MARLA

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MARLA

Josie is alone, outside and different. The loneliest in the entire world, maybe universe. No one to be with. No one to call a friend. One day a new girl comes to town, but she is left outside as always, always…

A sunny afternoon, I wandered on the damp streets of Jamesbourn. The streets in the little village don´t actually go anywhere; just around in circles. Well, actually they go down to the center, which is the smallest center I know of and there aren´t many shops around here. Well, there´s a Sainsbury´s just around the corner, a post office and of course, the little cafe St. Margaret´s. Some day you might find me sitting at St. Margaret´s café, sitting in the green plastic chairs with flower- decorations on them, watching the people around.

Jamesbourn is a town that will never change. It´s a little unknown town in northeast England, which no one would remember if you passed by. Unfortunately, I´m born and raised here, in the little unknown town Jamesbourn. Maybe it´s difficult to believe, that I, in my black a clothes, with black makeup under my eyes, am grown up in what all the elders call the sweet, friendly town Jamesbourn. I often hear annoying teens shouting for me, with their hoarse, tired voices exploding inside me. They are so happy that there is someone, someone in the little society to take out their frustration and anger on, but I ignore them, I don´t care anymore. I´m rather glad that I´m different from the crowd, and not like the rest of the people. Instead I´m sad because I feel so lonely, so lonely that I don´t have anyone to call a friend.

I live with my single mother in one of the houses in the so-called "snobby area". It´s a pleasant place with small houses and big gardens. My father died in cancer in 1989, and ever since my mother has been like a parasite sucking out your blood, ruining a part of the joy you have, that´s how she sucks out my happiness, my will to live, my laugher, my joy.

But I would much rather live in the big, old, rusty house down by the lake. It´s an incredibly large house, which was very torn out ages ago, and you can see the torn red color peel off the tired building. It must have been very beautiful a long time ago. Sometimes I take a walk on the overgrown path in the forest toward the big house just to be near the nature, to hear the bird´s whistling, the breeze coming from the lake taking your breath away, and the grass tickling between your toes. The outer door to the large house is open, so I can get in to a part of the hallway, but the door itself is locked. In the hall there´s a little wooden coffin, very old with some names scribbled on it but it´s to old to read. In the old coffin I hide my diary. In my diary I write down all my thoughts, fears and whatever I´m thinking about… I usually sit on the stone stairways. They are four small stone stairs, and I can think of anything to write when I´m sitting there, that everything is so calm and peaceful, and sometimes I just sit on the stone steps dreaming of the day I´m moving away from home. The day I´m set free.

My name is Josie.

One morning, early before the sun had gone up I was on my way to school; I went by the large house and sat down on my usual spot on the staircase. I sat down, thinking of how beautiful everything around was. But suddenly, I heard a car´s engine getting closer toward the house. It was as if someone was moving in, but that would be impossible! I was nervous, and I ran to school quickly as never wondering who had driven that car.

Will I ever sit by that staircase again, looking over the lake again or smell all the different kinds of wild flowers growing in the garden? A week of holidays is here, and with that Marla came. Marla was the daughter of the family who had moved into the big building by the lake. The first time I saw Marla, I felt how my heart beat faster and faster, there was something about her… she was different than everyone else, and she had long red curly red hair, mysterious green eyes and strange clothes. It was as if it burned inside me every time I looked at her. Just then, when I was thinking that exact thought, I parked my bike outside my house. Fredrik from my class came up to me. This morning when I saw Fredrik, everything seemed okay, we had been best friends for many years before, until he became to "cool" for me…
"Have you seen the new girl?" He asked and stepped a bit closer.
"What new girl?" I pretended to not know what he´s talking about.
"You´re kidding, you haven´t seen her? I thought I would show her around school…"
I stared at Fredrik´s eyes, drilling deeper until he looked away. I was thinking that now, not even after sixteen years, I have a chance of getting a friend. I thought that why couldn´t everyone just leave her alone? Let me show her around school and let me become her friend.
"Fredrik, you used to be my friend! Why can´t we be friends anymore?" I yelled with tears waiting to burst out in my throat. I just want to have a friend… Fredrik walked away, not caring for how I felt or thought and walked away leaving me alone… alone as always.
"Hello Josie." It was Marla. She smiled at me, but not with a happy smile, she looked like a psychopath, and seemed very strange. "Hi." was I could get out from my mouth, I didn´t know if I should become her friend or despise her, and how did she know my name?
"I think this is yours" she held my diary in her hand, having that lurking grin on her face. So that´s how she knew my name… I thanked her quickly, took the diary and raced into my house with an odd feeling. Everything is so confusing.

Another quiet morning, before sunrise, I went for a walk toward the lake, through that same old overgrown path in the forest. I thought that if I couldn´t sit on the stone staircase by the big old house, I could at least take a look over the coal dark lake, hear the bird´s whistling and feel the breeze taking my breath away. I had a positive feeling, and I hummed on an old song for myself as I walked in the little forest. As I walked in the forest waking me up, I saw a glint of something a bit further away. There was something behind some trees that were bent like an arch over my head, I went closer… it was someone, a person dressed in a cloak, having many black candles in circling a big stone, spices, herbals, and an odd smell. The person murmured some words, but I couldn´t her what they were… It was Marla! What is she doing, I thought, and in the excitement I stepped forward, just a little bit closer, a little bit closer to see what she was doing. She didn´t see me; maybe she´s some psychopath who´s escaped from a hospital! I thought.
"Josie. I thought you would come." It was Marla. She turned around to face me, and had that silly grin on her face, and she laughed to herself. My palms were sweaty and I felt the fear, I thought I was dying, everything was spinning around and I panicked.
"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" I shouted loudly. I would die any second now. This is the end, I thought.
"No one can hear you Josie…" She laughed again. She pulled my hair and I fell and hit the grass, screaming, sobbing hysterically. She took a match, lit it and threw it a few meters from her near a tree in the forest. The fire started spreading, lurking its way up the branches. Marla didn´t seem to care about the fire; she had gone mad. I tried to run, but her grip of my arms was to tight, and there was just no way out of this. But I took a little sharp rock lying on the ground and tried to hit her legs with it, and I managed to get out of Marla´s arms. I ran as far away as I could, because I just wanted to get away, away… The words faded away with Marla´s laughter. After that I don´t know what happened… I couldn´t hear anything. I couldn´t see anything. Is this death? I though, is this what I have been waiting for? Suddenly everythin...