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First, it started with my Mom. Nobody knew what it was or where it originated from. But everyone knew it as the void. The person infected would first see a small square hole filled with darkness in their vision. It absorbed all light and energy, slowly consuming their vision. You couldn't stop it, and you couldn't ignore it either. It grew and grew until you eventually couldn't go anywhere else but in the void. Once the void got hold of you, it had you indefinitely.
The dining table that had been once filled with delicious food and with chattering of whoever felt like talking about their day was a reminder of how different life had now become. Since the void had consumed Mom, she became very different. I can never pinpoint where it all started. Maybe it had have been the time that Mom put crushed glass in the bowls of our onion soup. Or perhaps it was when I woke up to my mom lying nose to nose, crouched up next to me in my bed. With wide-open eyes and a stretched-out smile on our lips, she said she wanted to breathe in me. For brief moments after, she would quickly fall back to herself, explaining that those actions weren't her. It had been something else. But I became scared of her, as well as everyone else. We came to the decision that we would keep her locked up in the basement since it was the only door that had a lock. For some reason, Dad was in denial about who she had become and refused to seek professional help. And although he never admitted it out loud, we knew that he was afraid of Mom too. He blamed her deteriorating mental health on us for stressing her out.
She received food and things she needed through the doggy hole Dad installed on the door. My siblings would rotate on delivering things for Mom. This time, it was my turn. One Day, I went downstairs to give Mom some fresh clothes along with some fruits. I didn't even make it to the other end of the hallway where the basement door was when the gruesome sight of Mom's twisted-up body halfway squeezed through the doggy hole stopped me in my tracks. Blood painted all around her, and some of her bones snapped to fit through the doggy hole. Her mouth gaped open, eyes black voids that devoured all light. I screamed, dropped the clothes, and woke up the whole house. Since that day, I haven't seen mom. I wish we would've all knew sooner that the void was contagious.
to be continued...
