The Borders Of Depression

Kill her, or else.

Nights are dark and days are light,

Hearts can break with meaningless cries

Mia paused, the Hello Kitty pencil her twin Adalyn had gotten her for her fifteenth birthday digging into her palm. She was gripping it too tightly.

Poetry, whether enlighting or morbid, was her release. Her life was slowly falling apart, piece by fragile piece, and the people around her were witnessing it crumble before their very eyes. They could see the scars on her arms, the prominent fear in her eyes, and the lack of life in anything that she did. Mia was fading away, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

“Mia, are you okay?” Adalyn asked her sister, placing one shaking, yet reassuring hand on Mia's tense shoulders. Mia had been having strange moments for the past few months. Every night she'd wake up screaming, her hands pressed against her ears and her eyes tightly shut. Once or twice she'd told Adalyn to make the voices stop. The voices that only she herself could hear. Adalyn was beginning to worry and, although she regretted doing so, considering the hurtful fact that Mia might need some kind of professional help.

Mia swallowed the lump of fear that had lodged itself in her throat. Could Adalyn tell that she was teetering on the borders of depression? Would she tell their work-a-holic of a mother and make her attend helpless counselling sessions? Was her twin that shallow? Would she do it out of love or out of pure spite?

"I'm fine." She answered, her voice void of any emotion.

Adalyn pursed her lips. She didn't have to be her twin to know that Mia was blatantly lying. She'd never lied to her before. It hurt.

"If you say so," And with those simple words, she turned her back on her sister and continued finishing off her Calculus homework, which she was positive she'd gotten all wrong. She had never been one for anything associated with Mathematics.

While Adalyn scribbled numbers into her Maths binder, her sister watched as wisps of black smoke circled her window, slowly forming into the face of a black-haired, dark-eyed woman no older than twenty-five. If it wasn't for the sadistic smirk on her face, she might've been considered as being beautiful.

"Kill her," the woman mouthed, dragging her hand down the dirt-stained glass, "or else."

Mia's palms became slick with sweat and her Hello Kitty pencil slid down onto the desk with an almost inaudible clink.

She's not there, she thought to herself repeatedly, not there, not there, not there, not there.

***

"How was your day?" Sunny asked her children, smiling warmly as she began serving them each a large spoonful of peas.

"Ew," Seven year-old Deryk cried, pushing his plate away from him with one disdainful shove of a finger. Sunny's disapproving stare scared him a tiny bit, but it didn't change his opinion on the round vegetable.

"The day was fine," Adalyn chirped happily before her mother could reprimand her younger brother. "I finished my Math homework," somehow, she added mentally, "and Elena asked me if I could go out tomorow for a little retail therapy. Can I?"

Sunny snorted as she sat down in her own seat at the table, obviously amused. "And why would you need retail therapy? This is my money you're going to waste on crap, you know."

Adalyn rolled her eyes. "Mom, my boyfriend broke up with me on Friday. Give me a freaking break. Besides, it's my money. I saved up five-hundred dollars, remember?"

"Your boyfriend broke up with you?" Mia asked quietly, her brow furrowed in confusion. Her sister hadn't even told her she had a boyfriend.

Adalyn bit her lip. "Yeah, but I didn't tell you because it was only, like, a week-long relationship. Really short and completely meaningless.

Mia thought back to the poem she had been writing. She still hadn't finished it. Hearts can break with meaningless cries.

"Nothing is meaningless, Adalyn. Nothing."

No one but Mia could hear the faint laughter of a man echoing in her ear.

I'm going insane. I'm not going insane, not going insane, not going insane. Help me, help me, help me, help me.