© July 2, 2017. All Rights Reserved.
Wichita, Kansas
6 Months Old
Midnight at a local gas station, Mia (6-months-old is strapped to a booster seat with ocean blue diapers) taking shallow breaths with perspiration on her worried face. The inside of the car is 87 degrees from the scintillating sun in the aestival blue sky while the windows are closed. She’s thirsty as she eyes her father (who wears a black business suit) pumping gas into the car with a gas pump. As if though the gas pump is her bottle of milk, she cries. Thus, the father opens the right side of the back door and puts a pacifier in her mouth, just to shut the door again. A heartbroken Mia remains silent, but stares at her father in unforgivable rage.
Suddenly, Mia’s father encounters a stranger, that permanently traumatized her. A gorgeous, blond woman with black face paint and long, curly hair walks by wearing an exquisite, white wedding dress. She makes a flirtatious smile at Mia’s father. A mixture of confusion and shock is etched on his face. The anonymous woman proposes, lowering to the concrete ground, then reveals a black wedding ring box. She opens the box and there’s an expensive wedding ring encrusted with diamonds.
Nearly crying in tears of joy as if though she personally knows him, the anonymous stranger says in a soft voice, “Will you marry me?”
With utter repulsion, the father nods his head and says, “Is this a joke?”
The anonymous woman rises to her feet and walks backwards. She reveals a lighter and ignites it, which causes his convertible, red car to catch on fire. Thus, she runs as fast as she can in a wedding dress as he screams for his screaming 6-month-old. He burns after attempting to open up the front door to the driver’s seat before it catches on fire. From inside of the car, Mia watches her father gradually burning in excruciating pain as if though time is playing with her mind. His raspy scream echoes nonstop in her sensitive ears as the gas station explodes.
Sunday
There’s a blood-red lemon sitting on the kitchen counter, the stove is set to 350 degrees, and the area smells like dead cadavers in Daytona Beach, Florida. It’s unfortunate that Mia is alone, and she never sleepwalks. Her bedroom window is left open as the breeze caresses her skin. Suddenly, the alarm on her black cell phone startles her from sleep. She ends the alarm on her friendly device, then encounters a quick flashback of explosion that killed her father. The only thing she sees is fire and the sound of his screaming voice calling for her. Then, the flashback leaves.
Mia tosses her yellow cover across the room, sitting at a 90 degree angle with her knees slightly bent upward. Then, she darts her head around her surroundings. With her back slumped down against the wall, the window shuts by itself. In despair, her tears appear like ashes, running down her cheeks. She wipes her tears with her palms, then smells a seasoned turkey (with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper) cooking downstairs.
A tarantula is on her purple dreamcatcher, hanging on her black, bedroom wall, which has willow tree designs. Calmly, she places Sylvia back into her tank. She slips a violet spaghetti shirt over her green bra. With her black panty showing, she exits the bedroom, sluggishly walking toward her bluish-green slippers. She looks at the grandfather clock, which chimes 8 times. Swiftly, she puts on her slippers, then heads downstairs.
On her way down, from her peripheral vision, she spots a dark figure exiting the gloomy living room. The dark figure rushes into the kitchen. The windows showing her welcoming neighborhood teases her to escape. Thus, leaving Sylvia behind, she runs out the front door, desperately screaming. Her voice echoes, but her body fades.
Distressed like it was her birthright to escape her house, she’s in the living room near the stairs. Clearly, she recalls running out of her cottage. It definitely wasn’t a dream. After turning off the stove and wiping the blood from the contaminated lemon, she disposes of it. Mia sits on the stairs crying like usual. Eventually, the grandfather clock chimes 9 times, and she’s late for work as a local marriage counselor. Sylvia eyes Mia from the top of the stairs, then crawls back into Mia’s bedroom without her noticing.
Mia’s black cell phone rings beside her and she answers it, “Good morning. This is Mia…”
In a deep, manly voice, an anonymous client says, “I know who this is! You’re late again! I don’t know how you manage to keep your job at this company, but I’ll be going over your head and making sure that you never work here again! Me and my wife will not be coming back! This is unprofessional! Have a blessed day!”
Mia sits her cell phone down thinking about the uxorious client’s voice she recognized. With forlorn eyes, she then pulls a handful of hair strands from her scalp. It’s clear to her that she cannot return to work tomorrow. Only then does the front door opens by itself. The doorknob loosens and drops to the wooden floor. She hears footsteps leaving the cottage, then sees the front door slam close.
Monday
It’s 6:00 A.M. and the weather outside is unknown. There’s no television, no computer, and no cell phone where Mia is. In a small room with milk-white, brick walls, she is wearing a straitjacket. Like a magician, she effortlessly frees her arms, then does handstand push-ups with her back near the wall. There’s a white mattress beside her and a surveillance camera above recording her every move. She hears an alarm and sees blue and white, flashing lights come from the camera.
She hears the sound of rattling keys as the door knob twists. The door knob then opens. Two, brawny, male nurses (with chiseled features transparent from their white suits) barge into the room. She’s nowhere to be found. The nurses are dumbfounded by her mastermind escape.
Tuesday
There’s blue, fluorescent lights attached to the whitewashed, brick ceiling. Nurse Morelrike, (a brunette with short straight hair and blue eyes) injects a syringe into Mia’s extended, right arm. Automatically, Mia feels the pain trespassing into her sensitive skin. A squeamish Mia looks away from the syringe; with her opposite hand, she has a tight grip on her left knee.
Nurse Morelrike says, “Your mind will thank me later. Morelrike has been around for over two centuries and you’re the second person to escape. Next time you think about escaping, think about how much longer you have to stay here and the privileges you’ll lose.”
“Thank you… Hey… who was the first person to escape from Morelrike?”
“She never told you?”
“Who?”
“You have a sister who got released early for good behavior. Her name was Arabella.”
Sarcastically, Mia says, “What did this Arabella do?”
“She stood on the roof of a 3-story building committing indecent exposure.”
Concerned, Mia says, “I was raised an only child, so I would know if I have an evil sister or not.”
“Our records don’t lie. Maybe you were adopted.”
The two brawny nurses (Valentine Bosnia and Carlos Sherri) enter the room. Nurse Bosnia is chewing on a whole vanilla wafer. Nurse Sherri accepts an extra vanilla wafer from Valentine Bosnia’s hand. Carlos stuffs the vanilla wafer in his mouth. Then, they put a straight jacket around Mia’s body. Mia’s vision gets very blurry and she gets exhausted, feeling like a zombie.
“From my twenty-two years of living, I have never once heard about me having a sister. I’m not adopted. Bye.”
45 Days Later
Specifically, Mia abhors the anonymous client who made over a dozen complaints against her. Her dissatisfaction doesn’t show. Fortunate enough, her past clients became great friends with her on a personal level, which alleviates her pain. There’s a glass, oval, dining room table with two couples sitting in comfortable, gold and white thrones. A clean glass of red wine is in front of every guest. When she enters the kitchen, both of the couples smile with reverence.
Theophilia (a corpulent 25-year-old with a black ponytail) wraps her arms around the back of her wife’s neck. Halona (a 26-year-old blond wife with an athletic body), then cuddles with Theophilia as a separate couple at eye level are profoundly envious. Holly (a scrawny 19-year-old with a crimson, bob cut hairstyle, black sunglasses positioned above her eyes, a green and black, beaded necklace, and a red, velvet, immaculate dress) glances at her boyfriend. Estevan (21-years-old with a brown afro, fringe hairstyle, and a black business suit) lowers his head in shame.
Estevan says, “How romantic.”
Holly smacks Estevan across the back of the head. Theophilia smirks while Halona chuckles.
Mia speaks, “I’m glad you all could join me tonight…”
Holly interrupts, “Ma’am, the honor is all ours. There’s no telling what you had to go through to prepare such a grueling feast.”
Theophilia speaks, “What Holly means to says is…”
“Thank you,” Mia interrupts with a soft voice.
Estevan speaks, “I would like to make a toast to my best friend in the whole world, Mia!”
When Estevan grabs his glass, it tips over. Red wine spills on the glass table, then drips onto the shaggy, grey carpet. Without words, his girlfriend’s glare is the sign of a breakup. Halona widens her eyes. A worried Theophilia searches for an expression on Mia’s face, which never shows. Mia refuses to show any vulnerability with her emotions.
Halona, a chronic smoker takes out her cigarette and says, “I would like to be excused. I have to use the washroom.”
Mia stares at Halona’s cigarette and gets yet another flashback. This time, she remembers seeing the inside of the car burst into flames and the agony of burning alive while hearing his father squeal. The suffering returns like a recent moment, but it was so long ago. She escapes the flashback, then feels the temperature on her forehead, which is approximately 87 degrees. Quickly, she gets dizzy, but refuses to sit down.
“Not so fast. We can’t leave Misses McDowsky to clean up this mess by herself,” Theophilia says.
Mia’s migraine worsens, but no emotion shows on her beautiful face. Nervously, she shivers when she heads to the kitchen to grab a clean, yellow rag. A flashback of when her father sees the woman proposing occurs. Once the flashback leaves, the faces of her guests are aimed her direction with concern. She attempts t remain as calm as possible.
Mia says in a calm voice, “Please. I don’t want my guests breaking a sweat. This is your night to enjoy. Don’t worry about the mess. It’ll be all cleaned up by tomorrow.”
Estevan’s cell phone rings. He slowly picks up the device. Mia notices the name “Bella” as the caller. Mia leaves the living room to head into her bedroom. She reflects on what Nurse Morelrike said, “Our records don’t lie. Maybe you were adopted.” She reminds herself that the odds of her having a sister are slim.
Living Room
Halons whispers, “You ever notice that Mia’s been acting strange lately?”
“It can’t get any stranger than clumsy Estevan over here,” Holly says.
“I think we just need some candles to lighten the mood” Theophilia speaks to everyone, then to Halona, “Pass me that lighter.”
“Don’t burn down the place,” Estevan whispers.
Again, Holly smacks Estevan across the back of the head. Halona chuckles as Theophilia searches in the kitchen drawers for candles. So far, she sees no candles. After cleaning the mess from the table with the dry, yellow rag that was left on the kitchen counter, Theophilia then cleans up the mess on the shaggy carpet. Thus, she throws the dirty rag in a white trash bin. At the bottom drawer, she sees candles, then takes them out. Gleefully, she places three candles on two window sills and seven candles on the oval table, before lighting them with a lighter.
Theophilia takes a seat and returns the lighter to her partner. The moment Mia enters the living room, her head darts around in horror. Her past is coming back to haunt her again. The flames from the lit candles bring vivid memories of the explosion at the gas station. She tries to hold her ears, but the flesh from her body burns so deeply that her hands wander. With a shrilling scream, which fails to absolve her of guilt in her father’s death, the burning torture allows her to sit on her knees. Her flesh turns to the color of ashes and everyone panics, rising from their thrones, sharing a mixture of screams and cries.
Theophilia and Estevan runs toward the front door, but are stopped. The presence of Mia teleports in front of them. She levitates a fire in front of the front door and windows, which causes the fire alarm to turn on. As Estevan recoils, Theophilia screams before being strangled. Mia looks away as if she’s disgusted by the fire, which runs through her flesh onto her squealing victim. Theophilia drops in agony and dies, which causes Halona to make a shrilling scream.
Mia hears a disembodied voice of Nurse Morelrike whispering, “What did you put in her! Nooo! Stop it! You’re going to kill her!”
“You’re a freak,” Estevan yells, “Get away from me!”
Mia then hears the disembodied voice of an anonymous doctor whispering, “This will be my finest monster.”
Holly runs upstairs with Halona as Estevan throws several glass plates. Her body absorbs the plates, then she continues running toward Estevan. He runs upstairs, but she burns his right ankle with a tight grip, which makes him fall in despair. Then, after taking a couple of steps up, she takes another grip on his family jewels. He screams to his torturous death.
Upstairs, Halona shuts Mia’s bedroom door and tips over a white, wooden dresser in front of the door. Sylvia is on the dreamcatcher, which makes Halona scream. Holly open up the bedroom window, but sees the face of Mia glaring through the dead trees. Thus, Mia strangles Holly with flames bursting out of her palms. Before she can cause more damage, Holly lowers the window onto Mia’s arms. Holly falls to the floor with blood pouring from the burnt section of her neck.
Holly struggles to talk, but coughs up blood as Halona speaks, “Don’t die! Don’t die! Don’t die!”
Swiftly, the bedroom lights flicker on and off several times before remaining off completely. The sound the bedroom window shatters. Halona screams like she has an extra lung. Mia turns back into human form, dragging Halona’s lifeless body down the hallway. A trail of blood leaks from her victim left on the white, tiled floor. Halona’s back is left resting slump down against the whitewash, brick wall beside the top step to the stairway.
Approximately 3 hours later, Mia walks downstairs in a white wedding dress. There’s no corpses to be found. The distinct smell of blood is no more, but it smells as if though Mia recently bought her cottage. Yet, catching her attention, Estevan’s cell phone is on the living room table ringing. She turns the cell phone over to the screen view and the caller reads, Bella. Gaining curiosity of who Bella really is, Mia reads Bella’s past messages that were sent to Estevan.
Bella and Estevan’s Texts:
Bella texted, “You up for a movie tonight, cutie? I love you so much.”
Estevan texted, “How about strip poker. I should be arriving home from work early.”
Bella texted, “Come to mommy. What she doesn’t know won’t kill her. Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
Estevan texted, “It’ll only save my relationship.”
Bella texted back, “What are you waiting for then? I’m your Arabella.”
Isaiah Lawrence 