[Click]

Hello. Hello. Hello—

I really don't think repeating hello into your phone will make it respond Ellie, but sure, you could keep trying.

Oh, uh, Mark! I was just—

[Click]

[Click]

This is Ellie Bay speaking and it's ten to five in the evening here.

[Static]

When I was seven years old, I would tell my mother how I would grow up to be just like Marcus; kind, helpful and smart. Mom would simply smile at me and then ask me to help her lay the table, because oh, didn't Marcus do it every other time?

I suppose that's the curse of a being a younger sibling. You're always the second option. 

Clothes? The gray one we got for your brother doesn't fit him; take it. Toys? Oh, he doesn't play with the blue one. You can have it Ellie, dear.

I had come to accept it. But that didn't mean I necessarily liked it, you see. I still dreamt of moments where people saw me for myself and not as 'Marcus's little sister'.

I'm not saying all this will excuse what I did today. I don't think anything will, but it might (I'm hoping), make you understand where I'm coming from.

[Deep breath] 

I walked into the lunch hall with the straps of my bag digging into my shoulder blades and my eyes nervously darting from left to right as I looked for a place to sit. My paradise had already been found and I really had no intention of being knocked into unconsciousness again.

My eyes had only just fastened on a small table at at the end of the hall, when a voice calling my name stopped me. My name? I remember wondering. Someone actually knew my name?

But of course they did. Everything was going to change the next minute. I just didn't know it.

Before I could snap out of my stupor and look in the direction of the voice, an arm had wrapped itself around my shoulders and I felt my breath quicken with the sick feeling of foreboding.

"Ellie! I knew you'd come around eventually," came a soft voice. More pleasantries were exchanged and I found myself surrounded by the same people from yesterday. A peppy brunette with a smile that threatened to break into a frown, hugged me and made me sit down at their table.

Yes, I was annoyed, I admit. But I also knew the lunch hall wasn't a place for confrontations, so I faked a smile and exchanged stories all the while hoping someone would mess up and let their true self show through.

That's when—

[Static]

Yeah, mom. I'm opening the door. Just give me a sec.

[Click]

[Click]

Ellie bay signing off. 

[Editor note: The publishing house would like to bring assure the reader that while the third recording may not contain any vital information regarding Ellie Bay's condition, it does contain events that may help explain events taking part at a latter time and hence was necessary for the progression of the same.]