Missing Corners

Silence. Just silence.

At first all that can be seen from her is black and silent. A peaceful silent. A staring silent. This silence persisted for hours but ended in just a single second with the sharp, piercing sound of an alarm on the bedside. In a small jolt of energy from being startled after her preoccupation with the silence, Mary peeked open her eyelids to look from her pillow to the still blaring beeping next to her. She quickly stretched forth and pressed her hand on the off button and she immediately shrugged the sheets off of her and rose.

At first she felt dazed. As if something was clanged in her mind trying to tell her that something was off as she watched all around from her dimmed room. The scratchiness of her mattress, the golden lacing around her curtains which only occur in the mornings, and of course, the beginning of distant horns yelling at each other from the streets below her apartment.

Mary lived alone. For the last six months since she was kicked out of her mother's home because of the fact that Mary was schizophrenic and had only had her diagnosis shortly before her mother kicked her out. Her mother's peers, who were religious, convinced her to kick her out after they told her that because she was sick, that her grandchildren will also be sick and so she should be kicked out as to not taint their community with 'crazy' children.

At first, Mary pleaded with her mother to not kick her out. All Mary had at the time was a job at the library as an assistant and even then she was unsure how long she would be there, (in the end she was fired for issues involving a persons complaint on her) and was fearful that she would be out on the streets. For the last six months, Mary had been in and out of jobs, from car washer, gas station attendant to fast food worker, and on top of this she was only 18. She still had school to attend otherwise she would truly have no qualifications, or at least that's what her mother said.

Mary had dressed herself and left to go to school. She couldn't pack anything outside of her ratty bag, haphazardly containing sheets of notes she may or may not actually need and lacked the funds or time to organise and buy better stationary. It was 7:10, and the school she was heading towards, well, she wasn't even sure of its name as she hardly cared outside of it being where she needs to go to learn. Even as she was closing in on the school grounds, the students that began to surround her were practically nothing more than blurs in her mind, all Mary could think about was her breathing and how she breathed as she walked.

Some time, while she walks she sees a blur in the corner of her eyes. At first, she thought it was the sun catching her eye. The sky was clear but the sun was still rising, but when she looked to it, she found it was not light which stared at her, it was the dark. A shadow down an alleyway. It looked peculiar. Tall, slim and simple, but had a kind of complexity in how it stood there. All of this rushed her mind before the figure suddenly faded, almost as if it wasn't there. Mary stood still in the middle of the busy sidewalk as people began to move around her as she stared into the dim alleyway across the street where the figure once stood. Then, as if by impulse, Mary moved. Not subtly or hastily, but calmly. Calmer than ever she has ever been. Her feet stopped themselves, short of the midpoint where the road begins and the sidewalk ends. She stood still, still looking across the concrete river to the empty alley before hearing a voice.

"Why are you still here?"

The voice, it made everything, the horns of the traffic, the footsteps of the bystanders behind her, the buzzing of the traffic lights, even her own breathing, suddenly felt distant.

"Who actually cares for you?"

The voice was coarse and rough. No real smoothness in his speech but his point was sound and clear.

"What reason do you go on?"

Why do I go on? Mary thought. She is alone with no one and no thing to care for her life, to care for her death.

"Do you want meaning?"

The words clung to her ears. 'Meaning' she thought. In a moment she has never felt more desperate for such a thing, not even when she wanted to stay with her mother despite the insults she took by her and the community she was in. She then stared deeper into the alley and saw the dimness of it, reminding her of the empty room with nothing but a mattress, sheets, pillow and alarm, her only material possessions.

"Go to the alley"

Mary didn't hesitate. Placing one foot before her she calmly began her journey to the alley, beginning to cross the concrete river. Then in an instant, she heard once more the alarm in her room, beeping and howling, telling her to wake up and get out of bed. She ignored it.

"Miss, look out!" A voice yelled before a truck had rammed itself into the girl who suddenly walked onto the busy street out of nowhere, knocking her 15 feet away, scrapping her body on the pavement. Mary died on impact.