The Voices

Sixteen

When the house is empty I am free once more. I laid down on the bare mattress in my parents old bedroom.

The ceiling is a white spiral pattern. I have gotten lost in the swoops of the pattern many times before. I can't allow myself to let go this time. That happy place where I wandered to pass time is nonexistent.

I'm able to move and interact with things. I can't be dead. I'm not a ghost. I must have been hallucinating again.

"This is no ruse, girly." Deklen seemed pleased with my misunderstanding of the situation. "Those flashbacks you've had, are real. They are memories of the other's who haunted this manner before you were even born."

Cheri hummed a tune, then cheerfully added, "We tried to tell you. Our souls are forever tethered to this existence."

I shake my head. I can feel the fabric bunching below my head.

I can't be imagining this. It's too real.

"Everything you've ever wanted was always just above your head, Janna." Ryland coos, "I died alone in this house, with everything I ever wanted just outside the front door. We are tormented souls that stay around because of our unjust ends. Kindred in the most horrible fashion, don't you think?"

"You have to remember!" Sassy cried.

Click.

"We heard what you did out at your grandparents house! You can't just go around chopping off guy's dicks!" My father balls his fists and spins to face away from me. "You're a little bitch. You know that?"

My mother holds her arm out to stop him from lashing out at me. Her face is solemn. I don't see sadness, rather muteness. She is emotionless, unaffected while my father curses and calls me names. She stands at his side while he belittles me.

"Don't." She commands and her faithful man servant lowers his fists. "If you are going to act like a dog, we are going to treat you like one."

She turns and motions to the kennel, "This will be your home for as long as it takes to make you act like a normal little girl. That boy did nothing wrong, he liked you and your grandmother said she warned you. You should have went back in the house. You had more power over this situation than you realized and now you will have plenty of time to think about your mistake."

"A mistake. It was just a mistake. Please, don't do this." I cover my face with my hands. "Please, I promise I'll never do it again."

"That's right, you'll never do it again." My father grabs the neck of my shirt and tosses me into the cage.

I kick the bars and squeal, "Please! Don't do this! Please!"

Snap.

My eyes open. The swirling ceiling is above me, where I left it.

Deklen chuckles, "You wanted to live so badly that you made it all up. You never shoplifted but it appealed to you in your other existence.

You didn't bring home a young man and kill him. He wandered in out of curiosity while the house was abandoned.

We weren't the best hosts and may have convinced him through whispers to kill himself. But that was well before your family moved in.

You didn't get the chance to change your style to suit the eyes of others before your parents tossed you in the basement. It was your way to cope with the transition, we can understand that.

You're forever trapped in the sub basement. Even when they bring in workers to remove your corpse, here you will remain. Just as we have for so many years.

The time has come to accept the truth, Janna. You don't matter because you don't exist."

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