Crimson

Chapter 5

It was Friday and everyone seemed excited to meet my family. Well, everyone but me. Although Noah had known me the longest, he only knew my mother, my brother and aunt Agnetha. He had seen father a few times, but had never gotten the chance to actually speak with him.

Needless to say, my mind was spinning, fearing my family would not behave in a normal way.

"Holy shit, Mer", said Sonia with her mouth open in surprise, or awe perhaps "Your house is so much bigger than I remembered"

Her words made me remember my 12th birthday. It had been hard to convince father to let me have a party with the kids from my class, and it had been even harder to forget the disaster it was.

Everything was fine until it wasn't.

Holly Mausratten, a girl I did not particularly like, decided it was time to spice things up, as she said, and made a handful of us sit in a circle to play truth or dare.

A few kisses were shared, as expected, and some kids were put on the spot. However, what came next was even worse.

Holly had dared me stay inside a closed chest for 60 seconds, something I thought wouldn't be so bad. But once I had been in there for over a minute and no one had pulled me out, sweat started to roll down my forehead.

The smell of the wooden chest had suddenly become too much for me, and my heart raced like it never had before.

My screaming and crying were only heard 10 minutes later. Mammie had wondered to herself where I was, and she had put the house upside down just to find me before my parents noticed my absence.

Nonetheless, father had to be held down by mother before he had the chance to kill the Mausratten's for letting their daughter keep me trapped.

And that was the story of how my Halloween themed party turned into a fiasco.

"Earth to Meredith", Sonia waved her hand in front of me, getting me to snap out of my thoughts.

"Right", I said, leading the way to the house.

They followed behind, but stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of Aunt Agnetha, who was lying on her stomach on one the porch's couches, half-naked, smoking her third pack of cigarettes of the day.

Next to her lied a bowl full of grapes and an empty bottle of wine from the cellar.

'Dear Satan', I thought, thinking of the many times I had personally asked aunt Agnetha to be fully clothed and sober once my friends came over.

I cleared my throat, making her tilt her head a little to look at us.

"Yes, darlin'?"

"Aunt Agnetha, these are my friends. You already know Noah", I said, pointing to him.

"And these", I said, "These are Sonia and Ella"

"Ella Baxter, pleasure to meet you", she reached forward to shake her hand.

Ella was excited to say the least. She was a big fan of aunt Agnetha's literary work, and even though this was their first time meeting, I could see the sparks in her eyes as she greeted my aunt.

"Agnetha Cunningham, but you may call me auntie Agnes", she said, winking at them.

'Dear lord', I mentally scratched my eyes out, 'Auntie Agnes? Seriously?'

Ella's face lit up with every word aunt Agnetha said.

"Well, we better get going", I said, pushing my friends through the door, "Aunt Agnetha... we will leave you whatever it is you are doing"