The Glass House

One

I will never forget the events that led up to me going to the Glass House. I'll never forget how I got there, who was in charge of me being there, and who never saved me. I will never forget the fear that stayed with me every time they were there. I will never forget.

As I woke up on my seventeenth birthday, I felt the same as I did the day before. No one ever feels different on their birthday, or at least I don't. My Dad came in and told me happy birthday while I was still sprawled across my bed with no intention to ever get up.

I had the dream the night before. That same dream with the house. I didn't want to think of it, instead I kicked off my blankets and thought of something to wear that day. I decided on a simple Periphery shirt and jeans.

Hearing my phone ring meant one thing and one thing only: a phone call from Austin, who was miles away from me.

"Happy Birthday!" he excitedly said from the other end. With a grin on my face, I thanked him. We spoke of plans for the day and when we would see each other.

Everything was fine until the knock on my door came.

"Morgan, Aunt Josephine and Uncle William are here." My mothers voice was soft from the other end of the door.

"Who?" I asked, a puzzled expression on my face. I'd never heard of them a day in my life but Mom was adopted so who's to say I forgot about them?

As I walked through the house, I ran my fingers over the wall; feeling the paint texture on my finger tips. The hallway could have drug on forever and I wouldn't have cared if I would have walked a million miles. Anything on this Earth could have told me what was at the end. I would have turned and ran, locked myself in my bedroom and never came out. But I didn't know what they would say to me. I didn't know what would have happened to me. My own parents probably didn't know. But they let it happen and so did I.

The look on their faces were hard.

"Pack your bags," they said; voices demanding.

I threw a look of horror to my Dad. He shrugged and my Mom said nothing. They must have knew. Yet for some obscene reason they said nothing about it. Maybe they really didn't know. Maybe these people said that they just wanted to visit with me. Not trap me inside a huge glass house that I would die in.

Unknowingly, I packed my bags. I trusted people that I couldn't even remember. How stupid was I? How stupid were my family? Why would we trust these people? Or did my parents just give me away? If so, why did they? They couldn't do that to their daughter...

But they did. They hugged me, said they loved me, and that was that. I didn't know where I was headed. I didn't know where I was going. The only thing I knew, was that I was scared.

The brightness of the sun peered through the window of the car as the trees flew by. A feeling in my stomach told me I would never see these trees again and it made me want to cry. But I shook the thought away because I was clearly going back home... I hoped.

Pulling up to the location, the pit of my stomach churned. I could throw up and cry. I had seen this place: in my dreams.

"Welcome," they said in unison. "To the Glass House!"