Monster in the Dark

"Are you ready?" Zela ask me from the bathroom as I sigh. I couldn't bring myself to answer.

As I stood in front of the mirror, in complete awe of the person in front of me. Caressing my unrecognizable face, still unsure if it was even my own.

Yes, I know what your thinking. A nerd suddenly powders her face and takes off her glasses and suddenly she's perfect? No! My glasses were too big, bifocals contacts could not be found. But I never once in my life saw myself as less than average. But today I did. For the first time in years I was proud of myself.

"Francesca?" Zela calls me as I run my hand over my slightly emerging collar bone. I was never the skinniest girl, but today, in this dress I felt like the prettiest. "You look…" Zela starts as she sees my reflection. "different?" She says, sounding more like a question.

Some may have found her reaction to be relatively rude, but I found it honest. My face was aligned with makeup, drawing more attention to my honey gold eyes, my oddly shaped lips painted with gloss lipgloss. My pear shaped body outlined with the pink gown as I warped my fingers through my curled hair, tossed to to my right shoulder. This exposed on of my biggest insecurity, a birth mark that showed on the small of my neck. What seemed like a glowing, magnetic pull to the eyes, but what was really a makeshift shape everybody liked to tease me about that darken over the years to a darkened brown.

"Mom always told me to wear more pink" I admit to my sister as I turn around. "She always said it would bring it would complement my skin" I finish as she smiles at me.

"It looks perfect" she complements me through her smile as she grips her clutch in her bag.

"Thank you" I say graciously as I look to her. Her black gown that settled at the floor and fanned out like a flower blossoming. "You look magnificent" I complement her as she laughs.

"Let's save the awkward conversation for later" Zela says as she links her arm with mine. "We have a gala to attend!" She proclaims greatly as I laugh.

I wasn't ready! I thought this to myself in silence. As I looked around, not even entering the mansion. The mansion luring people in with the elegant lighting, glossy cars and newest fashion. And in the middle of the walkway I felt like the last same shy girl in that high school hallway. Lost and never quite found.

"Francesca?" Zela call to me as I want to answer but I'm frozen in fear. "Are you okay?" She ask me as I take a deep breath and choke down my fear. That shy girl was not the same girl that stood in that walkway, and never would be again! I was changed, and some things would never be the same.

"I'm fine" I finally answer Zela as she smirks, and her grin brings a smile to my teeth.

But the interior of the estate dazzled me. But suddenly as my lustful eyes are pulled from their enchantment by a single tap on the shoulder.

"Someone has asked for your company" the man in a suit tells me as I sigh. And the single thought unlocked the butterflies in my stomach. Could it have been Nathaniel?

"Okay" I whisper under my breath as the man takes hold of my wrist and before I can say a hurried goodbye I'm rushed to a room, locked inside and left.

As I finally stand their, realizing what really happened I sigh in despair. And turning around to see the pitch black that surrounds me as I turn my back to the door in discomfort.

Usually the darkness was one of the few places I now seeked refuge, but now. Standing and staring into pitch black I convinced myself that nothing good laid there. As I backed away, closer to the door in fear of nothing short of a monster on the other side of the room.

"I've been waiting for you Francesca" I hear that deadly greeting as I didn't even have to look to the person. I recognized his voice right away. From the campaign commercials, his politics and suddenly it clicked. I was standing in front of the only monster I'd ever known, Elijah Knight. "Didn't think you'd come" he says as he flicks the piling ash off of his cigarette.

"So I thought it'd be better if I surprised you" he announces to me as I turn my back to him and start banging on the door.

"OPEN THIS DOOR NOW!!" I command through angry yells as I can hear him laughing from behind me.

"No one can hear you" he says as I swing back around, not trusting him at all. "That's why I picked this part of the house" he says as he moves his coat out of the way to finally reveal the real device that gave him his power. Concealed, tucked into his waistband of the jacket was a gun. "It's perfect" he declares as I just try and keep my focus on breathing and then I stop.

"That's not intimidating" I tell him as I shake off my fear.

"I'm so sorry your not Francesca" he say as he lays his gun on his desk and walks closer to me. "This is going to make this a lot harder" he says through his malice voice as I take a deep breath and stand up tall.

"What do you want?" I ask him as his eyes lower to me, full of anger and hate, too much for a girl he's never meet til now.

"I want to settle this feud now" he says as he takes out a large envelope out of his jacket pocket, holding it in his palm.

"We have no feud" I tell him as he smirks at my assumption.

"Naive of you to think I have no feud with you" he says as he circles around me, reeling me in. "I have a feud with everyone in this town" he says as he stands closer to me. So close I could feel my hair standing up on its own, his presence sent goosebumps through me as he leaned in closer to me, "And dirt on everyone in this town" he declares victoriously as swiftly turn around to him. Looking him dead in his eyes, reciprocating his same expression.

"Then what is our feud about" I pry as he chuckles at my question, and I can hear the insanity through his malnourished laugh.

"That doesn't matter" he says as he walks closer to me, standing across from me, his eyes looking down to my own. "The only thing you have to worry about is leaving" he says as he place the heavy envelope in my palm. "I want you gone" he tells me as I stop. "Or I will make you disappear" he threatens as I bite my lip, drawing blood and still feeling pain throughout my body.

I was right at the beginning. The man lurking in the corner wasn't like a monster, he was. The only real ones that exist in this life