"Happy Birthday Juliet!"

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by enaenaed

by enaenaed

There's a clattering noise, maybe a crash.

"Is this thing on? How do you even—"

And then, the view brightens up. It takes a second for the camera to focus.

"Ah! There we go."

There's someone standing in front of the lens. Can't be any older than 9 or 10. Scruffy black hair, tan-ish skin, just like their big sister.

"Hi Juliet! I just wanted to let you know that Mom and I miss you and we hope you're having a nice time in Albany. I really wish I could've come with you, but you kept on saying that I HAD to stay."

"Anyways, what I wanted to say is Happy Birthday! You're like... 17 now? Sooner or later you're gonna need a cane or something."

Ha. Funny as always. She misses that.

"I hope you get lots of gifts and treats for your special day. Oh yeah! You're like the dancing queen now!"

She misses that song.

"We watched Mamma Mia the other day. Much easier to enjoy without you yammering on about it."

She misses that movie. She misses home.

Juliet knows she won't be going home anytime soon. But she can pretend she is. She can pretend she's watching a TV show with her friends while eating an entire bowl of kettle corn. She can pretend nothing bad ever happened to her dad. She can pretend she never left to go to this shitty garbage dump of a town.

But it's not gonna do anything in long end for her. She knows that her friends don't know where the fuck she is. She knows what happened to her dad and the way his face split open like a Thanksgiving turkey stuffed with teeth and saliva.

Gross, gross, gross. She really needs to stop thinking about that.

"Jeez, now I feel like you. Talking for way too long. If you get this, just ignore everything else and skip to the end."

Oh. The videos still going.

The person holds up a poorly drawn 'Happy birthday' sign and smiles. Juliet wants to peel her skin off and eat it when they smile.

"Happy Birthday Juliet."

The video cuts, and she's alone again. Curled up in the corner of an abandoned church with nothing but her camera and a shitty laptop at 36% battery.

She just wants this to be over.