Vacation

11

There was one night she was making me eat spinach. The worst food ever! She stood behind me watching me to make sure I ate it. I wasn't allowed to have anything left on my plate. This is one place she taught me respect. If I complained, groaned, or tried to pass off with "I'm full." Then I would have seconds or have to eat more of it tomorrow. If I refused that's where she would get mad.

Some days she would use her claws and slash my back. Other days she would shove the fork in my mouth even if I wasn't ready. When she does this she would usually have my hands tied and one of our servants hold my head. Every time I coughed she would yell at me and put more on the fork than before. One day she was feeling lazy though.

It was the day after my fifth birthday. This would be the first day I see the real side of Todd. For my birthday Tiffany got me a necklace. The next day Tiffany told me to try it on and wear it to dinner. I ran to my room and put it on. I was really happy with it.

There were purple and blue stones on a thin chain. The stones dangled at different lengths. The chain was silver, pure silver. It was heavy, but I didn't want to let that hold me back from wearing it. There was a strange black box in the back but I thought that was so the chain didn't leave a mark in my neck or something silly like that. I was wrong, and I would soon find that out.

I ran back to the dining room. We were served fish with Brussel sprouts. I didn't want to eat it. I felt the fish's life and how sad it must have been to die. Now, they expect me to eat this poor creature. I'm fine with meat sometimes, however, today wasn't the day for it.

"Mommy, why are we eating the swimming fish?" I looked down at my dish.

"He died for you, respect that." Tiffany said without bothering to look up or give any thought to my question.

"No the cooks killed it for us. Right?" My curiosity was going to annoy her so I began to lower my voice to see if she would answer me.

"I said it died for you, didn't I?! Now respect that and eat the fish!" Her voice began to rise as she banged on the table to show she was getting mad.

"Yes mommy." I muttered.

"What was that?" She was quieter now but still annoyed.

"Y- yes mommy, I will respect this fish who died for me." I raise my voice just loud enough for her to hear me. A small squeak in my voice came out every time I spoke.

"Good."

I looked at Todd who didn't pay any attention to either of us. He just ate his dish and left as soon as he could. He never said a word at dinner. The only thing he would mutter about at the time was work. I never knew what 'work' was, but maybe it was this. Maybe, even then they were planning to turn on me when the time came.

Every time Todd was there the worst she would do was yell. I don't know why that was. It was almost like she couldn't. Every time Todd was there at the table, Tiffany would have to say his name before she could lift her arm, walk to the kitchen for water, or even to wave a servant over. This wasn't odd at the time but now it was really strange.

Once Todd left she was able to move normally though. Once he left she was on the hunt. She came over to me and looked at my plate to find my food hardly touched.

"You're not leaving until this is done."

"Yes ma'am." I kept looking at my plate scared to see her face.

"Hope you like your necklace. I don't feel like watching you today. So I will be in the living room. Come show me your plate once it's done." She walked to the living room next to the kitchen so she could watch me from a distance.

"Yes ma'am." I looked back at my plate trying to think of a way to get out from eating this.

I watched Tiffany move to the living room and sit on the couch. My first plan was to move just slightly out of her sight. When I moved my chair a bit I could feel a tickling on my neck. The tickling grew to a high pitch scream when I didn't move back. A headache began to form from the noise, not dissipating.

As the noise grew the tickling grew into a thousand tiny knives sticking me in the neck. I crawled back to where I originally was and looked desperately up at Tiffany. All I could see was spots of dark shades of grey every knife stab. Once I was back in my spot the knives and scream began to fade. I was finally able to see the big white grin coming from Tiffany's face.

"What's wrong? Doggie shocker a little painful? Maybe now you will eat."

I began to feel hot tears fall down my face as my eyes stung. How could a mother be this mean? She is sometimes really loving and nice but I do one thing wrong and it's all over. My throat tightened and I wanted to scream at her, but I knew better. So I took a fork full of Brussel sprouts and shoved them in my mouth. It seemed like forever before I was finally able to swallow. My throat was tightening every bite and I had to force it down.

I love animals. There was no way I was going I eat this. Tiffany loves animals too, nature is the one thing she is always nice too. The things around her just seem to listen to her. So why is it so easy for her to eat the poor fish? In the end I figured if she could eat it so could I, so that's what I did.

"Here momma." I walked over and showed her my plate

"And none of the fish was wasted. Good girl." Tiffany patted my head and smiled. "Now go off to bed."

I walked up the stairs and didn't come down. I did look over the edge of the stairs late that night though. I woke up to screaming down stairs. I looked at my clock that read 2:37 am. I got up, grabbed my tan silk blanket, that I had for as long as I can remember, and my stuffed bear. I silently walked to the edge of the stairs and hid as best as I could.

"I told you not to shock the poor girl!" I saw Todd talking to Tiffany.

"I didn't want her to waste that poor fish. I only did what I had too."

"You did what you thought you had to. Everything has its time to go. That fish was over his. Even if she didn't eat all of it, it would be fine."

"You don't get animals like I do."

"You don't get time like I do."

"You may be able to control time, but you can't go back in time. So what can you do about it now?" Tiffany smirked at him, proud of herself.

Before I knew what happened Tiffany was almost frozen in time. Todd showed up next to me whispering to me to hide back in my room.

"What happened daddy? Why is momma like that?"

"You will understand someday don't worry now just go back to your room."

"Ok." So that's what I did.

As soon as my room door closed I heard a crash and a thud. I ran back out of my room not listening to Todd's warnings. There I found the flower vase broken on the ground and a beaten Tiffany sitting by it. She would do anything for her plants. For her to let one fall was almost impossible. It would have to fall faster than she could blink. So how did it get like that?

"Why did you do this?!" Tiffany asked bitter cold and crying.

"To get you to understand that you can't use your powers to your advantage all the time. Let the girl be herself. Don't use her as one of your pets that you control."

"Fine." A tear began to race down her face.

I went straight back to my room asking myself countless questions. "What 'powers'? How did the vase fall? Why was mommy frozen? Who is my family?!" I looked back at my clock to find the time still unchanged at 2:37 am.