Death To Happiness
Happiness consumes itself like a flame. It cannot burn forever, it must go out, and the presentiment of its end destroys it at its very peak.
-J August StrindbergAnd my happiness did burn and go out. Along with my home and my mother. And I was to stand there and watch her silhouette in her bedroom window fight off the flame as I was safe outside. The firefighters came, fighting off the very angry and hungry flames. And I stood there. Completely frozen with shock as I saw her body fall. Suddenly another figure stood in front of the window. Taking the place of my mother. It was much darker, sinister even. And with a flash, the window exploded and the figure was gone. The world came back to me. The fireman next to me was barking orders I shook his arm.
"There's someone else in there!" I told him.
"Why is she still here!" he roared.
"This is a danger zone!" He didn't bother listening to me. As the paramedic led me to an ambulance and treat the minor burns on my arms and legs. I left the world and let my mind go blank.
"Annabel! Get out! Get out now!" my mother screamed from her room.
"Mom? Mom! I can't leave without you!" I called back. I raced to her bedroom. Throwing the door open to reveal the gruesome scene. Blood was everywhere. Dripping from her peach ceiling and off white walls. Soaking her baby blue carpet and green bedding. Her body was, literally, bouncing off the walls. I was frozen. In the middle of the room was a black figure. No face, just a shadow.
"Stop!" I cried. The shadow faced toward the window. The glass exploded. All the shards seemed to puncture my body. Pain surged through me. I screamed.
Fighting. Still screaming. Flesh being torn by my nails. More screaming. It's not my own. It's the nurse. I stop fighting when I realize the blood is my own. From my nails. A little bit is from the nurse. She's panting. So am I. Cold sweat runs down my back, chilling my spine. Tears. I'm crying now. The nurse is tending to my wounds. And I'm crying. I remember. Mom's dead. I'm alive. Why? Needle goes in my skin. I'm out cold.
Next morning. Hospital food. Yuck. A new nurse gave it to me. She looks more like an ape than a woman. She told me I couldn't go home. Not like i had much of one anyway anymore. She said that my head is sick and I'd soon be moved to an Asylum. She was sneering at my pain. My arms are bandaged from last night. Still blood soaked. No one bother's to change a mad girl's gauze.
After breakfast I was told I had a visitor. Mom's older sister. I'd never met anyone in my family. Mom never talked about them, and I never asked. Mom's sister is kind of a replicate. Or mom is her's I guess. She has light brown hair, very long and filled with gray. She's different. Normal. Well... not normal but she looks like one of those business women who have sticks up their asses. Her hair is pulled back into a tight ponytail. Her clothes consist of a gray suit. Very boring.
She's here to claim me. The ape is trying to fight back, but my aunt has a court order. Saying she has a personal nurse at home that will take care of me. I still don't know her name.
"Annabel Arella Lee. Hair, black. Eyes, blue. Body type," the ape stopped and looked up at me.
"thin. Age, fifteen." It has been five days since my aunt came. (I learned her name is Mary.) Ape still isn't pleased. She got stuck with all the paper work.
I haven't spoken since the accident. I don't remember how. I've been trying but the words get stuck. Caught by the cobwebs in my throat. I have no possessions. They washed the clothes I came in but to me they still smell like smoke. Like pain. There are holes from where the fire had licked at me. Mary (She insisted that I not use 'Aunt'.) told me she'd already gotten me clothes at the house where she lives. I shiver. All the times I've seen her, she has always had a gray suit on.
I'm still having the dreams. Same one. And I wake up screaming each time. The nurse doesn't come into calm me. She waits for my screams to cease, then she sticks me with the needle. I wonder if Mary's nurse will too. We pass by the morgue. Mary let's me in. Mom is still in there. I don't want to see her but Mary says it will help ease the pain. I hope she's right.
They told me mom started the fire. They have no proof other than it started in her room. Mary points me to the sheeted gurney. There is a lump underneath. I look back at her and she nods. I pull up the sheet. Horrified by the sight.
Only a few hairs were left on her scalp. And those were melted into her skin. Her eye brows were gone as well as eyelashes. Her lips melted into her other skin. No longer pink and lively. I could only bare to look at her face. She had no eyes.
"This is what they did to her." Mary spoke softly.
"This is what they always do to us."Ape was right. My head is sick. I imagined Mary said that. Maybe I'm imagining this now. I'm probably in the asylum. Mary is one of those invisible friend things. I'm insane. I'm being touched.
Mary's hand found my shoulder. I spun around. "Why?"
Mary gave me a stern look. "You needed to know what might happen to you."
"What might...? And they say MY head is sick!" I'm glaring now. Daggers. I'm hoping she feels it too.
"Insanity is nothing more than a way a scientist explains the difference in someone's mental state." Mary told me in a harsh tone. "You are not insane."
"Then why am I seeing things! Why am I having such terrible dreams?" I cry. Tears... in front of mom. Disgraceful. I wipe my eyes and put the sheet back over my mother's disfigured face. "Take me away from here. Take me anywhere but here." I murmur.
Mary nods. "We'll talk about the dreams later if you want." she offered. I don't answer. I want to talk about what she meant. How many others have met the same fate as mom?
Mary had a 2012 black XJ Supersport Jaguar. Talk about dayum! I opened the passenger door and sat down on the leather seat. "It's a few hours drive." Mary admitted. "You should take a nap." I nodded and reclined the chair back. I was out before we even left the hospital.
"Annabel! Get out!" mom screamed.
Not this dream again! But I opened my mouth, against my will. "Mom? I can't leave without you!" Up the stairs again. To her bedroom. Door opens. Blood everywhere. Figure. "Stop!" I scream. It moves closer to me. Wait.... What! This is new. This never happened before! Color.... forming into it. "Get away from me!" I'm frozen. It moves closer. Not stopping. I can see it clearly now. No black censor to keep its true form from me. It's a man. I think. Sickly green skin. A hole for a nose. Sunken in black eyes. Blood dripped from its sideways mouth. Black trench coat to cover its entire body. I jolted awake.
Mary had pulled over to the side of a dark highway. The blue light on the dashboard showed the time was to be 12:10 am. We left the hospital at 4:50 pm. She wasn't kidding when she said hours. But I thought a few was three or four! Then I notice I'm panting. Hard. Like after running a mile with mom to the nearest store. Mary is studying me. "What?"
She smiles and pulls back onto the road. "Share and be shared with."
I know what she means. Share the dream and she'll tell me anything I want. "He looks horrific. Like something unreal." I start.
I describe every detail to her. It takes half an hour. She asks no questions. Only listens. Taking it all in and swallowing it down. She makes sure I'm finished before saying anything. "The person you described os Gabriel. He is an assassin in the demon world. Very well known. And not cheap." Mary explained. "He often claims to be the archangel that is written in the Bible."
I interupt. "Angels... are real?"
Mary laughs at my question. "Angels are hybrids. Humans that have consumed the blood of a certain type of demon."
"So... Any other creature that is real I should know about before you continue?" I ask, eyebrow raised.
"All pop stars are demons in disguise." Mary says. Her face showed no emotion.
"Really!" I exclaim in surprise.
Mary bursts out laughing, "Of course not! Gulible..." Her face is back to unreadable. "But demons like to mess with newborn children. Turn them into what you call vampires and werewolves. The problem doesn't appear until the child's later years but they all turn eventually." I can feel my jaw gaping. "They even steal a baby away and take it to their world. If the child stays there long enough they turn into a demon as well."
A question forms. "So what about our family? Why did that happen to mom?"
"Back when demons completely ruled the world our ancestor, Nathaniel Lee and his wife Sara helped send them to another demension, if you will. They did not do this act alone, of course. Others helped, very powerful others. But alas... They have been eliminated." She goes silent. Her skin is visibly paler in the moonlight. "It is bad luck to talk about this out in the open." I can't help but give her a strange look. Her foot moves to the accelerator. "No cops this time of night." she whispers, more to herself. We are gaining speed. I'm panicing. I grip the handle on the door. Knuckles white. My eyes are on the speedometer. 100.... 120... 140... still picking up speed. I feel we are running from something. And at that moment I don't want to know what.
Mary's house is HUGE! I'm struggling to keep my mouth shut. The inside feels larger than what the outside displayed. A somewhat classic look. Big but homey on the inside. "Come with me." I have a feeling it's more of an order than a request. I'm too scared of her to deny so I follow.
We go up two flights of stairs before we come to dark oak, double doors. She unlocks them with a key. The top part was in the shape of a skull. A skeleton key.
"Where was I... oh right." Mary said as she sat in a rather large office chair, behind an intimidating mahogany desk. "There is one other family still surviving. Thriving, even. They played a rather small role and are not as powerful as our's. They are the Barondies." The last name was weird to me and I'd never encountered it. "We are not on friendly terms... They are arrogant and always want something in return for help. They are too prideful." She became lost in thought. I cleared my throat. Loudly. "Anyway. The Lees are hunted and slaughtered without mercy. You would have been as well if you had not left." What I got from that was, by leaving my mother to her death, I saved myself. Cowardice move. "Has your mother told you anything about our family?" I shake my head. Mary digs into one of the drawers and pulls out a file folder. She slides it to me. I open it. Mom's picture is on top. It is a copy, I can tell, of a framed photo that was in my room back home. I scim the other photographs. Names are on the back. I recognize no one. When the pictures turn black and white I stop looking. They are people who have fallen victim. Birth and death dates on the back. I go back through the recent photos. One has no death.
"Alex Lee." I read outloud. He looks like he could be my twin. I look up at Mary. Question n my tongue.
Her face is sad. Tears forming. "He is... was my son." she corrected.
I notice he was born a year before me. "Why doesn't he have a death date?" I ask.
"Because he was taken to the demon world. I do not know if he is dead."
"So there is hope he'll come back right! Right?"
Mary shakes her head. "Anna-" I interrupt. "No! There is-"
"Annabel stop!" her voice is harsh. I crossed the line. "Alex is not coming back so just stop!"
