The Shards of Glass

Kylie carefully checked her bed one last time, adjusting the quilt ever so slightly. She smiled to herself as she marveled at her masterpiece; this wasn’t her first time. In the dark no one was really ever able to tell that it wasn’t Kylie herself in the bed, the blow-up doll she used matched her almost perfectly and even if that weren’t the case, it would be some sort of miracle if anyone were to check on her anyway.

Kylie inched toward the window and quietly pulled it up. She climbed out onto the roof and closed the window behind her, leaving it just barely open for her return. She glanced down the street at the row of suburban houses that seemed to go on forever. Seeing no one, she shuffled down to the edge of the roof and quickly hung herself off it. She let go and landed on the grass below. Unlike usual, however, this time the grass crunched as she landed. She frowned and kneeled down to see what it was she had landed on. To her surprise, the grass was littered with broken shards of glass. She picked up one of the shards and let out a small shriek as it sliced her hand.

“Idiot!” she quietly scolded herself.

She dropped the glass to the ground and stood up, looking all around her at the quiet street and the cars in the driveway. She turned back toward the house and noticed for the first time that the window she had landed beside was broken. Absentmindedly bringing her hand to her mouth and sucking on the blood that was eking out of the cut she had just given herself, she headed over to the window and peered inside. Nothing seemed to be out of place in the living room she was gazing into, yet there was something not quite right. As far as she knew, her parents were asleep in bed and her brother was off partying with his college friends, so who would have broken the glass and just left it there?

Unable to quiet the voice inside her head, she gave one last glance at the street and sighed, then turned back to the window and climbed inside the dark house. Not wanting to wake her parents if nothing was wrong, she softly worked her way around the furniture in the living room. Everything looked just the way it had only two hours before when she had been down there herself, the lights blazing and the TV blaring. She let out a breath in exasperation then headed back toward the broken window. As she stared out at the shards on the grass she suddenly realized something very strange about the whole situation: the window must have been broken from the inside. How else did the glass get outside and not in the house. She frowned at her own thought and turned back toward the living room.

Making a silent decision, Kylie headed toward the stairs that led to the second floor. She slowly made her way up, a shiver rumbling through her body as she ascended the steps. She tried to shake off the ominous feeling that dominated her mind but could only force herself up by willing her legs to go on. She made it to the top of the stairs and turned to the right, toward her parents’ bedroom. As she walked toward their room, she felt her pace quickening with each step. She strained her ears for any unusual noise but was only met with deafening silence. She entered the door to her parents’ room and headed closer to their bed, trying to make out their shapes in the dark. She frowned as she neared the bed. There was something in it, only she was sure by now it wasn’t her parents. She tentatively put out her hand toward the quilt. Grasping the quilt, she yanked it back. What was under the quilt made her heart skip a beat. Lying in the bed were not her parents, but rather two blow up dolls, just like the one that was lying in Kylie’s own bed.

“What…” she began, but her thoughts were interrupted by a giggle from behind her.

Her heart sped up as her whole body tensed at the sound. She began to turn as the giggle turned into outright laughter not by just one person, but two! Realizing who the laughs were coming from, she wheeled around to see her mother and father laughing hysterically.

“We had you fooled!” her mother roared in between fits of laughter.

Kylie’s fear was soon replaced by anger, “What were you trying to do, give me a heart attack?”

She stomped off toward her room, hearing her father call behind her, “Don’t go trying to sneak out that window again, Kylie.”

Kylie slammed the door as she entered her room.

“Well, that was fun,” her mother said, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.