The Stars

Chapter 4

Family dinner is as terrible as it seems. 

Isabel keeps asking me questions, even though the Foster care people told them that I haven't said a word in 10 years.

Well I have talked before. I've screamed for help and when I got help I begged for my family. This happened for years. And every time someone told me they were dead, I would stop.

The dreams were my trigger, and reality was where my bullet hit.

But Isabel, she won't stop. Constantly, 'how was your day?', 'how were your classes?'. Boring things I wouldn't answer even if I did talk.

Aylie is more than happy to answer for me. She talks about everything a 1st grader would talk about. 

Everyone was nice, she got to draw, the teacher gave her an extra cookie because she knew her multiplication tables already. Normal and easy things.

Things that I never got.  

Things that I could have had.

Things that I never will have.

After Aylie gets it all out of her system, her parents, Isabel and Dean, take up trying to figure out why I don't talk.

Post dramatic stress.

Selective mutism.

Anxiety.

Never learning in the first place.

A concussion that they never noticed.

A disability.

Being stubborn.

Every possible thing, except that I just don't want to talk to anyone but my parents.

They even think I just need someone to love me. That that's all it would take for me to talk again.

"Maybe she's possessed by the monsters that hide under my bed!!" said Aylie 

She sees monsters?

"Now, Aylie! What have I told you about your stories?" Of course, its her mom that would say that.

"But mom, they aren't stories! I see them all the time! Especially around Kari. Its like they are following her."

Astonished her dad says, "Aylie, a lot of things have happened to this girl and you are just going to make matters worse for her! The best thing you can do is leave her and your monster stories alone."