Creatures of Hell Book 1: Whispers in the Dark

Chapter 23: Waking Up to Reality

I woke up, stretching my arms out and letting out a loud yawn.

I always found Monday mornings difficult but thankfully today was a snow day as I had gladly been informed last evening by my brother.

Once again I yawned and decided it was about time to face the world. Opening my eyes I saw that I was led in my comfy double sized bed in my child hood bedroom. The curtains were shut and there was little light inside the room but I could tell from the light that shone under the curtain that it was well into the afternoon.

"Are you gonna get up any time soon? Or do I have to get a surgeon to come and surgically remove you from that bed of yours!" my mother shouted from downstairs.

My brother was probably at work which to my pleasure could be something that I could taunt him about later, after all what are little sister for?

I slowly got out of bed and reached for my dressing gown. The air in my room was cold and it was a shock from what I had been feeling from the heat in my bed.

I could smell my mothers pancakes, I guess she must be having a bad day already. She only cooked them so that she could pig out all day on junk food, try and eat her emotions away.

What annoyed me the most about that was that she never once put on a shred of weight! It's just not fair, the woman is in her forties and still has the body of a twenty year old!

I wandered downstairs in the typical zombie like way that teenagers moved when they had recently woken up and found my mother humming her favourite song in the kitchen. There was a fresh batch of pancakes on a plate on the counter aswell as some chocolate spread, syrup and sugar. I guess this means she was having a really bad day.

"Morning mum." I said and plonked myself down on the kitchen table.

"Don't you mean afternoon?" she said, anger was present in her voice and I could tell that she wanted to say something to me but she was finding the words difficult to say.

"What's wrong mum? You know you can tell me anything, I'm not a child anymore, I do understand grown up things." I said and almost immediately her face crumbled.

"I don't know what to do! I wanted to tell you and David at the same time but he won't be back until later. And I just...I don't know what to do!" she cried and I felt the urge to hug her but I was a teenager now, a hug was just a one time thing when I got drunk.

"What do you mean don't know what to do? I don't understand what you mean."

She took a deep breath and gulped as if this was really hard what she was going to say,"The think is that because of all of this cold weather and snow, I'm going to have to take on extra shifts at work just so that I can heat the house. We're broke Candice, we're broke! I've got no money in the bank to pay for your college and your fathers insurance are refusing to pay out! This means that I won't be there for you guys all the time, you'll have to catch the bus home and look after yourselves...Unless if I sell the hou-"

"Don't even say sell the house. Look mum, if you have to take on extra shifts then don't feel guitly about it. I'm gonna get a job so that I can help out with the bills and stuff, don't feel that you have to look after me all the time, I'm not a little girl."

"Candice it's my money problems, not yours so don't worry about getting a job, I want you to get good grades and go off to university. You always were your fathers little princess." she smiled all the time when she spoked of my father, but there was always hurt that replaced it.