Sick and Tired of It

PROLOGUE

“They left me.” I sobbed. I was six and alone in a strange town. Tears were clawing their way down my face like a starved wolverine mangling a rabbit.

“They left me here.” Then I staggered over to a street lamp and clung to it. My family had left me without saying a simple goodbye.
It’s a horrid feeling, knowing your family meant to leave you alone in a place where you know nothing. At that moment my memory could only replay and replay.

It was the only reason I thought why they would leave me.

I had an argument about being a ‘good sister’ with my parents. I had been trying to help out my little brother by telling a lie so he wouldn’t get in trouble. He had painted the wall blue, pink and orange to make it look like a sunset. I thought it looked like a masterpiece, but I knew from experience that our parents wouldn’t. So I said that I did it and took the blame, but somehow they knew I was lying and said that if I had told them the truth I wouldn’t have gotten in trouble. They also said a ‘good sister’ would have said sorry and told them the truth no matter what. They didn’t punish my little brother because he didn’t lie and he didn’t know any better.
I thought they were talking out of their asses.

I started to argue that being a good sister meant sticking up for your little brother and doing anything to protect him. We argued and argued until they walked into the other room, slammed the door shut and started to whisper. After about thirty seconds or so, I heard my mom gasp.

“... There you are...” I had no clue who that was.
“... Not enough...” That was- mom?
“... They’ll take them...” Definitely dad.
“...Eventually...” Mom I’m sure.
“... Homeless...” Who was that?
“... Horrible...” Mom.
“... She’s useless~...” It was that guy I heard the two times before.
“... I love....” Dad.
“... Don’t have a choice...” That guy.
“ Fine.” That was mom.

What? That little fraction of a conversation was interesting, but I wasn’t sure what it all added up to be. It made me curious. I snuck over to the door and peered through the keyhole. I saw mom on the green velvet couch, dad was nowhere I could see (probably too close to the door for comfort, but I didn’t care), and the guy I didn’t know was sitting on the pool table with his arms crossed. His left leg was perched on the table but his right leg was swinging limp off the table. I could see his face clearly from where I was- he had dark eyes that turned red or gold, depending on how the light reflected off them, and they were overflowing with triumph. His hair was so dark it looked almost like it was tinted blue, though when he moved there were streaks that turned bright crimson. He wore all black; black jeans, black combat boots that buckled, a black long sleeved coat- no, the coat was too long, it was like a mix between a coat and a cape. He wore a sinister smile that showed his fangs- fangs? Creepy, but totally cool. It wasn’t particularly close to halloween, but we lived in a neighborhood where people did all sorts of weird things to their bodies, so it didn’t set off any of my internal alarms. He was eighteen maybe nineteen? It looked like he was trying to hold in his joy but, well, he wasn’t doing it very well. He held out two pieces of paper with a pen. One of them I could tell was a sheet of Google Maps directions, the other I’m not sure, but I thought it looked as if it was something that needed a signature and personal information.

“You’ll have to sign this and give it back to me within the next two weeks. Notify me by call, then drive to this destination the next night. Do you understand?” Did he just order my parents around like they were dogs?

“Yes sir.” Dad’s voice was downcast and loud, like he was right next to the door. I suppressed a shiver at the thought of being found eavesdropping.

“How much would we get out of this again?” Mom’s voice told me she was wary. She was perched on the edge of the couch with her back leaning forward and her face scrunched with suspicion.

“More than enough to fix all your worries. And thank you again for your patronage.”

“Tell me, why we’re doing this?” Dad sounded defeated, tired and- was it sad? I’d never heard him sound so sad.

“Because if you don’t, you won’t have enough money to pay the mortgage or feed your kids. And if you blow us off, something terrible might happen. Maybe something will happen to someone special to you.... Like- hmm, your daughter, your son, and your unborn...?”
Mom touched her stomach and glared at the boy. I took a step back and the floor creaked ever so slightly. He had just threatened my family! Wait, did he just say- UNBORN? My mom was pregnant? And wait- us? Who is ‘us’? My god was he creepy. Wait-my mom was pregnant? His smile dropped in an instant making his practically snow white face look even more sinister. His eyes darted to the door as if he could see me and his creepy smile returned.

“Oops! Did I scare you?” He chuckled. I moved as fast as I could possibly go. I ran into my bedroom and locked the door. I was freaked. I was freaked out so bad. I grabbed a pillow and blanket then scrambled under my bed. Not even dad by the door could have heard that. It had just been too quiet to have been heard. Panting, I set up a small barricade around the openings of the bed. When I finally felt safe, I tried to sleep. Not that it worked particularly well. Before I finally fell into nightmares of fangs and flaming eyes, I heard heavy footfalls, shouts, and the front door slam. In the morning, everything was normal- well, almost normal. Mom and dad didn’t say anything about eavesdropping or anything about the strange man or even the still paint stained wall. The door to my room was unlocked and I had been sleeping on my bed, so I thought I had been dreaming. The only thing that told me that I had not been dreaming was mom and dad whispering every once and a while, and the rug-burn I got from my carpet under my bed.

After a week my parents took Joey, my little brother, and me to dinner.
We went somewhere I had never been- the buildings were small and square, more like houses rather than the tall buildings in normal cities. I saw one building that totally stood out from the rest, it was the tallest thing I had ever seen in my life! It looked like you could stack three skyscrapers on top of each other and that would only cover two thirds of the massive thing.
We were headed straight for it too.

It was around ten o’clock and my mom was driving, so we were going too fast to see anything else around us. When we found parking, dad looked like he was upset when he unbuckled me.

“What’s wrong Daddy?” I asked, worried about him.

“No, nothing’s wrong honey. Now watch your step.” His smile looked tired and forced. I hopped out of the black SUV and shuffled over to Joey.

“I wanna have cake! CAKE! CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE!” I looked at him like he was crazy.

“What?” he asked, looking at me with big, innocent eyes. I laughed, shaking my head, and gave him a hug.

“I love you. You’re a good sissy, and we’re gonna be together always,” he told me.

“Of course we will, bud. I’d be bored to death without you!” I showed him my holey grin and held the hand of my five-and-a-half-year-old-brother and followed our parents into the crazily tall building, with mom leading the group and dad trailing behind.

It was packed. Just full of bodies. There was loud music, dancing, and lights. Lots and lots of lights. Colorful, with lasers, and very pretty, yes, but not very nice on the eyes of a six year old. My eyes stung when we finally got a table and ordered. We all finished our food at about ten forty five, and I was getting tired. Mom and dad paid the waitress, but we weren’t going back to the car yet. I asked dad why, but he changed the subject. Mom took Joey to the car while I waited with dad for something unknown to me.

“Honey, I’m going to go up to the bar for a minute, okay?”
“Daddy?”

“Yes Spid?” ha ha. My dad. How I loved him. My nickname is- was- Spid. Short for spider. I loved the name. I’ve always liked spiders. They eat mosquitoes and have gorgeous patterns on their backs- oh, and their webs are so beautiful too! My family started to call me Spid when they found me playing with three tarantulas, and one happened to be dad’s missing Haitian Brown. I didn’t have one scratch. Not one.

“Can I come with you?” I asked. I was slightly worried about getting lost or forgotten in this huge, maze of bodies.

“Sure. I was going to get you anyway,” he murmured the last part, like he didn’t want me to hear. While dad and I swam through the unbelievably huge crowd to the bar, I watched the dancefloor - the people who seemed to flow like water to the beat. I wished that I could dance like that. I mean, it was beautiful moving like snakes on ice, but I didn’t think I could do that in a lifetime.

“We’re here. I love you, honey,” he leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. I looked up at him and wondered why he was saying that, when we only got to a bar. Was he going to divorce mom like he said he would two years ago, and leave me in her so called ‘care’? I dismissed the thought. He wouldn’t damn me to hell like that.

He turned towards a person dressed all in black. The outfit looked slightly familiar. The man swiveled in his chair to look at dad. I got a good long look at his face. It was him. That guy! I grabbed dad’s sweater and tried to hide behind him. My body shook a little at the look in his eyes. Well maybe a lot, but that’s not the point. The point is that the guy was scary and was staring right at me. I glared at him trying to cover the fact that I was terrified. He chuckled and grinned.

“She will be fun to devastate,” dad stared at him looking horrified.

“You said you wouldn’t hurt her-” he said in a hoarse whisper. The guy shook his head while he stood, cutting Dad off with the lift of his hand. He looked at me again then leaned to dad.

“The contract. You filled it out? Hand it over and I will give you what was agreed,” he held out a large metal suitcase which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Dad handed over the paper I saw the night I first saw that guy. Then the guy handed over the suitcase he was offering, watched as my dad tried to shake me off, then promptly kneeled to me so that he was just a bit shorter than I. He took my hands away from dads shirt so fast I didn’t even know he had touched me. I whimpered as he crushed my hands between his palm and his fingers. I turned my head to dad and watched helplessly as he left without looking back. His back was stiff and rigid, his head level with his shoulders as he pushed through groups of yahoos. It was as if my dad couldn’t hear my pleas. I was wallowing in my misery, when I slowly looked back to the monster who was imprisoning my hands, starting to laugh wholeheartedly.

“What?” that one word was full of venom and rage. He laughed at my mad little face. When he caught his breath, he looked to me and offered a warm and welcoming smile as he spoke.

“My name is Ramex, call me Rex for short. What’s your name? I want to know everything about you,” I felt a tug in the back of my mind making me want to grin stupidly and tell him everything- my family, friends, hobbies, everything.

“Natalie. Now let go of me ‘cause I wanna go home,” I only told him my name after the tugging became pulling, and the pulling became like and animal playing tug-of-war with my brain. But let me tell you this: I did not grin. His smile increased but the warmth left it and his seemingly signature eeriness replaced it. Rex’s hand let mine go only to come to my rib cage and lift me up so I was dangling in the air, so high my feet came only a little lower than his hips.

“Natalie.” The way he rolled my name on his tongue made me shiver with disgust. “Natalie… what a dull name. No, that won’t do at all. None-the-less, it’s a pleasure to possess you.”

“Wh- put me DOWN!” I was so blinded by my rage that I didn’t even register what he had said. My mind was set on three things he had done to piss me off. One, he threatened my family, two, he ordered my parents around, three, HE PICKED ME UP! Who in their right minds would pick up a six-year-old who doesn't know or like you? I mean really, who does that? I glared at him like my life depended on it.

“I said, ‘ it is a pleasure to’- ah, you may not understand. To possess you means to own you,” His eyes flashed as he grinned his evil grin. I took that as a challenge. My leg flew out and a startled grunt was heard over the music. ‘Own me’ my ass.

My foot had hit it’s mark. I fell to the floor and sprinted to the exit. I ran outside towards where I thought we parked. My lungs burned and my legs ached, I was tripping over cracks in the sidewalk, and every sound was a monster prowling behind me.

When I finally reached our parking place, I saw Joey thrashing about in the car, likely having a tantrum. Relief flooded through me as I approached the minivan. Just as I was about to make it into their field of vision, the car pulled away from the curb. It was so surreal to me; no matter how fast I ran, the distance would only get larger and larger. I screamed for them to wait, that a monster was chasing me, begging them not to leave me behind. The car didn’t falter from its course.

My legs were shaking when I started to mindlessly walk in the direction the car drove off in. Any direction but the huge building would do. Didn’t they hear me? Dad would never leave me with a man so suspicious as this ‘Rex’, would he? I had begun to sob. I was scared, alone, and cold. The tears running down my face became a river of self pity. I stumbled over to a lamppost and clung to it, out of fear I might fall and drown in my own tears.

“They left me,” I whimpered. What kind of parents could, let alone would, leave their child in such a terrifying place? Mine, I suppose.
“They left me here,” I staggered away from the lamppost into the darkness, and started to wander around aimlessly.

“They left me here alone! Help me... Somebody, anybody,” I walked out onto the street, hoping for someone to find me, to pity me, and to take me somewhere safe. A car’s lights shone in the distance and they were getting brighter, and brighter still, until I knew they weren’t going to stop. I had waited too long, the headlights had made me misjudge where the car was relative to me, and to run out of the street in time was impossible. I thought, it might be better if I don’t survive, my mom and dad are never wrong about people so if they left me… that must mean I’m worthless. I took a sharp breath in and prepared for pain I had never had the opportunity to experience before. Just as my vision blurred from shameless tears, the wind was knocked out of my chest. Before I could make a sound, a cold and clammy hand covered my mouth, the other pulling me back against a rock-hard torso. I felt freezing lips brush my ear, a softly venomous whisper escaping them.

“They didn’t leave you, they sold you.”