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Monday, January 28, 2013

Down the Up Staircase

Within the space of a few minutes; five at the very most...all of the plans, the hard work, the anticipation, the pride in her first major accomplishment vanished. Like the ashes from a slow burning cigarette her dreams went up in smoke. Or like wisps of a fine vapor may be a more accurate description. But any way you sliced it, her world and her state of mind had turned upside down sideways...like it had stopped turning on its circular axis, and stopped on a tilted angle.

Her phone had rang as she started up the staircase, and she answered it with the same upbeat and happy tone of voice that mimicked the way she was already feeling inside. When she got the news, she sat down on the step, and she didn't remember actually ending the call. She only knew that for so long a time she had sat there on the same step where she had sank after receiving the call. Her mind was a blank for a while, and she sat staring at nothing; her eyes focused but not seeing.

The phone call had been from Abigail Vanderberry her bride-to-be. Abigail had informed her in a matter of fact way that there would be no wedding taking place for her. She had called it off in a brief conversation just prior to making the call to Alexis with her now ex-groom Bryce Meyers. The fact that Abigail was so calm and controlled was in itself chilling. She had shown no sadness, no remorse and no ; well...emotion at all. She had simply made the statement that the wedding was off. She did however, answer one question that Alexis had managed to ask her before she became completely stunned, and that question was 'What happened?' to which Abigail had spoken in an almost disembodied voice "because he's dead, and I killed him".

When Alexis heard these words, she came within a hair of passing out completely. Instead, she simply sat there in a semi-catatonic state. Minutes passed and finally, Alexis came back to her senses. Her breathing was shallow, and there was an intense pain behind her eyes that was not only hurting like hell, but was causing her vision to blur.   At last, she tried to stand by bracing her hands on either side of her. She did stand up, but when she started to move she discovered that her limbs were numb from sitting for so long. Holding onto the banister for support, she steadied herself, and took several deep breaths to restore her normal breathing rhythm.

But she couldn't decide whether to go the rest of the way upstairs, or to go back down the staircase.
She stood there hesitating and her cell phone rang again. She looked down at the phone still in her hand as if she held a foreign object in her hand. While she stood hesitating, the ringing stopped before she could even look at the caller ID display. It immediately rang again, but this time she did press the talk button and in doing so, it was like spurning herself into motion. She went back down the staircase as she spoke into her phone. It was one of her best friends on the other end...Claudette Richardson.

Claudette was calling to check on her and to make sure her anxiousness hadn't taken over her and to get all of the last-minute details about the Vanderberry-Meyers shindig. Immediately, Claudette could tell something was terribly off key here. She had to call Alexis' name at least three times before she was sure Alexis was actually there. She held on and listened in silence as she received the update she was calling to receive although it was definitely NOT the content she had expected.

After Alexis had relayed all of the information that Abigail had shared with her, she suddenly remembered something, and spoke it out loud...Oh my God! What should I do? I've just been the recipient of a murder confession; should I call the police? Claude...what should I do?

Stay tuned.

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