Dreams in the form of Words

Happy Birthday: Part Two

"C'mon Grace, we don't have all day. Grab your backpack and suitcase and come inside." The lady ordered. She told me to call her 'Mom', but it didn't feel right. She didn't feel like my mom at all.

We had just gotten to her house after leaving the station where they had my dad. I asked questions, but the lady didn't answer them. Maybe Dad was right. Maybe she isn't a very nice lady.

"Can you please stop calling me that?" I pleaded, but still following her instructions. "I don't like that name,"

"But it's yours," The lady said, almost whining. "When you were born, I picked Grace to be your name. Whatever that man called you is a lie. You are Grace, and I will not call you by anything else."

I hung my head down to hide my anger. If she loved me so much, can't she respect my wishes?

She led me into the house. It was bigger than my house, by a lot.

"Do you want you show you your room?" The lady smiled, picking up my suitcase for me.

"Okay," I said, brushing some blonde hair out of my face. She showed me to a room, painted bright pink. Gross. I liked my yellow room back home.

The lady, my "mother," crouched down so I could see her eyes. They were green, like mine, but I wasn't used to them. I wasn't used to any of this.

"Honey, there are some people I wanted you to meet." She stepped to the side, revealing two people standing in the doorway. There was a girl, who had long blonde hair, like me and my mother. There was also a boy who had brown hair, but the same green eyes as me and the girl. "This is your brother," my mother said, pointing to the boy, then at the girl. "And that's your sister."

The girl, my sister had tears in her eyes and her bottom lip quivered. The boy looked mad, but he tried to hide it. The girl stepped forward.

"Hi," She smiled, more tears streaming down her cheeks. "My name is Kaitlyn. I am 19 years old, and I've dreamed of this day for 10 years now. I cant believe you're here."

I noticed that both the boy and girl wore black clothes. The boy reached over and grabbed a bouquet of flowers, holding them out to me. I hesitantly reached out and grabbed them, not knowing what to do with them. The boy cleared his throat, making all eyes turn to him.

"I'm Caleb, I'm 24 years old, and all these years I've felt guilty that I couldn't protect you from that monster. I won't make that mistake again."

I shook my head. "I don't understand. Why is my dad a monster? He didn't do anything wrong!"

Kaitlyn smiled weakly and led me into a room. The walls were a light green color and had a big bed in the middle along with a plain wooden dresser.

"Grace,"

"Juliet." I snapped. "My name is Juliet. The cops took my dad and no one is telling me why."

She bit her bottom lip and closed the door, and then took a seat on the bed.

"When you were a baby, about three months old, we all went to sleep. You were in your crib, finally asleep. It always took Mom a long time to put you to bed since you never liked to drink formula. Anyways, I was 9 at the time and Caleb was 14." She sniffed, rubbing her nose with her sleeve. "Then, all of a sudden, it all went away. You started to cry, so me and Caleb went to check it out. Mom was really tired that night and we thought we could handle it." More tears fell from her pretty green eyes. "We looked in your crib, and you weren't there. The window was open, and cracked a little. Caleb ran and screamed for Mom, while I looked around the room. As if a 3 month old could get out of her crib.

"After a day, you were declared missing. After 5 months, you were declared dead. And the worst part was, I believed it. I didn't have any hope that we would find you, let alone find anything left of you. Not even a body. I didn't want to face reality.

"On the one year anniversary of your disappearance, we brought flowers to your empty grave and mourned for you. For our sister who was stolen from us. That person took you from us. You were only a baby."

Thick tears fell down her cheeks. I didn't know what to do.

"You know that today is my birthday?" I asked.

Kaitlyn closed her eyes. "Your birthday was three months ago. He made you think today was a day to celebrate, but it's not. Today is a bad day, but it's all okay now."

I just nodded. I always nodded. I nodded for 4 years while life went by. My mother did not let me visit him. She didn't want people talking about him. Not even me. One day, she burned everything I had brought with me that day, even my favorite shirt. I hid the picture of us and threw away the frame. If I was sad, I lifted my mattress and would talk to him. I liked to think he could hear me.

I was walking to the station. I wanted to see him, but I didn't know where they put him. I found out that he died a few years ago after the other prisoners murdered him.

I walked into the kitchen. My hand searched the cabinets until I grabbed various pill bottles. I don't know how many I swallowed before I felt funny. Like I was at the dentist after getting teeth pulled. I left the pills there, sitting on the floor.

"I'll see you soon, Dad." I slurred before closing my eyes.

If I recalled correctly, I could've sworn I heard Caleb calling my name.