The Dark Side of Life

                        ‘I can’t take it anymore,’ Katy thought, ‘I just can’t take any more stress!’ that’s when she saw it, sitting there shining brightly in the afternoon light, her dad’s old hunting knife. Katy glared at it as if waiting for it to say something. She suddenly got a flashback of memories,

                        “Katy..” she heard some familiar voice say weakly, she turned knowing, dreading, what she was about to see. As Katy slowly turned toward the weak voice, something heavy and what felt like metal hit her in the right temple. As she fell to the floor with such impact, she managed to catch a glimpse of the weak voiced person. She gasped as she slowly went unconscious seeing a scene, she wished so much had never happened, for the thousandth time since it all happened. She heard somebody running through the house then a scream she knew all too well, her mom’s. Katy snapped back to reality when she felt someone shaking her.

                        “Katy? KATY!?” Becca called out to her, shaking her out of her nightmare. Katy is Becca’s adopted sister. “What is wrong with you, Katy? Why are you standing here crying?” Becca stood there with a questioning stare. Katy brought her hands up to her face; she didn’t even realize she was crying.

                        “Oh, um, I don’t know, just thinking.” she said wiping her eyes with her sleeve of her sweatshirt.

                        “What were you thinking about that made you cry?” Becca asked with a very concerned look.

                        “It was nothing, just.. a little stressed.”

                        “Oh, okay, just let me know if you need anything. You look like crap.” Becca said trying to get a laugh out of Katy.

                        “Yeah, don’t worry, I will.” Katy said with a weak smile, trying to show she was okay. That’s what she liked about Becca, she never pushed anything. Becca gave Katy a hug and left for the night. It was a Friday night so Becca and her adoptive parents were gone for the night, partying. It was okay with Katy because Friday was her emotional stress release day. As soon as she heard her sister’s car back out of the drive way, she walked back to her room. She made sure to close the door and lock it. Katy made her way over to her air vent. She slowly opened it and took out what she’s been waiting for all week. Katy looked at the razor blade for a few minutes deciding how many cuts to make. She decided to do it until she felt better. Nobody knew what she did every Friday night. She made sure she did it where nobody would see. She knew someone would notice if she cut her wrists and always wore a sweatshirt. Katy had never been a person who liked shorts so she decided the best place would be the top of her legs. As usual she told herself she deserved it with all the stress she was under. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she felt so much better after. She silenced her phone so if it went off it wouldn’t scare her. A couple weeks ago, Becca had called her while she was.. Releasing stress and she cut to deep. She didn’t want a repeat of that. She got the bandages and gauze out and began. She could feel herself slowly relaxing after each and every cut, until she was finally happy with how she felt. Katy cleaned everything up and realized just how tired she was. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was fast asleep.

                        “Ugh!” Katy moaned when she woke up, “Another night of nightmares, yay..” Katy looked over at the clock, noon. “I wonder why nobody woke me up?” she wondered silently out loud. Katy slowly made her way out of bed and decided to look around the house, “Mom?” Katy yelled, “Dad? Becca?” just then Katy heard a knock on the door, “Just a minute!” she yelled as she ran to the door. She opened the door and saw a stern looking man in a police uniform. “C-can I help you?” Katy stuttered out, automatically nervous.