In This World of Mine
By NekoVampMisheru
Chapter 3: Can You Stop It?

When the bell rang, it was after school. Alice had gathered all of her books and began heading home. She felt a presence behind her. She sighed and turned around knowing it was Marcos with his serious look. “Alice…You didn’t talk at all today.”
Alice smirked, “Isn’t that how I always am?”
“That’s not the point.” Marcos whispered. “It’s not healthy being like this!” Alice groaned, grabbed her bag and walked past him. Marcos trailed behind trying to get past that hard brick in her mind. “Alice, you have to talk someday, you know? You can’t run away forever!” Alice paced herself faster, their footsteps resonating through the halls. She said nothing to him. Everyday they would have this same talk. Was Alice getting sick of it? Maybe.
“Come on, Alice.” Marcos coaxed her. She still said nothing. “Alice, you have to leave everything you saw behind!” She stopped on her first step down the hall. “I finally got your attention, didn’t I?” Alice gripped the railing besides her. “Listen to me…I know you want to say something, I’m here for you. I’ve known you for a long time and I know we’re not on good terms…but I want to watch out for you.”
“You were assigned to watch out for me, Marcos.” She spat at him.
“That’s not it, Alice.”
“Quit making a fool of yourself, there’s no point in making me talk.”
“I don’t want you to kill yourself! You have to let it go!”
“You wouldn’t understand!” She barked. Marcos stepped back in astonishment. Her face was angered and it looked like she was about to rip him a new one. Of course, he wouldn’t understand, Alice thought, he doesn’t know what I went through. He doesn’t know what I saw that night… “Every single day, we go through the same thing, you come and try to convince me to talk about my feelings what I saw that day…do you really think that’ll help? I feel sick enough already looking at you. You think your duty is to make me feel normal, to make me feel safe. It’s hard enough trying to remember everything. There’s no point, Marcos…I already past the point of no return…”
“Alice….” Marcos sighed.
“You pity me…” Marcos widened his eyes when he heard her say that.
“That’s not true!” he exclaimed, “I never pitied you!” That was a lie.
“Oh really? You never pitied me? You look at me everyday with that same face, the face of a girl who’s slowly dying and doesn’t know what to do…you feel sad for me that I’m living by myself and not knowing what to do. Listen, Marcos…you’re a bad liar.” She quietly laughed to herself. “So let me ask you something…”
Marcos lifted his eyes to meet hers, so empty and shallow. He watched her lips moved as she asked, “Can you just stop it? It’s already too late.” Alice walked down the stairs and out the door in the cold rain.