5: That Monster

Hysterical laughter could be heard in the corridor. Charlotte pressed forward, wondering what was going on. "Who could be in there?" she asked herself.

She traced where the laughter was coming from to the ladies bathroom. Opening the door, she came across her biggest shock.

Grey eyes. Purplish red hair. No pupils. Pale white skin. Just like her mother.

Ariana continued to laugh when she saw her mother, like she had seen a clown. "Ariana? What- how did this happen?" Mrs Mann asked in shock.

Her daughter just giggled at her. "Why are you surprised? Aren't you happy now?" she asked the woman. There was an echo in her voice, as if there were two speaking instead of one person.

"Ariana, please, take my hand," Mrs Mann said.

The girl hissed. "My name Elsy," she hissed at her like a snake.

Charlotte shook her head to clear it. She cleared her throat. "Alright…Elsy. Please, take my hand," she said again.

The girl looked at her with an expression of boredom on her face. "Really?" she said dryly and lunged at Charlotte.

"What is wrong with you?" Ariana's mother hissed as she dodged the blow that Elsy threw at her.

Elsy laughed. "I thought you would be happy when you see me. Is this how to welcome your long lost daughter?" she screamed.

"Ariana please stop this, otherwise I will be forced to retrain you," Mrs Mann said as she continued to dodge the multiple blows that came her way.

The creature stopped abruptly. Visible steam came out from her ears and nostrils. "I. Said. My. Name. Is. Elsy," she said, putting emphasis on each word.

She raised her hands up and began to mutter an incantation. Charlotte snapped. She had had enough. In a split second, she looked exactly like the transformed Ariana, with the only exception being the color of her hair. It remained bright red.

"I am willing to give you one last chance to stop this madness," Charlotte said to her.

The girl ignored her and continued to mutter to herself. Left with no choice, Charlotte struck her with a wave of sound.

Ariana woke up from sleep with a start. She held her head. "It was just a dream," she said to herself. "If only that was the case."

Her eyes strayed to the calendar. "What the hell?! Today is Monday?" she screamed and jumped out of the bed.

'If only Emily was here to wake me up early,' she said in thought. In less than fifteen minutes, she was already done with her shower and she rushed out again. While brushing her hair, Ariana stared into the mirror carefully. For a reason unknown to her, she continued to see Elsy in the stead of her usual reflection. She expected the other personality to speak to her but she remained silent.

"If you aren't going to talk to me, why are you here?" Ariana said at a point, completely frustrated. "You keep saying that you don't want to be in my body and that you will only appear when you deem it fit to talk to me. Why then are you in my mirror and keeping mute?"

No response.

The girl sighed and dropped the brush. "Looks like I'll have to just count on my hair to look presentable," she said to herself and grabbed her bag.

Her parents were already seated at the table when she got there. "Ariana, how are you?" her father asked when they caught sight of her.

"I'm fine, just surprised that you decided to have breakfast with me," she replied as she sat down, dropping the school bag on the floor beside her chair.

Served at the table were toast and tea, coffee for her parents. "The usual," she muttered as she stretched forth her hand to put some food on her plate.

As their daughter ate, she looked from one parent to the other. "May I know to what I owe your presence at this table?" she asked them after eating. "If you actually just wanted to eat with me - which I honestly doubt - thank you but I need to be on my way to school now."

Her father cleared his throat. "Ariana," he called. "Your mother and I would like to have a short word with you before you leave for school."

"Spill," she replied.

Mr Mann looked at his wife and took a gulp. "Your mother told me about the incident that occured on Saturday," he started. Her feet ran cold at his words but nevertheless, she paid attention to what he had to say. Seeing her countenance, he continued. "And unfortunately, Emily was here to see that…"

Ariana glanced at her watch and interrupted him. "Is there a way to hasten this speech? I have to leave for school in ten minutes," she said.

"Don't worry, he won't take too much of your time," Mrs Mann replied.

"I hope so," she muttered but waited for her father to finish up with what he had to say.

"Ariana, we just want you to be careful at school today. And we want you to be careful generally," he said. "You know that it was this kind of outburst that made us move away from Bayview, and I don't think that you would want us to move away from here as well."

"Please, do whatever you can to ensure that no one gets to find out about your true nature," her mother added in a pleading tone.

Their daughter laughed sarcastically. "Is that why you guys wasted my time here? I cannot believe that I wasted minutes of my life listening to you," she started. "First of all, mom and dad, I am trying to control these powers but there's only so much I can do. It's not like anybody taught me what to do with it." She eyed her mother as she said this.

"Ariana, this is not about who to blame…" her mom started.

A hand landed on the dining table with a big bang. "What is wrong with you? I didn't ask to be like this. Maybe if you actually listened instead of running your mouth, we wouldn't be having this conversation but alright. Anyway, I have places to be," she said and in the blink of an eye, she was out the door.