Life as Me

Chapter 1: The Morning

I open my eyes to see my mother bending over me, calmingly calling out my name in order to wake me up. Her brown hair is pulled to the back of her head, secured by a hair clip (her usual style) and she has vibrant red lipstick on to match her red scrubs. She smells like face powder like she does every morning. It's become so routine I don't remember when it started.

Each morning I am awoken the same way and at the same time. Its before daylight and now it's time to gather my things for the day and get into my mom's car. I watch as all the streetlights pass and without realizing, I fall asleep.

When I wake up it's still dark outside and I am approaching my grandparent's house. I get my belongings and kiss my mom on the cheek as she says her farewells. She sits in the driveway each morning to make for sure I get inside. My grandparent's constantly leave the front door unlocked at night because each morning I come over and they live far enough in the woods to where no one goes back to their house.

I silently open the door of my grandparent's house and enter my home-away-from-home. It's pitch black inside so I quickly reach for the light and turn the outside light off.

The carpet of the living room is soft and beige in color, stained with lord knows what. The same beige colored suede couch is in the middle of the room, turned away from the front door. The walls are lined with pictures of me from pageants I have won and of me in pre school. A few of the pictures are a rusty color and are of my mom and uncle when they were kids. A large frame hangs above a desk with my mother's senior portrait in it. The desk is a creamy off-white and has a yellowed computer the size of a box on it with a cover on the keyboard. A glass display case filled with porcelain dolls is beside my grandparent's room. A black leather recliner with a quilt over the back of it is positioned right in front of the TV, alongside it is a remarkably small tan recliner.

I make my way through the furniture of the living room and place my stuff on the brown carpet of my room. I climb into my Bobby Jack comforter and try to fall back asleep. The lace curtains allow moonlight into my room, unfortunately my vanity is placed to where its shadow looks like a vampire silhouette standing in my closet. The creepy vampire silhouette is not the only unnerving item in this room. There is also a shelf on the wall containing porcelain baby dolls in various outfits, one being a clown and another being a baseball player.

I try to force myself to fall asleep like anyone else does, I count sheep, raise my arms, anything. The menacing silhouette looks as if its moving. The dolls look more demented now that the sun is starting to peak through the trees. I am paralyzed with fear. I try to run or sit up, but my body refuses to move. I have to lay awake and wait for the sun to come up.