A man appeared in the far distance about ten feet away from where I was laying. He just stood there and laughed as he watched me lie down on the cold solid floor. I don’t even know where I am now. His hand slightly lifted from its original placement and his index finger was facing me. His grin widened as the laughing echoed and kept getting louder and louder by the second. I held my hands over my ears as the sound rung repeatedly, I know that laugh from anywhere. It was William, he was taunting me, he just stood there staring at me and laughing in place all I could do was watch him do it. “Why must you laugh?” I scream. Soon the laughing and echoing ceased I sigh in relief, but I still have the leftover side effects.

“The enemy proceeds to laugh while the victim proceeds to disobey,” the man said walking a few feet closer to me, there I saw it was my uncle. William Jay. I knew he would come back even after what I told him before. “You chose them over me. Why is that?” William asked as he leaned down until I could feel his warm breathing coming from his nose hitting my neck. I’ll admit that I shuttered from it, he always questions the choices I make and why I made them. I never gave him the answers to them though, I always kept a secret from him, and so I will make this a similar situation. “I could never choose between my family members; you’re my uncle and you always will be. You will forever be loved by us no matter what.” I start to cry as I punched the ground with my right fist and wailed. My face headed up because I was crying so hard, it’s too much pressure to handle. “You can’t always make me choose between the two of you William.”

“Yes, you can! All you have to do is choose me!” he stepped forward one more time and pushed my head into the ground his grip not loosening but getting stronger. I tried to scream but my face was so was being pushed down so hard that I could basically hear my skull crack. “Release me now!” I yelled as he pushed even harder and growled at the same time. “Never! Until you either tell the truth or join me,” he removed his hand and so I sighed with relief but before I could even try to get up his foot stood on the side of my face putting pressure on it.

The sharpness of my teeth pierced the inside of my left cheek and dug deep into my mouth, I felt some of them break in the process and the blood shot out about a mile. William aggressively stated, “You will suffer if you don’t make a choice by the time, I smash your head open.” He pushed his foot further down on Susie’s head. My face slowly deforming as the force grew and continued to torture me. Soon enough his foot pushed my head so hard my head finally exploded into millions of pieces. I couldn’t move, my body was still intact and although I could still breathe, my respiratory system was slowly shutting down. My eye slowly closed shut as I breathe my last breath, everything was cold, and there was no light like before. I’m in a loop, I can feel it. But then suddenly, this rush of blood dashed throughout my veins. Sitting up, my family was right in front of me with worried looks on their faces.

I look at Jamie to see that his eyes were cherry red from crying, I felt his pain. “You okay Susie?” He asked me and pulled me into a hug, tears manage to leave my tear ducts as well. I respond with a nod and a slight smile. Daddy was in shock; you could tell that he was crying but his face didn’t show much emotion whatsoever. Momma hugged me as well and kissed my forehead at least 15 times in a row causing me to giggle a little. I told him that I was okay, well at least I thought so. “You had us all worried, Momma was about to call the ambulance. And Daddy was about to have a literal heart attack.” Salina groaned and sighed with relief. The thought of losing me left her mind as she hugged me tightly. “You’re my best friend, I can’t imagine losing you,” she said, sniffling and crying.

“I can’t imagine losing any of you either.” I hug everyone at the same time. We all stood up, we started walking to the kitchen, but I was stopped when a pair of hands were placed over my eyes. I sigh and giggle, I could tell it was Daddy because he always did this on my birthday. I could hear shuffling in the kitchen, I could tell this was supposed to be a surprise party for me, although I knew this was going to happen before then. I hear muffled footsteps coming toward me a little and then it stopped. The hands were removed, and the waterworks begin, there stood my family in front of me with Momma holding the edible birthday cake. It had two candles, the number one candle and the number five candle arranged neatly so I could read “fifteen”. Tears begin to fall down my face, joyous tears this time. Momma placed the cake on the end table in the middle of the living room. “Go grab the lighter,” she told Jamie as he nods and walks into the kitchen, two minutes later he finds the lighter and hands it to Momma in a calm matter. She ignited the flame and lit up the two candles.

Before anyone could sing the “Happy Birthday” song to me my uncle, William Jay, walks in with such ignorance and confidence not even thinking about the fact that he’s bursting in at the wrong time. I couldn’t help but cringe at him the clothing he’s wearing, his night shift outfit. Why would he even be wearing that at a time like this? “Hello, sorry I’m late. I was very busy you may say.” A slight chuckle escaped his mouth, I and everyone else looked at him very concerned for his health. “William, may I speak to you? Privately,” my father announced as William scoffed but agreed. Daddy walked out of the living room and entered the south hallway off to my left. Salina cleared her throat and looked me in the eye and says, “Maybe we should wait for Daddy to come back.” Jamie and I nod in agreement to her suggestion, but Momma had one of her own. “Or we can continue singing for her and Michael can bring out her present later.” She looked at me with her right eyebrow lifted, it was if she was asking if agreed to these terms. I did want to wait for Daddy but instead I tell Momma, “sure!”

They indeed started singing to me, but my mind was elsewhere. I was thinking about what Daddy and Jay could possibly be talking about; could it be like last year where Uncle Jay threatened to kill us last year? I remember that day like it was yesterday.

Uncle William had his arm around my neck, I was in front of him and he had the gun pointed to the right side of my head. Daddy kept convincing him to stop but he wouldn’t. Momma was terrified for her life, Salina was still pregnant, and Jamie was stretching his arms out in front of them. “You made me do this,” he said toward Daddy with vigorous anger, his eyes were stretched wide open, his teeth were clinched, and his eyes were as pale as ever. You could see the veins pop out of his neck. “You made me do this!” He repeated. “I told you I was going to get my revenge, and here it is. You should see your face, you’re petrified.” William cackled to himself.

After that incident, Daddy has never seen Uncle William the same again. “Well? Make a wish!” I shook my head and looked at the lit candles without even realizing that the song was over. I smiled and closed my eyes. I wished for all of use to get along with each other, to treat each other like humans. Then I blow out the candles.