Shiver

Chapter 4- Mommy, Where Are You?

My leg is healed. My eye isn't swollen. My feet aren't bleeding anymore. Where am I?

"Blair, come here sweet child." I turn around and see my mother. She looks even more beautiful than the last time I had seen her. Her black curls flow down the back of her long white gown.She doesn't have the few wrinkles she did before. In fact, she practically looks my age. I look into her eyes, also the same hazel color as mine, but there was something else there. Sadness? Hope? When I stop looking at my mother and start wondering how she's actually in front of my eyes when I see that she's holding her arms out, waiting for me to run to her.

"Blair! I'm glad you're here. We missed you so much." and tiny arms wrap around my waist. I look down and see my little brother, Kaden, in a white button-up and white pants, but no shoes. I look at my mothers clothes and her long sleeved dress was also white, and her long hair not in her usual bun. Tears spring to my eyes. I have missed these people so much. My mother starts walking to me and we're all engulfed in a group hug. And I never wanted to let go.

"Now, we have to wait for daddy." Kaden said, sitting down beside me.

"Wait for Dad?"

"No Kaden. Your sister can't stay." My mother lets go of me to look into my eyes. "Blair-bear, look around you. Where do you think you are?" I did as she said, taking in the white blank space around us.

I look at my mother, confused. She smiles and snaps her finger, turning the white into shades of green, and brown. We were in the forest. She snapped her fingers again. The forest changes into the beach and Kaden starts charging and splashing into the water. When I look down and see my toes crinkle in the sand, I still can't believe that this is all real. My mother snaps her fingers once more, and this time we stand in the front yard of a house. I get up, noticing the old front yard, the brown windows, the dinged-up mailbox. This was our old house. I opened the door, and saw the old pictures and paintings that were once mine. The smell of bonfires and cinnamon was in the air, just like I remembered. I smiled, missing my childhood home.

"Honey, we have missed you so much. But, you aren't supposed to be here." My mother was standing on the stairs, in her usual blue jeans and plaid button-up. I looked down and I was back in my bloodied clothes.

"Yeah! You can't stay Blair." Kaden says, sitting on the couch with his spider man action figures. He's also in his casual clothes. He looked so normal. But, the closer I look, the more I notice that his skin color was a little too pale and you could almost see right through him.

"St-Stay? What do you mean, stay?"

"Blair-bear, think about where you are. It is your choice to stay or to leave and come back at another time. But, you need to go back honey. It's not your time." My mother walks up to me, pushing a strand of my tangled hair behind my ear.

"If you choose to stay, you can be with us and we can be a family again. But," she wraps my hand in hers, "you shouldn't be here Blair. You should be out there, living your life enough for the three of us. Blair, you should go back. Be a teenager. Go to college. Make your own family."

"Mom. I'm not leaving you. I just-"

"I''m sorry Blair. But, it is not your time. You must go back and see the world." My eyes burn with tears, anger hitting me for the fact that as soon as I see my family, I have to go. She kisses my cheek and hugs me as tight as possible. Once she lets go of my hand, Kaden runs to me and jumps into my arms. He stares at me, tears threatening to leave his eyes. I couldn't leave him. He had missed his sister for so long, and for what? To have her right before his eyes, only to be taken away again? That's not fair. I needed him. I needed my mother.