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How dark is pitch black?
                   When you are trapped in a place that you don’t know, pitch black can go a thousand different ways. Darker than a raven in flight, or 30 days with no sun. What would you do, if you were trapped.
         Dark black, sticky red wine spilling from the wounds of her flesh.  Dangling from the ceiling, her toes barely touched the floor. Her mouth was dry and chapped, around the neck of her was a chain and a collar. From what it looked like, with her eyes she could barely see any writing on her collar but, it was there. With her hands chained together, along with her feet, No way was she able to escape, no light was seen from anywhere around. Low, raspy yells came from deep in her throat. As if she couldn’t speak, only a mumble came out. Right then, the door  slammed open letting a bright light in;  her eyes began to burn as a figure walked toward her with a whip in one hand and a hood covering the face. As it came close, a manly grin appeared among his darkened face and with a swish of his hand the whip came across her face and she blanked out.

         One Week before the Darkness…..

         Marion had awoken to a bright summer morning, Pennsylvania was the right place to be for summer. Not to hot and not cold at all, perfect weather all the time. It was about the last month of her summer vacation, Marion was ready to become a senior at Brockway High School.  The thimble girls morning ritual was normal, get up, take a shower, brush her hair and teeth, get dressed, and go down stairs for some family time. What more could one person ask for, maybe a little excitement.  As she brushed her hair, Marion sat on the window sill brushing at her long blonde hair; it wasn’t naturally this color. Marion was born as a beautiful black haired baby girl. She felt this summer was the year  for change. Marion had finished brushing her hair and took out the journal she had gotten for her birthday a year ago, every single page was filled almost, only a few left, she had thought it was time for a new journal pretty soon; something to add to the list of things that she needed along with a new hairbrush.

         July 4, 2020
Well, it is almost time for me to be a senior, time for my damn friends to talk to me again, not like they have at all this summer. What is a friend in the first place, how can you tell if you have any real ones? Maybe I am better off on my own. Mom and Dad are fighting as usual so, I’m debating on going downstairs or not. It seems a lot nicer and a lot quieter up here so… I think this is a good option right now. My best friend Mark should be here in a few hours, he and I have been friends since elementary school and we have never missed the Brockway Fourth of July Carnival ever. You could call us Carnies but, we don’t steal chairs like they do. Not yet at least lol. I guess I should go try and make social conversation with everyone. My older sister goes to college next month, all the way out in Seattle, whatever sweetens her tea I always say.

         As Marion shut her journal, her slender  fingers slid across the binding and the front cover. Little pixels flew across it as it told her that her journal was now locked. Being in this new age was great. All it really took was a fingerprint to read things and unlock what you wanted unlocked. She had no trouble with anyone getting into her journal and reading her words. If they opened it, nothing was seen because it was the pixels that hid beneath the pages from every one’s eyes but, her own.  Too bad the whole entire world wasn’t like that. Marion slipped into her powder blue tea party dress and platform boots, put on some eyeliner and looked at herself in the mirror. Her look was so out there, it was almost like a steam punk version of Alice in Wonderland but, a little less dark. Her platforms thudded down the stairs, once she was at the last step she jumped down to the wooden floor making a loud noise getting everyone to shut up. Everyone looked at her and a huge smirk rose to her face.
         “Can we just, maybe go one day without the bickering, please? Can I have a nice, quiet fourth and last month of my break?” Marion looked around at everyone with her signature puppy eyes and pouty face. Oh, how they all gave into it, her mom gave her a sad look, her father looked away disappointed with himself and her sister, well, her eyes were still glued to the television because she knew she was no issue to this.  The aroma of the house was filled with eggs, bacon, and waffles. Great start of a new day she thought to herself.  She sat at the table with the untouched breakfast in front of her, the waffles were covered in fresh blueberries, strawberries and homemade whipped cream in the shape of a flag. When it comes to the Fourth of July, mom was mostly in the high spirits of the holiday.
         “These waffles look great mom.” As she shoved a huge bite into her mouth and chewed it a few times before swallowing it. “And they are delicious as usual.” A huge grin spread across her face with huge globs of whipped cream at both corners of her mouth.  Marion used her long tongue to wipe all the delicious cream off the corners of her mouth. It had almost reached 12pm when she heard a soft knock on the door. The girl took a slice of bacon and shoved it half way into her mouth and ran to the door.  It was Mark she knew it, as she swung the door open she couldn’t help but stare at that magnificent smile on his face and jump into his arms hugging him. Mark was in Italy visiting family all summer and, to see him now was the best she could ever ask for.
         “I missed you, it’s great to see your face again, please don’t ever leave for that long again unless you take me with you okay.” She was being completely serious, her head looked down before she knew it, his long thin arms were wrapped around her now, giving his best friend a hug. He felt terrible for leaving but, he had to do it. There was no option A or B when it came to family travels.
         “I’m sorry Mari, please forgive me.” From behind his back he pulled out a single tulip; Marion’s favorite flower and, gave it to her as a I’m sorry gift. Her eyes gleamed with diamond drops that slid down her cheeks.  Secretly. She had a huge crush on him since elementary school but, she was always too shy to say anything to him and, he had always had seemed happy with the girls he was with. So many girls had a liking to him, who wouldn’t though. Those long brown locks of hair, beautiful green eyes that shine in the sun beautifully. His lips were so then yet so soft, at least I think they are, oh how she wished she could kiss them and find out. From the kitchen you could hear mom and dad telling him to step inside. Once, he let go he noticed that the piece of bacon in my mouth broke and was hanging limp. Mark just laughed sweetly and  took the hanging piece and ate it.
         “Yum, I hope there is more, if not then that was great, or I’ll just steal yours.” With a simple little grin he walked in and went straight for the kitchen, sitting right in
                   “Your bacon is yummy Mari.” He shouted from the kitchen, she ran straight toward the kitchen and laughed, she didn’t mind though, all she did was grab another strip from the pan and ate it. Mom’s bacon was always the best because, she sprinkled a little brown sugar on it to give it a little sweetness.  Marion took her plate back and, set a fresh plate of waffles, bacon and eggs in front of Mark. Now, he wouldn’t have to pick off of hers. His eyes opened wide and sparkled with joy as he took a huge bite like she had earlier. She sat there and ate her waffles as well enjoying every bite.
         “So, what are we going to do first, the carnival is about to start.” She had normally asked him because, he had the plans on what they would do first and everything in between. All he did was look up to her with a mouth stuffed with cuteness and smirked wiping off his face. Mark looked around the house, nothing had changed since the last time he was there so it made him even happier.
         “Well, the parade starts in like, 30 minutes, we have a lot of spare time so lets just hang out here for the time being and then we will start walking about, 10 till. Sound good to you, the streets are already crowded so there is no use going and looking for a good seat.” His shoulders shrugged as he took another bite of his waffles and finished off the bacon. Marion had nodded in agreement and pointed upwards toward the stairs, and of course he nodded in agreement. They knew how to speak food talk.  Marion looked out the window to the sky once her dad opened the window,her blonde hair blew to one side. It was waving like an ocean tidal wave in such a beautiful way, as the slender girl looked up to her best friend she saw that he was just staring at her in awe and had blushing rose red cheeks. Both their plates had been empty and so she took them and washed them off before they had started to escalate up the stairs to her room and the door slammed.
         “So, I have another present for you Mari.” He pulled a couple bottles out of his pocket, he handed them to her with ease placing them directly into the palms of her hands and looked up into her blue eyes. She was still looking at him for a while longer until she felt the bottles hit her palms and, looked down. Two bright red bottles of her favorite hair product, it had the words ”Frost Snow White” on them. The girls eyes brightened with happiness as she pounced on him knocking him to the bed with so much happiness. The one color that she has always wanted to do her hair, and now she can. It is every old hags dream to not have white hair as they get older but as a young girl, this girl is way too excited for white hair. Marion knows she is going to be one rocking old lady when she gets older. Mark made a noise and she looked down seeing she had been right ontop of him in an odd way.
         “Ah, I’m sorry I got a little too excited, we don’t have much time to do this right now though as much as I want to. Stay the night and help me with it later? I’m sure mom won’t mind you staying over.” Marion got to her knees and begged, what’s a girl to do who hasn’t seen her best friend in forever. Mark sat up on the bed and made a silly face to her as he put his forehead to her own.
         “Of course I’ll stay the night, you don’t have to ask me twice, I do owe you for just leaving for a month.” He pressed his lips to her forehead and pulled her up to the bed and into a great big hug. His arms were the only thing she could think of right now, everytime she got a hug like this from him, all of her mind went blank. The troubles she had would go away and, his smile was there to stay in her head. It had not been the first time he had kissed her forehead but, this one felt different, a lot more romantic and caring, more thought and love was put into it. Right now, would have been the perfect time to have told him how she has always felt about him but, the words got stuck in the center of her throat. The time had passed by so fast as he continued to hold her in his arms safely. Mark looked to his watch.
         “Well, we should be heading out now, we don’t want to miss the parade.”  Marion let go of him and stood up letting him go as well. She quickly went into her bathroom and touched up her eyeliner and tightened her boots once more, as she turned off the light a rubber band was in her hand and flipped her hair to one side gathering it to one hand, putting it into one loose side ponytail. Her windows were cracked, her bed was made and, everything had been tidied up so her parents had nothing to get mad about. Time was turning fast and, they were out the door.  Hurrying down the staircase and out the front door faster than you can imagine. They were having a ball just walking there, they came to a point in the railroad tracks where he made her get on his back and they crossed and were finally at the sidewalk, lined up with many strangers. Many chairs covered the sidewalk, the parade began. Floats and bands filled the streets making as much ruckus as they could. An hour had passed and he let her off his shoulder as they began to walk towards all the festivities.
         “Well, that was a great parade; they always make it better than last years.” Marion agreed with this statement with a nod of her head and smiled, slinging her arm into his to interlock arms. They walked around for a couple hours looking at the shops, he ended up buying her a young faerie like tiara with the red, white, and blue strands hanging down from the tiara. They stood in front of the stage listening to the Elvis impersonator when, the girl felt a light chill on the back of her neck. From behind she saw someone with a black hoodie walking too close by for comfort. Marion’s hand wandered to the back of her own neck feeling all the little bumps on the back of her neck, feeling them linger onto her arm as well.
         As the sky grew darker, the night grew colder and her chills from earlier had disappeared and cold chill had returned, Mark had noticed them and slung his jacket over her shoulders and rested his arm around her shoulders as they walked toward the center of the ballpark to sit and watch the firework show. It was a few minutes until it started to the lights started to one by one, slowly dim out. Clicks and flashed were heard from every corner but, no one was holding a camera. Paranoia was something she believed in but, right to this second, the frightened girl was turning her head every two seconds a click went off. It was probably nothing, but it might have been that stranger who had touched her earlier in the day. Someone could be far away in the dark taking pictures of the event though. Fireworks bursted into the sky filling the darkness with such colors or green, red, blue, silver, and gold. Fireworks were the best part of the 4th of July celebrations. The loud sounds of the trees rustling lightly were covered by the ooo’s and ah’s of the crowds of people looking to the sky. What shapes could the pyrotechnics could create with the colors. Her chills could not be covered by a simple coat so; she scooted closer to her best friend and snuggled up close still keeping her eyes on the waterfalls of silver and red. They made it one of the longest firework shows ever; even the finale lasted over 20 minutes. Can you imagine how much it costs to do a spectacular show such as that one. No wonder all the firework shows everywhere else in the world sucks. With the show over and everything else coming to an end, all they could do was head home.
         Every car was backed up since, it was such a small town. People who walked thought they had made the right decision to walk instead of take their cars a few feet and take an hour just to drive back a few feet. I think that would be us doing the car thing if, we had a car. We have been trying to save up since middle school but, we seem to find better things to do with the money than save it. The sky was lit up with stars when they reached the edge of the house.
         “Hey, go inside, I’m just going to check the mail and bring the garbage can in.” Marion had heard something in the bushes by the house and wanted to check it out without worrying Mark. So, he agreed and went inside, the door shut and whatever or in this case whoever was in the bush came out and grabbed her by the wrist tightly, not looking like he was going to loosen his grip one bit. With a push her back was arched where all she could do was look up to his joker smile.  The breathing on the neck felt like the same as earlier in the day. By what I could see of his lower facial features, he was not an old pedophile but, someone around my age. With the scruffle from his chin you could automatically tell it was a male but, it wasn’t very much so he could have been maybe a year or two older than me. Had to be in some sort of martial arts or self defense, karate like class because, the grip he had on me was unbelievable and I wasn’t even able to loosen my wrist the slightest. His breath was minty, just thought I would point out the unusual details as well. Once he had me at the right angle he used his other hand to grab both of my wrists with one hand and had my back over his knee looking up to him still.  The strangers freehand pulled a pocket knife out of his back jean pocket and slid it up the inner thigh of her leg leaving a long but, small slice from her knee to the top of her thigh. Blood trickled down staining her favorite powder blue tea party dress. Marion knew better, made no noise in case it caused him to finish her off. The tips of the girls fingers started to turn a purple color, loss of blood circulation for the most part.
         “Sorry about the dress miss but, it is only what I am told to do by my boss. Torture and bring as much blood and pain as I can to you.” He was doing exactly that with a blade in his hand. Does she dare to struggle with such a crazed fiend inches from her. With the ability to end her life with one strike or flick of the wrist. The crazy boy took his knife and put it to Marion’s wrist and slowly started to push it deeper into her skin. Soft, subtle, controlled moans came clean from her lips. Oh the pain was unbearable but, she held all the yelling in, didn’t want to cause anyone to come running out. It might end up badly for me. Apparently he was finished with what he was doing because the strange man took a folded piece of paper and slipped it into my bra before releasing her arms and disappeared so fast. What more could someone do after such a tragic run in with someone who had spared her life do but, fall to her knees and cry to herself, pray to the gods not only for sparing her life but, help as well. The grass was burning the wounds that were on her inner thighs, her blood was still dripping onto the lawn. To hold it back she licked her finger and drew it up along her cut to seal the blood in for now until she could get inside and wrap it. The wrist now was a different story; the knife was inches away from hitting a vein. Bleeding out right there would have been horrible; no one would have really noticed or found her until she was already dead. Marion took the lace from around the bottom of her dress and tore it off to wrap it around the wrist wound until she could get past her parents. Once she was wrapped up tightly, she took in the mail she actually finally retrieved and, dropped it on the kitchen table.
         “Thank you for getting the mail honey, do you want a funnel cake, I fried some for you and Mark. He already got one but there are still some for you.” Before her mom could turn around and see her own daughter, she had already flown up the stairs as fast as she could. Slammed her bedroom door shut, and just slid down it; sat right in front of it. Marion looked up to her ceiling and then to her friend Mark releasing the lace from her wrist letting the blood continue to drip slowly down her hand.
         “H-help me..p-please. I don’t know what to do, I’m too shaken up.” Mark looked up from taken a bite of a funnel cake and his eyes widened slowly dropping the plate and rushing to the trembling girl. Could you just imagine what was running through his mind right now, he wasn’t out there to help his friend, he couldn’t save her from whatever happened.
         “There’s a first aid kit under my sink, it should have everything in it.” She stood to her feet; even though her legs had been shaking like jell-o . Her bottom landed straight on her bed and she sat there waiting until he came back with the kit. It took some time but, he hummed a soft tune while cleaning up the wrist wound , he used some butterfly band aids and, wrapped it with gauze. Oh, he thought he was done after that one as he started to put the first aid kit back together until she lifted up her dress to show him the long slice on her leg.
         “MARION!!! Why didn’t you yell or scream for help. I would have rushed down right away. Someone would have, you could have been killed.” The worrying and anger grew in his eyes but she quickly clapped a hand over his loud mouth.
         “Get my mom up here why don’t you. I was thinking about my life when he was holding be captive with a knife. I was thinking logically for one thing. What if I had screamed for you and you came out here, I could have been killed, then he could have killed you too. He looked as if he could have been a skilled marksman. One toss of that knife and you could have died.” He nodded in agreement as he took a cotton ball and dabbed and the long slice. Can you imagine how much pain that went through her veins not just her veins but, the entirety of her body. Numbness went through her legs and down to her toes.