INTRUDER

19 DAYS BEFORE THE INTRUSION

School was once a happy place. It's not anymore. I wish it still was but with dealing with Garred and all my teachers is just too much. I wish I could just block everything out in my world and stop. I wish I could just stop focusing on everything that is going on in my life right now. I wish I could just leave now. Escape is the better word. I wish I could just disappear from everyone. Would someone even care if I disappeared? Would anyone be relieved? Would anyone notice? Those questions always blaze in my head when I think about escaping. I also think of what I would do, would I start a new life? Would I write a book about my life and secretly publish it under a fake name? There are so many things I could do if I just escaped and disappeared. The only thing that keeps me from going is my mom and my sister. I love them too much to just leave them on their own to fight with Garred. How would I take them if I were to escape? What would I do with them? All those things come in play when I feel like I want to fade away from the crowd. I wish I could just vanish and never come back.

I wish so many things but they never really happen, so I have just given up on that hope.

Ben sits in class with his head down as usual. I smile at him when he lifts up his face from the desk. When I sit down in my chair, I shiver because it is so cold outside and I feel like ice is in my veins. The ice is preventing me from feeling warm. I feel so numb because of the cold.

The rest of the day at school was pretty cold, but when I get home it gets even colder and colder. Garred doesn't care, he never does, so he leaves the doors open and lets all the cold air get inside the house.

"Can I turn the heater on?" I ask Garred when I walk into the house.

"Why? You cold?" He starts laughing.

"Yes, I am, and?"

"Crybaby, you're scared of the cold. Is it going to hurt you?"

"No. You know what? I shouldn't even ask you," I walk over to the console on the wall and switch it to "Heater ON".

I close the doors to the house that were open and walk into my room. I get into the covers, shivering, waiting for the heater to turn on.

Once the heat reaches all of the house, I stand up and go prepare some food so Maggie doesn't have to kill herself trying to make food. I make some simple spaghetti and meatballs. Maggie taught me this recipe when I was seven and I remember it so very well. I remember the exact same taste that it had when I was seven. It was so creamy and tangy. The pasta was deliciously soft and delicate. The meatballs were tender and juicy with the right amount of salsa. The salsa was homemade also, just like the meatballs. My mom helped me put the onion to cook and then we added diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste into the pan. We seasoned it with oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. It was perfect and tasty. It was mouthwatering.

When I finished cooking, I put it into a bowl and served him the pasta. I took the pills that my mom uses to fall asleep and crushed them up into the pasta. I placed a fork into the pasta and handed him the plate.

That was my revenge for making my mom suffer. For making my mom do all the work and he just sits there doing nothing like a coward. That's what he gets.

"What's this?" He asks, shoving the pasta into his mouth.

"Pasta I made."

"It's good."

"Your welcome," I leave him to eat it and I smile going back to my room.

A few minutes after he finished the pasta, he started to cough. Then I heard the thump of his head on the ground. I smiled and called Patty on my phone.

"Hello, who is this?" She asked when she picked up the phone.

"Claire. I need to talk to you."

"Claire! Sweetie, is everything alright?"

"No, I knocked out my dad to talk to you."

"With what!?"

"Mom's sleeping pills."

"Claire, you better talk to me fast before he wakes up!"
"I know, so I heard you talking with my mom, and I wanted to ask you about the whole moving to Florida thing."

"Yes, I know what you're talking about. I am going to help you and your mom get out of that filthy mess."

"Thank you so much, Maggie's almost home if you want to talk with her," I smile into the phone.

"But what about Garred?" She asked frantically.

"I got it handled."

"Claire, be careful. Don't get into any trouble. Do not do anything you will regret doing."
"I know, I'll talk to you later."

I hung up the phone and raced to the fridge. I pulled out a beer and opened it without making too much of a sound. I poured it over Garred's shirt and then I threw the beer onto the floor.

Now when Garred wakes up, he will think that he passed out because of the beer. He will never know I drugged him with sleeping pills.

Maggie arrives home and I tell her to quickly call Patty now that Garred is passed out. I did not tell her about how Garred is lying there on the floor passed out.

She calls Patty and they are talking about money and what day they plan on leaving this place. They eventually decide in a month that they are going to leave. We are leaving in a month to Florida. That gives us all of January to secretly get ready.

Right after Patty hangs up the call, Garred starts to yell.

"What the—" I then hear the shatter of the glass against the wood floor. I close my eyes and ask my mom where Ellie is.

"She is spending the night with one of her friends."

"Okay, good," I kiss my mom on the cheek and proceed to walking in to the living room where Garred is at.

"Are you okay?" I ask him.

He lunges at me with the broken beer bottle.