When my father picked me up, I found it hard to contain my smile. I sat in the backseat ready to put the headphones on. However, dad made a tisk noise as soon as I took them out.
"Aren't you going to tell me about your day first?" He asked.
I played with the headphones. "It was nice," I said quickly. "The teachers told us what we would be doing this week. We didn't get into anything major. I don't have much homework tonight."
He nodded his head. "Is it hard work?"
"No," I replied.
"Alright," he nodded once more. "If you need any work ask Shayla or me.
Yeah right. I'd rather ask Amber. I was about to put on my headphones, but I put them down. Some days when I would listen to too much music, my ear would hurt from the discomfort of the headphones. I needed new ones. I needed money. I had wondered if my mother had life insurance or something after she died, but no one mentioned it to me. I wished I could ask my dad if she did, but I dreaded asking him stuff and talking with him. He was still a stranger to me, and it would take more than money, food, and shelter to get him to become something more to me.
***
My dad dropped me off in front of the house. He told me that he needed to do some overtime work and Shayla would be home late as well. Amber was home with her babysitter named Tasha that would leave once I got in.
After saying goodbye to my father, I walked up to the front door and knocked. It took me about ten knocks for someone to answer the door. Finally, a frowning Amber greeted me. "You can't come in?"
I tried to peek inside, but Amber started pushing the door back close. "Hey? I just got back from school. I have to tell Tasha she can go home."
She stared at me, her face empty of emotions. With one push, the door flew open revealing a floor coated in blood. I rushed inside to look around, trying not to step on the blood. Amber closed the door and handed me a roll of paper towel. "Help me clean it up, hurry!" She yelled.
Without words, I dropped the paper towels. "What is this, Amber? Is this blood?"
"Stop whining and help me clean this up before they come home," she ordered. She picked up a few sponges off of the table and put them on the ground near the wet blood and began scrubbing.
"Where's Tasha?" I asked.
"Are you going to help me or not?" She stopped scrubbing and looked up at me. She pleaded with her eyes but frowned at me like I was nothing. I threw my backpack by the stairs then got on my knees and began helping her scrub up the mess. It wasn't a lot of blood on the floor, probably just a cup full if it was measured. I'm not sure how much it was, but it wasn't coming out easy.
"Why are we doing this?" I said moving on to the next stain.
"Tasha cut her wrist." Amber sighed.
"Is she o-"
"She's dead," Amber said, moving onto another stain. She scrubbed harder. "Pass me the paper towels."
"Where's her body?"
Amber shrugged. "Sunny took it."
"Okay," I stood up and dropped the sponge. "You're crazy! I'm going to tell dad."
She stood up and threw the sponge onto the ground. "Go ahead, Olivia. Tell my father. Tell Shayla. But are they going to believe you? We both are in this. Once Shayla gets involved, you can kiss this house goodbye. She'll find a way to send us both away, locked up in some mental home."
Her words didn't make anything better. I was full of concern and not to mention fear. Here I was, in my father's house cleaning up blood. "Fine," I said, getting back on my knees to clean. "After this, you have to tell me what happened."
Amber nodded. "Deal."
***
After an hour of scrubbing, drying, and scrubbing again, we were finally done. Amber took me upstairs. She opened her room door, and I was shocked to see the white powder looking stuff all around the place. The stuff was even on her bed, dresser, window, and everywhere except the ceiling. She took my hand and sat me on the bed. "You're safe inside the lines," she said.
"Okay, where's Tasha?" I demanded.
"Sunny did it," she said. "Sunny made her kill herself. I told Tasha to stay in the lines whenever she came, but she didn't listen. Sunny made her kill herself this time. She made Tasha sad and made her cut her wrist. Stay in the lines, please Olivia."
I shook my head. "Amber, that's not possible. There is no Sunny."
"The Lovely Suicide Children aren't friendly. They wanted Tasha, so they said mean things to her. They told her she was worthless and that her life had no meaning. Now she's gone," she continued.
I couldn't listen to the nonsense anymore. I got up and decided I would tell my dad what I had seen. I didn't have an explanation on why I helped her clean up the blood. All I knew was that Amber was a disturbed child. I left her room without saying anything and went inside of mine. I went into the bathroom and washed my hands. After a minute, I decided to take a shower.
I walked out of the bathroom to get my clothes. After grabbing my shirt and some pants, I looked up into the mirror. I let out a scream and quickly dropped my clothes. In the reflection of my mirror, behind me was my razor blade...floating. I turned around where my eyes met the floating blade evenly. It dropped to the ground on the floor. I blinked again, and this time I saw words instead of letters. This time I recognized the word.
K I L L
Kill. I picked up my blade and put it on my desk. My heart was beating fast, and I had no idea what was happening. I got my phone and texted Vlad.
"Hey, you won't believe what had just happened." I texted him.