December

Challenge: The Mystery Gift

December 6, 2019

I sit on our family couch watch my little siblings open their Christmas presents with so much delight. I then glance over to my parents to find them glaring at me. I crease my eyebrows and slowly look away while still feeling their glares on me. My siblings finish unwrapping their presents and run-up to their rooms to play. I then look over at my parents who were not smiling at me very creepily.

I try to ignore them and play on my phone to watch the fire burn in the fireplace but nothing works. "What the hell did I do? I've left you guys alone all week and even told you guys that I don't want presents this year, what the hell do you want from me?" I said starting to get angry.

"I know that you said that you didn't want any presents but we got you a very small one." My Mom says without even blinking.

My Mom then pulls out a small box and hands it over to me. I give a confused look towards my parents but all they do is nod enthusiastically. I shrug and slowly open the small box. My eyes widen as I pull out a small piece of broken glass. I throw the box and the glass on the floor and stare at my parents. "What the fuck was that?" My breathing went heavy and tears fell down my face.

My Mom edged closer to me and put her hand on mine. My whole body tensed up as I looked at her in the eyes. My body was shaking and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I pulled my hand away from my Mom and put my head in my hands. I then feel my Mom rub gentle circles around my back to calm me down.

"Sweetheart, please calm down. This isn't a bad thing we both know that you hate yourself and the thing growing inside of you," my Mom then points at my stomach which hasn't even started to show yet, "And we don't want it or you here either, so just end it all. It isn't like you haven't already tried," she then pulls up the sleeves of my black turtle neck to revile all of my cutting scars.

I quickly pulled away from her grasp and ran up to my room. I quickly shut my door behind me and lock it. I lean against the door and slide down to the floor. More tears threatened to fall from my eyes as I think back to what my Mom just told me. The tears finally fall down my face when I let the recent memory of her saying that she doesn't want me alive to fill my head. My hands go down to my stomach and I start to talk to it, "I don't hate you and I would never kill you. Yes, I might hate myself right now but killing me means killing you and I would never let that happen," my body slowly relaxes as my soft voice fills my room.

I look around my room and my eyes land onto my desk. I get up and walk closer to the foreign object that quickly catches my vision. My stomach churrs as I see the broken piece of glass laying on my desk. I pick it up and run my fingers around it wondering how it even got up here.

I accidentally cut my finger on one of the sharp edges and watch while blood slowly drips down my finger and onto the glass. I sit on the floor again eyeing the object that laid in my hands. I then look at the scars on my arms and back at the glass again. My hand slowly brings the glass to my arms, my mind is yelling at me to stop but my body says otherwise.

Before the glass cuts into my skin, I am jolted awake by the loud beeping of my alarm clock. My body is covered with sweat and my breathing grows heavy before calming back down. I take my phone off of my nightstand and look at the time. My heart skins when I see that it is currently 7 am on Christmas Day. My eyes dart to the week-old pregnancy test on my nightstand that read positive on it. I quickly peel back the sleeves on my shirt and look at my fresh and new cutting scars and laid across my arms. My breathing becomes heavy again and my body stiffens as I hear my parents call me down to open presents.

I walk downstairs and stand next to the chairs that my parents were sitting in while my younger siblings tore away at their presents. I catch a glance at the coffee table by my Mom's feel to see the same present from my dream. My vision becomes blurry as my legs threaten to give out below me. I hold on to the back of my Mom's chair to keep me from falling to the ground. I didn't even hear my Mom calling my name to open a present that she got me. My eyes were glued to the small box the laid in front of me. Was my dream real?