Happy Birthday

Thoughts

 I was standing in a small room. It was cluttered with bubbles of all shapes, sizes, and colors. For reasons I couldn't explain, I knew they were my thoughts. Occasionally, one would pop and things would tumble out of it. A bottle, a coin, a bracelet.

Busy marveling at the wonders of my thoughts, I was taken aback when I heard a voice,"There are no birthdays. Birthdays do not exist."

It was the same voice I had heard through Marie. It was evil. It was sharp. I wanted to cower in fear. There was nowhere I could hide here, and nothing I could do to protect myself. But I couldn't give up.

"Birthdays do exist!" I countered, "I know because I have one!"

"No," objected the voice,"You don't. You never had."

And somehow, the voice was deep inside me. It knew me. It was me. I found myself repeating its words no matter how hard I tried.

"Birthdays do not exist. I don't have one. I never have," Those words weren't my own, but I spoke them.

The voice kept repeating its lies. They bored into me, into my very heart.

"No!" I tried to scream, but it was no use. The lies were taking over. They were inside me. They were me now, and I couldn't stop it. But I had to at least try one last time.

"My birthday is March 16th!" I screamed,"You can't take that away from me!"

"I can," spoke the voice, and I blacked out.

I woke up outside the library, feeling as if I had just had a dream, but I couldn't quite remember it. There was something about birth...birth...something, days, voices, and March 16th. But for the life of me, I couldn't remember what exactly I had dreamed about. Oh well, it didn't matter anyway.