Musicals and Stuff

Cut Away the Cancer, Fill the Hole

CW: mentions of depression, death, unhealthy coping mechanisms
Word Count: 871

Natalie was missing a piece of herself after her mother left. It wasn't even that she was missing her mother, because she saw Diana every weekend. It felt like she was missing a piece of herself. Like when her mom walked out the door, she took a piece of her soul with her.

"Jesus, I sound just like her," Natalie groaned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. It was four in the morning yet again and she was studying for a big AP Biology test for Friday, but she was too busy thinking about what she was missing.

She laid her head on her desk and closed her eyes for a few seconds. She allowed a few seconds to become a few minutes. Right as she was dozing off, she felt someone flick the side of her head.

"Five more minutes," she groaned, swatting the hand away.

"Holy shit," she heard someone breath. It was an unfamiliar voice, one that caused her to jump away from the intruder and grab the object closest to her.

"Holy shit!" the intruder repeated, a huge smile on his face. Natalie stared fearfully at the man, while he stared back gleefully.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked, holding the object- an empty can of Monster- menacingly. The smile slips off of the man's face.

"Holy... shit..." he repeated, then grabbed his head with both hands. "No no no no no, this is not good."

Natalie stood there, not sure if the man was real or a figment of her fatigue-induced state.

"H-hey," Natalie started, just as the man jumped at her voice.

"Natalie," he whispered, looking into her eyes. His eyes were glassy, almost as if he were about to cry.

"Who the hell are you? I'm giving you one more time to answer me or I'm calling the cops!" Natalie warned, angling the can above her head as if she were about to throw it.

"I'm your brother," he answered, looking up at the girl hopefully.

"Fuck," Natalie said, dropping her hand down to her side and allowing the can to fall to the floor. "I'm fucking going insane! This is great!"

"N-no!" he responded, shaking his head, "I'm real. I've been real this whole time, but..."

"But?" Natalie asked, playing along with her mind's games.

"I only come to those who can't mourn me," he explained, looking sad.

"But," Natalie started, as if to rebuttal her supposed brother's point, before breaking off into a laugh, realizing how crazy she actually was being.

"Please, Natalie," he began, "You have no reason to not mourn me, so could you just-"

"I'm not not mourning," she laughed at the image her brain conjured up. "I never knew you."

"Exactly!" he began cheerfully, before a look of realization spread across his face. "That's it! You have to convince Dad to mourn me!"

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked, looking at the ghost incredulously.

Dan hasn't been out of the house for month except to go on beer runs, he hardly showers, unless Natalie forces him to, and he hasn't shown up to work since Diana left. There is no way in hell Natalie was going to make her dad even more depressed by making him think of his dead son. Especially if this dead son is a figment of her imagination.

"No way," Natalie replied, causing the enthusiastic look to fall off of the boy's face.

"What? Please, Nat," he pleaded.

"Okay, so one, don't call me that," the girl started, "And two, how do I know you're actually the spirit of my unmourned brother or whatever?"

The boy thought for a second, before smiling up at his sister. "What's my name?" he asked.

"It's-" she began, but realized she never actually knew what her brother's name was.

"They never told you," he said, "There's a reason for that. They didn't want you to see me."

"Why?" Natalie asked.

"Because sometimes the truth is hard to swallow," he replied.

"Oh," Natalie responded, turning his words over in her mind.

"Gabe," he told her.

"What?" she asked, looking up at her brother, but finding nothing in the spot he was in.

She furrowed her eyebrows, and walked over to her desk. She picked up her phone and sent a quick text to Henry that said she wouldn't be at school the next day. She then creeped down the stairs and past her parent's- dad's- bedroom. She went into her dad's office and found Pandora's Box. She slid the lid off carefully and thumbed through the forgotten pictures where her mother actually looked happy. She found a few pictures of her dad and mom and a baby that wasn't Natalie. She was too scared to turn the picture around and see that what the boy had said was true. She slowly flipped one of the pictures over. It was a good picture with a cute baby boy in a onesie Natalie wore when she was younger. She focused on as much of the detail as possible on the front of the picture before her eyes were fully drawn to the back.

The printing date was January 14th, 1999.

Gabriel, one years old was written on the back.