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You grinned when you heard the ringtone of your phone. You knew who it was, after all. You used to only go on the phone for your friends, but their contacts were long gone.
She was your only contact now.
You had deleted them. She encouraged you to, and you agreed with her. They were bad friends, they didn't want you to be happy with Mari. They had always wanted to sabotage you. All that talk about how Mari was "unhealthily obsessed with you" was just them trying to manipulate you into breaking up with her. They were jealous of what you and Mari had.
What you and her had was special, no doubt about it. She could anticipate your every need, as if she was able to read your mind. And you always wanted someone to take care of you, to baby you. To be the parent you never had.
And you loved her readily as well. All you had to give back was your love, and you were willing to do so. You didn't think she was "overbearing" as your friends had called it. Mari simply had a lot of love to give, and you were the owner of her heart. You could handle all of it, no matter how far it would go.
That was what you had thought at least.
You answered the phone and smiled at the anticipation of hearing her angelic voice.
Instead you heard someone else yelling your name through the phone.
"It's Basil! DON'T GO TO MARI'S HOUSE!" You held the phone slightly away from your ear. Ugh, you thought you had blocked him.
"How the hell are you calling me?!" You asked.
"It's Mari's house phone. Just don't go there, she's... not okay! She-"
You hung up the phone. You were sick of Basil trying to lead you into stupid traps, trying to keep you away from Mari. Although, you had to give him credit, he was getting way better at acting with that hysterical voice he had. You almost believed him.
You couldn't believe he was still trying to ruin you and Mari, even on your anniversary. You just wanted to spend the entire day by her side being happy.
A few minutes later, you got a text. This time, it was actually from Mari.
"Hey! I have a surprise for you at my house. Can you come over?"
You replied, "Yes I can!"
You went over to her house and knocked on her door. You skipped all the way there, jumpy from the excitement. She came out, smiling as always.
"Hey, sweetheart! You look beautiful today!" She gently touched your hair and kissed you.
"Hi, Mari! Thank you..." You giggled, feeling the redness emerge on your cheeks.
"Awww you're so cute!" Mari playfully teased you, and you smiled bashfully.
"Here, have some fruit juice!" She handed you a cup of juice as you walked in. "It's good for you," she added.
You gulped it, and it tasted almost heavenly. How was it that everything she created or did was divine?
You remembered she had a surprise for you. "Is there something you have to show me?" you asked.
"Right!" she realized. "Come with me, you'll love it," she tenderly grasped your hand and began leading you to the other room.
Before you went inside, you suddenly felt a jolt inside you. You felt uneasy, like you shouldn't be here.
You looked over to her, and she was cheery. She looked very happy to show you her surprise. Nothing was wrong, so why were you feeling like this?
"Mari..." you whispered, "please.."
"What's the matter?" she turned to you, concerned.
"I-I don't wanna..." You hugged her and buried your face in her neck.
"It's okay," she shushed you, pulling you away to look at her and cradling your face. "I did all this for you. The least you could do is look at it."
Her expression was a bit calmer and more serious, unlike her usual happy demeanor. It almost looked like she was frowning, slightly disappointed in you.
You couldn't have that happening.
You slowly turned your head around. Small spots of wet crimson on the floor appeared in your vision. You gasped and let go of Mari, looking directly at the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh my god! What happened to him!" You screamed. "We need to call an ambulance!"
You leaned down and pressed your fingers against the blond's neck. There was no pulse. "H-He's dead! Mari!"
You looked back at her and paled. She was expressionless, and that terrified you more than seeing Basil's dead body. She was almost never expressionless. Tears welled into your eyes.
Mari held your hand and wiped the tears from your eyes with her thumb from her other hand. Her smile returned. "Relax! I know it's tear-inducing to see the beautiful decoration I made for you, but it hurts me to see you cry, even if it's from happiness."
Before you could reply, she said, "I have another decoration to show you, follow me!" She didn't give you a choice whether to follow you or not as she pulled you along towards the sliding door.
You wanted to drag your feet, to rip your hand away from her. But you couldn't, you were afraid of how she would react. If you could just run away fast enough... you would be able to outrun her.
You needed to knock some sense into her, get her to call the police. Basil's dead body remained inside the house, and he needed you two.
"M-Mari... let's go... we need to call-"
"Shh. You're about to see the best part of my present for you! Talking too much will ruin the moment, and you don't want to ruin the moment, do you?"
You could barely see her face, but from her voice you could tell that she was acting exactly like the usual Mari. But how could she act like that during a time like this?! You needed her to tell you that everything would be okay, you needed her to solve the problem like always.
She opened the sliding door, and you saw a large wall placed in the middle of the backyard. There was red paint across it, spelling out "Happy 1 Year Anniversary!" with your name below it.
"Do you like it?" She grinned.
You slowly nodded your head.
"Awesome!" She clapped her hands. "Want to see how I made it?"
You wanted to say no, you knew you should've said no...
You nodded your head once again.
"Great. Let's go." You follow Mari deeper into the backyard and stopped.
You felt numb. You froze and paled even more than before. You could see the sky darken, or at least that may have been your imagination. Mari immediately ran to you as you fell backwards onto the grass behind you.
'Stay away. Stay away from me,' you thought.
She called out your name. "Are you okay? What's wrong? You're scaring me!"
Your eyes bulged and stared at her. Why was she asking you if you were okay? You should be the one asking her.
"W-What is all that...?!" You breathed out. You felt like you could faint any second.
"It's my present to you! Do you not like it? I could make a new one if it's too shabby for you." She started tearing up. "My parents just... they were going to take me away from you! I couldn't let them do that! You mean too much to me!" She started shaking and rubbed her arms. "Is it a bit cold in here or is it just me..?"
You slowly made eye contact with her again when she yelled out your name. "Y-You didn't... have to kill them... we could've ran away... or something."
Saying it out loud made you remember the past event. "D-Did you... Basil..."
"Yes, I did." She was seeming more like she was here now, and seeing her actions for what they were.
You looked back at the scene in front of you. Tufts of black hair were scattered over the area, and so was a giant puddle of red. Her parents laid in the middle of it. All you could say about it was that it looked like the person who killed them had been really angry with them.
"W-Why..?" You asked.
"He saw it," she whispered. Mari now looked terrified, and that fact terrified you as well. She looked unsure of herself. She was always prepared, she always knew what to do. How could she let herself go and do something like this?
But a split second after, her deep feelings were gone again.
She said your name. "Let's go inside. We can figure out a plan to put away the decorations. After all, it's going to rain soon and we wouldn't want paint all over my backyard!"
Paint.
It wasn't paint, was it...? You didn't want to ask her out of fear of the answer.
She scooped you up into her arms and brought you inside. The feeling of being picked up and taken care of made you feel fuzzy, but as she walked inside you saw the scene all over again. You breathed quickly and heavily, burying your head into her neck.
"It's okay, you're safe with me," Mari reassured you. There was no trace of the frightening uncertainty she had possessed moments ago.
You sat on the carpet facing each other. She started talking to you, but you couldn't hear it. All you could perceive was the blood tracked into the doorway. It made you remember Basil's corpse and all of his limbs that had gone in directions it should never go. She looked over where you had your gaze and sighed.
Before she could say anything, you stood up. "Mari, this is wrong. You can't just kill people for me."
All of the love you had for her was overshadowed by the horror of the realization that you had made a terrible mistake. You let her become obsessed with you. You let her grades slip as she spent more time with you, you let her friends and family wither away from her, and you let her not care about it at all.
The only excuse you had was that you thought Mari was perfect. You thought she would keep herself together no matter what. She was Mari, after all.
You didn't see how she talked to your friends. You didn't see how strange it was that she isolated you from all your friends. Well, you couldn't really blame her for any of that. You were the one who blocked all your friends, you were the one who went off on them every time they said even a slightly bad thing about Mari. It was your fault.
And both of you knew it.
"I did all of this for you." She grabbed fistfuls of her hair. "I can't be away from you, and I would never let them keep me from you!"
You started backing away from her. The front door was still open, you could run away. You wanted to.
But you started feeling dizzy. Like moments before, you could barely hear anything. Just as you had gotten to the door, you collapsed. Your small hopes of escaping had dissipated.
Mari ran over to you, but she wasn't concerned. She was petting your hair and placing you in her lap. Reaching her hand over, she closed the door. The light shining inside on you both disappeared, and you were both in darkness.
You could still hear her voice over the nothingness that was slowly taking over you.
"It'll be okay, I'll always be here whenever you need me. Now we can be together forever."
Mari looked you straight in the eye. Her dark eyes were fierce, in harmony with the dark lighting of the room.
"I'll do anything and everything for you. And all you have to give back is your love!"
As your surroundings vanished into complete darkness, all you felt was regret.
You regretted distrusting your friends. You regretted not seeing the signs, and in the end, not caring about them. You wished you were there for Mari more, maybe you could've helped her focus on other things. You regretted watching the descent of the kind, responsible girl into a crazed obsessive murderer. But most of all, you regretted wanting to run away from her. She gave you everything. She would do anything for you, even kill for you. And you had the audacity to be scared of her? To start regretting being with her?
The least you could do was love her. It was all you could do. And it was all that it costed.