The Monster [H.S.]

Chapter 28

"What's happening to me?" I whisper to myself.

I stand abruptly, everyone around me standing and facing me in silence. What is this?

"Stop, please stop. I don't know what you're trying to do, but stop. I'll give you anything. I'll give you the locket just stop." I plead, the 2 clear blue eyes glued to my memory.

"We don't need the locket anymore, Annabelle. You are the locket." Paul says calmly, walking closer.

"Stay back, don't come near me!" I scream, and he puts his hands up in a small surrender and steps back.

I look around ferociously. I must look like a crazy person. Then again, I am. I hear the breeze on the trees in the Forrest that is more than 100 metres away. I can see each shade of green on the leaves. I can smell the oak and fresh scent of the grass so strongly I almost sneeze. I can feel each fibre of my clothing, each strand that has come loose. I can remember things from years ago. Hell, I can remember being born. I can: everything. Ten times better than before; and that scares me.

"Take it back!" I scream, "I don't want it! Turn it off!" I tell Paul, who looks at me with intrigued eyes.

"Annabelle, we can't, this is you and it always has been." He states, my heart dropping 3000 feet into the ground.

"Annabelle" a soft voice says from behind me, and I swiftly turn to see my mother; the one I remember.

She's beautiful. She's how I remember her. Well, how I think I remember her. Her grey, dead hair has been replaced by brown, flowing hair that reaches her mid back. The wrinkles that decorated her face have cleared, only a couple under her eyes. Her short height of about 4 foot has shot up to the same height or maybe even taller than me. She's beautiful.

"Mother?" I ask, double checking.

"Hello Annabelle." She croaks, with tears in her eyes, and her eyes crinkle from her warm smile. "Do you remember me now?" She asks, hope in her eyes. And for a moment, not only do I remember her, but I remember myself. I remember who I was with her, and the warm feeling of happiness jolts within me before I'm pushed back into reality. Nothing is the same as it was then, and nothing that has happened since can be taken back.

"No." I say, my face emotionless and voice monotone.

Her face falls slightly and she nods her head, looking to the ground.

"When I saw you in the hospital bed and you saw me, I knew you wouldn't remember me, but I always thought that maybe you would remember me like this, like how I'm supposed to be."

"It's hard to remember someone you haven't seen since you were 3 years old."

"Yeah," she nods rapidly, "of course." She says, my eyebrows turning downward. "I didn't leave because I wanted to, you know. I left because I had to."

"If you had to leave, why are you here now?"

"For you, Annabelle. I've been here all along for you."

"Bullshit!" I scream, my anger building, and feeling much more amplified. "You were never there! You weren't there when Grandpa died! Or Grandma Lesley! Or Uncle Ron, or cousin Lola, or cousin Shane, or Daryl. Hell, you weren't there when my father died, and you weren't there when Aaron did." I say, my voice quieter and more broken.

"I was Annabelle, I was always looking out for you, to keep you safe!"

"Oh really! Is that why is Aaron dead?! Is it?! Is that why my 17 year old brother is dead?! Is that why I was an alcoholic, and a drug addict, and a murderer when I was 15 years old! Is that why I killed a living thing when I was 10? Is that why, no matter how many times I try and no matter how many times I will, I will never, ever, be able to feel anything but hatred and despair everyday I wake up. Every single day." I say, summarising my life and she remains speechless. "No, I didn't think so. You may have guarded me from getting killed sometimes? But that's not being there for me. That's not being a mother; and you are not my mother." I seethe in almost a whisper, my voice filled with hatred and disappointment for the woman I longed to have met for 15 years.