Forgetting Mellaine

Unmask

I’m in darkness, a way too long to recognize the right path. I can’t see anything but myself – the horrible and frightened Mellaine. I walked with it, I turned my gaze but I can’t see anything – it feels so light, but horrific, that I’m getting dragged to its malevolent shadows, there is no way out. Maybe. Maybe a light will shine later on, I have to keep moving. I don’t need to stop. There’s no reason to stop. I don’t know which path I am taking right now, but one thing I have in my mind is, I should go ahead straight and never look back. Each step feels so heavy, pulling me to the ground, holding me as its acrimonious nails with unforgivable thoughts are piercing, digging inside my flesh. It was hunting me. I am slowly, in deed, slashing by the wounds and sins I have made from the past. A past that I should forget and never remember. A feeble and sombre voice suddenly lingered from the back, it was calling me. I slowly turned my head and saw an image of a man, standing still from the distant. A pervasive amber light surrounds him, letting me not to see who he is. He called me by my name.

Mellaine…

Mellaine…

I have searched for you and now I have found you…

His voice suddenly became a dreary one – a hint; a sign of the heavy weighted pain he is carrying with himself. I wanted to reach him out and maybe…maybe I can lessen his burden, when the light turned into grey, fierce, suddenly stopped me. The man laughed – the laugh that is impulsive and wicked in manner. He isn’t anymore showing his miserable side but a total opposite one; the one that no person will ever want to witness and dwell with it; the one I’ve been running for has already found me and now gaining much power to do his part – to take a revenge.

His voice became louder – he was crying in anger. Slowly, I was able to recognize his face – it was Brandon.

I received a sudden punch – the one that could possibly break my jaw; the one that made me turned myself back into the sickening reality I am in right now. I slowly opened my eyes and saw the anger rushing on his face, clenching his hands. Perhaps, he’s a servant of Death – waiting for the right time to take someone’s precious life with his own might. Clearly, Death has his own ways to reveal himself, and that is through the image of Brandon.

“Goddamn it! Who told you to fall asleep? Our game is not yet done!” He shouted, totally pissed. It was still noon, but the weather is dwelling with what’s happening right now – my sadness and the anger of this hideous man – it was showing its dark, gloomy clouds from above.

“Now, look at the picture.” He demanded with a steady voice, but I refused. “Just f*****g look at it! Oh, I see…You can’t bare to look at it don’t you?”

That picture…that picture is him – a burnt face that makes him almost unrecognizable.

“Well, you see…you don’t have to explain such things to me, Mellaine, especially what happened to you in the past with your dear husband. I know it so well; all the things; all that had happened; all that is. In. The. Past.” He added.

I looked at him as he slowly took off his contact lenses – No, those eyes… My tears fell on my cheeks as I saw him again. All these years I’ve been trying to escape and somehow erase those things that dwell in the past, but little did I know, little did I see that the person who contributed the most of it is staying with me right now.

You’re a crazy woman.

You’re stupid.

“I see. So, I guess you already know who I am. Well, don’t you want to hug your…own husband, Mellaine? Didn’t you miss me? Your husband, Robert?” He chuckled as he changed his voice just like how Robert speaks.

I laughed silently on how things are going at this moment – totally messed up and just killed me right now. I felt a tingling pain at my back, holding my emotions in order. The world is so cruel, hugging me with the fears creeping from the insides - those desires that fed a man to become a beast, those dismays and anger scratching, making the old wounds open again.

I stared at the man in front of him. “R-Robert.” I said, almost a total whisper.

“Yes. It’s me, my wife. It’s me, Robert.” He hugged me, embracing me tight around his arms. It wasn’t even love, but full of hatred. I was scared, my legs are shaking. Thinking about the past and now, which is supposed, I thought, to be our chance; a sign for us to make our own love story; a chance for me to start. I thought I made it this far to live a peaceful life, but it wasn’t, I was being played by him in his own game.

This is pain. This is madness.

Brandon, no. It was Robert – sat on the edge of the bed and carefully looked at me with his disgusted face.

“You know, I was thinking. It’s kind of funny to think that I made you fall in love with me again, in the image of a non-existing person, whom you called as your sweet and loveable boyfriend, Brandon. I didn’t know you would fall for a person like him with those characteristics. You somehow surprised me with your standards, my dear. It’s just sad…” He held his chest with his hand, acting like he was hurt. “It’s sad that you fall in love to another man…Oh, I remember, it was still me! Brandon is me!” He laughed. He was getting insane and wicked.

“P-please…let me go…please…R-Robert.” I begged him with my sobs. Not just my emotions that hurt, but also my body, it was burnt, bruised and sore from his slaps and punches.

“Why will I let you go if I have to carefully take my plan just to see you, and now that I am able to do it, now that I held you with myself, there’s no way that I will let you go, Mellaine.” He said.

I cried but he suddenly wiped my tears gently. “W-Why are you doing this?”

He looked at me. Somehow, behind his anger there was sadness and longing to be loved again, but he managed to hide those things away from me immediately. “At first, I want you to love me again. I want to feel that love again from you, even just for being a Brandon to you, because I know you can’t forgive yourself if you see your husband again. But I realized, you didn’t love me because I am Robert, you loved me again because I was a different person – a person in the image of Brandon O’ Lier. Did you have fun making love with me?” He smirked.

I glared at him and made a disgusting face. “No. I felt disgusted for doing it with you. I wish I can wash it all clean down there.”

“But, I’m sure we’re going to have a baby. I remembered I asked you one time regarding that matter, and you want one. Don’t you think it’s a blessing?” He said excitedly.

“If I’ll be having a baby, I’ll make sure that you are not the father.” I said with pettiness.

He slapped me hard. “b***h!...I-I gave you all that I have. I gave you a better life, I made you feel that you’re the most precious person in my life. I even supported you in getting your dreams! But damn it! I loved you so much and I still do. Despite of those scars I was able to hide and get myself a surgery and even made me change my voice for you not to recognize me anymore, for you to see me again and for me to love you again, you still have that same faces, the disgusting ones for me. How cruel of you to do such things?!” He bursts in tears as he said those words.

Cruel…He gave me that thing. Perhaps, the relationship we made for several years had already been broken so much, that it couldn’t be fixed. I wished there are words to mend our broken souls – I admit, we both hurt each other and it led to such a miserable outcome, the accident that almost got us both killed; the one that made him changed his face; the one that made me ran, seeking for a new life.

“Possessiveness, being such a strict b***h in the house, having me do such things that is according to your demands, keeping me away from people who’re close to me, especially those who are men and even my own family, choking me with your dominance….is that how you call it as a support? Did you even support me on how I wanted? Of course not! All you did is acted like a goddamn perfect boyfriend, and when we took our marriage, you suddenly changed into a devil. I’m just one of your possessions –.”

He cut me off. “Because I was f*****g scared that I will lose you! That you will leave me!”

Tears rushed on my cheeks. The rain began to fall itself. The pavements are getting wet. But still, I am here – being tied and locked inside.

“How can you say such things?... Did you even ask if I will leave you?”

“You already did.” His face stiffened just like his posture. He was obscured and lost in his own miserable thoughts. “This is enough. What’s in the past has already been done.”

“Now, all I want is to burry you together with Brandon.” He laughed. “That will be fun for sure!”

He slowly took a gun out from his back pocket and slowly pointed it towards me. His face showed a total strength to do such horrible thing. No, you can’t do that.

“I-I’m begging you…you don’t have to do this R-Robert. Please…” My voice was cracked and shaky. I felt so hopeless.

“It’s nice to see you beg for your life…just like how I beg for you to save me in that fire.” He stared at me blankly, no emotions can be seen in him. It was just emptiness that surrounds him.

“P-Please…”

“You knew I was still there, desperately asking for the help of my wife. But you decided…not to give me just a little help from you. You refused to get back and left me burning…” He gritted his teeth.

“You’re a cruel person, Mellaine…just like your husband…”

No…No, I didn’t kill him. Robert is still here..alive. He’s alive.

“You did kill me. You killed me just after you left the door in our house, while I was burning inside. But did you ever wonder, how I brought myself back to you and how I managed to escape that f*****g fire?” He made a mock.

“Of course, I got someone to help me out. But…I’ll let you be the one to know who that person is. And yes, I faked my own death. I did get a lot of fun by doing such things. In fact it was all for you. This plan is for you, my dear. I think my Christmas gift will be given in advance, which is right now.”

“W-what? You really don’t have to do this…p-please I’m begging you…please…please let me go. R-Robert please.” I cried.

“Do you think I will fall for that pleases of yours?” He grinned. He aimed the gun on my forehead. Everything is heavy. “Till death do us apart – ” He was about to pull the trigger when a hard slam on the door stopped him. Footsteps dashed like a blaze towards my room. I heard a familiar voice – it was Mr. Stephen.

An opportunity, a chance for me to ask for help. I breathe deeply and shouted. “HELP! PLEASE HELP ME!” Robert was totally surprised and didn’t expect that they will be coming. Mr. Stephen and the others made a slam on my room’s door. They are trying to break in. Robert panicked and pulled the gun away from me. He is debating with himself, between he’s going to shoot me directly or spare his life by having an escape. Either ways, I’m sure he somehow wants to keep his life at all cost and not die.

“You are now being surrounded, Mr. Brandon. Please open this door.”

“Damn it! f**k!” He hissed. “Get up!” He forcefully untied me from the chair, releasing the rope on the floor. Grabbing me by the arm, he pulled me up, serving myself as his own shield, a protection to the officers. He was behind me, placing the gun towards my head. Pushing me to the door, he demanded to open it. Slowly I was able to see Mr. Stephen and the others, aiming their guns towards our direction. I was crying. I was aching for their help.

“Move.” Robert said behind my ear. I slowly made a step outside the room, which made all of us, perhaps hold our breaths and conscious of what will happen next. A tingling sensation rang on my ear, enough for me to see the surroundings in a slow movements. Everything seems to be light, like a feather falling to the ground. Maybe death is slowly taking me to his embrace and for sure would want to do that thing for now. They still didn’t know who truly this man is, still giving him the name as Brandon, and that hurts me. It hurts that he made me realized that I fell in love to him again, but in a different image. The Brandon side of him was too way different from who he is. Thinking that if I was able to meet that side of him as his true self, maybe things will work out for us – but it’s just all for hopes now.

Robert used me as his protection from the cops. Of course, he has no other plan but to use me. When we are getting near to the main door, everyone was still vigilant with all the actions inside the house. The clocks slowly ticks by, when he suddenly pulled me closer to him. He gently turned himself out of the house, walking sideways to his car that was parked. Now his gun is aimed towards any cop that is trying to shoot him. I saw Howard with the other officers, near their cars. France and Amy are there too, inside one of the vehicles. Their faces told me how worried they are and that they still didn’t know what’s happening clearly– why Brandon is taking me as a hostage right now; why lovers turned into this kind of situation; why all they can see in Brandon’s face are only anger and hatred towards me. I felt so lifeless.

What if I get killed by him and what if I can manage to live? What will happen next? Somehow, my mind is blank.

The two ladies shouted inside the car. A sudden shot surprised all of us. I closed my eyes shut, but I recognized how Brandon lost his grip on my arm. I slowly turned to him and saw that he was shut on his left leg. He cussed. The wound began to bleed. He aimed the gun directly and was able to shoot Mr. Stephen on the arm. Another officer shot him back on his right arm, which made the gun slipped in his grip. He cried in pain, cussed with all his anger. I looked at everyone, a ray of light shined in my eyes, it was a chance; a chance for me to escape and maybe…maybe a chance for me to take things right again, or maybe just run from everything.

I saw them – running towards the both of us. Mr. Stephen passed through me and held Robert by his arm together with the other officers. Brandon was fighting, he wanted to escape but he couldn’t do anything – they’re able to put the cuffs on him. I stood still, emotionless. Two officers led me to a safer place, a few meters away from Robert. I saw France running to my direction, together with Amy and Robert. The heat is shining so bad on us, but all I felt was emptiness as I see him being held – looking straight at me, telling me that he will get back and for sure by that time he will take my life without thinking twice. But somehow in those eyes, there was sadness and emptiness just like mine.

Brandon left us with silence. He walked with the cops and went inside the car.

“M-Mellaine…” France cried and embraced me around her arms, like a mother’s longing for her child to be safe. Amy held my hand. I stared at them two, and let myself leaned on France’s shoulder.

“We’ll take Mr. Brandon.. For now, I’ll let her rest for a while and leave some of us to take care and give you security here.” I heard Mr. Stephen talked to Howard.

“We’ll take care of her. Thank you Mr. Stephen.” Howard said attentively.

“No worries.” He looked at me, his eyes showed how concern he’s. “I’m glad you’re safe now, Ms. Mellaine.”

I turned my gaze to the car where Robert is. He was looking down. A tear fell on my cheek as I remembered him, the husband I once loved before.

“We should leave. Please take care all of you. And if anything will happen, call me immediately anytime.” Mr. Stephen said and went ahead with the others, together with Robert.

Death wasn’t able to get himself next to me. I don’t know how to react – all are mixed up. Everything seems so blur that I don’t know what to do anymore. Brandon…was just another reflection – a man being made by the person who wanted to seek revenge to me. The love we shared, the tears we shed, the secrets we told to each other, the memories we had and the time we made are just…are just masks of his true identity.