The End

Just in case you need to know: This story has some dead in it.

You watch as the sun peeks out of the clouds. A smile escapes your lips.

Foul witch.

“Shut up,” you tell that voice in your head.

Flames lick the wood of the mansion that sits on the hill. You try hard not to giggle. The clouds turn a shade of pink. You reach out, holding them in the palm of your hands.

You can feel the cotton in your hands, but when you open your hand again, nothing’s there.

Sinister snake.

You let them say their distasteful words. Hear their cries. 

A light pulls your vision.

You give your final goodbyes.

“Get away from the fireplace, Charlie,” she says.

“Okay, mother,” you reply, “Mother, can we go to the amusement park.”

She gives you a stern look but forces back a smile. That old smile. Before all this. Before all this happened.

But it disappears the second the man comes in.

“Come on Cristine, let’s go,” he shouts at you. You don’t want to go. It always gets forceful. You shake your head. The man grits his teeth, looking at Mother with a glare saying, “Get her to move, you foul witch.”

Mother gives you a desperate look. You look up at her, trying to find some consolation, but you don’t find any. You get up and walk toward the basement.

The basement was full of machines and trash that don’t work.

A girl sits in the corner. She smiles at you, waving, but her eyes are filled with hatred. You wave back.

“Hello best friend,” she says.

“Hello, Ms. Run, how have you been today? Do you feel any better?”

She shakes her head before coughing up a bit of blood. 

“You’ll feel better soon enough.”

“Yeah, sure,” she says before turning her back toward me, “Good luck.”

The smell of burning fills your nose. Then the blood.

Stay back!

You close your eyes.

Mother stands in the unfamiliar hallway. Fear was etched in a woman’s eyes. She’s on the ground, holding her arm out for protection.

Mother holds a knife to the woman. She has a familiar grin on her face, eyes wide.

The next second, Mother’s looking through the woman’s drawers. The body was now your problem now. And the blood.

But your mother smiles at you, and you smile back.

The vision is gone the second the man walks down the steps.

“Boy, come here,” he says, pointing to the spot in front of him.

You walk cautiously. When you get there, he looks into your eyes.

Then he slaps you.

Pain explodes on the side of your face, but you keep your howls inside. You don’t grab it like you once did.

“Sinister snake,” he says before pulling you by the neck toward the big machine.

He puts your face against it. You try to expect it, but it does not work.

“You see this machine? This would help me have world domination,” he says. You try to nod, but he pushes you, “But do you know the problem? Your being a scared little child and won’t help me. So, I suggest you get your act together, or your mommy would get it, understand?”

“Yesh, shir,” you say. He lets go of you.

“Now, why don’t you get me the battery?” you nod, “Good snake.”

The day’s work lasted till midnight. Crickets chirped, making the man agitated.

But the machine was finally done.

But when you finally get to bed, the dirty old mattress that sat on the floor, you can’t fall asleep. Sleep meant monster. Monsters that crawl up your leg and suck your soul till you drop dead. Monsters that break each bone in your body, one at a time. Monsters that tear your skin. Monsters who smile at you with so much kindness.

A hand touches your shoulder.

Foul witch.

“Mother,” you say.

She stands over you, holding something behind her. She smiles at you.

It’s not the same as the one she’s always given you.

It’s the one she gives her victims.

You run but can hear her slow footsteps right behind you. The walls turn red the further you run.

Run!

People are yelling and shrieking. You run, running past everything.

Help me!

You run into an open room. So much purple and red. Jewelry and money are scattered on the floor.

“Mother! Stop!” you say as she turns the corner.

“It’s what you get, boy,” she says.

You sink down onto the floor, staring at her through frightened eyes. You can see she’s crying.

“Mother?”

She’s in front of you now, holding the knife to your heart. You find something in your heart.

You pull it out and hit her with it.

Her eyes flash with surprise. Then, she smiles, then lets go of the knife she holds. She falls and puts her arms around me gently.

“I love you,” she says, before falling limply onto the ground.

A long rod comes out of her back.

“I’m sorry,” you mutter before leaving the room.

You walk down to the basement. Ms. Run sits there idly, not moving. You inch toward her.

“Ms. Run?” you ask.

She screams in agony.

“Ms. Run!” you run toward her. She grabs onto your hand. 

“Please, end it,” she pauses, “Please?”

You look at her body, breaking apart.

“Okay,” you say, raising the rod to her heart. She pulls you forward and hugs you, just like Mother had, but she lets go and plants a kiss on your cheek. She smiles again and lets go.

“You! You sinister snake!” the man says.

He’s coming down the stairs, looking right at you. He’s holding a gun.

“I find my maid on the floor, dead. Get away from my daughter!” he shouts raising the gun.

You step away. He inches toward you.

“I didn’t . . .”

He looks at Ms. Run, who lay motionless on the ground, “What did you do?”

“She. . .” before you can say anything, he shoots you in the arm.

“You idiot! She was all I had left!”

You fall on the ground, darkness blurring my vision.

You’re going to die here.

You wake up to find the man dead in front of you. Mother is next to him. Past him was Ms. Run. You get up, holding your wound.

You go up the stairs, falling multiple times. You find a lighter and go back down the stairs. You burn the man first. Then Ms. Run. Then Mother.

You watch their bodies burn. When the carpet catches fire, you go back upstairs and go through the door.

You fall into a cold river.