I thought Daddy was about to slap me. His hand was outstretched in the air, but instead he dropped his shotgun. My father was alway carrying that thing around the house. He said it was for protection, but I think he just liked to scare my siblings and I with it when we were in trouble… especially when he was drunk.
I saw Daddy run to the edge of the cliff and look down. I squeezed my eyes shut and held my breath in the painful silence of the night. I knew if I heard him yell, I might as well be dead.
“WREN NILSEN!” My father screamed.
I couldn’t help it, I started bawling my eyes out. I wailed so hard I slumped onto the grass and buried my head in my hands. Before I could do anything more, he yanked me up again and squeezed my wrist till it was red, dragging me back to the house.
“DADDY! I didn’t mean to do it!!” I pleaded with him.
“That’s what I thought you’d say,” He growled, his voice was more angry than I had ever heard it before. “Since the day you were born you’ve only ever caused trouble for this family. Don’t even try to argue with me brat, something is very much wrong with you if you could be so heartless to push your sister off a cliff.”
I felt so weak. My father thought that I had thrown Claire off on purpose, but then again he always thought I was up to no good. He always wanted a reason to punish me so he could feel justified for why he hated me so much. Now he was finally getting his chance, as he bust through the door to our small house and called for my siblings.
“WAKE UP AND GET OVER HERE!” Daddy yelled through the open door. Three shadows emerged from the hall. My brothers Milo, River, and Marin all rubbed their eyes and grumbled sleepily. Milo was sixteen and the firstborn of my parents, he had light brown sandy hair and blue eyes that made him very handsome. I always heard how the girls at his high school liked him, but to me he was just my big and goofy older brother. River was twelve and Marin was eleven, they could almost pass as twins if they wanted to, besides their different shades of hair.
“Dad, what’s wrong…?” The three asked in unison.
“Tell them yourself Wren,” My father fiercely said, I had forgotten he was standing over me threateningly. “She’s dead because of you, after all.”
I trembled in the entranceway in my white pajama dress, looking at my older brothers in pure and utter fear.
“I… I… I-I accidentally made Claire fall off the-”
“You did NOTHING accidentally child!” Daddy shouted.
I didn’t know what to do next, either way my father hated me more right now than he ever had in my life. I ran into the house and passed my confused siblings, slamming the door to the room I shared with River and Marin.
“WHAT HAVE I DONE?!” I screamed as I flopped onto my pillow. All the guilt in the world seemed to be placed upon my little shoulders, I sobbed into my mattress for so long I thought it would become a lake of my own tears. It was then I realized how wet my hair was for some odd reason. I was sweating from crying so hard and it felt like I had a fever, but my entire body was still shivering like it was cold.
“Maybe something is wrong with me,” I weeped. “If Daddy thinks so, then it’s probably true.”
Suddenly I head the door to my room open. My three brothers came in, they all looked miserable and broken.
“Dad told us what happened…” Milo murmured. “You really threw Claire off the cliff? I didn’t know that was in you!” His face looked betrayed, but I saw a glimpse in his eyes that told me he knew it wasn’t true. He sat on the corner of my bed and looked out of my window that overviewed the ledge and the sea below. I knew Claire had been his best friend since they were little too, they were so close in age and did practically everything together. Milo wasn’t one to cry or be dramatic, but I saw a tear trickle down one of his blue eyes and land on his grey pajama shirt.
“I didn’t do it on purpose… I promise.” I whispered as I hid under my pillow, trying not to hyperventilate so fast. “I feel like I’m going crazy, Milo. P-please, won’t you make it stop?”
Milo looked at River and Marin and then back at me. He was still young and didn’t understand a lot himself, but all I wanted was for someone to tell me it would be okay… just like Claire had once done for me. Instead of promising good things would come, my sixteen year old brother took the pillow off my face and stared at my jittery sweltering body.
“Wren…” He started, an awful concern in his voice. “Are you okay?”
“W-why do you ask…” I sniffled as I continued to bury my head deeper into my mattress. I didn’t want to look at him or anyone else for that matter, I couldn’t get the image of Claire’s dead body on the edge of the rocky shore out of my head.
I heard Milo breath in sharply. “N-no, no, I mean… are you actually okay Wren? Your whole body is burning up, and your hair is drenched in sweat. Do you not feel good?”
I sat up like a bullet as if I had just awoken from a nightmare. I didn’t know why, but I started to laugh quietly, an eery smile spreading across my face. I watched as my three brothers stared at me with worried looks, but the only thing I felt like I needed to do in the moment was uncontrollably giggle.
“I-I killed her…” I said as my eyes became widened in some sort of chilling glee. “I killed her and Daddy was right! I did it and it felt… It felt… It felt good.”
I continued to sit on my bed and laugh as I stared off in no particular direction. It felt like my real personality was being strangled by whatever had come over me, something else in my mind had just been awakened and had decided to force me to cackle. It was then that a wave of pure and utter scorching heat hit my body, this was the weirdest and highest fever I had ever had.
My brothers gathered around me as they panicked. “Wren, what’s wrong with y-” They started to say, but I never heard them get the full sentence out before my vision went foggy and I blacked out on my bed, a puddle of tears, sweat, and a creepy new personality I had just developed inside my head.
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