Effie

Chapter Eight

"Effie! Darling! Dinner is ready!" her mother yelled from the kitchen.

Effie sighed and began to clean up. Her eyes were still a little puffy, but hopefully, her parents won't notice. If they do, Effie will just have to come up with a lie about Patricia. They can't know about Patricia. If they did, they would start to agree with Dr. Cohouln and want to send her away to a crazy house.

Effie was not about to let her parents think that she was going insane. She made a promise to herself that no matter what, she was going to convince them that nothing was wrong and that she was fine.

She stood up from the spot she was sitting at and walked towards the door. Opening it up, she walked out of the room and down the hall where she met her father sitting at the dinner table reading a book. His reading glasses were sitting low on the bridge of his nose. Effie hadn't noticed this before, but there were dark circles beginning to appear under his eyes. She decided not to ask him about it since she was afraid of what the answer might be.

She sat down at the seat across from him and waited until her mother sat a plate down in front of her and her father. Her mother then sat down beside him and proceeded to eat her food. They ate in silence for a while before Effie's mother spoke up.

"Who were you talking to in your room, dear?"

Effie looked down at her plate and pretended that she thought she was talking to her father.

"Effie, your mother is speaking to you," her father said, slightly impatient.

Effie looked up to see both of her parents staring at her. Their faces held emotions that Effie hated to see: worry, confusion, and disturbed. Effie faked a smile and lied to them, "I was talking to one of my stuffed animals." She quickly looked back at her food and proceeded to eat, but ended up just playing with her chicken.

Her parents continued to talk, but Effie didn't listen to their conversation. She was too worried about her lie. She had never lied to her parents before and she felt awful. All she hoped was that her father couldn't pick up on her lie.

She continued to eat in silence until dinner was over and her parents excused her from the table. She walked outside and into the tiny garden, they kept in the backyard. She sat down on a stone bench and stared at the praying angel kneeling next to her.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked herself. "I can break glass and talk to someone who is dead."

"Nothing's wrong with you," a voice said beside her.

Effie jumped off of the bench and turned to see Patricia sitting down next to where Effie just was. "What are you doing here? I told you to go away!"

Patricia smiled and shook her head. "You have to realize, Effie, that I'm never going away. I'm always going to be here."

"Why?" Effie clenched her fists, digging her fingernails into her palms.

Patricia stood up and walked closer to her. "Because, that's your gift. Have you heard the saying that children can see more than adults?"

Effie nodded her head slowly.

"Well, that's true, but now you can truly see us. More of us."

"What do you mean by 'more of us'?"

Patricia smiled and motioned around the garden. Effie turned her head to see more people standing around her. How did they get here?

"Effie," Patricia gained her attention back. "These people are just like me and can appear to you anytime they feel. Just like I can." Patricia walked closer to Effie. "This is who you really are, Effie. This is what you can do, see, and hear." She smiled. "Isn't it amazing?"

Effie shook her head. "No. No, it's not amazing! All I want to be is normal. All I want is for this boot to be off of me and for my life to go back to normal. I don't want to be able to break glass or see dead people. I just want to be able to have a normal life!"

"Effie-" Patricia started but Effie interrupted her.

"No!" she screamed. "Don't you dare try to make me understand any of this. I don't! If I continue to see you and them and break glass, my parents will have no choice but to send me to an asylum! I'm not crazy!"

Patricia smiled at her sadly. "No, you're not crazy, but you do have a gift."

"And I bet all children would love to have this amazing gift, huh?"

Patricia looked down and shuffled her feet. "I admit, it's not that amazing as a gift, but I had the same ability that you have now. Except that, I was always able to use mine, while you just had to be knocked in the head for it to work. I thought that I hated it, but then I used it to my advantage."

Effie, confused on why she would not hate it, asked, "Why?"

"Because, like I said, I can use it to my advantage. I was able to see and talk to people who were dead-just like you-and they were able to give me details about other people. I was able to use those details to get whatever I wanted."

"So you blackmailed, people."

Patricia shrugged her shoulders and smiled. "You could call it that."

Effie sighed and shook her head. "I'm not going to do that. My parents raised me better."

"My parents raised me well, but I still used my ability to my advantage."

Effie shook her head again roughly. "No, I won't."

Patricia smirked. "I will make sure that you learn to like this gift of yous. Even if that means to make you look crazy." After she finished the people who were standing around Effie began to talk at once.

Effie tried to get them to be quiet, but they only got louder. Effie tried to cover her ears, but to no success. She began to scream and fall on her knees. Finally, when she really couldn't take it anymore, she ran back inside her house and into her room where she slammed the door shut and fell on her bed. She could still hear the voices a little, but they were now becoming soft. She put a pillow over her head and tried to block out the voices that way. Eventually, the voices stopped and Effie laid on her back and stared up at the ceiling.

I will not succomb to Patricia's doings. I will not be sent to an asylum.