Unhinged

Confusion

Babysitting is definitely not my thing, yet here I am, on a beautiful Sunday evening watching my sister play hide and seek with her friends.

After an hour or so, their endless giggling gets rather annoying and I decide to use food as a way to excuse myself to the kitchen. 

By the time I'm done making my bagel, the front door opens and shuts with a soft thud. Finally! I think to myself, they're gone.

I head upstairs to check on my sister and as I pass by her door I can hear her laughing. Huh?

I open the door slightly and peer inside. She sits on the floor and says "I know right,  how dumb is that?" 

"Clara," I ask, staring at her intently, "what are you doing?" She responds with only a giggle.

Kids these days. I go back downstairs and eat in silence, thinking about all the other things I could have been doing right now when suddenly I hear a loud boom and then crying.

Shit. Running up the stairs towards Clara's room, I find her crying, cuts on her hands and knees. "Oh my god, what happened?" Instead of answering she whimpers and points at her closet. "Sh..she won't leave me alone. She broke the window. She's going to hurt me."

I wrap my arms around her. "It's going to be okay," I say, trying to console her. I lift her in my arms and take her to the washroom, but she won't stop screaming.

I clean her cuts and bandage them. "I'm going to go call mom, okay?"

I turn around and see my sister smiling in the mirror, a knife in hand. I turn to face her, but there is nothing in her hand. "Clara. What's going on?" I say as I take a step back, farther away from her. "I'm sorry," she says crying. "If it wasn't you, she'd get me. I...I love you."

Confusion fills inside me, and my confusion deepens when I feel a sharp pain in my back. I lose my balance and breathing becomes hard. My arms turn limp and I collapse, engulfed in darkness.