll never escape. 'With the hassle It's caused me, it better be handsome' Masie's inner voice complains.

Rolling her eyes to the thought, Masie pulls out her phone and looks through her gallery, photos and videos stored in there. Swiping down, past the river photos, she comes across a video of grandpa talking with her dad, the sound button waiting to be clicked so the conversation could be heard. Little tears prick at Masie's eyes, but she doesn't let a single one fall, keeping her eyes wide open. Clicking on the sound button, the audio starts playing.

"Sam, why don't you go get your baby sister?" Grandpa's voice says.

"Ok." Masie's brother's voice innocent and light. After a couple seconds of silence in the audio, Masie's brother Sam is coming in and handing Masie to grandpa, based on the audio. Masie's cries of baby joy are heard, and grandpa seems to be laughing and playing with her short hair.

"Oh, little Masie, your hair is so soft." His voice rasps. Masie hears the sound of fabric getting turned.

"She'll be well taken care of, this little angel." Her grandpa adds.

"Mhm." My father seems to reply.

Click.

End of recording. Sighing, Masie stares at her phone a bit as she relishes the sound of her late Grandpa's voice.

'One more time, one more time? Again.' Masie's inner thoughts boom around her head again, and she reluctantly grabs her phone and listens to the audio again.

............................

There goes the bell.

Walking out of the career management class, what seemed like a city of other teenagers and some teachers walk through the hallways, bustling and bumping into each other, conversations left and right no matter where you go.

"Masie!" Masie hears what seems to be Sarah. Looking to her left, she sees her jogging up to her, weaving between the groups of students.

"Oh, Sarah! Are you up to eating lunch to me today?" Masie asks, raising an eyebrow and smiling slightly. Sarah reaches her side, letting out a long sigh, a smile still evident on her face.

"I need that. Oh my gosh, guess what happened with Abby today?" Sarah says, excitement shining in her eyes. Drama! Oh gosh, was Matthew-

"What?" Masie says quickly, worry etching her face.

"Matthew asked Abby out!" The words came out more like a coo, and Masie's eyes search Abby more any troubles.

"No one is bullying Abby, right? Did Abby say no? I really would set up a praying station for every crappy person if she said yes to dating him and she got bullied. Matthew would rain bloody hell on them." Masie says, her pupils getting smaller as she says it, because she finally got the news out.

"Nope, I didn't hear about any bullying. Oh my gosh, you should have seen Matthew's face when Abby said yes! He looked better than ever, his eyes were practically puppy dog eyes, and they were so quick to embrace. It's a bit... weird that they embraced in front of the entire class, but it's their way of doing things, but I got to see a ever-so-desperate Matthew, so it's fine." Sarah says, chuckling.

Wow. They actually started dating? She better start finding a way to break Matthew apart from any bully's bloody bodies by tonight. Masie and a whole other half of the school knew how bad and violent Matthew was, especially to Abby's bullies. But now that they had started dating, I'm sure it won't just be fights. It might be visits to not just clinics but hospitals, and it might not be snobby Abby, but a totally different one. Abby already ignored Masie, the very girl she knew for over a decade. So what the heck was Abby turning into, and how is this going to evolve into a new danger hazard?

Sitting down at a lunch table with Sarah, and pulling out her notebook, Masie was quick to write:

"Problem one." Masie grumbled out the words she wrote, shutting it. How many more problems were in store for her?

...........................

Walking back into her house, her legs felt like spaghetti and her eyelids felt like weights. Putting down the backpack slowly and trudging upstairs to her room was even a struggle for her. Masie enters her room, sitting down at the bed and then progressively laying down. Her gaze was away from the knocking area- but gradually, it felt like something was pulling and pushing her to look at it.

Making herself look at the area by the doorframe, she stares.

'Snap out of it Masie! Stop staring! Do you remember what those words in the bible said? Stop. Staring.' Masie quickly averts her gaze, but not early enough as tapping starts up again. Crap.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Pat. Pat.

Masie almost jumps on the new sound. Pats? It sounds more like a hand running over fabric.

"Hauhhhh."

Masie quickly gets out of her bed, walking to the other side and staring at her bed. What the heck was that? Why did it sound like a man just breathed into her ear? Was he grabbing her pillow? Masie stares at her bed before swallowing hard.

"Get. Out." Masie says through gritted teeth, still stiff and staying in the corner. The patting stops, but the tapping stays. It never progresses into a knock though- like it was waiting for some grand moment to do it. Masie closes her eyes a second, and walks forward, out of her room and leaving whatever entity it was to their own business. She wasn't dealing with that today.

Walking to her mother's jewelry box, she pulls out a little iron cross that's 5 centimeters long, and puts some thread through it, tying it around her wrist. It was a bit loose, but she didn't care. It stayed on, and it was staying there for the rest of high school, she hoped. Maybe she might take it off one day. Only God knows why, though.

'Masie, calm down, you have it on right now. You have willpower, okay?' Masie's internal voice booms. Masie can only nod her head to her thoughts and pray one last time.

"God, keep me, my family, my friends, and my friend's family's safe. I love you God and Jesus, Amen." Was the shakiest thing that had ever left Masie's mouth, and she knew that it wouldn't be the highest score for the shakiest sentence forever if this knocking kept up.