Not What She Seems

Something to Think About

  "I'm different now.....can't you trust me?" the woman asked the child.

*****

  ***NOTE: If you want to find out who the mom is talking to, do NOT and I absolutely mean DO NOT confuse the pronoun "she" and the word "mother" to be the same person. Most of the time in the bolded text, I use pronouns and try to make it as obvious as possible that it is referring to two separate people without giving away their names. Also do not confuse the pronoun "her" to be referring to the word "mother". They are two separate entities and the pronoun "her" refers to the other pronoun "she" in this part of the story. Also, parts that are supposed to be bolded but will blend in with this part of the chapter will be typed in regular text. Thanks for reading—Author***
  I hide around the corner and eavesdrop on their conversation. Mother walks closer to her slowly and carefully. I shiver. She backs up towards the wall, scared. Mother stops. I shiver again.
  "Look, I'm not going to hurt you, sweetie." Mother assures her, holding a stuffed animal. It was a bear. A teddy bear. One with a navy blue tux with white ships on it and had matching pants that are blue and also have white ships on them.
  "I just want to give you this teddy bear to show you I'm different. If you don't trust me, I'll place it on the floor for you to grab." Mother says. I see her tears run down her cheeks. She's scared. Afraid. Afraid she's going to get hurt again. Afraid of mother. Mother places the teddy bear on the floor in the middle of them and backs away. She waits a while until mother is quite a distance away from the teddy bear before moving. She observes the teddy bear from afar with an uneasy demeanor. Then, she stands up from her crouching position, runs towards the teddy bear, grabs it, and heads back to her previous spot, still scared.
  "See? I'm not going to hurt you." Mother assures her, calmly and walks towards her. More hot tears roll down her cheeks, and fast. Then, she runs towards the exit on her right, where I was eavesdropping. Mother frowns. I turn my head to see if there is anything at the other exit. When I turn my head, I lock eyes with a man who was also peeking around the corner. That's dad. I saw this before. That is dad. This isn't normal dad, though, this guy....he was different. He had dark brown hair which appeared almost completely black all spiked up and was a bit shorter than dad, and his skin, it's caramel, unlike dad's, whose is lighter. He had these beautiful, dark, forest-green eyes unlike dad's, which is a deep blue. He wore a brown t-shirt with black pants and black shoes. Immediately after I saw him, he glitches out like this is a huge video game and in replace of him, there's dad with huge, widened (realistic though, like how your eyes go wide when you find out something shocking) eyes peeking around the corner. He turns his head and looks at me.
  "You....lied to me." he mouths.
  Why am I in this dream? What's going on? Who is he? What did I lie to dad about? All of a sudden, a cold hand touches me from behind.

*****

  I jump awake, panting and sweating.
  "Let me guess....you....had that dream too?" Avarra asks.
  "You scared me." I say.
  "The dream.....where dad was different, then mouthed something?" Avarra states, ignoring my comment.
  "Yeah. Yeah I did. I've been having it for like, two weeks in a row now." I answer.
  "Mhmm.....this is my tenth time." Avarra comments, tracing something over and over again on my nightstand. 
  "I'm hungry." I state, hopping out bed and heading to the bathroom.
  "Are we missing something? The first five times it was just a replay of what actually happened. Then, I realized what I was missing. Are we still missing more?" Avarra questions.
  "Maybe......maybe we're supposed to find out something we never knew before? Something mom never told us?" I ponder. Avarra doesn't respond. I finish brushing my teeth and wash my face.
  "My body is so sore." I complain.
  "From doing what?" Avarra asks, playing around with a Rubik's cube.
  "I don't know." I say, avoiding the answer she wanted. Avarra sighs.
  "I don't even know anymore. I feel so.....dead inside. So bored of everything. But at the same time.....I feel different. I feel...unique. I feel...powerful." Avarra says, looking down at the Rubik's cube. I cock my head sideways a little to show her I'm confused.
  "I feel like....I should tell them...but at the same time I can't." Avarra states.
  "Would it make you feel happy if you tell them?" I question.
  "Happy?" Avarra repeats. I nod.
  "What does happy mean?" Avarra asks me.
  "It means you feel super content, like you're satisfied with something." I explain.
  "Maybe then. I don't know. I've never really felt happy. I forgot what it feels like to be truly happy." Avarra admits.
  "She really broke you....didn't she?" I ask out of realization. Avarra doesn't respond, but instead rests her head on my shoulder. She traces the ink drawings on her right hand.
  "I should get going, I have stuff to do." Avarra quickly adds standing up and walking towards the door. I stop her. I stand on my tippy toes behind her, place my head on her shoulder, and lean in close next to her ear.
  "And whatever you do, don't tell her if it's not absolutely mandatory. I'd really prefer to tell her myself." I whisper. I kiss her on the cheek.
  "Ew, don't do that. I'm not your girlfriend Armiah." Avarra says, turning around and wiping off the spot I kissed.
  "I told you, we're not dating and we weren't dating before." I respond, irritated. Avarra snickers.
  "I love it when you're irritated. It makes me content with myself." Avarra giggles. Then, she kisses me on the cheek and opens the door and starts walking out of my room.
  "Yet it's fine when you do it?" I ask.
  "Yep." Avarra says, walking away. I smile. Just like before. She's just like before. I walk downstairs five minutes later and polo myself on the couch where Avarra is sitting. I sigh. Avarra keeps typing on her laptop. I sigh a little louder and rest my head on her shoulder. Avarra continues typing.
  "UGHHHH!" I finally exclaim.
  "WHAT?! WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT?!" Avarra yells, shaking me.
  "I'm bored. Let's go do something." I state. Avarra looks at me like I'm drunk.
  "Oh, you wanna do something? Okay, here's something to do. Go bother Aymara! Yes, go do that!" Avarra says, trying to shoo me away.
  "How am I supposed to do that?" I ask.
  "I don't know! Figure it out!" Avarra says, pushing me further away from her.
  "That's a lot of work." I respond.
  "You're a lot of work." Avarra replies.
  "What does that even mean?" I ponder.
  "It means if you don't stop asking me annoying questions I will absolutely make sure you die this time, okay?" Avarra says, pulling a long, sharp, knife out from between the seats. I keep quiet. Avarra continues typing. I pull out my old phone and start scrolling through new messages and responding to them. Then, I come across Aymara's old phone number. I smile. I read the old text messages, then start typing.
  "Hai, u still there?" I type. I wait a little bit, then she responds.