Rescue Me

Arianna pulled up in front of Ella's house. she'd been trying to call her for days, but no answer. She'd heard Ella lost her job from lack of showing up. She figured that it would be a good time to make a surprise visit. She walked up the front door and knocked loudly, "Ella? ELLA! Answer the door!" She screamed. She tried to open it but it was locked. "She never locks the door." Arianna knew something was very wrong.

She walked around to the back door, and found that there where huge scratch marks down the door. She knocked on that door as well, still staring at the marks in confusion, "ELLA!! PLEASE!"

She walked around the front again and looked under all Ell's potted plants looking for a spare key. She finally found one, and slowly walked towards the front door, pushing the key in the door, "Ella?" She called out as she opened the door. She looked around the house, seeing the pizza she'd bought weeks ago still sitting on the table. She reached for it, and flipped open the lid. Maggots covered the top of the pizza, and flies poured with a smell unlike anything Arie ever smelled before, "Oh god." She closed the lid again. She noticed the mess in the kitchen and quickly walked in. The blood dried on the floor, and broken glass Ella neglected to clean up. She looked around in horror, fearing the worse, "What happened here?"

She thought about Ella for a moment. How obsessed she was with Bill, and her dreaming. Arianna took off running up the stairs, and turned Ella's bedroom door knob, running into the door expecting it to open, but it didn't. "ELLA! OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!" She beat on the door trying to get her to open it. She stood back as the smell hit her, "What is that?" She stared at the door, "ELLA!"

Arianna ran back to the guest room, picking up a chair and carrying it back to Ella's bedroom door. She beat the door as hard as she could with the chair, until the knob unlatched. The door swung open, and the cloud of stench knocked Arianna back. She dropped the chair and covered her nose as she slowly entered the room. She gagged trying to control her reflexes as she pushed through it. She looked at the bed seeing clearly that something was under Ell's covers. She reached forward, and pulled the covers back finding the mangled body that once was Ella.

"Ella?!" Arie screamed dropping the covers and backing out of the room. Ella's body was skin and bodes. It was quite obvious that she'd starved to death, and dehydrated from lack of getting out of bed long enough to nourish her own body.

Arianna ran down the stairs and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, calling the police in a panic. The police arrived, and took what was left of Ella's body away. They asked Arianna every question they could to piece together what had happened to her friend. She told them everything, but left out the part about Ella's obsession with her dreams. She honored Ella's memory by leaving it out of her death.

~*~

Arianna sat at her desk, typing away at her computer. She stopped typing and picked up the ring that was on her desk. The same ring Ella wore, and claimed was Bill's. She sighed softly and finished writing the last few lines of what she had written.

I lost my best friend to a dream. A fantasy I could never truly understand. She hid herself in a dream world that she felt would only come true in her mind. That Bill...would never love her in this world. The truth is that she never gave him a chance to. She never gave anyone a chance to love her like she deserved.

I shunned her believes in him, I pushed her away. I caused her to believe he was all she had. I'll never know if she truly had his love. I'll never know if what they shared was real. I do know that he wasn't all she had. I know that I would give my life for hers if it meant she could stand here today. I know that she didn't deserve to go.

She would have given anything for him. In this world or the next. She loved him. She loved the idea that he returned her feelings.

She died from a fear of being alone. She waited for him, only to die in her worst nightmare. She died believing that he didn't want her anymore. She died completely alone.

I know that I can't blame Bill for her death. He probably doesn't even know she ever excited. However I can not bring myself to forgive him.

Is love worth it?

She closed her computer, and sat back with the ring in her fingers. Watching the last few pages print out of her printer. She reached over and added them to a binder that already had a large amount of paper in it. She closed it, and flipped it over, looking at the cover. A single tear rolled down her cheek as her fingers ran over the front. She tossed the binder on her desk top, and dropped the ring on top of it. The cover read...

To Dream a Little Dream...
Written by Arianna Hough
In loving Memory of
Ella Dee
1986 -2008