The Nightmare (DiegoXOC)

1 - Somewhere I Belong

Everyone goes through some kind of hardship at some point in their life. The scale of those hardships may vary in magnitude but nonetheless, it IS something that everyone experiences. Some people adapt successfully to the changes that come as a result and some people fall through the cracks. There is no in between – for me at least. I learned from a young age to adapt and survive.

I know a little bit of how I was born. It was October 1st 1989 and my mother was at work at the local Mini-Mart stocking shelves when she suddenly went into labour. I heard snippets growing up between my mom and my dad. They tried to be discreet but when you grow up being mostly ignored, it's easy to fly under the radar. Apparently, the day I was born, my mother wasn't pregnant at all and seconds before she gave birth, she had a nine-month belly. I was a miracle baby since she wasn't able to get pregnant before me.

I assume they both loved me at the beginning, despite the strange phenomenon surrounding my birth, but as I grew older that love turned to resentment and fear. I didn't know that of course, I was only a child after all. It even took me awhile to realize what I was able to do but I once I did...

It started off small. I was about three years old when the first episode happened. I was playing dolls in the living room with my dad and I thought about how fun it would be if I had a dog to play with instead. I looked my dad in the eye and told him as much. My dad jumped up when a dog appeared out of nowhere and started running around. The dog disappeared after about ten seconds but my dad was beside himself for days. He didn't like being alone with me after that.

The second episode that I remember (because I'm sure there were others before this), was two years later. I was in bed and tossing and turning because of a nightmare. It wasn't completely awful but enough to scare any kid. I think there were spiders crawling all over me. I must have been making a lot of noise because my mom came into my room to sooth me. I woke up with a start and looked directly in her eyes and the next thing I know, she's screaming 'get them off! get them off!'

These episodes were happening more and more and my parents pulled away from me a little more each time it happened, until I was pretty much ignored outside of basic needs. No child would understand why their parents no longer played with them, ate with them, read stories to them, or even loved them. Me included. So, when I was nine years old, I threw the largest tantrum I've ever thrown.

It was in that moment when I realized what I could really do because I had both my parents witness their worst nightmares for longer than anyone should have too. Their fear of me grew exponentially then and I should have seen their next act coming but I was nine.

They started packing after that. They put everything in boxes and said that we were moving. On moving day, my parents said they wanted to take me for ice cream before we moved to our new house in a new city. I was so excited that I ran to the car and hopped in the back before they even took a step. They'd never taken me for ice cream before and I thought it was a new start to our new life.

We pulled up next to a curb across from a park and they turned to look at me, "Malia, the ice cream shop is a couple blocks down, why don't you go play at the park and we'll bring it back for you."

I went to open the door but hesitated as I saw all the kids playing at the park, "Will one of you stay with me?"

"We can't. One of us won't be able to carry all three ice cream cones and drive all on our own. We only have two hands after all." My mother said softly, "We'll only be a couple minutes."

"You promise?" I asked, trying to make eye contact but neither of them would.

"We promise." My dad said.