For The Different Monster - Chapter Four

Brooke sat silently on the side of her bed contemplating the way it would all go down when she walked out to the courtyard. With only 17 minutes to wait, she started to feel anxious and her heart rate increased so much she could feel it in her chest. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply in and out; sometimes that worked, not on this day. She reached for the pen and notebook on the table and turned the notebook to a blank page staring at it for a moment. Putting paper to pen she wrote…

Did I make a mistake?
Was it really that bad?
He was a monster
But he was my dad
Now I'm alone
I wish I was dead
Thoughts of murder
Clogging my head
I just need some peace
I won't get it here
The bruise on my face
Makes it quite clear
I don’t know what to do
My life is a mess
God, please help me
Or maybe you could care less

8:50am

Brooke closed the notebook and placed it back on the table. She stood up and started pacing back and forth from the door to the bed over and over, visibly shaking, breathing heavy, fidgeting and instead of the usual exercises to calm herself, she embraced the madness. She allowed the adrenaline to flow through her veins.

8:56am

Brooke's pacing halted when she looked at the clock and noticed the time. Her stomach felt queasy all of a sudden so she walked out of the room down the hall to the bathroom to splash some cold water on her face. She thought that she should sharpen the other chopstick in her hair but decided against it. The girls would be stirring in the halls soon and she couldn't afford to get caught. She stared at herself in the mirror while mentally having a conversation with the girl staring back at her, trying to convince herself that she needed to do this when everything in her body told her to go back to her room and hide. She dried her hands and face, stepped out into the hall and looked up at the clock.

8:59am

She stared at the clock for a couple of seconds, took a deep breath and walked down the hall toward the door that led to the courtyard. She opened the door to the bright morning sun and an empty yard. It wasn't very big but neither was the home, there was about sixty girls here. To the left of the yard stood two basketball goals and benches lined the fence; on the right in the corner was a big magnolia tree with a wooden bench built around the base of it. Brooke walked to the tree and sat down facing the door.

The girls slowly trickled outside, and since recreational activities weren’t required, Brooke didn’t know if Jada would walk through the door or not. She sat there, shaking her leg, staring at the door. Her heart would beat a little faster each time the door opened and every time she saw that it wasn’t Jada, she felt a brief moment of relief. Thirty minutes passed and there were only six girls outside.

The seventh time the door opened, Jada made her grand appearance. She walked out with her usual smug expression, her nose slightly turned up and chest poking out like a proud peacock and strutted out into the courtyard. Brooke’s heart was beating out of her chest, sweat was dripping from her brow and the shaking … she hated the shaking. She knew that if she was going to do this, she needed to do it now. She wasn’t worried about the staff, they seemed to not want to be bothered and were more like babysitters. Brooke didn’t move, she stared at Jada with a hatred so deep that her fear suddenly became anger. Jada caught Brooke’s glare and stared back.

Brooke stood up knowing that she had to quickly get the upper hand and she also knew that based on their last encounter, Jada probably wouldn’t expect this new side of Brooke. Jada started to stroll towards her with a smirk on her face and before Jada stepped off the concrete and into the grass, Brooke started to run to Jada, as fast as she could. Jada’s face went from smug to puzzled, she didn’t know how to react and before she knew it Brooke tackled her with a force so hard it made her head spin. Jada fell backwards and hit her head on the concrete, enough to make her see stars but not enough to knock her unconscious.

Brooke was on top of Jada, straddling her and she pulled the sharpened chopstick from her hair. Jada was dazed as Brooke seized the opportunity; she pressed her forearm against Jada’s chin and pushed up exposing her neck. Brooke held the chopstick as if it were a knife and placed her thumb on the end so that it wouldn’t slip and she pressed it firmly against Jada’s neck. Jada’s body tensed and Brooke leaned in so that she was face to face with her. She said in a voice so low that only the two of them could hear it, “The next time you fuck with me, I’ll sneak into your room, and kill you while you're sleeping.” She pushed the stick into Jada’s neck a little more and caused her to let out a little groan, she pushed herself off of Jada’s body, gave a smug look at the girls standing around, and walked inside with her chest poked out like a proud peacock.