Borderline

Vivian ‘s eyes opened. She glanced over at her alarm, four AM. The room was completely still and black. Vivian raised her hand to see if she could see it waving in front of her face, but she couldn’t. She didn’t remember her room being this dark at night, but she wasn’t usually awake to find out. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to make out the shapes of her furniture. She had this sinking feeling that she was not alone in the room. She didn’t dare to move, paralyzed by her fear and anxiety. I’m being ridiculous. There is nothing in the room. Vivian closed her eyes again to go back to sleep. The second she did, a wave of anxiety flooded her body. She felt her limbs tingling, and her ears were on alert. She heard the wind blowing outside and the sounds of her body breathing. In the far corner of the room, Vivian heard a floorboard creek.

She hurriedly sat up, slamming her head into her headboard, making it bang against the wall. She fumbled for the knob on her lamp and sent books and a jar of pens spilling across the floor. Vivian turned the light on as another wave of anxiety rolled down her spine. The light flickered on, and in the corner of her bedroom stood her roommate. Her shoulders were hunched and her hair was covering most of her face.

“Marianna? What are you doing?” Vivian tried not to scream as to not wake the baby in the next room. “You scared the shit out of me,” she hissed.

Marianna took a step forward and pushed her hair behind her ears. Her pupils were the size of nickels. Marianna had…blood on her? Her white sundress had a large red stain running down the front of it.

“I think I killed him,” she whispered.

“Who? Ty?” Vivian panicked and flung the covers off of her body. She crossed the room and swung open the door to the nursery. She ran to the crib and picked up Ty, now fussing from the commotion in the bedroom. Vivian pressed him against her chest and bounced him to calm him. Vivian had Ty just a few months ago. She was finding it difficult to adjust to life as a single mother in New York. Vivian had asked Marianna to move in to help out with Ty. In the past few months, Marianna had started acting stranger than usual. She’d come home late, drunk, and make enough noise to wake them both. She was proving to cause more harm than good in Vivian’s home. Vivian walked back and cautiously stood in the nursery’s doorway eyeing Marianna. She pulled Ty closer to her. “What is wrong with you? Are you high?”

“I think I killed him,” she said again. “I killed Alex.” Marianna was shaking. She ran her fingers through her hair, and Vivian could see it come out in clumps.

“Who is Alex?” Vivian took a step in towards Marianna; a step closer to the phone.

“My boyfriend! I killed my boyfriend!” Ty let out a scream and swung his hands through the air. He started to cry uncontrollably as did Marianna. Marianna had lived with Vivian for six months. In all of that time, she had heard Marianna mention Alex once. They met online through a support group that Marianna would never discuss. Vivian didn’t know that they were seeing each other in person.

Vivian tried to shush both of them. Ty calmed down after a few minutes, but Marianna was hysterical. She slipped him back into the crib and lead Marianna out into the kitchen. She pulled a chair out for Marianna and handed her a roll of paper towels. Vivian filled the coffee pot with the strongest coffee grounds in the cupboard and poured in the water. She sat down as the coffee pot started to hiss steam into the air. “Okay, Marianna. Tell me what happened.”