Pretty Faces and Dark Places by Rose B. Mashal

light, but I couldn’t see. Not long after those noises, I heard the disgusting rackets that only bats make, sounds like screams and squeaks, and it made my terrified heart beat even faster.
    I couldn’t see much, but the shock was preventing me from screaming as I listened to the noises as they neared me. When I felt a hard pinch on my back, I screamed with all of my might.
    The pinch turned to two, then three, and then there were so many that I lost count. I felt the bats –or whatever those tiny creatures were that were making the noises – biting at my skin, pricking it and maybe even removing some of my skin.
    All of the bites were mostly between my shoulder blades and the top of my back, but some other bites were around my back and some were on my arms.
    I felt the wounds that the bites had caused start bleeding, and the warm liquid of my blood seeped out to stain the floor under my feet. By then, my screams were almost louder than the noises the bats were making. I was in so much pain and I knew I was going to pass out very soon because I wouldn’t be able to bear it anymore.
    The bites on my shoulders and upper back were the most agonizing ones. As crazy as it sounded, I wanted them to bite more on my arms if it meant they would leave that area.
    “Andrew, please,” my plea was nothing but the whisper of an exhausted body and an almost lost voice. I started thinking that this would be my way to go, that I would be tortured with those bites, bleed out the last drop of my blood, and then just die like that.
    “It’ll be over soon, My Soul, you’re doing great,” Andrew’s tone was comforting on its own, but I couldn’t be comforted whatsoever. I still couldn’t help the ray of hope that entered my heart, because I simply just wanted to believe him, even without not knowing what ‘Over’ meant – if it was about the bites or about my death.
    True to his words, the creatures I chose to call bats started slowing their bites on my back, one by one. Their noises grew quieter, and then there were no more new pinches that I could feel.
    The noise like marble moving sounded again, and the room started to darken just like it had been before. I heard the great door being opened, followed by the sounds of the ones who were watching as they left the room.
    I felt hands fumbling with my restraints, freeing then one by one, starting by my feet and then up to the chains around my stomach. My body was heavier than I could explain and I knew that once my hands were released, I would fall face first to the floor.
    But that didn’t happen, because right before I fell to the floor Andrew caught me in his arms, and though falling into his arms was better than falling to the floor, it still hurt for my skin to be touched in any way. Everywhere hurt so badly.
    I felt cloth being wrapped around my body and when I opened my eyes, I could see with my blurry version as Andrew lifted me up, carrying me bridal style and walking us to where I didn’t know.
    His green eyes were soft, and his beautiful features were calm. He smiled down at me as he said with his deep voice, “Welcome to my world, Angel.”
     
     

 
    For the past year, every day I woke up, it was a struggle to get out of bed. It was never easy for me when almost every morning I reached for my phone to call Sophie, only to remember she wasn’t there to answer.
    It was what I’d always done whenever I woke up and she wasn’t sleeping over at my place. And when I woke up and didn’t find her all of those times over the past year, my first thought was to call her. And it was even more painful when I realized why she wasn’t sleeping over.
    This time when I woke up, I had the hope that everything I’d witnessed before I went to sleep – passed out or whatever – everything that’d happened was nothing but a stupid nightmare I’d had because it was the first Halloween I’d spent without Sophie, or because I’d lost her on the same day. But I knew it was only