Frights at Twilight (Part 3)
By: Sloane Baecker (7)
Perry’s Perspective
Chapter 5 ~Curiouser and Curiouser~
The two women rehashed the event of the previous night. It would be an understatement to say she had a collywobious experience. It was popastrous and monstrous for Bea, but quite virtuous for Perry. Listening, heeding, pondering, and processing each detail after the next. The guilt made her heart sink to her stomach, but that didn’t outweigh the curiosity she’d had.
I felt as if the day didn’t end. It couldn’t end. But as the night approached, they both had dreaded, despite the fact that Bea, true to her nature, stayed by Perry’s side. While Bea was sound asleep, Perry couldn’t allow herself to fall asleep knowing what she was capable of. All she could do was lie in bed with thoughts. Perry’s mind had a way of wandering, not always for the better. She wondered how many times something like that happened. Perry wasn’t ever totally conscious or aware of what she was doing, and Bea never actually told her. With this question Perry pondered. The one remark kept her awake like a light in the dark, “Curiouser and Curiouser.”
The words she whispered and whispered until an idea–no, a test, rendered in her head. “But was it worth it? Was it horrible? Was it thought through? Will I convince her? Was it considerate?” “It’s for a good cause. It’s worth it. I can convince her.” Perry convinced herself she was right little did she know what her test would lead to…
Chapter 6 ~ The Only Way to Con a Con~
It was one am. Perry was going to put her test into action. She was going to pretend she was having a night terror, to see how Bea would react, and how bad they usually were. But this was uncharted territory for Perry. She didn’t totally know how to act or how bad she was when she really had her terrors. Her only option was to just go for it. She started by silently, yet urgently sitting up. She kept her eyes closed while keeping some emotion on her face (for effect). She sat there fidgeting ever so slightly, until Bea’s hand lay on her shoulder lightly easing her into a calming state of slumber. Realizing that this was a normal reaction, Perry got her answer, yet for some reason, she wasn’t satisfied.
The next morning Perry asked Bea if anything was out of the ordinary. Bea seemed convinced, and said it wasn’t.
That following night Perry found herself staying up like before, and it crept up to her again. “It’ll be out of the ordinary if I don’t. I fooled– no, no, no I convinced her, before I can do it again.” Perry ended up fooling herself as much as she did Bea. Perry faked another terror, and started doing it more and more often. At first, it was just a test, then she started making time for it, she started planning it. Her gut told her this was wrong and that she should stop. But her mind only told her one thing, “It’s better this way. Allow her to think I have terrors so I can control the outcome. It’s better this way.”
Chapter 7 ~ It’s better this way~
Despite how much she convinced herself to be sane, she was going out of her mind. This habit only got worse, and Perry was blinded by what she was really doing to Bea. She had grown worse. The way she behaved in her sleep was worse now than when she had an actual night terror. It fell on Bea every time, to make sure she’d fall back to sleep. It wasn’t just Perry faking her out multiple times a night, but that once she stopped and fell asleep she’d still have her actual terrors naturally, like before and some worse.
One day free of events, Perry left while Bea was still home. Perry was only at the drugstore for an hour, one hour! It was her last hour of peace, last moment of innocence, last breath of neglectance, her last stroll feeling of being light as a feather. The guilt was about to weigh her shoulders down to the ground, without wielding the strength to come back up.
Perry walked through the door expecting Bea to just be in her normal spot, at her desk right across from the door. When she walked in, Bea wasn’t there so she walked towards the spare door. Perry’s jaw dropped to her knees.
The spare room was filled with a sour scent coming from the rotting corpse of Bea Vance. She’s gone forever. Next to her, sat a small, folded paper that Perry had neatly written on.
Perry ran to Bea’s body, crying. She carefully unfolded the note, already staining the page with tears. Bea’s note listed combinations of all of her motivations for this terrible deed. Fragments of the letter that lead her to this point. “This was because of me,” she uttered.
Perry burdened Bea with too much pressure. The pressure of keeping her safe, keeping Perry calm, letting her sleep soundly. The day turned gray. Perry didn’t see reason for anything any longer; her face was forever stripped of emotion.
That night would be even harder, because with Bea gone, no one was there to calm her down or help her through the terrors. Only tragedy could come to her, and only tragedy did come to her. She lay in her bed with thoughts only surrounding Bea, weeping herself to sleep.
It felt as if there was a ghost around her. All of the small messages whispered in her ear, something pressed on her shoulder, she knew now it was a hand. But Perry was all alone, and she knew this.
Before she realized that she was asleep, she was shaken awake. She looked over her shoulder, sitting up, she found Bea making intense eye contact with her. Bea’s face was clearly painted with worry. And with that, not knowing what was real or if this was a dream, or if she was previously in a dream, if she’d died herself, or if she was staring into the eyes of a ghost, Perry seized the opportunity and hugged Bea as tightly as possible. Bea did the same and cherished their embrace. Perry bawled over Bea’s shoulder, very confused, scared, and fragile, but she still felt safe and secure in Bea’s arms.
“Are you ok?” Bea softly asked, but all of the confusion was in the dust when Bea followed it with 4 words. “ You were dreaming, again.”