Original stories

Trista

Tick-tock, the clock went, tick-tock, I couldn't hear anything else, everything was numb, it felt like nothing was around me, no siblings screaming like a pack of hyenas, no parents drinking away the day, no world outside of these bleak barren walls I call a room—just nothing. Everything was insignificant, just dust in the universe, nothing but just peace. 
    "Get up you bitch child!" I snapped back to reality after hearing the voice of my drunk ass mother. 

    "Yeah sis, get you bitch out of bed!" one of my younger sister yelled from downstairs. 

Why do I even bother? Why does my life have to be like this? I breathe in one two three, one two three. I reluctantly get out of bed and sluggishly head to the closet to get my black hoodie and sweatpants. My body aches while slipping on the sleeves and pants legs because of all the work I had to do at the restaurant last night, and it wasn't even worth it, the wining from the kids and the complaints from the Karens trying to be entitled to get whatever they wanted because they think they're better than everyone. I want my pain to end, I don't want to be tired all the time, but I can't. I must get through this so I can get out of here, if not for me but for my siblings. 

Someone must watch over them, keep them innocent, and let them have the childhood that I never had, like dad used to say before he left us in the dust. Protect the young ones he used to say, they are the key to our future. Bullshit, where the hell what that when I needed it. Whatever, just get through the day and everything will finally be quiet tomorrow. I sighed, one two three, one two three, taking the frosted doorknob, opened the door and stepped into hell. 

The ground was rumbling from my siblings stampeding around the kitchen trying to make their lunch or whatever you call the concoction that they're trying to make. It always ends up bad, but they always try anyways.  

    "QUIT IT!" I hear one of my siblings yell. I walk down the hallway when I hear a crash.  

    "Shit," if they're not careful they could put mom in an even worse mood, and I don't want to deal with that monster right now. I sprinted downstairs to see what looked like a whirlwind brew through the kitchen leaving my younger siblings a mess in the middle of the storm. 

    "you two enough," trying to sound stern "both of you get cleaned up and wait at the door," 

   "But-"  

   "Now you two," I point to the door, and they reluctantly walk out. I breathe in, one two three, one two three. I grabbed the broom, swept up the mess and threw it out. Heading to the door I see my mom in the living room. The couch potato with a beer in hand was watching something on the tv. It was like she was dead to the world, something that I wanted but couldn't because I'm doing all her work. I pass her but stop when I hear her tap the side table by the couch, I breathe and turn to her. I stuck my hand in my pocket and pulled out my wallet, it wasn't thick, on the contrary, it was thin as a string of hair. I pulled out some of my money from work and slammed it on the table. With a scoff, my mom shooed me away.  

    "Fuck you too," I mumble heading to my siblings. 

    I put on my jacket and shoes and pushed my siblings out of the house and to the car. We got in and I started the engine. The traffic was sickening, the loud honking of the cars and my siblings screaming in the back seat was giving me a splitting headache like a sledgehammer to the head, I try to calm down, one two three, one two three, breathing out, thank God the traffic was moving. We get to the elementary and my siblings get out without a thank you or anything. 
I loathe high school, and everyone in that hell hole but I have nowhere else to go, so I head to the disaster of a school. I heard nothing once inside the building, walking through the sea of so-called peers, it was loud to the outsider but to me, it was all muffled. Everything was numb. I travelled throughout the day like I was a zombie, ignoring all the names people called me and all the things they threw at me. The teachers don't do anything to stop this, they don't see me anyways like I'm just invisible. Nowhere in the school was it quiet, even the library, it was always loud, I just wanted to rest.  

    At the end of the day, I quickly got out of the building, leaving my car to go on a walk to clear my mind of all the disgusting things I had to deal with. I don't even know how long I was walking; everything was dreary around me; it was calming to me. What felt like minutes turned out to be hours, and when my mind finally caught up to me, I heard sirens, and I was somewhere I didn't recognize.  

    "Do you need help, ma'am?" I hear a voice; I turn to my left and see a police officer in her car to my left.   

    "I seem to be lost, and I don't know how to get home?" my voice came out hoarse from not speaking much.  

    "I could take you to the police station and call your parents if you want?"  

    "Umm..." do I want to go back? I sighed "sure," I hesitantly said. With that, I opened the car door, got in and buckled in. Through the street, buildings and happy families passed. Why couldn't it be like before, I take a deep breath and close my eyes. It's been a while since I've been happy since I did walk around school like I was an outsider since the whole family was together.  

    Everything was perfect before, during school I used to have the peace that I wanted and at home, mom and dad were in love, I and my siblings used to play a lot, I used to have a normal childhood, and everything was perfect. It used to be quiet, and I used to think that nothing could change it but then mom and dad started fighting, every hour of the day they would fight, and I had to deal with the ear-splitting sound of their shouts while distracting the chaos from my siblings. Cleaning the house whenever mom would through things at dad, then we lost dad in the accident and then mom changed completely. Always sleeping around and drinking her life away, she doesn't even try to hide it from my siblings and this news got to school was when my quiet place became just the same chaotic environment as home, or what used to be home. It was suffocating, like I was drowning, in this whole mess of my life.   

    I just need to breathe, I take a breath but there was a problem, why can't I breathe? I try again but nothing, I try to calm myself, try to think.   

    One two three, one two three, I tried to open my eyes, but they felt so heavy that I couldn't. I was stuck in pitch darkness, everything was cold, and my whole body was paralyzed. The world was quiet, I liked the quiet, maybe I should stay here? I haven't had this peace in forever. But the quiet was cut off by a loud noise. I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from or what it was, but it was irritating. It was fading in and out from what I could tell, through the darkness I could see a light and without thinking I headed to it. The closer I got the louder the sound got, louder and louder than the pain came. It felt like my libs were set on fire. First, it was my left arm and then my right leg, then my whole felt like I was on fire. I wanted to go back but a strange force pulled me to the light and then-  

    "Miss Trista? Can you hear me?" a voice said to me. With all my strength I lift my heavy eyelids to see a woman. "Good, you can hear me," she sighed "Miss you were in a car accident, and you've been unconscious for days, we tried to contact your family, but they didn't pick up. Do you have anyone that we can contact for you?"   

    It was all a dream. I just stared at her with no emotion, was it a dream? How much did I miss, what day is it? So many thoughts were going through my head that everything turned blurry. I feel nothing hear nothing everything was numb.