Even After Death

Father

Anastasia

As slowly as possible I open the door to the house and start to sneak up the steps. 

"Anastasia." Of course, he was waiting in the kitchen. I stand up straight and look at him. 

"Yes, Father?" 

"Where were you? Why did you run away?" He starts walking towards me. 

"I went to town, I wanted a drink from the boba place." I look down at my feet. 

"It does not take three hours to drink bubble tea." Father looks at me like he knows I'm lying. For all I know, he does. 

"I got distracted," I say nonchalantly. 

"doing what? You have not gone into town, without me or your mother, since your first year of high school," he says angrily. 

"I was talking with a friend, now I'm going to my room." I stomp up the stairs. Why does he care who I hang out with? 

"Anastasia, I would like to meet this friend," Father yells up the stairs. I ignore him and slam my door shut. Ugh, I am so angry. He doesn't get to tell me what to do.

I pull my homework and textbooks out my backpack and sit down at my desk. I did most of my homework in class, but I have an essay on emotions due Friday. Emotions, I mean come on. Who comes up with these assignments. I pull out my laptop and start writing. On the second page, I get a notification from the news. Father says I should keep up with the news in the town. "It'll make you a better elder" is what he said. Anyway, I pull up the notification and it's a video of an ambulance in front of a house in one of the more underprivileged districts. The lady who explains everything starts talking. 

"Right now medics are taking a boy and his grandmother to the hospital. They have been beaten almost to death by the boy's father. Right now it is not known if the victims will survive-" I shut off the video. Nothing like this has happened for a few years. Father is probably going to make me visit the family in the hospital. Too bad I missed the beginning of the broadcast. I don't know the names of the victims.

Instead of fretting over anything I keep going on my strange essay. 

Two hours later mother comes and knocks on my door. 

"Anastasia, your father and I are going to go see the boy and his grandmother in the hospital. Your father says to stay here." 

"Okay, mother," I say and go back to editing. 

After a few minutes, the house goes quiet. Suddenly very thirsty I walk downstairs and see the Television is on. On it, they are explaining the incident from earlier. The sun has come up now, so I can't leave. Mother and Father probably cast a spell to allow them to walk outside. On the TV, they start naming the victims and I freeze. The glass I was filling with water, falls to the floor and shatters. I start shaking and tears are running down my face. 

"No no no! I don't believe it, I won't believe it." Sprinting up the stairs, I throw myself into my room and lock the door. 

"No no no!" I'm screaming now. Too afraid to finish the essay I sit on my bed and cry. 

I don't know how long passes, but I wake up and look at my clock. It's 5 pm. I'm up early. The sun hasn't even gone down. Standing up, I walk out of my room and can hear my father snoring in his room. That means Mother is asleep too. She always falls asleep before Father. In the kitchen, the glass and water has been cleaned up off the floor and there's a note on the counter. I pick it up and read it. 

'Next time, we won't clean up your mess. You know better.' 

It's mother's handwriting, all swirly. 

All I want to do is forget what I saw. Pretend the TV was never on. That no one got hurt. Because all I can think of now is the face that was shown on TV. 

"Why are you awake Anastasia?" It is Mother, she sounds tired. 

"I woke up early and came down to see if you were awake." It's a lie, but she doesn't know that. I came down to see if the TV was still on. 

"Well go back to bed, you don't have school for three hours." I nod my head and go back upstairs. 

"Wait, Mother." I pause halfway up the stairs. 

"What is it, Anastasia?" 

"How are the people in the hospital, you know the boy and his grandmother?" I try to sound curios not desperate. My voice comes out somewhere between the two. 

"They're fine. Go to bed." I let out my breath and go up into my room. He's okay, that's good. Everything is going to be fine. I'll be fine. He'll be fine. Fine, Fine, Fine. 

???

This better work. 

What better work? 

Shut up! 

Sorry. 

Ugh, I really need to get you all out of me. 

Why? Do you not like us. 

Yes, you all suck, I had no idea you would all get stuck to me!

Sorry. 

Ya, we're sorry. 

I apologize. 

We didn't mean to make you angry.

Just, shut up! I need to concentrate! This is going to be so much harder because of stupid Liliana! Ugh, I cannot believe we were friends. Now I don't have my brother, and her stupid sister got away too! 

Calm down, you are not going to be able to work if you're angry. 

SHUT UP!!!  

Sorry! 

Oops!

Don't yell! 

UGH! YOU ARE ALL IMPOSSIBLE TO DEAL WITH! 

It's not out fault that we are stuck to you! 

Ya, you did this to yourself. 

Do you think we wanted to be murdered?

Listen, I am trying to fix this, you will all be free, and I'll be super powerful. Without the voices. 

Authors note

Hello! I hope you are all having a nice day! I just wanted to explain a few things! 

1. This story updates every Wednesday. (that may change but for now its Wednesday.) 

2. The last scene of this chapter was kinda confusing. To explain a little without giving away too much, I'll just say. That there was only ONE person in the last scene. It was them talking to the people trapped inside of them. (I tried to make it easier to understand by italicizing the voices in her head. 

3. I'm thinking of re-naming the story. I'll have to make a new cover, but that's not too bad. For now, I'll let you guys pick. Should I keep it Anastasia's history? Or should I change it to 'Even After Death'? I'll let you guys pick! 

That's all from me for now! I hope you are all enjoying the story! 

~JustTheUglyPotato