Oddities

Now I know why everyone hated odd numbers. If you’re alone, you’re seen as an emo, creepy, and depressed madman who can’t get laid once in your life. If you’re in a group of 3, one of you will die. And if you’re in a group of 5, one of you will destroy everyone’s lives. In our case, it’s me.

Everyone has already forgotten what happened. Everyone was back with their rich, young, and dumb lives as if they didn’t just ruin someone’s life forever. But I didn’t. It’s still burned in my mind. Every second of it. Every scene, every moment, and every stinking breath. I remember it all. And I’m not the type of girl who forgets something when someone did me wrong. 

I stared at Alicia’s lifeless body in her own bed, eyes wide open and lips hanging as if her soul just came out of her mouth. She looked like a doll that ran out of battery. I smiled.

I’ve been waiting for how many years to see that look on her face. That look of hopelessness. That look of fear. That look of death. Now that I did it, I felt no regret just as how they felt no remorse when they ended mine.

“How’s it like to be dead, la chica?” I twisted a strand of her hair and touched her still-warm face.

“Too bad you can’t see your chicas anymore, can you?” The loud silence was the only one answering me.

“Oh, don’t worry, babe. They’ll follow you soon enough. I guarantee you that,” I winked at her and took a bottle of pill from my bag, carefully placing it on her side table. What a boring suicide. 

I stared at her one last time before going out of her house to hop in the car awaiting me in the far corner of Alicia’s village.

“I really don’t think this is right, Tori,” Vince said as soon as my butt hit the passenger’s seat.

“We’ve already done it, Vince. There’s no turning back” I said as I took off my mask and gloves. “God, it’s so fucking hot.”

“I never agreed to do this,” Vince retorted. I glared at him and wiped the sweat that ran down my face before answering him.

“Then, why are you here?”

He froze and opened his mouth to say something, only to leave it hanging when nothing came out. He shook his head defiantly and placed his hands on his steering wheel.

“See? Now, we go to our next target. Let’s go.” I gave him a big, evil smile but he didn’t give it back. He must’ve thought that I’m getting mad. Well, I already am.

Vince and I were best friends ever since god knows when. We were already together when we were still such boring, nerdy ass kids in high school and until now, after what all had happened. But in the days when our final year in college was about to get over, some things somehow started to fall off.

“You’re leaving me for them, Tori,” Vince said when I told him that I won’t be able to go home with him today.

“Don’t be so OA, Vince. Why would I leave you? I’m just…I’m just expanding my circle. That’s it. ” If he knew what my actual reason was, I wonder if he would still act the same.

“So you’re tired of me now, huh, Tori? Is that it?” His voice cracked.

“I told you I’m not gonna leave you, Vince! God, we’re already in college. Don’t act like a fucking kid. It’s not as if I’m leaving you for good. I’m just gonna go have some fun!”

“Why? Are you not having fun with me now? Am I not enough?” He looked at me with a face of betrayal and disappointment. He never gave me that kind of look before. 

“No, it’s not like that, Vince” I tried to convince him otherwise, but his mind seemed to be shut off from other things except his own thoughts. 

“You’ve changed, Tori. A lot. You’re no longer the person I knew,” he fixed his backpack on his shoulders and ran away. 

Of course, I did not follow him. I made a promise to my girls, after all. My girls.

“So have you decided what you’ll wear on the send-off night, Tori?” Cath asked me as she smoked on her balcony.

“Uh, yeah,” I said, even though I really don’t have any dress at all yet. I sipped on my glass of champagne and gave her a tight-lipped smile.

“Oh really? What brand is it, la chica? Chanel? Hermes? Prada? Or…” Alicia looked at me from head to toe before she continued. “Or…Shein?” She laughed hysterically, followed by Darsey and Cath.

“Don’t you dare copy my dress, girl. I swear, I’m gonna kill you myself,” Darsey looked at me with those intimidating, threatening eyes, which have always made me feel uneasy and uncomfortable.

“That would be impossible, Darsey. She doesn’t even know what your dress looks like yet,” Sol gave me a warm smile, and mouthed me, “Don’t worry about her.” 

I smiled back. She was so beautiful. I think ‘beautiful’ was even an understatement. She’s exquisite, magnificent, and godly. Would Vince be mad if I say that she was the reason why I always cling to their group? Well, regardless of what he would say, I would forever be grateful that I’m here and that we met that day. 

That day, I was waiting for my Multimedia instructor outside of the Arts Faculty office to submit my proposal when Sol came in, looking like some sort of angel who came down from heaven only for my eyes to see. But she didn’t see me, yet. 

She walked by from where I was standing and was about to knock on the office door when I stopped her.

“Uh, sorry, but we were told to wait outside. I think they’re having a meeting,” I said.

“Oh, okay,” Sol looked at me, startled. She then leaned on the wall beside me and looked down at what seemed like a sketchbook in her hands. 

“Nice sketch,” I said. There was a sketch of a dress or a gown or whatever it is in her sketchbook. 

“Thank you,” she smiled. A warm, gentle, and sincere smile. I think it was my first time seeing such a beautiful smile. She looked like a perfectly, sculpted sculpture that came alive. I feel like Michelangelo would be so damn happy to see her. Her skin looked so smooth and exquisitely pale. Her brown, wavy hair was glistening, matching the color of her hazelnut, almond eyes. And those tiny, scattered freckles sat perfectly well on her face. A whole definition of perfect. I wanted to draw her — no, I wanted to touch her — to see if she was real.

“You a Fash-D stud?” I asked. Well, it was fucking obvious that she was but I wanted to talk to her.

“Yeah,” she tucked her hair to her ears before she asked me back, “You?”

“Multimedia.” I quickly replied, enamored by her voice.

“Oh, so you draw too?” she stood straight from her position and looked excitedly at me. From then on, we started showing our own sketches, saying our own fair share of feedback, laughing and teasing one another, and the rest was history.

Now, Vince and I were on our next target. 

“I’ll…I’ll go with you,” he told me.

“No. You stay here. Let me handle this,” I shook him off and wore my mask and gloves.

I moved into her house and found her room. It was already 2:00 AM, so I expected that she was already asleep — but, hell, she doesn’t. Sol’s back was on me as she was sketching something on her table, facing her transparent window walls. Great.

I walked silently behind her, trying my best not to make any noise, as I brought out the rope inside my bag. Any second now, she could turn her face on me, so I gotta be quick.

When I’m only a breath away from her, I slowly raised my arm toward the top of her head. I already could smell the sweet scent of her perfume and the shampoo that she used. This made me want to hug her and suffocate her at the same time. When the rope was already near her forehead, her phone unexpectedly rang. I stopped dead on my feet.

“What? I’m busy,” Sol said, placing her phone on her left ear and continuing her business in front.

“We literally just fucked yesterday, Adam.” My grip on the rope tightened. Was he the same Adam in college? I’ll kill them both.

“Fuck off. I won’t go there just to get laid. I’m busy. Bye,” Sol was smiling as she brought her phone down to her table. I wanna erase that smile off of her face so badly — so I did.

I strangled her neck with my rope and whispered in her ear, “So, you like getting fucked, huh? I’ll fuck your life then.” 

I tightened the rope on her neck with my right hand as she gripped my arms away. She was already choking and tiptoeing a few inches from the ground as she struggled to fight me. “You can’t go away from me now, darling. You’re mine.” 

I removed my mask and kissed her cheeks as my left hand traveled all over her body. Her hair, her skin, her chest, her hips — I took my time touching her. I pressed her aggressively on mine as I continued to fuck the life outta her. She was already crying and falling limply on my body.

“Tori…please…stop,” she cried and cried and cried, but I didn’t stop. I can’t hear her and I don’t really care. I felt the same way that night — drunk and high. I touched her sensitive parts, squeezed her chest, and let my fingers drift above her down there, all while I tightened harder and harder my grip on the rope.

I  didn’t realize it sooner, but she was already dead by the time I got back to my senses. I was stunned, but overall feeling no regret. I laid her on her bed the same way I did to Alicia, and went out of her house as quickly as I can. Her scent still lingered on me. 

Vince found me three blocks away from her house. I stepped into the car and let a big, heavy sigh as soon as I sat down.

“What happened?” Vince asked, looking at me with worried yet anxious eyes.

“Nothing,” I said.

“You sure? You looked quite…” He trailed off.

“High?” I finished what he was supposed to say. I smirked at him and gave him a devilish laugh.

“Oh, I had fun, Vince. I wished you could’ve come. You didn’t see her face struggling around the rope.”

“Rope?” He looked at me to see if he heard it right. “What the fuck, Tori? I thought you wouldn’t use them?” 

“I told you I would if worse comes to worst. Besides, I had fun,” I smiled wickedly at him and threw my hair to the side, which angered him more.

“Fun? What do you mean you had fun? What the fuck did you do?” He shouted.

I did not answer him. I know he wouldn’t like to know. So I let him be.

“We really need to stop this, Tori. This is wrong. What you’re doing is wrong. You need to stop, Tori. We need to stop. I won’t run this car anymore.” He turned off the car engine with his car keys and leaned back in his seat.

“Oh don’t push my buttons, Vince. Not today. Turn your car on. Now,” I demanded.

“No,” he replied stubbornly.

“Don’t try me,” I leaned over to his seat and tried to snatch the car keys from his hand but he resisted. He put his hand in the air and swung it away from me.

“Give me the keys, Vince,” I kept on tugging on his arm but he was much stronger and bigger than me.

“No.”

“You’re annoying the shit out of me now, Vince. Give me the keys!” I didn’t realize it sooner, but something in me darkened, and my instinct get the best of me. I started strangling his neck and choking him the way I did with Sol and Alicia.

“Tori! Tori!” I can’t hear him. I was too distracted and angry and annoyed and stressed and overwhelmed. I can no longer recognize my surroundings. 

After what seemed to be a minute — which felt like an hour to me — he kicked me hard against the side door and coughed aggressively.

“What the fuck was that, Tori?” He coughed again. “You could’ve killed me!” And again. “Look at what all this revenge did to you! It turned you into a fucking monster!” I looked at him, frozen in my seat.

“I’m…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know what I’m doing,” I pleaded.

“You didn’t mean it? I saw your eyes, Tori! You’re really trying to kill me!" There was silence after that but after a minute, he continued, "Why can’t you just let this go?”

The monster in me has escaped.

“Let this go? What the fuck, Vince? They fucking killed me that night! They killed me! And all you’re saying now is I should let this go? As if this is something I could easily forget like they did? What the fuck?” 

“For fuck’s sake, Tori, nothing’s ever gonna happen after all of this is done! This is not right. What you’re doing is not right. You’re…you’re being no different than them the way you are right now! Stop being so stuck into that night. This is not the right way of moving on, Tori!”

I froze in my seat and stared at him. 

That send-off night, I finally tried to get my move on Sol. We danced in the middle of the swarming, drunk crowd as I put my hand on Sol’s waist. She raised her arms into the air, and swayed with the music, looking as drunk as I am. I tried to stand closer to her, our chests already touching and our breaths already turning into one. I brought my face nearer to hers, my lips touching the shell of her ear. I continued to dance along with her. After some time, I dragged my hands upper and upper toward her chest. 

“You having fun, darling?” I whispered to her ear seductively and touched her breast. 

“What the fuck, Tori?” She pushed me away and stared at me disgustingly. The fun atmosphere around the two of us faltered.

“I-I’m sorry. I was just…I was just drunk and… and I don’t know what I was doing,” I laughed to ease the mood.

“You’re disgusting,” Sol looked at me from head to toe and walked away from me. I didn’t expect her to react that way. I thought…I thought she also liked me. 

I lingered longer on the dancefloor, trying to drink as much liquor as I can before I gathered enough courage to follow her. I found her in the bathroom, but she was not alone.

“Tori was fucking disgusting. She squeezed my breast and looked as if she wanted to kiss me. She was fucking creepy and even called me ‘darling’. Yuck,” Sol scorned with obvious disgust. She was talking to the other three.

“Maybe she likes you,” I heard Cath said.

“What? So she’s like…like gay?” Alicia asked dumbfoundedly. 

“Want me to do something to her?” Darsey chimed in, laughing.

I could not stand them talking about me so I ran off to the dancefloor again, drinking my night away. But, later that night, Darsey called me to their place. I thought they won’t talk to me again, but I still followed. 

“Let’s have some fun, Tori! Drink this!” She handed me a full glass of alcohol and urged me to chug it whole. I’m already drinking and trying to forget what happened, so I accepted it and drank the glass obeyingly.

About thirty minutes after, I saw heaven. 

The four of them were letting me drink everything and making me do anything. They forced me to be touched by men in front of them, to dance shamefully in the middle of the crowd, and to even forcing me and Vince to make out. I was drunk and high, so I followed what they said — if that meant entertaining her. And I was sure I did because while I was in the middle of my inebriety, I saw Sol laughing and having fun with her sight.

Eventually, when the send-off night is done, they invited me to join in their car fun. I followed them again, not even minding what we were gonna be up to in the middle of the night.

Darsey was driving the wheel, Cath was in the passenger seat, and I was sitting between Alicia and Sol in the back seat. I was already drifting off so I paid them no mind where we were going. 

But when I woke up, I was no longer in the car. No longer in the awkward back seat with Sol. I’m even no longer on land. I was now in the river — my body moving along its waves. I don’t how I got here. All I know was that the four of them left me there, floating in the river alone until authorities found me a day after. I did not try to move or go home even if I could. Something in me died when they left me in the river.

Now, I stare at Vince's lifeless body in the back seat of his car as I drove to my next target. Two more left.