Not Unique

Family

One

Two

Three

She opened the door of the house, her eyes peeled the room she had seen for the 1000 time and yet still hated. She walked into the house calmly, passed the dining room, the kitchen and then into her room.

A sigh escaped her lips as she set her bag down and undressed herself into a tank top and trackies. She fell backwards into her bed and closed her eyes to block the sight of the grey murky world. To slow the time of the world even for a second.

"Zylith, go wash the plates right now" A lady with a stern face opened the door to the room and stood there. She was on the plump side.

"Stand up now, I have food to cook" Tomorrow was Thanksgiving day and it would be a busy day today. Hmm very busy.

With a hunched back and slow blinking, she stood up from the bed. She had just come back from her volunteering after closing from school at 3, she immediately headed to her place of work to help out for 3 more hours. From there, she went to cadets her mother had enrolled her brother into. "It would do you good" She had said to Zylith. Zylith didn't understand why it had to be air cadets. She thought it would have been sea cadets. She was a swimmer after all but she didn't question. 

Saying she was tired truly was an understatement at this point.

"Stop acting tired and go wash the plates now, don't be lazy" The plump lady continued.

Zylith sighed and straightened her spine as she headed to work.

One 'One'

Two 'Two'

Three 'Thr-'

"And make sure to clean the countertops, and the stove and throw the green bin out" Her mother added and walked into the kitchen where Zylith already was. The woman splayed her hands out as she demonstrated what she wanted Zylith to do for the 1000 time.

"Do you understand?"

"Yes, mom" 'Mother'

Zylith was tired, she had rushed the washing and cut down the usual 1-hour scrubbing to a 35-minute one. She didn't know how she did, she even had to check to make sure she didn't do it wrong. She hadn't and she wasn't complaining.

With steady steps she walked to her bedroom, her aunt was already there. Aunt Linda. She didn't like her aunt nor did she dislike Aunt Linda. They simply existed in their own two worlds. Aunt Linda had lost her child when he was at the meagre age of 1, it was a car accident. They had said. Zylith didn't care about a child that could barely walk. But it seemed the incident of 18 years still affected her 43-year-old aunt.

Aunt Linda had her eyes glued to her phone, as soon as she heard the sound of the door open in the dark room, Linda turned her red eyes to stare at Zylith. She let her eyes linger for seconds.

Zylith stood still but forced herself to walk forward. She swallowed her gulp. Her aunt was looking at a photo of Bruce, her cousin. Zylith knew this because she had snooped around her mother's old pictures and saw them.

'Weird'

Her aunt stood up slowly, the bed sheets she had on her hugged her small frame.

When had she become so thin?

Zylith stopped to look at her aunt. Her aunt had been crying? Her eyes werebloodshot, and her fingers grasped around her phone. A feeling settled itself in her stomach. A feeling of bad luck. Zylith already had bad luck, at a young age was very clumsy, tripping over a small rock, tripping over her legs and even tripping on air. Choking on a drink all the time, choking on water she was slowly drinking, choking on air, choking on her spit. But she still pushed her luck every single time. She didn't follow the three-time rule and always did something she was sure would land her in trouble. Why? Perhaps it was for the thrill of it 'How many times can I stick my fingers in the hole in the basket before it gets stuck?' 'How much mess can I make before mum comes back' and so on.