98

Introductory Text

98th Post

Posted 9 July 2016 at 22:10:45 UTC

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> As soon as I see the car I rush downstairs. Mother is in the kitchen making noises but I run right by her. Outside, the car pulls into the driveway. I run to it smiling but I slow down. Something is different about the car. Whose car is this?
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> The door opens. I stop. Dad gets out. He's got that grumpy look he usually has. He's wearing his pajamas but they have no buttons. Mom gets out of the car too. She comes out of the same door. She's wearing her blue dress. I start to cry and run to her and hug her legs. She pats my head and says, "There, there, Nick. It's OK."
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> "Where did you go?" I ask. I am crying like a baby. "Why did you leave me? Why did you go?"
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> "We went to the store," mom says.
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> "But you were gone so long," I say. My face is smushed up against her side.
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> "We went to the store and bought some dresses and dad got some stuff for his car."
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> I look up at her. Her face is all blurry because I am crying. I wipe my face. She looks down at me smiling. Her face is smooth and glowing. "We stayed at the store a few days," she says and pats me on the head.
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> It doesn't make sense to me. "Why did you leave me with the monster lady?" I ask.
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> Mom stops smiling. "Monster?"
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> "There's a monster in the house."
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> "Nick," she says like she thinks I'm telling stories.
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> "You weren't at the store for three days! Where were you?"
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> "Nick," my dad says in his grumpy voice. "That's enough."
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> I look at him. The shape of his face is weird. He usually has freckles on his cheeks but they're not in the right places. I let go of mom and look at her. She makes a little smile like she always does when she sees me. It's her. It's mom. It's her face. But it's too... What's wrong with it?
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> Mom's shirt moves. There's something underneath it. It's pushing and trying to get out. I step back. Her face sags like a water balloon and her cheek falls off. It hits the ground right in front of me with a big wet smack. It's lying there just like a big raw piece of chicken.
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> I scream and mom falls apart. Her face falls to pieces and her whole body hits the ground like a sack of potatoes. The same thing happens to dad. Their clothes are just lying on the driveway but there's something inside the clothes moving around inside. I scream and something screams back. It screams again, a little scream, and pokes its head out of my mom's dress. A kitty cat.
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> Other cats slip out of the bottom of the dress and out of my dad's pajamas. A whole bunch of cats all different colors. Mom and dad's clothes just blow away like tissue and the driveway is full of cats and pieces of meat. A few cats run away. Some of them cry. Some wander around and sniff and lick at the meat.
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> Something pinches my shoulder and I scream. It's Mother's crab hand. She yanks my arm and drags me back to the house. I shout and scream but she holds me tight. She slams the front door shut and pushes me into a big metal cage in the kitchen. Her birds are pushing out her shoulders and her face. They're missing eyeballs and covered with big golden flies and all of them are tweeting and cackling at me.
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> "Your magic isn't strong enough to make whomever you want," she says in a deep voice.
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> The birds all giggle. "Never will be!" one of them shouts.
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