Family

Nathanael Swenson

A sweet child... a sweet... innocent child, torn to shreds. This young boy is dead in a storm drain on Red grove Dr in Missy, Wisconsin. Somewhere across the street, a mother (father CRAZY!) just entered her neat, white, cookie cutter home unknowing that her precious, "little man", has slipped away, died, seen the light. A mother who didn't understand,"The Gift" (YES!)that took her son's life away. A gift that people would call, "hallucinations", but that's because people don't know (I KNOW!!!!).


The boy's name is Johnny and it was 2 hours after he was tucked into bed by his mother (I LOVE HIM TOO!!!) that screams were heard next door. The screams not only triggered phone calls to the police but also attracted the attention of everyone on their block (Red grove Dr. RED GROVE DRIVE!). All the men and woman (Most of whom were still in their night clothes, HAHA!) all circled around the police caution tape. A young cop with light brown hair and light green eyes was talking to a Paramedic and then left along with 2 other Paramedics that were in possession of a stretcher and then they entered the small brown house.
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Johnny didn't say anything he didn't want to. He knew he would frighten his mom (Dad's just gone and crazy isn't he?) who would then start crying. She got sad a lot ever since the car accident that killed his older sister (Becka! Yes, now I remember...) and introduced Johnny to a scar on his left cheek. It was the scar that triggered his mother's seemingly endless flow of tears every time she went to kiss his sweet, little, forehead. Johnny had been 8 and his sister 12, but now Johnny was 10 and the urn was about 2. Cremation... the ashes of sorrow and little love, the ashes of pain and hope, the ashes that had once been his beautiful, green-eyed, blonde-haired sister.
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Johnny knew he'd seen something strange shortly before the screams next door (The Sanders. Oh how I hated them) were heard. Those AMAZING SCREAMS! (YES!)It was something shadow like and very thin near the window of the neighbors home that he had noticed (ME!!!). It was the home where the cops would only find the body of Mr. Sanders. The home that pain would dwell in forever and secrets will never be told. Johnny decided to leave the group. Yes he did. I know he did (HA!). The scent of sadness and mystery was too strong for the boy. He walked quickly across the sanders' yard and it wasn't until he started to shiver a little bit that he realized that he was still in his Batman pajamas (OH! HOW CUTE!). He entered his home nearly tripping on the second of the three small steps leading to the front door.


He felt the warmth of the (death?) air rush over his face. The cold of the December air was cancelled out. Johnny went up the stairs to his bedroom at the far end of the hallway that contained three rooms in all. I will always remember m- that house. Johnny lay still on his bed stomach first, his face pressing into his Batman bedsheets. He then heard (GIFT!) a sound behind him. He jumped up and then...


(Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore in not I'm not not not I'm in) Johnny looked around. The corn fields drifting as far as the eye can see. Fear swept that young child as confusion started to settle in. Johnny was standing in the (Mysterious? I think not!) middle of a large cornfield. He looked up and way off in the distance, he saw his house. He started toward it not noticing the quiet mystery (HA!). Johnny tripped on the second of the three small steps and then entered the darkness.


(And a Very Merry Christmas to you too...)Johnny was standing in a small, dark, room that was shaped like a square (Now did I drop you off at the wrong house? HAHA!!!). There was a candle light that shone at the end of the room. Within a blink of an eye, the room was very bright and rectangular shaped and it had... YES, it had LOTS of windows!!! Johnny walked toward the front door and opened it. The windows did not lie, (windows can't lie silly!)he was still in the middle of the cornfield. (THUMP!) He heard a thump behind him inside of the house. He turned around and saw that at the far end of the room, there was a bench nailed to the wall about 5 feet off of the ground. He blinked just once and then saw his mother, sister (Death?), and himself, sitting on the bench. He started walking toward it and didn't notice that each step he took toward the family, the darker the room got.


The bench was now on the ground somehow and blended in well with the semi-darkness. Johnny at that moment realized that the people on the bench had VERY large smiles. The ends of the smiles touched the corners of their eyes. The people were blank faced and had pale skin. The only thing that made their smiles far from funny was the fact that they had razor-sharp teeth. Johnny got really scared when he saw himself (On the bench of death!) blink so he turned around and bolted toward the front door. Every step he took the room seemed to get longer and darker. The room turned bright again, and that's when he heard another thump behind him. There were three large presents, each wrapped with Christmas wrapping paper and topped with a giant red bow (He hears voices, I am the voices. I AM!). He reached the presents and gained a lot of courage to open them.


He thought that maybe what was under the wrapping paper might hold the secret to getting out of wherever the heck he was. He tore the paper off of the first present and saw that the bench family was directly behind the gifts staring at him. The, "Present", was a blue casket. The lid started opening by itself and then another copy of him sat up from inside of the casket. He started to scream and then the paper suddenly dissipated off of the other presents and he saw they were also caskets (RED AND BLACK! HAHA!). The bodies in those caskets sat up also and he saw his mother and sister in them all dressed in their Sunday best. Right when Johnny thought he was going to pass out from fear, the people on the bench behind the caskets said simultaneously, "Merry Christmas Johnny!", and then started melting into a puddle of pink goo. Johnny turned around and ran toward the front door (FEAR!) and noticed that there wasn't a front door there anymore but a giant window. He saw green hills and blue skies through the window. He also saw children running up and down those green hills. Johnny took a few steps back and then ran his fastest in to the window hoping to break it. The window just fell off the wall and Johnny saw that it was only a picture frame being lit up by a display light built in the wall behind it. Eerily though, Johnny saw that the children in the picture were still running up and down those hills. The family in the coffins ran toward Johnny and sunk their suddenly razor sharp teeth into his soft skin.


As he was being torn apart, his mind numbed and he was in a beautiful field surrounded by mountains and flowers much like what you would see in the movie: The Sound of Music. His sister was in the middle of the field in a pretty white dress. She ran toward him and hugged him. He was so glad to be hugged by her. He genuinely missed her. I don't. I REALLY TRULY DON'T! SHE'S NOT MY KID! (YES. NOT YOUR KID!) I know! His sister kissed him on the cheek and then melted again but this time only her guts melted. Her skeleton just landed on the soft green grass. He leaned over her skeleton and... he... um... I give up! The voices.... he heard them too! I'm not crazy (Your not). Don't you hear them? CAN'T YOU FREAKING HEAR THEM YOU STUPID SON OF A-(LOVE). I hated the Sanders'. I never liked how they got to be near my sweet boy Johnny and I didn't. They gave him treats and all I got was arrested and banned from seeing my boy. Johnny's gone now! GONE (Gone)!


He had a gift. I could...feel it. POWER! I FEEL POWER! THAT"S THE GIFT JOHNNY HAD! YOU ARE SIMMERING IN IT! HAHA!!! Could we meet? I'd love to...um...talk to you.... yeah.... talk to you (lies) SHUT UP! I'll pick you up around nine PM if that's alright with you. If it's not, don't worry, I always know where you're at. The voices tell me. How kind of them? HAHA! (HAHA!) HAHA! The power I can FEEL!