The Laws of Paxia

2. I'm the lucky one

Chapter Two 

I’m the lucky one

  The thunder is once again around to scare everyone off the streets. We are used to it by now; it has been roaming around our area of the country for twelve years or so. It is not the thunder itself that scares everyone; it’s the legend around it.

  I don’t believe a single word about it. Everyone has gone mad and blames the disappearances on… They call it Paxia; it’s another world so absurd in the rumors I’ve heard that it obviously is a hoax. I’m sure the thunder has a better and more natural explanation.

  The rain is drumming against the windows. It is getting dark outside and I am reaching up to the top shelf to grab a huge golden trophy. Thankfully my shelves are placed on the middle of the wall and not higher.

  I throw the trophy into my purple trash bin and it clashes as it hits the trophies and prizes I already threw in there. It is now overfilled but I don’t care. I look at my green empty walls with a content smile, well as content as I can be in my situation.

  I roll over to my desk to pick up the framed photographs of my friends, family members and of course my pets. We have a white poodle named Dilly and a brown house cat we call Sweetie. Dilly is lying on the floor watching my every move and Sweetie is sleeping on my bed. They always liked me the most and used to come with me on my walks or runs.

  After the accident they cling onto me more than ever, it’s like they can understand my sadness and internal battle. It’s not ideal to keep it all inside of me but I don’t want to become a part of the circus my brothers and sisters are keeping. I still want to be their role model, the one they look up to and a perfect daughter to my parents. Sometimes it feels like I’m the only one who keeps our family sane.

  I am still adjusting to my new life but it isn’t so bad. I have been invited to a new lifestyle, and it holds a lot of happiness and compassion. There are many people like me, handicapped in some way and I notice them more than ever now when I do leave the house.

  I don’t throw away my trophies to forget about sports, I do it to collect new ones. I am awfully scared but I won’t let it come in the way of living my life. I am going to win this challenge like I always do.

  My door is always left open so my sister knocks at the doorframe instead. I raise an eye brow questionably at her.

  “Merry, hmm…” Jill starts saying and falls quiet when she sees my shelves.

  “Would you like to help me put these up so they look good?” I ask her and wave with a photograph in my hand. “I’d love to do it myself but I’m not tall enough.” I smile humorlessly at my own joke,

  “You know that Mom starts crying when you say things like that,” Jill lectures me and walks into the room. She arranges the photographs nicely on the shelf and we inspect them for a while. “This looks so much better, not so bragging.” She studies my trash bin with humour. “Mom is going to hate you for that.”

  “Yeah I know,” I say with a grimace. “I must throw them away before she puts them back up.”

  “Put them in the attic or something, that’s where we keep all the junk.”

  I laugh loudly at her comment. Dad remade the attic into a decent room for Keith when he turned thirteen. Our house only has four bedrooms which is a small problem with seven family members living inside of it.

  Keith loves the attic and he scares Timmy by saying monsters live up there. No one wants to visit his messy room anyway without a good reason; like playing his games. We would rather text him on his phone when we want to tell him something. Only Jill and Elle are sharing a room and they don’t mind. There’s no sibling rivalry in our family, only stupid behaviour between Keith and Jill. Keith just loves to push her buttons.