Everything In Its Place

You had always been neat. As a child, you would organize your toys in order of height, and your clothes in the rainbow. Your parents had wondered about OCD, but you always said you were just tidy. 

Now, as you walk through the hallways of high school, the disorder around you makes you sick. But there is nothing, nothing you can do. You try to console yourself, try to look only at your own fingers, which you have painted to perfection. Try to look at the perfect bracelets on your wrist, just tight enough that they are perfectly perpendicular to each other.

You breathe in and out deeply, making your way over to your lunch table. The same table you have been at since freshman year. You sit down, smiling around at your friends.

“Hey everyone,” you say, looking around at the five people around the table.

“Are you excited about tonight?!” Hallie asks, throwing her arm around your shoulders. 

“I’m so excited!” you say, grinning back at her round, bubbly face. You reach out to adjust her glasses, which have been knocked crooked. 

Your four other friends, Laylani, Alex, Alicia, and Noah all smile, and begin to discuss the plan for tonight. The annual Halloween party is tonight, and it’s at your house. 

You decided to join in with the planning, adding your input on timing. Then the bell rings and you stand, smile, and walk with Alex to your next class. 

Time rushes by, and soon you are walking to your car. As you open the door, a sharp, almost metallic smell hits your nose. You stop, peering into your car. A large, red stain stares back at you from the passenger seat.

You feel your mouth water, then you throw your backpack over the stain and get into your car.

When you get home, you glance at the garden patch as you walk to the door. The patch has four large beds, completely bare save the five, even lumps under the dirt in the first bed. You squint at them, then continue inside.

Your house is perfect. Not a thing out of place. Not a person to disturb anything. You frown, thinking. You don’t know what happened to your parents, but they are no longer here to bother you.

At exactly 4:30 pm, Alex and Hallie knock on the door, party decorations in hand. You reach out and pull them through the door. As you do, they seem to wobble. You shake your head, and reach into the Halloween box. 

You spend an hour and a half hanging decorations. By the end, your perfect house is a mess. You feel twitchy, but you push it down. 

By the time you finish the decorations, Alicia, Noah, and Laylani have arrived. The five of your friends have taken over your house. You watch them from across the room, slinking toward them along the wall. 

Hallie looks up, and you meet her eyes. Her blue eyes. Her glasses are crooked. Your world wobbles again. 

Suddenly you are in your room, putting on a dress. You are throwing a costume party after all. After sliding into your skintight black dress, you snatch your mask off the table next to your bed. It is a large, black and red masquerade mask that covers most of your face. 

You slide the mask into place and it practically clicks. It almost feels like you are wearing nothing at all.

You slide down the stairs to find the party has already begun. The lights are red, and your perfect house is filled with people.

Mine, you think, surveying the room. This house is mine. All mine. Forever.

You slide along the wall into the kitchen where you find Hallie, Alex, and Noah around the fridge. 

You slide up behind them, and they turn to face you. They have no faces.

You get yanked backward. Suddenly you are in the bathroom, all alone. You stare into the mirror. You smile. Your face moves. The mask moves. 

Your face is the mask. Your mask is your face. 

You watch your eyes widen in the mirror. The mask moves with your face. You reach up and touch your face. The mask is now part of your face.

Your smile grows in the mirror, revealing your teeth. Your teeth are sharp, like an animal. You blink.

When your eyes open, you see the faces of your friends in the mirror. But only their faces.

The mirror shatters before your eyes. Then the walls crack. Then the toilet, the sink, the door. You look at your hands.

Then the world vanishes.

I open my eyes to the circle of terrified faces. I seem to be lying on the ground. I am surrounded by five people.

The faces of my friends stare down at me. I am crumpled at their feet, red light is washed over their faces. I am covered in something sticky. In my hand is something sharp.

“Where am I?” I ask, my eyes flickering upward to Hallie’s horrified face.

Then I know. I am here, in my house, with my people. Mine.

Then I lunge forward. They don’t even have time to scream.

I gather my people to my chest. 

“You are home now,” I promise them. “You are never leaving.”