She Smiled Chaos

Chaos

Chaos. That is the only word that came to my mind as I stared down at the scarlet pools beneath my feet. The smell of iron was so think, if I opened my mouth just slightly the particles rested on my tongue leaving behind a metallic taste.

My lips twitched. First the corner of the right side of my mouth lifted, then the left. I smiled down at the glazed over eyes of my class mates. The voices had finally stopped. The silence in the room was as fragile as glass. Nothing was going to ruin this-

“Janice? If there something you wish to share with the class?”

I blinked. Their eyes were no longer glassy and dead, they were alight with curious fire as they stared at me.

“What?”

The class snickered. The professor in front of the small class room shook his head and went back to the lecture. The students’ gaze lingered only for a moment more before returning their attention to the professor’s lecture.

You should do it. They hate you. Think of how pretty the blood will look….

I shook my head trying to ignore the voices. My hand shook as I tried to transfer the swimming white letters to my own paper. But it was no use. My vision blurred as the voices grew louder, stronger.

If you do it right you won’t get caught. You hate this school and everyone here. And what about your parents? They sent you here to get rid of you! They hate you just as much as you hate-

“STOP!!”

I could feel the scowl of the professor and hear the tittering of the class as I raced out of the room. I stared down at my feet as I passed students and professors, some giving me quizzical glances, others ignoring me. Suddenly the hall disappeared.

The black wall lifted. Next I saw the red. Pools and pools of red. Dead, lifeless eyes stared up at me in horror.

Not again!! I thought. But something was different. There was no silence this time and the voices were louder than before. They were laughing, mocking me. They sang songs and shadows danced around the corpses. Then someone was yelling at me. They told me to drop the knife. What knife?

My eyes glanced down and I was covered in blood. My right hand clenched a knife. Finally the voices had stopped, but not because I had killed. No. They had stopped because I could no longer hear them over my own screeching.

“Ms. Janice. Are you still with us?”

I blinked. The stone cold eyes of the jury bore into my flesh, as if they could understand the monster sitting only feet from them if they stared hard enough. The judge sat angled away from me, as if I still held the knife that silenced the voices. The lawyer’s face was sympathetic, as if he understood why I had to kill them, but his suit told me his face was lying.

“Yes.” I whispered looking down at my hand folded neatly in my lap.

“Please explain to the court why you killed those people.”

My lips twitched. “Chaos.”