Hush

Hush

           “Can you keep a secret?” Mark’s day had started off with this odd question from a girl he did not know. The girl had come up to him while he was shopping, tugged on his hand, and then frightened him to death with this whispered question. She had disappeared just as fast as she appeared and when he asked the people around them, nobody had seen the little girl. Mark was sitting on his bed contemplating this. Nothing he came up with seemed to be the proper explanation for a strange disappearing girl. A ghost, he thought for a second, but then he chuckled. Ghosts were not real just like all the rest of the stories he had been told as a kid. He had figured out this fact quickly. All the fantastical stories he would learn at school, the playground, and other kid’s houses would quickly be crushed by his realist parents.

           “If you cannot see it, touch it, smell it, or hear it, it probably isn’t real, Marcus.” His mom and dad had repeated this phrase to him on a daily basis until he could recite it back to them. They even had the phrase framed on his wall as a reminder to never forget it. Mark quickly learned not to tell them these stories. Any stories he tried to make up were received with a frown and a quick scolding. This upbringing contributed to his extremely low grades in creative writing, art, and theatre which he would also be yelled at for. There was no winning with his parents. It was either silly nonsense or not enough imagination to keep up basic grades. They wanted no part in his creativity unless it was for an A on a project. These facts kept Mark from telling his parents anything about the girl. His mom would probably tell him to get more sleep and his dad would send him to a psychologist for acting like a crazy. Mark took a deep breath and got up from his bed.

           “It was probably some little prankster trying to scare me.” He whispered to himself. Grinning at this explanation, he made up his mind that this was definitely what happened. No other explanations were needed. Mark pushed the encounter from his head and went downstairs to eat lunch.

           “Marcus, I need you to make lunch for Mirabella and the rest of the girls. Mira’s fussing and I don’t have time to feed her before I go out with your dad to his work lunch. His boss made Francine and Jim host again. I am so looking forward to seeing them.” She rolled her eyes at the last statement and went back to putting on expensive looking earrings. Mark grumbled an okay and walked to the kitchen. Their house was annoyingly big. Mark’s dad was the CEO of Faringway & Sons, a huge retail business, so he had more than enough money to buy the biggest house in town. Sadly, raising children in a humongous house is difficult, not that he would know. Mark’s dad was gone almost all day every day. Mark, Minette, Maxine, Mia, Madeline, Melody, March, and Mirabella all got lost on a frequent basis.  New rooms were always discovered which led to even more ways to get lost inside the maze of a house. Mark luckily knew his way around well enough that he could find basic places, the kitchen, the bathroom, his room, and the girls’ rooms. Finally reaching the kitchen, he started finding the ingredients to make pasta for eight people. Being the oldest, Mark was usually left with the job of caring for his younger sisters. With a range from two to eight years old, he had to do everything from helping with schoolwork to changing diapers in the hours their parents left them home. Preparing it quickly, he distributed it into eight bowls and then dumped some cheerios in a separate bowl for Mirabella.

           “I have lunch!” Mark called. Soon, he heard seven steps of feet running down the stairs.

           “You grabbed Mira right?” Mark’s question was met with a nod from Minette who was carrying the unruly baby. The baby was currently crying up a storm as she reached for her high chair. Once the baby was sat down, everyone else tore through their food and then raced back upstairs to get back to whatever it was they were doing. Mark rolled his eyes and grabbed Mirabella who had stopped eating. She was currently asleep in her high chair and had been abandoned in the other girls’ excitement to resume their activities. It was unusually quiet which was strange considering there were eight children in the house. Usually Maxine had music bursting out of her room and there was always a tea party going on in the hallway. Mark walked upstairs quietly and entered his room. To his surprise, there were six little girls sitting on his floor whispering things to each other.

           “I heard that she ate Bobby!” Maxine giggled as the other girls squirmed.

           “What’re you guys talking about?” Mark asked. Nervous giggles erupted in his room as they all looked at him as though he was not supposed to hear their conversation.

           “Promise you won’t tell mom?” Madeline looked at him with huge puppy dog eyes.

           “Yes, yes.” He dismissed, rolling his eyes. The girls looked at each other as if deciding whether or not they should let him in on whatever thing they were whispering about.

           “So there’s this story we heard at the playground-“ Minette started, but was quickly interrupted by Mark.

           “You know it isn’t real right?”

           “It is real, Marcus!” Minette glared at him coldly. The other girls joined in the glaring until there was six little girls with mad faces looking in his direction. Even Mirabella who had woken up in the midst of all this seemed to be glaring at him.

           “Oh, c’mon, baby! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

           “Continue, Minnie.” Maxine looked at Mark as if daring him to interrupt again.

           “So there’s this story that John swears is true. If you knew John, you would know he couldn’t tell a lie. His nose would probably grow like Pinocchio if he did.” Minette’s observation of John was met with nods from the other girls. Mark just snorted.

           “He told me that his brother had been taken.” Minette’s solemn expression freaked Mark out a bit, but he knew that John’s brother had run away. It had made the headlines a week ago and everyone was looking for him, but there did not seem to be a trace of him left. Mark rubbed the back of his neck. It did seem sort of suspicious now that he was thinking about it.

           “John said that someone had grabbed his brother while they were walking two weeks ago and asked him to keep a secret or something like that. It was a little girl, but she was gone before they could even answer her or ask who she was. No one else seemed to have seen her.” Minette continued. Mark cleared his throat a couple times as the girls resumed their angry stares at him.

           “Sorry, sorry. Please continue.” Mark’s voice seemed slightly hoarse.

           “He said also that he found a card in his room with a date on it. Kind of like thisone that I found on your dresser!” Minette whipped out a card with a neatly written date on it.

           “John said the card is the date you’ll disappear.” Maxine added. Mark started shaking slightly as he stared at the card. That was tomorrow’s date. He was going to die. The six girls started laughing and Minette came over to give him a hug.

           “The card’s fake, dum-dum. We literally just made it.” The girls laughed so hard that they fell over, but Mark was stuck with a sense of dread. Everything in the story had happened to him except the card. He quietly glanced around his room to see if anything was disturbed. His drawer. It was slightly open. He was never allowed to leave it even slightly open or he would get in trouble for being too lazy. The room was suddenly too hot as he walked over to the drawer. Everything was quiet; the girl’s giggles had stopped.

           “You’re scaring us, Mark.” Mia whimpered. Madeline nodded in agreement.

           “We’re just gonna go. It was just a prank. Nothing is actually gonna happen.” Minette frowned. The girls took Mirabella and left Mark alone. His hand trembled as reached for the handle of the drawer. Did he really want to do this? Mark stopped suddenly. He had heard something moving in his room.

           “If you guys are still in here I’m going to kill you!” Mark growled. He scanned the room for any trace of the girls, but found nothing. They had really left. Brushing it off as just the house, he yanked open the drawer to find nothing. It was filled with the same stuff it always was. He searched through it frantically. There had to be something in there. He never forgot to close his drawers. As he made his way to the back of the drawer, he found a small piece of paper that definitely was not there before. He grabbed it, but was reluctant to flip it around and read it. It’s just a prank, he thought and took a deep breath. Flipping the card around, he found a date.

           “This is today.” He whispered. The floorboards creaked behind him. There was definitely someone there.

           “This isn’t funny!” Mark yelled. He turned around and there was the girl from the market giving him a cold smile. Her dead eyes seemed to bore into his soul.

           “You can’t seem to keep a secret. No one really can.”

           The next day Mark’s name was in the headlines. Another runaway, another search, another person forgotten about just a week after.