The Abyss

Chapter 3: Grounded

August 22nd

We arrived home extremely early in the morning. Rain still fell in sheets from the sky. As soon as we stepped through the door, my parents took my laptop and cellphone hid them somewhere. I was upset but I was too exhausted to argue and practically crawled up the stairs to my room where I curled up on the bed like a cat, still wearing my drenched and blood spattered clothing from earlier that day.

Ten hours later I was awoken again for the second time in 24 hours by my stupid nose and, for the second time in 24 hours my first reaction was to grasp at it in startled agony. I never learn. With a groggy head and an aching nose I shuffled first to the bathroom to change my shirt out for a less bloody one and then stumbled down the stairs to the kitchen to get some painkillers where I was "greeted" by the twins.

"Sarah!!! Wake up sleepy head!" They giggled evilly, running behind the table over to the window. Grabbing the brown curtains in their chubby fists they threw them open, letting in a blinding wave of sunlight. Slightly dazed from the early awakening and the long night, I ended up staring at the  giant fireball for a few seconds, not understanding what it was, like a complete dumb ass. Then the pain hit me.

"Gahh! My eyes!" I cried out, groaning and covering my eyes with my hands to block out the glaring rays of the sun. As I tried to blink the spots of light out of my eyes I surveyed the kitchen. The light was pouring in from a large window on the back wall giving the room an orange glow. The window stretched from just below knee height to 2 feet from the ceiling. Along its sides hung brown curtains adorned by gothic roses. In front of the curtains sat 2 large ferns in large gray pots. The room itself was very long and narrow, so narrow that it was barely big enough for our 8 person table which stretched across the room parallel to the window. On the right side of the room a little ways in front of me was a open doorway to the small family room, and along the left side of the room ran a mess of cabinets and counters which ran along the wall until reaching the kitchen table.

"Really guys? It's like so bright outside." I heard a tired voice mutter behind me. It was my brother Chris. He brushed past me to the coffee machine, which sat on the counter. Rubbing his eyes, he poured himself a tall cup of coffee and dumped about a cup of sugar in. Gross.

"Hey Christie! Didn't you hear? Sarah's grounded!" The twins cheered. They started to skip around the kitchen table in their matching overalls and green shirts chanting: "Sarah's grounded! Sarah's grounded!"

"Good for her." Chris muttered indifferently. "Now can you twerps shut up? It's 11 am and I thought I told you not to call me that?" He grabbed his coffee mug and sat down at the kitchen table.

"Sorry Christie!" The twins sang, giggling hysterically. Alex stuck out his tongue and Hailey  made a face. Chris stood up and leaned menacingly across the table towards the twins who had stopped skipping and now stood giggling in the corner of the room. "Listen up," He growled, "Call me that again and you'll look like Sarah." The twins looked at my bandaged nose, winced and looked back to Chris, who was grinning like a shark. They ran off screaming bloody murder. Right into my dad.

"What's going on down here?" He sighed.

"Christie is trying to kill us Daddy!" They cried, twisting their faces into perfect expressions of fear. Chris immediately sat back down, casually drinking his coffee and checking his phone.

"Chris..." Dad warned.

"Yeah, Dad?"

"Not today."