Maddelicious

Melanie

Melanie. The new next door girl. No one really knew that much about her, except that she's called Mel.

Mel and her family had been living in their new house for only about a week and had hardly had time to settle in. It was really hard to connect with Mel, she was very isolated and quiet. She wandered off on her own every recess and during lunch she sat by herself at a table. It didn't look like she suffered though. She chose to be by herself. People in her class had tried to talk to her and asked if she wanted to join and so on, but she just turned them down and walked away. There was something very mysterious about her, it seemed like something wasn't right.

You could see she wasn't feeling well. She received a warning from the P.E. teacher since Mel hadn't been in any of the P.E. classes. All of the teachers were starting to wonder.

Then, during the summer break between 6:th and 7:th grade Mel met some people she actually liked, that she actually connected with. She met them while taking a late night walk down the beach and they asked if she wanted to join, just out of the blue, and since they didn't go the her school she thought she might as well join them. There was only one person her age and her name was Suzy. The rest of the people, about 8 more, was at least 2 years older than them and up to 20 years old.

-Why do they want to be with a couple of 12 year-olds? They're so much older than us, Mel asked Suzy.

-Eric over there, he's 19 and he's my brother. He lets me hang out with him and his friends because we're really close to each other and like hanging out together.

Mel and Suzy hung out a lot and Mel felt happier than she had in a long time.

Later on that summer they were going swimming together, but Melanie refused. Suzy got really suspicious, Mel had been wearing long sweatshirts all summer. That was enough, so Suzy grabbed Melanie and took her to their special place in the woods where they could be all alone.

-What's wrong Mel? You won't get away with this, everyone can see your feeling down. You have to tell me.

-Nothing's wrong, don't worry about me.

Suzy grabbed Melanie's shoulders real hard and look into her eyes. Mel could feel Suzy's eyes piercing through her head and immediately knew that she was serious. She had to let Suzy know.

Mel pulled her sweatshirt up a bit and showed Suzy her back. She revealed huge red wounds all over her back. It looked almost like big scratch marks, and the blood had just coagulated.

-My dad hits me Suzy.

With tears in her eyes Suzy hugged Mel, carefully though so she wouldn't accidentally touch the wounds.

-He hits mom too, but she's too afraid to say anything because dad have been threatening us. He says he's going to kill us if we tell someone. The worst part is that I've never doubted that he will.

-I don't know what to say, I could never imagine it would be this bad.

-You must not tell anyone! You can't. Promise me? Mel begged Suzy.

-But what should we do? You can't let it be this way. You can't keep letting him treat you like this. Does he do anything else to you?

-No, Mel said really quietly.

-Come on, tell me, What's he doing to you?

-He touches me okay! He comes in at night and starts hugging and kissing me. Then he touch me in a way that I don't approve of. If I tell him to stop he slaps me. And it doesn't stop at just touching me, he completes everything as well... Mom knows about the whole thing. She knows what's next when dad leaves their bedroom and walk into mine. But she's too scared to do anything.

I try not to cry, but it's hard. If I cry too loud he just tell me to shut up and hit me.

-Oh my god, Mel. I'm so sorry, I had no idea.

-It's okay, it's not your fault.

-You know, I might have something that could cheer you up.

Suzy put her hand in her jeans pocket and took out a small, wrinkled piece of aluminium foil. She unfolded it and inside was a small amount of white powder.

-Do you know what this is? Suzy asked with a grin on her face.

-No, what is it? Mel asked with a trembling voice.

-It's something that will make you very happy and all your problems will fade away. Sounds good eh?

Suzy put the white powder on a small piece of paper and rolled it until it looked like a cigarette.

-Now, look at what I'm doing, Suzy said while pulling out a lighter from her pocket.

She inhaled the smoke and then she gave it to Mel.

-You do the same, Suzy said.

-Are you sure about this? Mel asked carefully.

-Yes, of course. I've done this a thousand times, Suzy said with confidence.

So Mel did the same, and inhaled the smoke. Just the second she inhaled it she started coughing. She coughed for ages, but then she felt a weird buzz in her head. A strange feeling of wellbeing. Mel tried again and this time it wasn't as bad as the first time.

It was true, all the problems, all the anxiety, all the misery and sadness just faded away just like Suzy said. It was wonderful.

And she kept on smoking, more and more.

-How are you feeling? Suzy asked Mel.

-I feel so great, this is the best feeling ever! Where do you get hold of this stuff? Mel asked while the whole world was spinning around her head.

-People, you know. Contacts, Suzy said and rolled another cigarette.

After a while Mel slowly returned to reality and could feel the thoughts and emotions crawling back into her head. Not a very nice feeling.

-I want more, I need more. My problems are coming back Suzy! Mel said desperately.

-I don't have anything left. And I've got no money left so unless you have any money or want to do "favours" for the drug dealers, you'll have to wait.

-What do you mean "favours"? Mel asked curiously.

-You know, come on Mel, you know what I'm talking about. Sexual favours.

-Oh...

Both of them headed downtown. They were desperate, and decided to go with the "favours" option.

It didn't take long before a car pulled up nest to them and asked if Mel wanted to join in and have some fun. Mel told Suzy to wait there and after an hour she was back with money to buy some more drugs.

They took turns and sometimes they got paid in drugs and sometimes they were paid in money.

It went on for a while, they were high all day long and it was just a matter of time before one of them was going to take an overdose. Mel was never at home, nor was Suzy. They lived on the streets and since it was summer they slept at the place they were at, at the moment because it was warm enough.

One day Suzy got hold of  heroin in liquid form. They had never injected anything before, only taken pills and smoked everything. So they helped each other to find good blood veins in the crook of the arm. Mel tied a piece of fabric around her upper arm to stop the blood flow. She injected half of the heroin that was in the shot, because the other half was Suzy's.

The shot was full, so it was quite a lot of heroin in there. When Mel had injected her half she loosened the knot fast and suddenly she realized that maybe she shouldn't of injected that much at once. Since she was a beginner and all. The heroin rushed through her veins and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Everything started to spin really fast and she got cramps. Her eyes almost rolled into the back of her head and she fainted. Her head hit the ground real hard and she got unconscious.

Suzy just stood there and watched the whole thing. She saw Melanie wasn't breathing and felt her pulse. No pulse.

VALERIE

Allting gick i slow-motion, hon kände vattnet omsluta henne. Av ren reflex kippade hon efter andan men kände då vattnet sippra ned i lungorna. Hon slutade kämpa när hon insåg att hon var under vattnet, obenägen att ta sig därifrån. Hon försökte desperat komma ihåg hur hon hade hamnat där, men allting svartnade.

Med ett ryck satte hon sig upp i sängen. Panikslagen och kallsvettig drog hon efter andan.

Det gick. Hon kunde andas. Hon lugnade sig när hon insåg att det bara var en dröm.

Men hon kunde bara inte släppa det faktum att drömmen kändes så otroligt verklig. Den var över i alla fall, så det var inget mer att tänka på.

•-         Är du okej Valerie? Jag hörde att du skrek. Frågade hennes mamma när hon gick in till köket.

•-         Jodå, jag hade bara en mardröm, men det är okej nu. Fick hon till svar.

Valerie var en 17-årig flicka som bodde på västkusten i Florida med sin ensamstående mamma Jaqueline.

•-         Din pappa kommer och hälsar på idag Valerie. Sa hennes mamma med en seriös ton.

Stämningen sänktes med ens hennes mamma sa så.

•-         Jag har ingen pappa. Säger Valerie med ett intetsägande uttryck i ansiktet.

•-         Nu slutar du upp med dumheterna Valerie! Svarade Jaqueline bestämt.

•-         Hur länge skall du låta honom trampa på dig morsan? Va? Förstår du inte att han var otrogen mot dig? Han lämnade dig för den där jävla slynan! Hans egen kontorist! Hon lämnade honom när hon insåg att han var för gammal. Då kom han krypandes tillbaka. Han är ett äckligt svin! Är det bara jag som har förstått det? När skall du inse att det bara är dina pengar han vill åt! Säger Valerie och stormar ut ur rummet.

Hon slänger sig på sängen och borrar in huvudet i kudden. Tårarna rinner ned för kinden, men hon är van. Hon bestämmer sig för att göra det hon är bäst på, det hon brukar göra speciellt när hon är nere.

Hon tar brädan och springer ned till stranden som ligger precis utanför deras hus.

Vågorna var höga, det var sol och inte en enda surfare så långt ögat kan nå. Perfekt! Tänker Valerie när hon slängde sig på brädan och simmade ut till de riktigt stora vågorna. Vinden tog tag i hennes hår och svalkade skönt i ansiktet. Havet glittrar så som bara havet kan när solens strålar når vattenytan. Hon ser sin chans när en stor våg närmar sig. Valerie ställer sig på brädan och vågen når henne precis innan brytpunkten.

Hon känner problemen försvinna bakom sig och vågen tar dom med sig. Vågen bryts och hon surfar mitt i den.

Allting gick i slow-motion, hon kände vattnet omsluta henne. Av ren reflex kippade hon efter andan men kände då vattnet sippra ned i lungorna. Hon slutade kämpa när hon insåg att hon var under vattnet, obenägen att ta sig därifrån. Hon försökte desperat komma ihåg hur hon hade hamnat där, men allting svartnade.



Copyright: Madelene!

//M