Phantom Of The Dead

The Birthday

Abi was buzzing with happiness. An impossible wish was fulfilled. It's something that nobody gets a chance to feel.

Abi got her mom back. The same mom who was told to be dead a year ago. The mom who gave birth to her and the mom who saw little Abi grow up to be 11 years old.

Abi has never been happier, ever before. The only thing she wanted for her 12th birthday was her mom and she got it.

But the sad part was, that it came with a price. In this case, the price was the truth.

Or at least half the truth...

Abi went through the pain of getting raped and endlessly tortured but that was only physical.

She was emotionally drained by finding out about deeply hidden secrets of her family.

How her grandparents wanted to kill her mom's twin sister. How her uncle raped her own sister. How her uncle raped her, at the young and tender age of 5.

How her aunt was killed by her own family members. The people who share the same blood and flesh.

And lastly, how her dad had sex with her brother, Aaron's girlfriend, and how her brother, her knight in shining armor isn't her real brother

The good thing was everything's been solved. Everyone's happy now. Everything's been put behind in the past and there's nothing to harm her or her family.

Or that's what she thought.

The only good thing was that she could celebrate her birthday, her 12th birthday peacefully, and maybe spend a couple of months happy with her family.

At 12:00 sharp, Andrew, Adeline, Aaron, Aahana, and their most loyal member, Arlo the lab, came into Abi's room. Their voices were so loud that it startled Abi and she woke up screaming.

Adeline carried little Aahana who was half asleep while Andrew carried a huge cake. A raspberry cake made especially for the very brave Abi.

Aaron had a pile of gifts in his hand and he was really struggling to carry it and when Arlo ran in between his legs, BAM! The boxes came falling down onto the floor.

Abi let out a shriek at the sound the boxes made while hitting the ground. Even little Aahana woke up due to the disturbance but thankfully went back to sleep after Adeline rocked her back and forth.

Finally, after everything was nice and quiet, Abi received hugs and kisses and wishes from her family. The family she loves so damn much.

The same family she mended back together. Piece by piece into a happy family. A normal family

But how long will it last before tearing up again?

Abi had a huge smile on her face. A real smile, as she cut the cake and found it filled with raspberries. After having a bite of the mouthwatering cake, she scoped a generous amount of cream and applied it on Aaron.

Soon, occurred a cake war. Aaron, obviously couldn't keep his hands to himself so he stopped a handful of the cream from the top of the cake and smeared it all over Abi's face.

Abi, being a foodie scooped the cream off her face and licked it off her face. It was truly disgusting but it was good to see her happy even after all the stuff that everything happened.

But will she be happy forever?

The good thing was that a snap of the cake was taken. The rich blue raspberry cake looked even richer in the photo.

Soon, it was time for the present unwrapping. Abi couldn't have gotten any other gift than her mother back but her family wanted to let her know how brave and special and an amazing kid she was.

First was Andrew and Adeline's gift. A cute necklace with a pendant. The pendant was shaped like a heart and was made of platinum. It was supposed to show that their family never breaks… just like platinum.

But they couldn'thave been more wrong.

Next up was Aaron's present. He bought an iPhone 11 for her but it was destroyed during 'Adeline's rescue mission. He was almost gonna buy a new one for Abi but realized at the last minute that she was still young for such an expensive phone.

So instead, he got her a customized Apple pencil which had her name engraved on it. He thought it would be nice because Abi's really into digital art and what's better than Apple pencil?

Next came Amanda's present. The sweet and quirky girl gifted Abi an entire Sharpie set. It looked magnificent to even look at. There were so many colors and so many different tip sizes. It was perfect for a budding artist.

Next was a gift from Andrew's parents. They gifted her clothes and Indian jewelry as they were vacationing in India. They even sent the girl $250 which Abi accepted gracefully.

Other gifts were either cash or art and craft materials. There was just so much to open that by the time  Abi finished unwrapping everything, it was almost 2 and everyone was fighting to keep their eyes awake.

Soon, everyone called in for the night and drifted into a peaceful sleep even before their head touched their pillows.

Abi especially was glad that she could sleep without dreaming about her mom or about Rose. All she dreamt of was swimming in a chocolate river and having a sour worm house.

The other good news was that Abi finally fought her fears and voluntarily insisted on sleeping alone. Of course, Arlo slept with her, and a camera was fixed in her room but no actual company.

The next day, Abi woke up to the smell of pancakes. Chocolate pancakes. The one thing her mom made for her every single birthday.

They were filled with chocolate and tasted delicious. It was something that Abi loved so much. Andrew on the other hand called it 'Diabetes in a day' because of the amount of chocolate in it.

This birthday, Abi got yet another surprise. Adeline was so grateful to Abi for saving her that she made different varieties of pancakes.

There were cookie dough pancakes, blueberry pancakes, gummy bear pancakes, brownie flavored pancakes, and lastly strawberry n chocolate pancakes.

Abi's eye widened as her mouth watered when she saw the beautiful arrangement of pancakes on the table. To wash it down, there was a humongous cup of triple-layer chocolate milkshake from Starbucks.

As Abi gulped everything down, Aaron acted angry over the fact that he never got such good food for his birthday and also stated the fact that Abi is not supposed to have a lot of sugar.

That morning was spent by the family sitting in the living room and chatting. As everyone drank their espresso, Abi drank her giant drink and she actually felt it hard to finish the entire thing.

Aaron grabbed the opportunity to finish off Abi's drink. Once the cup was empty, Aaron smacked his lips together and let out an 'amazing'.

Later, everyone went to their rooms to freshen up as they had family and close friends evening, later that day.

Abi went to her room and chose an outfit. She was the birthday girl after all and had to look… cute but the fact that she couldn't wear short sleeves or a knee-length dress was frustrating.

Abi's scars haven't healed yet and she felt uncomfortable revealing it. Even to close people.

A while later, Abi finished her relaxing bath and just finished dressing up in an ankle-length body con black dress when Andrew yelled for her to come to his room.

Abi walked in almost instantly and unfortunately overheard  Adeline and Andrew's conversation.

Adeline was scared as she said  "how long can I hide the fact that I'm Caroline and not Adeline? I'm scared that the kids might find out about me"