Eva held the bottle of
Vicodin in her hand, weighing her options. She could not take the pills, and
pretend everything was okay like she had been for the past few years. Or, she
could take them, and get on with it. The thing about committing suicide is that
when you’ve decided death is the best way out it’s hard to change your mind.
She opened the bottle of her mother’s medicine.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” she whispered. “Hopefully, you’ll
forgive me.”
Eva poured a handful of pills into her hand and stuffed
them in her mouth. Taking several hard gulps with a glass of water she thought
‘This is how they do it, right? At least
in the movies. Maybe I should have taken them one by one?’
“That should be enough. Well, more than enough.”
Closing the medicine cabinet, Eva looked into the mirror
noticing the puffy, red areas around her eyes. Obvious evidence that she’d been
crying. She Splashed cold water onto her face a few times trying to decrease
the swelling. If anyone asked, she would just say she had allergies. That
sounded stupid, even to Eva, but who cared? She wouldn’t have to keep up the
charade for too long.
‘Now for part two…’
There was a knock at the door, and then the doorbell rung
throughout the house. It had to be her sister Natasha. ‘Impatient as ever,’ Eva
thought as the doorbell rang again before she could even make it down the
hallway.
“It’s about time!” Natasha said excitedly. “We have to
set up for the party!”
Looking around the house, Natasha noticed that there were
no decorations, no cake, and something seemed wrong with Eva.
“Well, it’s not like setting up for a party will take too
much time, if it’s the both of us,” Natasha smiled brightly.
Eva was suddenly reminded of a song by her favorite band,
Paramore:
‘If I
smile with my teeth, I’ll bet they believe me
If I smile with my
teeth, I think I believe me’
She thought it was amazing how they can make an album
that seemed mostly about depression sound so upbeat. But maybe that was the
point.
“What’s wrong with your eyes, Hun?” Natasha asked
reaching up to touch her sisters still slightly puffy eyes. Eva swatted her
sister’s hand away saying “I think it’s just allergies. They’ve been like this
all day.”
“You’ve never had allergies, but if you say so,” Natasha
watched as Eva walked over the wine cabinet and poured herself a glass. “You’ve
never been much of a wine drinker, either.”
“Maybe I want to take a break from appletini’s…?” Eva
said with a hint of annoyance.
“Are you sure you’re alright? You’re moving kind of slow,
today.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just took some allergy medicine. Maybe
they’re making me a little drowsy.”
“Should you be drinking after taking them?” Natasha asked
suddenly feeling alarmed at her sister’s lack of concern.
“I’ll be fine,” Eva smiled for the first time that day. ‘Vicodin and alcohol are normally a bad
match, but I’m not planning on not waking up.’
Natasha was almost positive that something was wrong, but
didn’t want to push the issue and make it worse. She’d done that in the past
with other people who ended up not talking to her for days at a time. “Okay.
Well, I’m going to start on the cake. D’you think you’re alert enough to put
up—”
“Yeah, I got it.”
Natasha rolled her eyes as she turned away from Eva.
“Thanks…” She decided to bring up her sister’s strange attitude up with their
father when she got home. ‘No sense in
making their mother worry on her birthday.’
It had been a few minutes and Eva was feeling really
tired. ‘Must be working,’ She thought
as she hung up the string of letter that spelled out Happy Birthday. ‘I should
have done this the first time.’
As Eva was unsteadily attempting to pin the Happy
Birthday sign on the wall, she noticed that someone was in their back yard.
Thinking it was one of the neighbor’s kids trying to retrieve their football—for
the twenty-seventh time that week—she was shocked to see an adult standing
there, so still.
Staring at her.
The combination of the drugs and alcohol must have been
really kicking in now. Eva was unable to recognize any distinguishing features
about the person. They seemed to be wearing all-black winter clothing, which
would make sense as it was snowing outside. However, Eva was unable to see
their face properly. All she could see was a blur. But then she realized, the
person’s face was the only thing that was blurry. The rest of them—their
clothes, even the small logo on their hat—was still clearly visible. And they
looked familiar.
“Hey, Tasha!” Eva tried to sound nonchalant about this
bizarre person on the other side of the window. “When are Mom and Dad getting
home?”
“They should be here in about thirty minutes with Benji.
Why?”
“Just wanted to know if I was making good time.”
Natasha walked into the living room, wiping her hands
with a paper towel. “The ‘Happy’ side is lower than the ‘Birthday’ side. Could
you…who is that?”
“You see them, too?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty obvious that they’re there when they
wear all black in the snow.” Natasha’s temper was beginning to rise faster than
the temperature in the oven. Not being one to mess with, she went to the back
door and opened it wide, yelling “I don’t care who you are, if you don’t leave,
I’m getting my dad’s shotgun! I’ll call the police when you’re dead!”
Normally, that would scare people away. Really, Natasha’s
yelling could have caused most people to grow a tail and run away with it
between their legs. But not this time. They start slowly walking towards the
door, one step at a time, as if they were only now learning how to walk.
Natasha closed the door and locked it, “I’m going upstairs
to get Dad’s gun! I need you to make sure all of the doors and windows ar—”
CRASH
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