The Twisted Gift

Problems at Home

Casady has never had the perfect life, nor does she now. Her father, an abusive tool, scares her sister and destroys her mother. On her walk home, she fears going home. At least now she is allowed to walk home, before Percila, Casady's mother, would pick her up. Beverly, observing Casady's anxiety, knows that she has to do something, anything.

"Are you okay?"

"Not really."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I just don't want to go home."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"I know, I just, I just don't like to see you like this."

"Don't worry about me. Oh, this is my street, the joy."

"I hope it's better today."

"You and me both!" Casady answers, turning away from Beverly toward her home. After walking only four houses down, Casady arrives at her destination. Most people say that School sucks and their only escape is school. However, for Casady, there is no escape. She slowly opens the bright white front door to see her father standing a few feet away.

"What are you staring at?" He yells.

"No-nothing Francis." Casady sputters.

"Don't call me that! It's Sir!" He screams to her face.

"Yes sir." She says quietly and runs to her room,closing and locking the door to find Mary, her little sister, crying on the bed.

"What's wrong?" She asks and rushes to sit down with Mary.

"I hate home! Dad is always yelling, mom is always crying. I just want to go away." Mary complains through her sobs.

"It's okay, I understand how you feel. You know, there was a time when they used to love each other, when they use to talk nicely and eat together."

"Exactly, used to be!"

" I'll tell you what, as soon as I can I will find an apartment and you can live with me."

"And how are you going to do that?" She asks in annoyance.

"I will get a job, ask for help, I'll figure it out."

"Do you mean that?" Mary says with eagerness.

"With all my heart."

"I love you Casady."

"I love you too Mary." Casady whispers in her hair.

They sit there, hugging for a few minutes while Mary's sobs start to fade. No ones life should be like this, misery. It is not right nor is it fair, and yet, Casady is forced to live with it. Once their hug breaks, Casady pulls both of their backpacks onto her bed. With some persuasion, Mary starts her homework along with Casady.

A few hours later, Casady realizes that it is already six o'clock and they both need to eat. She quietly and quietly makes her way out of her room and into the kitchen. After making sure that neither of her parent's are present, she grabs two bottles of water and a spoon.

"Where did you go?" Mary asks as Casady get's back into the room.

"Well, we need to eat and it's already six o'clock. So I brought you a bottle of water and I'm going to make you a PB&J."

"Okay" She quietly, longing for a warm, home cooked meal.

Opening up a drawer in her desk, Casady reveals her secret stash of food. She reaches in and grabs the last three pieces of bread, along with Peanut Butter and Grape Jelly. She makes a full sandwich for Beverly, and only a half for herself. Mary makes sure that the door is locked so that their father does not find them eating in the room.

The only time Casady is able to escape her dad is at School. Even, while she is asleep she is unable to escape her father. Each night a terrible nightmare of her father creeps into her dreams. The most reoccurring one is when Francis comes home and kills them all. It is so vivid to her that she wakes up thinking that she is dead.

By the time they are both ready for bed, Francis is in the hallway yelling at his wife, Percilla. Mary has no intention of going out there, so as most nights, she sleeps with her sister. As Casady falls asleep, her dreams take a different turn this particular night. It is far from about her father

Casady wakes up slumped against a tree. She looks around to see that she in a forest, surrounded by trees. Searching for people, she finds none. How did Casady get here? She stands up feeling lightheaded and her vision starts to blur. Trying to shake the blurred vision away, it persistently stays. Within seconds she is back on the cold soil and can no longer see.

TTG

Meanwhile, Beverly is having an entirely different evening. She is in the middle of eating dinner with her family when an a loud bang! fills the room. Her and her parents all look up, in confusion, unsure of what it was. They get up and search around the house but cannot see or find anything that would of made the loud sound. Nothing fell down, or opened up.

When they get back to their dinning room1, another defining Bang! fills the room. Except this time, they do not go looking for where it came from. This time, they disappear from sight. All three of them, in a blink of an eye, are gone. However they did not disappear, only teleported somewhere else. Each of them are in their beds fast asleep, with a still warm, half eaten dinner on the dinning table.