Artificial

Chapter 4: Phantasm

Phantasm: the delusion of a disordered mind. A phantom. A ghost.

The first word that I heard come out of my mother's mouth directed toward me was Elizabeth, my name, what followed that was two simple words its time. I lived in a happy household most of the time, but no family is picture perfect. There would be fights most of them were us slamming doors to see who could slam the door the loudest. I may have been an only child, but I never felt alone.

Now that I think about it wasn't until I was around four or five when my mother started talking directly to me. When I was a baby she would talk around me but, not to me. When she came to my room at night she never really looked at me when she said goodnight. She looked off into the darkness it was actually kind of creepy, she reminded me of a robot. I myself never really reached out for her until I saw the monster in the crawl space for the first time.

The day was going by slower than usual and my mom was cooking dinner in the kitchen. So, I went upstairs in my room and sat in front of the door pulling my knees to my chest. I looked up focusing on a little pink butterfly on my ceiling that caught the light just right. As I looked back down at the wall in front of me, I turned my head left looking at my crawl space. It looked like a black mist was seeping from the cracks in the door; I just watched it lazily thinking it was my imagination. Soon the door creaked open and in a normal tone I said "mom." The door started opening fast and my eyes widened as the missed seemed to push the door open wider. I yelled for my mother as loud as I could over and over again. The mist started coming toward me and as it got closer it seemed to be neutralizing my cries for help but, I know they were heard because there was banging on my door. I was becoming extremely light headed and dizzy as the cloud of darkness cascaded over me. I gazed back to the closet and I saw it, slowly rocking back and forth a giant mass of something unknown.

Then the door broke open and like a switch the mist disappeared and my mom came rushing in. I put my hands over my eyes trying to forget what I just saw but I couldn't. My mother kneeled in front of me gently removing my hands from my space trying not to scare me more. Apparently she knew more on what was going on then what I did.

"Elizabeth, its time." She spoke softly brushing a stray strand of hair out of my face. Then she pulled me into a hug and it felt like a weight was being lifted off of my shoulders because I could finally breathe again. I could finally depend on my parents protecting me so; hopefully they could depend on me now.

Right after this crazy occurrence it seemed to dissipate because the next week after the encounter we moved. We moved to a city in Maryland named Burkittsville, which just so happen to be the paramount of my life.

Then I woke up still laying in the same spot next to the tree, my knuckles sore and my jacket somewhat sprawled across my chest and some of the ground. I stood up yawning and cracking my bones in various places before I pulled my jacket over my shoulder. Then I started walking deeper into the forest waiting for my next trial to start, if it ever does.