Now I'll Torture You

4

My heart skipped a beat when I heard my mom screaming.

"Mom!" I ran to the front room as fast as I could, "Mom, are you okay?"

She had her hand over her heart and let out a huge sigh of relief when she saw me. "Kelsey, the real question is are you okay?"

I looked down. Large amounts of blood that I had been unable to clean were drying on the carpet. I looked back up at her with my mouth hanging wide open. "I... uh..."

Mom had a sympathetic look on her face. "What happened, sweetie?"

I felt unable to get the words to come out of my open mouth. "I, I, I,"

I started crying.

I tried to think of a lie but couldn't.

"You won't believe me," I stated.

Mom sat down on the couch and motioned for me to sit next to her. I sat there and told her about Janie's suicide (without telling her how extreme my bullying was), Dee's speech, taking a bath, and the paranormal activity that followed.

She gave me a concerned look. "Do you want to help me make dinner?"

I shrugged, "Sure."

We cooked spaghetti and meat balls, but my mom acted weirdly. She wouldn't let me use the knife and kept giving me scared glances.

I smiled when my dad got home. I was glad I didn't have to be alone with mom any longer. He gasped audibly when he saw my clawed up face.

"Can I talk to you for a minute... alone?" mom asked dad.

Dad nodded quickly and seemed to try to have a conversation with his eyes to get answers before even talking to her.

They left the room and of course, I followed but stayed out of sight.

I heard my mom tell him the story I told her and then it felt like a punch to the stomach.

"I think she's schizophrenic."

"She doesn't believe me," I thought, "My own mother doesn't believe me."

I knew I wasn't schizophrenic. I knew it was real.

It was real.

It was real.

It was real.

I mean it felt real.

Maybe it was just my imagination...

Yeah I'm so stupid it wasn't real. This kind of thing doesn't happen to a real person.

I have nothing to worry about.

"Of course that wasn't real... that was so dumb of me." I laughed to myself, trying to get the terrified feeling out of me.

I didn't really believe that it was all in my imagination, of course I couldn't. It was all too real...

But finally I drifted off to sleep.

Janie's demonic laughter surrounded the dark room. "No one believes you, Kelsey, you're crazy. You're schizophrenic. You're a psycho. Keep this up any longer and you'll get locked up in an asylum!! She laughed again. Crazy Kelsey, Crazy Kelsey. No one's gonna love you. No one's gonna take you seriously... I love seeing you suffer. Just like you made me suffer... but you deserve a little.... extra torture."

The dark room began flashing lights and I struggled to find an exit. I found a door and ran to open it. Janie stood there, her eyes completely white and her skin pale and still covered in dirt. Her stringy hair hung straight at her sides.

"Your time is running out, Kelsey." A smile scary enough for Satan began to widen on Janie's face and screams surrounded me once more.

I had to go to school the next day and pretend like everything was normal. Whispers surrounded me in the hallways. My foot seared in pain. My face throbbed. I finally understood what it must have been like for Janie at school.