A Dark Gift

Chapter 1

October 2015

I sat on the couch of my living room, listening to my young cousins squabble about which of the Lost Boys was cuter. We had just finished watching the movie, them for the first time, and I reminisced about having the same conversation with my older cousins when I was these age these girls were now.

"What do you think, Aunt Madison? Which one of the Lost Boys do you think is hottest?" one of the girls, Molly asked. I smiled at the familiar title. In our family, if you weren't part of the younger generation of cousins, you were "Aunt", no matter which sibling or cousin you were related to.

"Well, truthfully, I find them all attractive in their own way," I replied, as I began to gather up soft drink bottles, bowls still half-full of chips, pretzels and popcorn. There were candy wrappers strewn about, and bottles of finger nail polish littered the table top. The girls were rolled up within their blankets and sleeping bags, Molly on the couch. She'd won the coin toss the five of them competed to win pride of place during our monthly movie nights.

It was a fun little outing I'd started when the girls were about six or seven: once a month I'd take them off everyone's hands so that their parents could go out and have a night to themselves. I was the only one without children due to medical issues, but the girls' parents allowed me to have them once a month, spoil them rotten, and then send them home. They understood that since I couldn't have any of my own, my nieces/cousins were as close as I would get to having children.

"Would you have saved them from the Frog Brothers and Sam, Michael and Star if you could have, Aunt Maddie?" asked my youngest niece, Alexa. She was cuddling with my silver-and-black German Shepherd, Annie.

"You know, I always wanted to, when I was your age. I'm too old for adventures now!" I said, laughing.

The girls all laughed too. "You're young in heart, Aunt Madison! Besides you're only 33!" Addie and Layla commented as they looked up from rereading the cover of the Lost Boys dvd for the twentieth time. Jenna nodded in agreement, making me smile. I looked up and saw that it was past one in the morning.

"Alright girls, time for sleep. Don't forget, we have brownies and cookies to bake tomorrow for your school bake sale!" I said. The girls whooped and hollered, followed by sighs and groans as they slithered down into their blankets and said good nights. I kissed them all on their foreheads, a task that was greeted with giggles and hugs from having it become our ritual over the years.

"Good night, my girls," I whispered as I headed to my own bedroom.

"Good night, Aunt Madison!" they whisper-shouted back to me. I turned the lights off in all of the rooms except the open bathroom door in case anyone needed it during the night. I closed my bedroom door and walked into my en suite bathroom. I shed my clothes and climbed into the shower, after giving it a few minutes to warm. I washed quickly and wrapped a towel around myself, wrapping another around my hair. I looked at myself in the mirror.

My face didn't show much age, I thought, but I certainly felt old. Years of medical issues had taken their toll on my body. My eyes were a warm brown, and shone with a sparkle of amusement. I had to admit, I was more often than not, quite happy and content. I'd learned long ago, that with the pain of everything I'd endured, it was either laugh or cry. And I'd decided I'd much rather laugh than cry when faced with what I had to survive. My hair was long, reaching my hips. But where it had once been thick and a rich brown, it was now dull and thinning, even a spot at the top of my head where a bald spot had begun due to one of my medications. I sighed and turned away from the mirror. I quickly brushed my teeth and walked back into the bedroom after turning off the light.

I pulled on a large, oversize tee shirt and a pair of cotton flannel pajama pants with a One Ring pattern from Lord of the Rings, a gift from Addie and Layla the year before. I slipped between cool sheets and sighed as my body started to relax and all my joints slowly began to pop as they released the tension of the day. I looked at the clock and groaned. Already past two o'clock and I prayed that I'd at least get a few hours in before I had to be back up at seven-thirty to start baking for the girls' bake sale.