I was sitting in a comfy, over stuffed armchair in my therapist’s office. She was sitting in a matching chair just a few feet away and leaning towards me, staring at me expectantly.

Doctor Elise was exactly what you would expect a witch working in the mental health field would look like. Her hair was soft brown and pulled back into a loose ponytail. She wore a soft, over sized sweater, with a big floppy collar, in a nice soft pale gray/blue color. Everything about her was calm and soft and soothing.

Well, everything but her words.

“Kari, I think we need to talk about the incident again today.”

I shook my head “No” again, just like I had been doing for the past fifteen minutes.

“Yes, Kari. I really think we can do this.”

Sure, she could do it. And she can keep me the hell out of it.

“Kari, we all need to take steps to move forward. And this is your step.”

This is the same thing she had been saying at every therapy session we’ve had for the past several years.

“You are so close, Kari. And I think today’s the day you can make a big improvement in you condition.”

She reached her hand over the gap between us and gently squeezed my hand.

“I’m here for you, let’s talk this out.”

I looked to the two glowing balls of light that were hovering just my over my shoulder.

The pale blue light of my dad, bobbed closer to me.

“We’re here for you too, Baby.”

The more yellow light of my mom, shined just a little bit brighter with her strong emotions.

“You’ve been so strong, Kari!”

Finally I broke, like I almost always did recently, and I nodded “Yes”.

I knew Dr. Elise was just doing her job. She was just trying to help me, but damn it hurt.

“So, how did that day begin?”

Her voice was gentle, coaxing, as she asked the same question she’d heard the answer to a million times already, forcing me to go back to the worst day of my life.

The day my parents died.

It started out like many middle schoolers’ days started out. At the time I thought it was a bad day.

Yeah, Wow! My little twelve year old brain, sure as shit didn’t know just how bad life could get.

It’s almost funny to think that something so little and meaningless would make me feel like my day was ruined. Back then, my biggest worries were getting a D- on my math test, not being able to find enough time during class to chat with my friends, and looking like a freak in front of the boy I secretly liked/stalked.

Of course, all of those things happened that morning at school.

To make the day extra special, I had my first period that day. We were in PE class, and my school thought it was a great idea to have the young teens exercise uniform to be a white Tee with a pair of nice pale gray shorts that showed E-ver-ry-thing! All it took was me standing up from the bench to head onto the volleyball court when my name was called and I instantly knew something was off in my pants. And who should be the first person to spot the big red stain on my butt? The boy I had a crush on, of course!

I had the fun experience of plodding off to the nurse’s office through a murmur of all my classmates whispering and snickering.

The school nurse gave me a little baggy with some hygiene products and brochures and sent me home. Thank gods, I didn’t make a mess on my regular clothes, so at least I didn’t have to walk all the way home with a great big spot on my butt.

Though, that didn’t really make me feel a whole lot better, as I waddled down the sidewalk to my house.

“This sucks!”

I spat at the empty intersection as I waited for the crosswalk light.

Jeez, the pad the nurse gave me is huge! I feel like I’m wearing a frick’n diaper.

It was kind of in the middle of the day, so there wasn’t hardly anyone on the streets. I waited alone on the street corner for the stupid crosswalk light to turn. I waited and waited, and waaaaaaaaited. And then suddenly I noticed that I wasn’t alone anymore. It wasn’t anything I saw or heard, I just kind of felt a presence behind me. I looked over my shoulder to find a tall and extremely skinny old man. His stringy white hair was long enough to hang over his face and down his chest. His eyes were sunken in and rimmed in dark circles. His face was pale, his lips were dry and cracked, and his cheeks were sunken in too.

Gods, this dude looks super creepy!

We stood on the street corner in silence for a long moment. I inched closer to the street, just to get as far away from him as I could.

“Ah, what a lovely flower you are,” he sign behind me.

“So young, yet your petals have already withered!,” he went on, as if I actually wanted to hear him.

Seriously, why does some crazy dude need to talk to me on my way home? Can this day get any worse?

“Gray. Yes, all the color has fallen away from your beautiful form.”

Creepy guy~, leave me the hell alone~.

“Now that death has embraced you, your petals have grown so fragile, so delicate, as if the gentlest of breath could shatter them.”

I swear to gods, if this creepy old dude doesn’t shut up, I’m gonna kick him in the nuts and I don’t care if he breaks a hip!

“Ah, but it’s the withered flower adorning the grave, forgotten, eternal, that’s the most beautiful of all.”

Finally, the light changed and I scurried across the street as fast as I could without flat-out running away from the creepy guy.

I didn’t really care if I looked like an idiot wearing my diaper pad as I speed-waddled as fast as I could down the street, I just wanted some distance between me and Creepy Old Guy. I couldn’t hear his footsteps behind me, but I could definitely still feel his presence. He felt even closer behind me than he was before.

“What a lovely flower to behold. Lovely, simply lovely.”

I zipped around a corner and onto my home street. There was no one in sight. It was the middle of the day, so of course, everyone was away at work and I was completely alone with this creepy guy.

“But such a delicate flower must be handled with care. Yes, treated very carefully indeed.”

I just needed to get into the house and lock the door, that’s all I need to do. And if he doesn’t leave, I’ll call the cops! Damn it, why did I have to leave my phone and backpack in the classroom? I could have threatened the creepy guy with calling the cops the moment he opened his trap.

Of course, I knew exactly why I had to leave my phone and backpack in the classroom. It’s because today was already terrible even before I met Creepy Old Guy, and it was just too embarrassing to deal with all my classmates stares after having to trudge off to the nurses office. So I had left the stuff behind, thinking that it would totally be way better.

Focusing completely on getting a door between me and Creepy Old Guy, I cut down an alley that was a shortcut to my house. It only took a few steps for me to realize what a terrible idea it was. I was now boxed in on both sides with backyard fences and stone walls.

Shit, shit, shit!

I felt a feather light touch of something on my hair. Was it the wind, or . . .?

I broke into a run down the alley.

My heartbeat was pounding in my ears. I was gasping for breath. I was maybe two houses away from home.

“Ah, what a lovely flower indeed,” I heard whispered in my ear, “Perhaps it would be best if I plucked it?”

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” I screamed, spinning around.

I looked left.

Right.

I squinted my eyes to see farther.

But the alley was completely empty. Like, there was no sign of anyone being there, not even a cat. There were no turns or corners for him to hide around. And he had been right behind me just a second ago.

Right?

I gave the alley one last glance before turning and hurrying through the back gate to my house. Still feeling totally creeped out, I bolted through my teeny backyard and the back door. Once inside, I double checked that all the windows and doors in the whole house were definitely and totally locked.

Maybe I should call the police anyway? No, no, I’m safe in here, and what if it was all nothing. What if the old guy never followed me and I was just imagining things? I was walking pretty fast, I bet he couldn’t follow me, even if he wanted to. Yeah, I was probably just freaking out over nothing.

The creepy old guy’s words drifted back to me, ringing in my ears, with all that nonsense about wilty flowers.

I went around and checked that the windows in the house were locked for a third time.

I kept peeking out the windows and checking to see if there was anyone in the yard, but there never was.

After about an hour of paranoia, I finally let it rest. I was tired and I felt like shit, and the old guy probably didn’t follow me here anyway.

I pounced on Mom’s little tub of Death by Chocolate ice cream in the freezer. There was only half a container, so it didn’t last more than 5 minutes.

Mmm, delicious.

I knew I wasn’t supposed to eat it, but I also knew that I was feeling shitty, so Mom would forgive me.

Gods, I was so tired! What a crappy, crappy day!

I waddled to my room and flopped myself into bed. It would be hours before Mom and Dad would get home from work, and a nap sounded really, really good right about now.

I don’t know how much time had passed while I was sleeping. A few hours, I guess. In the window over my bed, the afternoon light had faded, and the sun was now setting.

Mom and dad should be home by now.

The house was silent and the hall beyond my half open bedroom door was lost in shadows.

On any other day at about this time, Dad would be making too much noise in the kitchen. Making dinner and a great big mess. Mom would be fiddling with some music, skipping from one song to another without listening to any one song to the end. Pans should be clanging, and jazz music should be trumpeting, but the house was completely still with silence.

As I climbed out of bed, an odd odor drifted to me. It was a damp, heavy, rotting smell.

What was that?

I walked through the room and out into the hall, the nasty smell seem to just keep getting worse and worse.

“Mom? Dad?”

No reply came from the dark hall.

I hated that you had to get to the end of the hall to turn on the lights, making you walk in darkness the whole way, but I started down it anyway. Half way down the hall there was a large arch that opened directly into the living room. As I walked by my socked feet squished in a sticky puddle on the carpet. Turning towards the living room the dark puddle seemed to fill the whole room.

Soft light from the front windows made the room more visible than anything in the hallway. There seemed to be a big mess in there. The smell was at it’s worst there too.

The furniture was all jumbled up, and there was strange objects thrown around at random. Red chocolate syrup was sprayed in fan patterns all over the walls and splattered over the furniture.

I took a few steps into the room to see better. My feet made soggy sounds at I patted through the puddle on the carpet, but I didn’t care anymore.

My toe hit something soft, it looked like a raw chicken drumstick.

What was that doing here?

The floor was scattered with soaking wet, torn clothes, all drenched in the red chocolate syrup. There were big lumps of red things here and there too.

Was that meat?

In the center of the room, I could see a bundle of my mom’s hair.

Had Mom gone way too overboard with giving herself a haircut or something?

The wad of hair seemed to be attached to part of a broken bowl.

What? . . what?

“Mommy? Daddy?”

I hadn’t called them that in years, but I couldn’t seem to think of anything else to say.

I waded farther into the room.

The red chocolate syrup had seeped into the bottoms of my socks completely and the lukewarm sticky liquid was now creeping over the tops of my toes.

“Mommy? Daddy?”

A scream filled the room.