The Story of Annamarie

Bam! Bam! Bam!
“Silence in the court!” the judge yelled as he banged his gavel down. “We are gathered here today to determined the fate of seventeen year old Annamarie Grace Louise, who last week, attempted to burn her school down with her fellow students inside,” he said, his eyebrows shooting up as he read the girl's form for the first time.
This originally wasn't his case. A friend of his, a fellow judge, called in a favor and asked him to take it for him. He didn't say why, just that something came up and he couldn't take it today. Of course, the judge agreed. He was his friend after all.
His grayish blue eyes flickered over to the girl, who sat at the defendant table, her arms locked in straight jacket. Her long, blazing red hair looked greasy and stringing, as if she hasn't been able to bathe in a while. The bright orange suit she wore clashed against her red hair, making it look like as if she was glowing. Various burn scars littered her arms, and the judge could only assume there were more under her clothing. He noticed the way she was shivering, but only assumed she was cold.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself, Miss Annamarie?” The judge asked, leaning forward with his hands linked and resting on his desk.
The only answer he received for the moment was a giggle from the girl. Slowly, she looked up at him, revealing the face of a beautiful young girl. Her beautiful, heart shaped face had a few, soft freckles dusting her pale cheeks and over her nose. Her dark, blackish brown eyes, the color of burnt wood, stared straight into his soul as she gave him a wide, crazy grin.
“You're going to burn,” she giggled lowly.
The judge, a man of his older years, frowned and leaned forward even more.
“Could you repeat that please?” he asked politely, having not heard her.
She giggled again, sitting up fully as she smiled at him.
“You're going to burn,” she said, louder this time.
Suddenly she stood, heading for the judge but was held back by a couple of quick acting police officers.
“You're going to burn! All of you! You're all going to burn!” she yelled through her crazed laughter.
To say the judge was shocked was an understatement. This tiny teenage girl downright terrified him. Quickly, he pressed the security button, calling in several more guards, all of whom went and struggled to keep the surprisingly small girl still before dragging her out of the room.
Shaken, the judge suddenly looked to the left where he heard sobbing. There he saw the girl's parents. The mother was crying into her husband's shoulder, who held her close as he looked towards the door his daughter was dragged out of. The worn look in his eyes told the judge that this wasn't the first time that this had happened.
That's probably why his friend asked him to take this case. He still needed to make a decision. This case was supposed to be done today. People were getting upset and he doubted the girl's parents could take much more of this either.
Slowly, the judge reached for his gravel, taking a deep breath as he slowly raised it.
“I hear by decree Annamarie Grace Louise, to be clinically insane and to be moved to an asylum until further notice.”
He quickly said before banging his gavel down, bringing the case to a close.
~*~*~*~
Two months later
The girl sat there, in the far corner of her very own, white padded room, tugging on her straightjacket. “This can't hold me...” she whispered to herself, giggling softly as she smiled.
“I will burn all of you. I will burn all of you!” she said, her voice raising to a yell before dissolving into a laugh.
There was no response. There never was. No one listened to a girl who was declared clinically insane. They only looked at her with pity.
But Annamarie didn't care for their pity. The only thing on her mind at the moment was the thought of burning the flesh off these people. All of them.
Another laugh escaped her as her eyes flashed, her body shivering non stop as she smiled.
“When the moon appears behind the clouds, this place will light up in flames,” she giggled, smiling so wide her jaw cracked.
Hours later, back in the young girl's home, her father was watching the nighttime news as his wife cleaned up in the kitchen. Neither of them had fully recovered from the events that lead to their only child being put into an Asylum. The mother would cry at night, while her husband buried himself in his work. Pulling off long hour days, he hoped to distract himself from the grief he felt.
Was there something he could have done? Something that would have changed his daughters fate? She was such a happy girl. She had good grades, plenty of friends, and over all, a happy life. What made her snap? Was it him? Did he do something?
Unknown to him, his wife was thinking the same thoughts. Anna was her perfect little girl. What caused her to try to burn her school? She would have succeeded too if the police hadn't gotten there in time.
A shout from the living room brought her out of her thoughts and she turned, walking out of the kitchen and towards her husband. “What is it, dear?” she asked softly, wondering why he called her away from cleaning, since she was a clean freak after all.
He said nothing, only pointed to the TV screen. There on the screen, lighting up the room, was the very asylum there daughter was in. Only now, it was lit up in flames. Fire poured out of the windows and doors. Firefighters were all over the lawn, trying to battle the fire with their hoses, though making little progress.
The mother gasped as she covered her mouth with her hands, looking in shock and fear at the screen. Her daughter was in there! As she listened to the reporter, her dread only grew worse. So far, they found no survivors. That meant no Anna.
Both parents were lost. What were they going to do without their baby girl?! Before, they at least had the hope of seeing her again. Now they had nothing. Their baby was lost. Gone forever.
~*~*~
One month later
No one survived the asylum fire. The place was burned to the ground, nothing in its remains but burnt wood and bones. Annamarie’s parents fell even more into despair. Her father rarely came home at reasonable times. He was always late and even began to spend whole nights in the office from time to time. Her mother just kept cleaning. Being a stay at home wife, and now without a child, there wasn't much for her to do. She just cleaned and cleaned and cleaned.
She still cried. Every night, she would cry herself to sleep. When her husband was actually there, he would comfort her, hold her, rock her to sleep.
This particular night, her husband had done just that. Now, at two in the morning, both of them were sound asleep. As a result, neither of them heard the rushling downstairs, the soft sound of the dog door flap swing shut. nor the soft padding of footsteps up the stairs.
Only did they stir when there was a dip in the bed, one that can only be created when someone gets on it.
“Mommy. Daddy,” a painfully familiar voice sang, causing both adults to snap their eyes open and quickly shoot up, backing against their headboard, only to find their hands tied with rough ropes to that very headboard.
There, crouched in front of them, was their darling daughter Annamarie. She still wore her white straightjacket, though the arms were undone and the fabric looked burnt and stained with smoke. The white pants she wore were in similar condition, but they were also ripped at the bottom, revealing her bare, scratched up feet.
But what shocked them most was her face. The right side of her face was burnt. It looked leathery with a strange red and yellow shade. There were lines of placed where the skin thickened, taking a more yellowy color. The burn took up the entire right side of her face, even her ear, also burning off small parts of her hair. Her right eye was miraculously unharmed, just surrounded by black burns that also were around her lips and nose, creating a perimeter around the horrible burn. Her eyes were still the same, though, shown brightly like they could light up any second.
“Mommy, what's wrong? Why are you crying?” she asked softly, reaching one hand forward, that was covered in the long arm of her straight jacket, only to stop when she saw her mother flinch away. "Don't worry mommy. The pain will go away," she said with a smile, leaning back on her legs as she looked at her tided up parents. "I'm going to set you free," she giggled, jumping off the bed before grabbing something that made her parents blood run cold.
"Anna, Anna honey, stop," Her father said, watching in horror as she began to pour gasoline on the bed and all around. She was going to burn them. "Honey, why are you doing this?"
That question caused Annamarie to stop and look at her father. "Because you ignored me," she stated, giving them a calm smile. Before either parent could object, she continued. "You thought I was perfect, so I tried to be perfect. I didn't complain, because you didn't want me to. I did everything you asked," she said as she began to pout the gas again. "It started to get hard. I started hurting, but you didn't notice. I was just your perfect little girl," she hummed, her smiling never faltering. "When you did notice, you sent me away to people who stick needles in me. Who hurt me. So now, I'm going to make it where you can never send me away again!"
She laughter struck fear into her parents hearts and they began to quiver. "Won't that be great! Now you guys can't ever leave me again!" Annamarie giggled as she pulled out a lighter. "Bye bye," she giggled, as she dropped the lighter on the bed.
Instantly, the bed was in flames. Both parents screamed and struggled to get out, only to find it futile against the ropes. Anna stood and watched, smiling as their screams filled the house and the fire spread.
Slowly, she backed away, leaving the room and walking slowly down the hall she grew up in. The fire spread around her, though causing her no harm than it already has.
The next thing she knew, Anna was outside, watching the fire consume her home. “I warned you...” she whispered to herself, “I warned all of you that you were going to burn.”
Category:Mental Illness