††† Comfort †††

[The Harbinger]

††† Parental and NSFW Advisory ††† 

††† Scenes will contain Violence of a graphic nature, Foul Language and Adult Content. ††† 

††† You've been warned. †††

You can call it cliché.. You can call it dorky.. But for her? Everywhere she looked she found.. beauty.

The theme was simple but elegant. The student government had decided on a medieval theme. So everywhere that Danielle Bay looked.. She saw beautiful gowns of every color. The men? They weren't wearing the normal tux's, but instead, modified tunics and hose garb.

None the less, everyone seemed to be enjoying it. At least everyone outside of the hotel's ballroom was, that is.

They exited the car and headed inside. The dress that she was wearing was burgundy with gold brocade embroidery that adorned the edges of the dress's skirt and around the hem. The top matched perfectly. It was a corset that hugged her upper body and had the same golden brocaded embroidery as the skirt. And the “sleeves” of the dress wrapped around her upper arms and were, what the dress maker called, belled sleeves. The color combination was perfect. Burgundy and cream with the gold brocaded embroidery. And the heels she wore were cream in color. Blonde locks fell down around her face and shoulders in ringlets. And there was a golden circlet with rubies that encircled her head. She also wore a simple, yet elegant, gold necklace with a ruby at its center. Of course, they came with matching earrings.

And her date matched. Only, it was the tunic/hose garb instead of the tux.

The music that greeted them was that of lyres, minstrels and the like. But once they got inside, the music scene was entirely different. They were teen-agers after all.

As Danielle and her date headed inside, they were greeted by their “friends”. The girls all excited seeing their friends dresses. The boys were still mildly complaining about not being able to wear the typical tux, but the tunics and hose garb. All in all, it seemed like everything had come together.

As they headed inside to give their tickets to the greeter, they were pulled over to get their picture taken. The backdrop was nothing extravagant, just a medieval stone wall with what looked like a wooden draw-bridge.

With their pictures taken, they headed inside the ballroom. They were greeted by the beat of Destiny's Child song “Lose my Breath”. They paused at the door just long enough to take everything in. It was like walking into a land of fairy tales, knights, Kings and Queens. There were girls and boys a-like on the dance floor. Some looks awkward in their attempts at dancing in the medieval clothing. But others didn't seem to have a problem with it.

Danielle had always been one who was able to dance in whatever she was wearing. She'd been a dancer and cheerleader (head cheerleader, thank you very much!) for as long as she could remember. And her date for the evening was Brandon Knowles. The high school's Varsity Quarterback.

It was truly believed that they were a shoo-in for Prom King and Queen.

As they started towards a table, she was drug out onto the dance floor by a few of her friends. Brandon laughed as she was dragged away and he headed over to where the punch bowl was. Mainly because that's where his own friends were hanging out at.

Most of the cheerleaders and football players were each others dates as they were all couples anyways.

As Danielle got to the dance floor with her friends, the song changed to Beyonce's “Naughty Girl”. Danielle began to move with the beat. Dancing seemed to be the one time she could really lose herself.

As the night wore on, more and more couples began to gravitate towards their own groups of friends. Songs from various eras played. Couples danced. Both slow danced and to the upbeat songs. It was obvious that someone had spiked the punch as people began to loosen up and just.. have fun.

And then came time for the crowning of the King and Queen of the Prom.

The principle of the high school made his way on stage and called for the DJ to lower the music. He made his typical “Prom” speech and then commenced with the crowning of the King and Queen.

And of course, as was predicted, the King and Queen of Prom was Brandon Knowles and Danielle Bay. The couple moved up to stand on the dais to be crowned. Once they received their crowns, they smiled, waved, kissed and headed down to the center of the dance floor to dance a slow dance.

As they danced, she could smell it on his breath. And keeping the smile on her face, she growled lowly at him, “Seriously, Brandon?”, she hissed through her teeth. “You can't even stay sober for one night? One. You are unbelievable.”

He looked at her and tried to kiss her again. And as he got to the point where his lips would meet hers, she turned her head and presented him with her cheek. “If you think you're going to sweet talk your way into my panties tonight, you're sadly mistaken.”, she snapped again.

“Aww come on, Dani! That's not fair!”, he whined at her. But the song changed to T.I.'s “Bring 'em Out”, saving Danielle from having to deal with the repercussions of her boyfriend's whining and pleading for a piece of ass on prom night.

After a few more hours of accepting congratulations, dancing, drinking, eating and all things “Senior Prom” related, they finally headed out of the building.

As they reached the car, Danielle looked over to Brandon, “You're not actually going to drive are you?”

“Why wouldn't I, Dani? I drove here.”, he said to her with a scowl. He was clearly unhappy with the fact that they weren't going to be having sex that night.

She frowned at him, “Because you've been drinking, Brandon. Do you really think I want to ride in the same car with you after you've been drinking? Seriously?”

“Come on, Dani! I haven't had THAT much to drink.”, he whined at her again.

“Fine.”, she growled as she jerked the door open to get in.

The last thing Danielle Bay remembered was the sound of shattering glass...

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The screen comes to life. And it's pitch black.

In the center of this complete darkness appears a mask.

A Black Dahlia mask.

The face is ghost white.

The eyes and lips are soulless black.

And just out of the corner of the right eye, a few tear drops of blood can be seen.

And out of the darkness, you hear a voice.

“You are not your bank account.
You are not the clothes you wear.
You are not the contents of your wallet.
You are not your bowel cancer.
You are not your grande latte.
You are not the car you drive.
You are not the women you fuck.

This is your life; Good to the last drop.
Doesn't get any better than this.
This is your life...

And it's ending one minute at a time.”

The screen blinks a few times, as if it's trying to go out.

And the mask moves closer.

“To be happy..
We must make a sacrifice.
A sacrifice?
Yes, you may need to sacrifice skeptism, cynism, old habits and beliefs..
Which, even though they do not serve you well..
You are..
Comfortable.”

The screen buzzes and blinks again.

Again, as if to try and blink out of existence.

And again, the mask moves closer.

“My pain..
My pain is constant.
Constant..
And sharp.
And I do not hope for a better world..
For anyone.
In fact..
I want my pain to be inflicted on others.”

The screen does blink out this time.

But when it comes back on, the mask is right in the center of the screen.

“And I want no one to escape.”

The mask starts to turn away and walk back into the darkness.

But then.. It stops moving.

The screen is still pitch black.

And again, a voice comes out of the darkness.

A figure appears on the screen.

Dressed in all black.

From the darkness of the black cloak, a hand emerges.

The hand lifts up, slowly, to the mask.

Nimble fingers press against the porcelain.

The same said fingers pulled the mask away to reveal, once again, the face of Danika Bayne.

“And, to you, Kyle Travis..

They say dynomite comes in small packages.”

Danika smiles coldly into the camera.

“Click..

Click..”

And the last word was whispered.

“...Boom.”

Then the screen suddenly goes black.