Confusion In Death

"You're being completely unreasonable!" the young girl screamed at her father.1

"I'm only doing this for your own good! It's too late for a girl your age to be out there in the city areas!" her father rebutted. 2

"What does it matter if I'm out this late or not?! I'm always awake at this time of night when I'm here, anyway!" the young girl retaliated, her voice getting more defensive.3

"Yeah, but at least you're here, where I know you're safe..." her father's voice seemed to settle down to a more caring tone.4

The girl became more calm, but was still firm about her decision to leave as she headed for the door. "I don't care. I'm leaving."5

"You walk out that door, you're walking out of this family, and I'll never speak to you again!"6

She slammed the heavy door behind her, shaking the small house. She pulled out her cell phone and called her friend as she started down the street.7

Her friend answered the phone. "Hey, where are you?"8

"I'm at the end of my street, on my way to your house," the young girl informed her friend, her voice still startled from the fight.9

"Oh," her friend seemed dumbfounded. "Well, we're almost at the club. You weren't replying to any of our texts, so we just assumed your parents grounded you again, and we didn't want to wait all night for you to just not show up, so we got into the car and left."10

"Oh, Alright. I'll let you go, then," the young girl stopped dead in her tracks, not knowing what she was going to do for the night. She most certainly couldn't go back home; not after the recent episode with her father.11

Confused, the young girl wandered aimlessly through the streets of her small, quiet, peaceful neighborhood. She eventually found herself at the playground of a nearby elementary school. With her feet tired, she walked over to one of the playground's steps and sat down, then drifted off into dream.12

She woke up late into the next morning. Feeling regretful from her actions with her father the night before, she decided to go back home and make amends with her father before doing anything else.13

She entered her house and saw her father on the couch, looking tired and upset, as if he was up all night in worry. "Sorry about last night, Dad. I was really upset and just needed some time to myself. But, I'm home now," her father didn't return a single word, or even glance in her direction. "I guess I sort of deserve the cold shoulder, don't I?"14

The young girl's attention was then captured by the sound of people crying. She turned around and looked out the window to see her friends standing in the street, sobbing. She quickly ran outside to see what was wrong, but the question in her mind was instantly changed the second she was out the door.15

Her friends were all staring at her, each of them with a pale expression of shock drawn across their face - as if they were looking at a ghost.16

"What's going on?" the young girl asked her group of dazed friends.17

The friend she had spoken to on the phone the night before raised a shaky voice. "Are - aren't you dead?"18

"What are you talking about?!"19

Another one of her friends spoke up. "Your house burned down last night while we were out. You and your family were trapped inside... We saw it on the news, this morning. Just look at yourself," she pointed downward at the young girl's body with her eyes.20

The young girl looked down and saw that her clothes, skin, and hair had all been singed and charred. She then quickly turned around to gaze in horror at the skeletal remains of her house covered in black soot and ash. Her family was huddled together in what used to be the living room, with tears running down their burned, melted faces.21

She cautiously approached the scorched ruins, wondering, with great hope, if she was just having a bizarre nightmare. She stepped into the house, and, upon entry, her surroundings suddenly changed again. The house appeared to be fine, no signs of a fire, at all. She walked into the living room and saw that her family was still crying together, but, their skin was normal. "What is going on?!" the young girl was so confused and frustrated, tears started to run down her face.22

Her family expressed the same faces as her friends did upon awareness of her presence. "This is impossible - how are you here right now?" her mother managed to quiver the words from her mouth.23

"What do you mean?!" the young girl asked, tears still coming from her eyes.24

"A police officer came to our door, this morning. He told us you and your friends were raped and murdered, last night... You didn't even make it to the club... A group of men abducted you and your friends on your way from a parking garage a few blocks from the club," her mother's words trembled as if they were the hardest words she ever had to speak.25

"What?!" the young girl looked down to discover that her wrists had been bound to the sides of her waist by a rope, and her shirt was torn open, exposing her breasts. Welt marks, scratches, and bruises ran up and down her entire body. Her pants had been discarded, filling her with a sense of violation that made her want to puke.26

She turned around to look out the window and saw her friends, still with their heads down and crying, but their bodies were all in the same condition as her own. Crying, she slowly backed away from the window only to jump in terror the moment she caught a glimpse of her reflection on the window, realizing her throat had been cut ear to ear, and her head had been scalped.27

Tears now pouring from her eyes like waterfalls, her body flowed with an overwhelming anxiety as she grew dizzy and the room around her began to spin. She started falling to the floor, but just before passing out, she woke up in a hospital - staring at a heart rate monitor just as the line went flat. The last thought to go through her mind just before her eyes closed was, "What happened to me?"