Serenity       

        "Serenity?" Asked a calm voice that brought me back to the here-and-now. I quickly looked back at the broad-shouldered man sitting across from me. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties. He called himself Dr. Michaels, and he had been trying to help me since I arrived here. He had on a white doctor's coat that made him look kind of dorky. Those big perfectly circular glasses of his added to his dorkish looks. I'm not sure what it was about his face that clashed with the glasses, but it was a shame since he would've been drop-dead gorgeous otherwise with that messy short black hair, those amber eyes, and well formed nose. Oh well; I probably would have enjoyed these psychiatric tests more without them. I almost asked him to take them off, but...anyways. Once he saw that he had my attention, he turned back to the notepad on the desk in front of him, next to a file containing everything these people had on me. It kind of freaked me out that they could pull all that stuff on me so quickly, but I guess they felt they had to be extra thorough because I'm listed as: "Violent and Extremely Dangerous."

        "You were talking about Rose," said the man coolly, taking my lack of a response to mean that forgot what I was saying. He was right.

        "Yes, sorry." I shrank back in my seat and began to twiddle my thumbs, I started looking nervously around the small room we were in. There was only the table and the two chairs we were sitting in, a door behind Dr. Michaels on the ugly grey walls, and those bright ceiling lights. At times, this felt like a police interrogation. "She comes to me in my dreams, or even if I'm just by myself in a quiet place for too long I can hear her talking to me."

        "What does she say?"

        "Oh...um," I had to find my words. I really didn't like talking about Rose. I don't like talking to people I don't know well at all, or people that are analyzing everything to say to determine whether I'm sane, and definitely not about something that personal. "Sh-she usually just calls me 'little baby' or 'spineless bitch.' Things like that."

        "Mhm. That's all?" He finished scrawling on his notepad and looked back at me.

        "Uh..." I pulled my legs closer to me against the chair. I felt a chill in the air and I shivered as my thumb-twiddling sped up. I wanted out of here. Rose was right, I'm no good with people. I'm supposed to be fourteen, but I don't even know what fourteen-year old girls do. I'm too busy dealing with my own issues to have time to be normal. I really am hopeless, just like Rose said. I tried to pull myself together. I had to keep talking, I had to get this stuff off my chest.

        "No, D-Doctor. She says I shouldn't be angry or sad about what happened. I should be relieved. She did us a favor, she said." I had a lot of trouble getting that last bit out. I could feel my chest tightening and my mouth drying out as I said it. The tears started to well up. I could almost hear the screaming, smell the fire, see the blood. This was bringing back too many painful memories.

        "You mean about your parents' murd-excuse me, the death of your parents?"

        I nodded, and then looked down. I'd take any excuse not to open my mouth right now.

        "I know this is difficult for you, but every bit of information helps us, Serenity. I only have a few more questions, can you keep it together a bit longer?"

        "Mhm," I nodded again. Anything to put off talking to Rose again in my white-padded room.

        "So, when Rose talks about burning your parents to death, or any of the things she says she did, does she ever seem like she regrets hurting those people? Do you think she feels like you do - sorry about it?" He leaned forward in his chair and had his pen ready to go. I was a little put-off by the way he said that. he almost sounded like he was more curious than sympathetic.

        I shook my head, no. Rose had no regrets about it. I doubt she was capable of feeling remorse or regret. she didn't seem to understand the difference between right and wrong, or just didn't care because she was having too much fun.

        "She enjoyed it," I said weakly. The doctor nodded with a very serious and thoughtful expression on his face as he jotted more down on his pad.

        Damn right I enjoyed it, a sultry voiced echoed in my head. Your doctor friend and all his pals are next. Oh man, I can't wait! I heard her licking her chops as though preparing for dinner. I didn't say anything back. I just curled myself up into a fetal ball and started shivering. It was all I could do. I knew who it was.

        Rose, the other me, was back. this time it was different though. She never spoke when I was with another person or near a group. I thought I heard the doctor calling and shouting my name as I slipped out of my chair and onto the floor, but it sounded far-away. I couldn't hear or feel much of anything now. Even my eyesight got cloudy. I could only feel her, hear her, and see her staring at me with the same serpentine green eyes and pale face as mine. She even had the same straight red hair. It fell across her shoulders and ran halfway down her back. We might've looked and sounded the same, but the way we carried ourselves was completely opposite. She never slumped like I did. Words came so easily to her that they slid off her tongue like drops of that vintage fine wine my mom drank at parties. She was the queen bee, and she made sure everyone knew it. She was everything I was not, but also much, much, worse. I couldn't let her take over now, or else no one in this building was safe. None of these ordinary people knew about us, what we really are and even if I told them they wouldn't believe it. I tried to block her out, to focus on my surroundings, but she just laughed at me.

        You're feeling feisty, eh Serenity? C'mon, you know these people don't matter to you. No more than the father who got wasted and beat you senseless day after day, and the mother who just let him, but still pretended to shower you with "love" and "joy."

        You're Wrong! I screamed. They did matter to me! They did... I was probably crying in the room because I started to in my head. I was completely numb to the outside world now.

        Then why didn't ya stop me, babe? Hm? I'll tell ya why. It's because deep down you didn't want me to stop. You didn't care about your parents, or the others I killed. You don't care about the doctor or anyone else in this loony bin. They don't care about you either. You're just how they make their next paycheck. I'm put'n my two cents on his report, then Imma put his blood on it. You're welcome to try and stop me, and if I'm wrong you might actually pull it off. But, I don't see that happening. Like, ever. Catch ya later, crybaby!

        I struggled, trying to fight it, but no matter how hard I resisted, I felt myself slipping away into the darkness. Down, down, fell, until there was nothing...