I am going to die in thirty minutes. There is nothing I can do to survive, not now.

I love you, Jake. Good-bye.

Dark Day

by Livi ania

Prologue

Listen to the Warning

The sun shone brightly that morning, though I can barely remember it now. The rays came through the leaves, creating a bizarre and macabre play of blinding light and jagged shadow. I should’ve sat in the sun; I shouldn’t have worried about the heat. I was cautious; I sat in the shade. You’d think I’d have more regrets, but I don’t. I only wish I had sat in the sun and smiled at his face. I’d allow his light to kiss my skin and I would be protected by the memory of that touch.

The sandals on Amelia’s feet threatened to fall off as she idly kicked her legs against the stone wall that served as her perch. Her legs moved in subtle arcs, and she stared at them, entranced by the nearly unconscious movements of her body. The thuds made by her heels were soft and came at uneven intervals. There was a rhythm to it, but only in Amelia’s head. It did not go with the music streaming in from her headphones, and it didn’t match any of the music she’d heard during her pointe lesson. The rhythm simply was. Duh-duh, went her heart, in perfect beat with the pattern of her feet. For an instant, everything was beautiful and Amelia soared free within herself. Then her watch beeped and the moment cracked around the edges. Her legs still swung, but the rhythm that had barely been there to begin with disappeared in the shock. She looked down at her watch questioningly. It wasn’t digital.

Sunlight streaked across her features as she looked up, causing her normally placid face to look feral. It matched the snap of movement quite well. Brown eyes glanced from side to side slowly, clouding with a quiet confusion. No one stood close to her makeshift bench. The wall stood low but proud, in a small park-like area in the center of Elam School’s secondary campus. It bordered a quaint stone path that meandered through various trees and around a dirty but beautiful pond. The only others in the area were gathered on the opposite side of the pond from Amelia, out of earshot. They were a strange assortment-a large man and a thin one, both in tailored suits, and a young pretty boy. But they talked familiarly, and looked as if they belonged. A tense breath Amelia hadn’t realized she held released, and the ballerina shrugged. Weirder things had happened; what did it matter? Suddenly, one of the sandals that had been teetering about her foot finally gave way and fell to the path.

“Grr,” Anita growled faintly as she stooped to pick it up from the ground. The lavender sandal lay on its side, looking rather dead for an inanimate object. She slid it back onto her foot, subconsciously amused by the contrast of her chipped lime green toenails and the delicately shaded suede. Sighing, she popped herself back onto the short wall and began once more to swing and watch her tight-clad legs.

She stopped kicking her legs eventually and once more checked her watch. 12:15 AM. The display changed minutes as she watched. Amelia’s eyes widened as she realized she’d been sitting idly for forty-five minutes. Not that it was uncommon for her to lose track of the time, but the teenager planned to drive a friend home. Annalise should have met her by now; the girl was a ditz, but not stupid. She couldn’t have missed Amelia sitting in plain sight, and the SAT probably finished half an hour earlier. Normally Amelia didn’t give rides, but she knew the campus of Elam School quite well from attending ballet lessons, and Annalise could never keep directions in her head for more than the time it took to hear them. Forty-five minutes… Amelia reached down into her ballet duffel to pull out her purse, and then proceeded to pull her cell phone out of that. She cruised deftly through the phone book, finding Annalise’s number within seconds.

Voice mail came on almost instantly; the other girl’s cell phone seemed to be turned off. Amelia spoke quickly, worried, “Hey girl, what’s up? I’m waiting for you out by the mini-park. Look, call me back when you get this message. Talk to you later, bye.” Frowning, she returned her cell phone to its rightful place. The day started with so much promise, but seemed to be turning decidedly odd. Amelia leaned her body down the length of the wall, resting quietly. The campus lay off the beaten path, so people who had never been didn’t know of the beautiful landscaping. She’d be perfectly safe taking a nap-the only other three people there were fairly far away. Amelia’s eyes closed, and she drifted off to a faint sleep as she waited, in vain, for Annalise to finish the SAT and wake her.

Still, even the shade possessed beauty. I fell asleep there, kept from harm only by the force of my young, idealistic belief. I knew nothing; thus I couldn’t be touched. But now, now I know so much, I’ve broken my own unknown power. The person I am hasn’t changed. I am Amelia, a quiet, sweet sort of girl, the kind who doesn’t have a boyfriend (or even many friends), but everyone believes should. My innocence is gone, yet I’m not sure I miss it.

Beep-beep. Beep-beep. The incessant noise pulled the ballerina from her slumber, causing her dream to drift to nothing. Amelia stretched her arm at, reaching to turn off her alarm clock. Her hand felt nothing but stone, growing warm as afternoon approached and the sun rose higher. “Wah?” she mumbled sleepily, before bolting upright, startled by a ghostly beeping for the second time. “Ow,” she complained, feeling her body’s tension from the wall’s lack of comfort. Rubbing her eyes sleepily, Amelia checked her watch. 12:55 PM. More that an hour had passed from when she first expected Annalise to show. “I sure hope she found another ride home, because my mom’s going to kill me as it is,” Amelia thought as she hopped down from the wall and headed to her car, failing to notice the three strangers were not only still in the mini-park, they’d drifted closer to her.

Her car gleamed in the sunlight, parked mere feet from where the grass ended and the sidewalk leading to the front doors of a large resource library began. Amelia wearily clicked the doors open, having pulled her keys from her bag as she walked. Somehow, the ballerina always managed to be more tired after she took a nap than before she rested.

Climbing in to the warm vehicle, she checked to see if there were cars behind her in her rearview mirror before she pulled out of the corner space. Amelia never put the car in reverse, because she noticed an oddity. She’d been lazy in the morning and never placed the sunshade on the windshield, but the girl had also certainly left it bundled on the back floorboards. Yet now the silver foil monstrosity stretched across the seats—most unlike how she left it. Amelia felt tired, but not that tired. Warily she pulled out a pointe shoe, ready to use it to bludgeon anyone if they’d managed to break past her security system and get into her car. Deliberately, one deft hand shot out and pulled back the sunshade.

Eyes open and dull, filmed over, dead as Amelia had never seen before. Annalise’s body lay like a forgotten but beloved doll, arranged neatly in the fetal position on the small backseat. The scream ripped through her body, before she even thought to react, filling the compact car and spilling through the windows to reach the ears of two smiling men wearing dark suits, and one pretty boy wearing the expression of a predator.

It all started at one o’clock, and I had yet to leave Elam school. When I left my home that morning, I expected to return by noon. It’s been twenty-three hours and thirty minutes, and I only have thirty left. I won’t return to the small brick house I lived in, but I will return to that little park that shines so brightly in my memories. I want to end there, where I felt so falsely safe, before Annalise died and I entered his game.