13elieve (Short story collection)

First Day

Melanie woke up, knowing that today was a very important day. Today was Melanie's first day of school. Melanie would talk about school every day, and could not wait for it to finally start. Melanie's mother, Gwen, had mixed feelings about Melanie starting school. She knew it was very important, but at the same time, Melanie was her only child, and it pained her to know that Melanie would have to leave the house each day. On the other hand, Melanie's father, Wyn, was excited for his daughter to start school. He loved Melanie and knew that this was a very important step in her growing up. The night before, Melanie picked out what she was going to wear, and was so excited she could barely sleep. With this level of excitement, you would think it was her birthday.

They went out the door, and Wyn took pictures of Melanie, and planned to do the same thing for each of her first days of school. They got in the car and Gwen asked Melanie what parts of school she was excited about. Melanie, still not even sure what school was, says that she has no idea, but is still excited. They parked in the school parking lot, and walked Melanie into school. Since it was Melanie's first year, Gwen and Wyn had to take her to the school nurse to get a health checkup. They checked Melanie's height, weight, hearing, eyesight, and everything about her seemed healthy.

The nurse then got this metal helmet, and told Melanie to put on this "hat". Gwen asked the nurse what she was doing, and the nurse told her that they had to scan every student's brain before they could start school. For whatever reason, Gwen felt uneasy about this. She had no idea why they had to scan brains. Was it to see how smart they are, because they are going to learn in school anyways. When they finished scanning Melanie's brain, they told her to go take a seat in the other room, and told Gwen and Wyn to come over.

"We have some bad news." the nurse said.

"What's wrong?" Wyn asked nervously.

"When we scanned your daughter's brain, we found some black mass." the nurse said.

"What's black mass? What's wrong with my daughter?" Gwen asked freaking out.

"There have been studies done that show that black mass is a mass that is found in the brains of serial killers." the nurse said.

"Are you calling my FIVE-YEAR-OLD daughter a serial killer?" asked Wyn.

"Listen, I am sure that your daughter is very nice and a great kid, but I am not allowed to send her into school." the nurse said.

"She can't even attend school?" shouted Gwen.

"Well it is unsafe to allow any serial killers into the school." the nurse said.

"MELANIE IS NOT A SERIAL KILLER! And she was so excited to start school, what are we going to tell her when we take her back home?" asked Gwen.

"About that..." the nurse said.

"What?" asked Wyn.

"Since your daughter is going to grow up and be a serial killer, we are not allowed to send her home with you." the nurse said.

"Well, if she can't go to school, and she can't go home, where is she supposed to go?" Wyn asked, trying to suppress his anger.

"She will go to an institution, just like all the other serial killer kids. She will spend the rest of her life there, and never be a threat to society." the nurse said.

"You're sending my FIVE-YEAR-OLD daughter to an institution for the rest of her life?" yelled Gwen.

"I am afraid so." the nurse said.

"Well...well at least we can visit her." Wyn said, trying to look at the positives.

"Ummmm...that's kind of prohibited." the nurse said.

"What are we supposed to tell are family? They're going to notice that Melanie is gone." Gwen said, trying to calm down.

"As much as it pains me to say this, you have to tell them she died. Make up a story, like a car crash or illness. I know it is very painful for you to do, but it has to be done. We will take care of the costs fro the funeral and obituary, but you'll have to give us a cause of death." the nurse said.

"Well...if there is ABSOLUTELY no way out of this," Wyn said, trying not to cry, "let's make the cause of death be kidnapping and murder."

Both the nurse's and Gwen's eyes widened. "What!? Why?" Gwen asked, starting to freak out.

"Because, they are kidnapping our daughter, and are most likely going to kill her as well." Wyn said, feeling defeated.

"Why don't you go say bye to Melanie. Oh, but one thing. She still thinks she is going to school, so don't crush her dreams." the nurse said.

Gwen and Wyn walked over to Melanie, gave her a huge hug, and said: "Bye sweetie, have fun at school. We love you."

"Bye mommy. Bye daddy. Love you too." Melanie said