Unsettling gray clouds drifted over the sleepy town of Ishpeming, a cold silence filled the depressing place at every intersection and street corner. The town nearly seemed to look as if it was abandoned, everyone shut up inside their old creaking houses with an ugly faded paint chipping off everywhere. It seemed that today was a day everyone avoided participating in social activities, everyone except two young teenagers sitting outside on an old roof.
The two young individuals were named Alex Lucev and Rosella Popescu. Ever since they were little, both were considered what the bullies called freaks of nature, outsiders, creeps, you name it. Neither of them had a good reputation wherever they had gone, due to someone finding out their deepest secrets and exploiting them. Alex never did admit to anyone he was really a transvestite, Rosella’s anxiety and paranoia pushing her towards the point where she wouldn’t attend school for days. But something covered up those worries and made them seem minor, and that was one person- Clemente Bianchi.
“I miss him a lot.” Rosella emitted a soft sigh, her hand reaching up and pulling several auburn strands of hair out of her face. “He was always beside me, Clemente never left me, he’d always come to me in my worst troubles. But I never thought he would be this distant. What if he never wakes up from his coma?”
“You shouldn’t worry yourself like this, it’s not healthy for you.” Alex mused, sliding closer to the girl and flashing her a reassuring smile. “Clemente will wake up soon. Just have hope.”
“I think you could be right about that.” The pale girl flashed the tiniest of smiles at the blonde male, standing up and climbing back through the window. “I’m going to head home and try to get some rest for tomorrow, I should at least try my hardest to attend school. Goodbye.” And with that, Rosella disappeared quickly like sand through large gaps between fingers, Alex nearly doubling over in laughter and happiness.
She smiled at him. She smiled at him! Who knew such a great feeling could fill such a lowly and unworthy person like himself? After all the work he had done to get this far, he finally got her to smile at him! For Rosella, who was at a higher place than God in his mind to smile at him, a piece of sewer scum who when even looking at himself made him want to vomit, smiled at him! Disgusting, absolutely disgusting.
Rosella was always stoic on the outside, but on the inside was a large hurricane going in all directions and tearing her heart and mind apart as it spun. Classes at her school made everything worse, the overwhelming amount of homework, teachers picking on her for being quiet in class, even getting knocked down in the halls occasionally. Usually she just ran away. And that was one of those days.
After being publicly humiliated once again today, Rosella unsteadily made her way through the crowd of people tormenting her and out of the school and nearly sprinted down the cracked sidewalks to a nearly empty part of town, knocking softly on an unappealing green door, within seconds being open by Alex, who decided to skip his classes again today.
“Uh.” Rosella mumbled, trying her best to wipe her tears away and make shy eye contact with Alex, “Could I possibly spend the night if that isn’t all too much to ask?”
With a small nod, Alex held open the door and let his friend come in. She broke down into tears once she started to climb the stairs up to Alex’s room, the blonde quickly rushing to her side. Rosella had grabbed his arm and Alex found it hard to contain his joyous shouts, leading her up the stairs into his room.
For what seemed like hours Alex and Rosella talked, the two keeping an awkward distance but Alex was listening into everything she had to say. Rosella never opened up like this to Alex, she was always so introverted, never wanting to talk about anything. But this time she was spilling her heart and soul out towards Alex, making him feel almost unworthy of being in her presence.
Rosella felt uncomfortable telling Alex her problems, but he was the only person she could turn to. Besides, Alex was her friend. Maybe she and him weren’t that close compared to her and Clemente, but who else would be there to help her? She always felt bad depending on her friends listening to her problems when she actually opened up about them, she never showed any emotion otherwise. Even when she was a child, she never showed emotion even when the worst things happened, even her fathers’ death in a freak accident. The girl was numb most of the time, but it helped when it came to her losing, which happened occasionally.
As a colorful twilight dragged onto the dark and starry night, Rosella and Alex turned in for the night, Alex pushing her to sleep because she looked as if she hadn’t slept in days. Within minutes Rosella was out, and that meant all his planning could now go into action.
An escape from Ishpeming would be easy. Nobody cared about what was going to happen to them, they were both better off dead! So it now began, an escape into paradise with her. Slowly Alex moved up to the bed and did his best to pick up the girl in the most comfortable and unnoticing way, carrying her out of the household and towards the car. The plan nearly failed as Alex almost dropped her while trying to open up the car, but soon she was set inside and the moved to the driver’s side, starting the car and driving out of the town, disappearing into the late night fog that hung over the town.
There wouldn’t be a problem with this plan, Alex had all the things the two of them would need. He’d been planning this for months. Now, she could be his, all his! They just had to find a nice secluded place in a scarcely populated area and live the rest of their lives out like hermits. Nothing could go wrong at this point, it was perfect! If Rosella woke he could simply knock her out with some drugs and she wouldn’t suspect a thing! Disgusting someone like him would do such things to her, but it was entirely necessary.
Just before making it to the Michigan-Wisconsin border, Alex found himself rather tired and knew that they would need somewhere to spend the night. Turning off of the main highway, there was a nice old farmhouse which would be perfect for a quick rest. The car was hidden behind some old scraggly trees and the front door was open when Alex tried it, bringing the girl inside and looking around for a place to set her, an old couch seeming to be the perfect spot. Now he would sleep for two hours and then they would leave, only two hours could provide enough energy to last him for a whole day.
But Alex always had been a heavy sleeper, and fell asleep for more hours than he would’ve enjoyed. Soon the sun was rising over the horizon and sun soon spilled into the abandoned house, hitting Rosella directly and causing her to wake. At first she was confused, where was she and what happened? An attempt to get up nearly made her fall down, the wooden floor was cold and slippery. The house obviously was well loved and used, the floorboards showing it with all the marks and scratches, the windows still dirty with the handprints of children. It almost seemed eerie, just a large empty house like this. Who would take her here? There could only be one answer and that was-
“Rosella.” Alex’s hand quickly clamped over Rosella’s mouth, his other arm wrapping around her torso and pulling her back, nearly taking her down. “You’re not supposed to be awake.”
Muffled words were emitted from the girls mouth, her struggle to break free proved worthless when Alex only held to her more tightly after attempting. She soon was able to shove him off, stumbling back with wild eyes and an ominous smile. “What is the problem with you, Alex?” She quietly asked, a hint of anger within her words.
“The problem?” He looked as if he were nearly ready to break out into a psychotic laughter, his eyes wide and seemed to be full of excitement. “The problem is me! And you, with that let’s not forget poor old Clemente. Now what happen to him, he got hit by a SUV and is in a deep, deep coma with little to no chance of survival now, isn’t he? Somebody just had to hate him enough to steal one and do it, didn’t they?”
“Alex, are you implying that you’ve done it?”
“Exactly! That’s exactly what I am doing. I am so, so sorry Rosella! I wish I would’ve told you more about me. But I guess I can now! So here’s a little secret: I’ve hated Clemente since the day you introduced me to him! He was always a scumbag, and I envied how you looked up to him like he was a great god or something. I envied everything he had, everything. He was born a man, and had a comfortable, easy childhood and didn’t suffer through all the abuse and discrimination that I had to! And he even had the perfect girl, you.”
“…In conclusion?”
“I love you, Rosella. I’m madly, deeply in love with you. Ever since we’ve met, I knew you were going to be the perfect girl for me! Even if it meant killing off Clemente and knocking you down just to make you mine. Even if it meant stealing a car and running over that idiot just to put him in a deep enough coma you would actually fall in love with me and we could live happily ever after! Isn’t it perfect, the two of us, living out the rest of our lives together in a secluded place where nobody can find us! Perfect!”
“That’s… That’s disgusting!” Rosella’s quiet shell broke as she shouted at the snapped man in front of her, tears now welling up inside her eyes, flames dancing around the green irises. “I can’t believe you went all this way just to get me to fall in love, with you? Disgusting, Alex! I did have trust for you, and I did care for you. But now, I could never love you for what you’ve done. Forget you, all you’ve done is hurt me!”
In reply, Alex threw his arms out as an invitation for Rosella to come at him, the girl charging and slapping him, kicking him down and starting to throw punches towards his head. But soon, Alex was able to take advantage and punched her square in the eye, his leg coming up and kicking her in the chest. Rosella coughed up some blood, spitting it into his face and able to throw him off and kick him down.
“Ah, sorry for being such trash.” Alex mumbled, his thin frame huddled up in a corner of the room. “And I’m sorry this isn’t the happiness you wished for, Rosella. We’ll meet again.”
With his parting words, Rosella quickly ran out of the house and down the road, stumbling within the line of trees for what seemed to be like hours until she sighted a small gas station on the side of the road, her absentmindedly crossing over the busy highway and entering, the clerk giving her a horrified look as Rosella had leaves and twigs caught in her hair, a black eye and blood dripping down her chin. She made it to the phone and dialed up 911, but she couldn’t make a sound, only silence.
Two days after last seeing Alex, his car was found dumped in a river, his body floating along downstream. It seemed he had driven it into the river and killed himself, only Rosella could guess why. She felt nothing when they retrieved his body, his pale face still had a smirk on it, assuming he died happily.
Disgusting.
The search party for Alex retrieved a note that was addressed towards Rosella, obviously written by Alex. However she just couldn’t seem to open it, it was just too much for her to handle. The last words Alex spoke were enough, she didn’t need any more.
By the end of the week Rosella returned to Ishpeming, and nothing had changed since. Nobody talked about Alex’s death, it seemed like Alex Lucev had ever even existed. Maybe she didn’t exist either, and this was all just a vivid fantasy as her lonely soul dragged on through space. Or maybe not.
A call came up from the hospital around two weeks later, a smile finally appearing on her face for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. Rosella actually rushed to leave, doing her best to appear pleasant for once. Once she had gotten into the hospital, she had a bit more courage in each step she took, but her heart was racing by the time she got to the patients room. With a deep breath, she opened the door.
Sitting up on a sterile hospital bed was Clemente Bianchi, a tired mess of pink hair and bloodshot eyes. His usual tan skin was pale, his smile not as bright as it used to be. But alas, it was still Clemente, the man Rosella knew all too well.
“Hello, Rosie.” Clemente mumbled, his smile seeming to brighten at the sight of the woman.
“You made me wait forever.”