Short Stories

Inside this mansion

I wake up surrounded by gold cloth, its the comforter of the extremely comfy bed I currently lay in. How did I get here? I have no memory of this place or how I got here, or anything at all really. I don't remember a single thing from before. I crawl out of the giant bed and realize the room I'm in is just as extravagant. Above me is a spiral of crystals acting as a chandelier, by the window is a gold and cream couch with white silk throw pillows on it. Across the room is a white vanity table also outlined with gold, and about every type and color of makeup you could imagine. I walk into the bathroom, the first thing I notice is the strangeness of the bath tub, it's shaped  like a giant white bowl. Behind it is a giant glass box with shower heads in it and river rocks pasted to the wall. I walk through the door to my left, it opens up to a giant walk in closet. It was filled with fur coats, fancy dresses, and more shoes than I've ever seen in my life. There's drawers on the walls and when I opened them they were full of diamond earrings, necklaces, rings and bracelets, too many to count.
I grabbed a red dress of the hangar and was surprised to learn it was exactly my size, everything in the closet seemed to be, The dress had thin straps and a low chest, it was made with lace and a silk slip underneath and had a slit that went up to the middle of my thigh. After showering and shaving my legs I put the dress on, I looked phenomenal in it. Better than I've ever looked in my life. I curled my hair, which I've never been able to do before, that I remember anyways, and I pinned one side back so it was all on one side of my head. Then I tried on a pair of black wedges covered in velvet, which also fit perfectly, after that I put on a small diamond necklace and looked in the full length mirror. I looked beautiful, my honey colored hair flowed down to my waist in soft, luscious curls, the red of the dress made my blue eyes really stand out.
After I was dressed I decided to explore the rest of the house, I walked out into the hallway which had a table on each side with red carnations on it, above it was a marble stone arch and another chandelier similar to the one in the bedroom. And black and white tiled floors. At the end of the hall there was a white spiral staircase with a gold rail. The first thing I noticed was the dining room table covered in food. Waffles and syrup stacked higher than my head, a giant bowl of fruits and berries. Three pitchers were set on the table each filled with something different; orange juice, coffee and apple juice. There was a plate piled with bacon and another with eggs cooked in every way and another with sausage, croissants with butter and jam. That's when I realized I was starved, it felt as if I hadn't eaten for years. I sat down and dug in, just then a beautiful lady walked in, she had hair very similar to mine pulled into a bun, and emerald green eyes. She wore a long black dress that was open in the back, she walked so elegantly as she came to sit down at the table with me. She looked very familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on why.
"Hello Juliet, how are you on this fine morning?" She asked while pouring herself a cup of coffee. Her voice was smooth and flowed nicely.
        "Black, squeal of tires, gunshot, a woman screams."
I shake my head and look around the dining room, my head, it was all in my head.
"Are you okay honey, you look like you've seen a ghost." the woman asked looking slightly concerned. I feel like I've seen a ghost too. I've got a bad feeling about this woman, something bad happened to her, but what. You're being ridiculous, how could you know something like that you don't even know her, plus she seems fine now.
Then a man walked in, he was very different from the woman, he had black scruff on his chin from where a beard would be. He had dark circles around his eyes and a black mop of hair on his head, he had tattoos covering his whole body except his face, not any that I could describe in this story. He didn't walk as elegantly as the woman, he trumped around and slammed his gun onto the table aggressively, as he did the woman jumped.
         "Dark, hiding, corner, man yelling, crying, hand pulled back ready to strike."
Breathing frantically, I look around, the man is looking at me weird.
"What's wrong with her?" he gruffly asked the woman.
"Nothing is wrong with our daughter" she reassured calmly
Daughter, what are they talking about? I think I would remember my own parents, wouldn't I?
"Mom?" I said cautiously.
"Yes sweetie" the woman said turning to me.
"How did I get here? Like in this house?"
"Thats ridiculous honey, you live here, you always have" she smiled fakely trying not to look worried.
"Nothing's wrong with her" the man who I guess was my father mocked.
        Then a little girl around age 9 walked down the stairs, she looked a lot like a smaller version of me, her hair was more red than mine but she had the same blue eyes and soft face.
        "Same face but bruised, a black eye, a man yelling "Stupid coward, quit hiding, don't cry        or I'll give you something to cry about!", a girl screams, a tear rolls down the girl's face, screaming suddenly stops"
Something terrible happened to this girl, I know it.
She walks to the chair and sits down next to me.
"Wake up" she whispers to me
I look down at her small face
"What did you say?" I ask
She just looks up at me then looks back to her food.
I go back to my room suddenly feeling very tired, I pass a mirror in the hall on my way, I look over at the mirror and my reflection shows me in the same outfit with my hair the same but my face is bruised and dirty, I have a bruise the size of my hand on my thigh, a tear rolls down my reflections cheek but when I put my hand up to my cheek the tears not there. I look away unable to watch anymore, when I look back I look like myself again, no more bruises. I get to my room pull off the dress and shoes and crawl into the bed. I immediately fall asleep.
"My mother and I walk down the street, it's dark, I don't know why we were out so late, something was wrong, I know that much. A big black car drives by, there's a man in the passenger seat, he has a gun, the gunshot is loud, I cover my ears and squeeze my eyes shut, I open them because my shoes are wet, I look down and realize they're covered in blood. I see my mother's lifeless body laying on the sidewalk at my feet."
I wake up in a cold sweat, it's pitch black in the room, the words wake up keep echoing in my head. Wake up? How can I wake up if I'm not sleeping? I slowly drift off to sleep again,
"The little girl sat at the table coloring a picture, the man walked in, he was staggering and obviously drunk, he stood over the little girl, "you look just like your mother did" he snarled. He grabbed her hair and threw her to the ground, she screamed, then he dragged her to the basement and locked her down there. Then he walked back up the stairs while she sat in the basement and cried. Then he walked up to me, so close I could smell the liquor on his breath and see the beer stains on his teeth. "Wake up!" he screamed in my face, spit flying everywhere. "Wake up!" he screamed again. "I can't!" I cried. He slapped me off the couch and I fell to the floor."
When I woke up again the man was standing over me.
"You need to wake up" he said unkindly
"I am awake" I replied confused
"You need to wake up!" he repeated, more sternly this time
He walked up right next to me, grabbed my shoulders and shook me
"Wake up!!!" he screamed just like in my dream
Then he disappeared into thin air, I sat up still shaking from fear, his voice still echoing in my head. On the nightstand next to my bed was a newspaper, I picked it up, "New study shows people who are abused often escape to a fantasy land and are unaware they're being abused"
The article said "They escape to their world of fantasy in an attempt to escape what's around them, often they do not know their world isn't real and must be awoken before they get severely hurt this way. Wake up! Wake up!" Weird. Below it was a picture of a beautiful mansion and next it was a run down trailer, there were pipes sticking out of the ground.
"The little girl is running around the yard but she trips on the pipes and cuts her leg, she cried, the man yells, she hides, he throws her to the ground, she screams, hits her head, silence"
There were holes in the front door, they looked like they were from bullets.
"Men yelling outside, me hiding in the the corner, gunshots through the door and the walls."
I realize what's going on, I'm dreaming, all of this is a dream. I pinch myself over and over again trying to wake myself .
My eyes fly open, I'm sitting in the corner of a trailer, it smells of mildew. The man is standing in the corner of the house facing away from me. He turns around and sees me, he snarls "I see you're awake".  I notice a gun in his hand. "Well not for long" he laughed. He lifted the gun and fired.