You Have A Visitor

The aurora shown in my mind as I closed my eyes. It danced and morphed flowing through the sky with rivers of colors in shades of green and blue. The green light into the blue glistening with every iteration. As I listened to Orinoco Flow I drifted among the colors as free as a pirate; running my hand in the stunning colors as the ripples immersed their essence onto my body. I was alive and drifting along with the most beautiful thing I could be a part of. I scooped up a splash of color in my hand watching it and morph cradled in my palm.

Knock...knock.

My eyes flew open staring at my popcorn ceiling. I love my day dreams. They help me escape.

Knock...knock

The banging on the door reverberated in my head. I could envision the popcorn ceiling flailing off with each bang covering my face in asbestos flakes. I drifted off to a snow filled wonderland where I could make angels while watching the snowflakes kiss my face and the chill of the air warmed my soul.

KNOCK...KNOCK

"We're coming in Suzie. Be ready for your pills."

The nurse in charge of me could be indelicate at times. I raised myself up to a seated position on the carpeted floor. I was lucky I had carpet and not concrete.

The hollow metal door opened a little quicker than normal. Nurse Becky studied me to make sure I wasn't high or a danger to myself. She pushed her pill cart into the room. It had one squeaky wheel that whined and another that stopped working all together. The hospital needed more funds to replace their old equipment; it's a big reason why they accepted me. My dad runs a well-known pharmaceutical company that produces cost effective pills and to get me into this elite place, he paid them.

"Here you are dear" Nurse Becky handed me a paper cup with my Xanax, lithium, and a large, transparent red pill. I took it and threw them back in my mouth. I found I could tuck them around my back molars so when they asked me to raise my tongue up they wouldn't show. As I smiled, Nurse Becky backed up fighting with her wheels. The door closed with the wrenching of the hinges playing in the background.

After spitting out my pills they get dumped into the globe posts of my iron bed. I hated taking them. I get groggy and disassociate from my mind leaving a sense of weightlessness and a loss of time. There wasn't anything wrong with me and I had to stay sharp in case she ever visited.

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That fateful night a couple months ago, I hatched my get out of the house plan. I felt like I was loosing my mind. The woman that my dad re-married was younger than me and had expensive tastes. She hated how he took care of me and my physical disability. I was with partial congenital amputation of my left arm and my mother died from loss of blood during my birth. My dad spoiled me and took me to every doctor money could buy but all they could offer him were prosthetic limbs. He created a lab to study stem cells which helped him stumble onto cheaper and more effective ways to produce common pharmaceutical drugs. But, he had a bitter streak. He never hurt me but after about the time I turned ten he begun to ignore me and see me as a failed experiment. Leslie was my caretaker that he begun to have an affair with. She weaseled her way into our family and never looked back. Dad continued to change and grow even more distant. Then one night Leslie said she was pregnant with twins.

", we can replace that defective daughter of yours" Leslie wickedly sneered.

"I guess so" he dejectedly spoke.

I ran back into my room and pulled out my suitcase I keep under my bed, but I saw something odd. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight. Peering into the darkness angling my flashlight all sorts of directions to get a better look I saw something odd. They looked like...BONES?!

I hustled up and cringing as I dragged my bed frame across the wooden floors scratching it every which way. I jumped back and forth between both of the sides of the bed wiggling it into the center of my room and breaking a couple floorboards. There laid what looked like a cat skull surrounded by different smaller bones. Symbols circled around the image painted in what looked like crusted blood with small tufts of fur scattered around. A piece of paper was shoved into the skull of a cat's mouth. I hesitantly pulled it out to read it.

Dark by night

Hear my plight

Hex this girl with all my might.

Bind her,

Hide her,

Out of sight.

I dropped the spell on the cat and grabbed a match. I lit it and dropped it on the paper. scraped my finger along a wooden post that had splintered when I dragged the bed. Dripping my blood onto the fire I whispered to myself;

Cut these bonds,

reverse the curse,

bounce back whence it came.

I stood above the cursed items and knew a matter of time she tried it again. I had to get out of the house but couldn't legally; I was seventeen. ran over to my bookshelf and pulled out my mother's old book of spells. Looking for anything else that could help I heard my father come in. I was startled and dropped mom's book next to a trail of my blood. He stood in shock and disappointment as he saw the cursed alter.

Shaking his head, "You're as crazy as your mother. I can't take it anymore."

"But it wasn't-"

His hand flew up, and he turned his back to me. "I won't hear anymore." Defeated, he walked away pulling out his phone. I could hear him calling someone.

Within days, I was in this institution.

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Knock....knock. "You have a visitor" Nurse Becky cooed.

The door creaked open and time slowed down. It felt like all the air was being sucked out of the room. There in the doorway stood my stepmother with her ripe belly, wide brimmed hat, and cat eye sunglasses. She removed her glasses and smiled gliding into the room closing the door. Leslie sat down on the bed and stared at me while I sat on the floor. She put her patchwork tote down on the bed and shuffled through it, then pulled out a lipstick and twisted the bottom of it off. A small baggie of some herbal mix fell out. Unscrupulously she rose up with a malevolent look on her face.

"You know, I once was loved and adored by my father. Alas, when he found out mother cheated on him with the I was the fruit of their love he cast me aside." She paused and drifted in thought looking out the window with her back to me. "So you see I've done you a favor. No more disappointments or questioning if he loves you. The answer is clear now." She turned around and looked me square in the eye and hissed "He doesn't". She floated over to me and looked down on me ready to strike.

"Come here girl, let's finish this once and for all." With that she grabbed my hair with her red stiletto nails tilting my head back. I kept my mouth closed recognizing what herbs were in the bag. Instinctively I sucked in air and waited for her to speak while I opened the red pill in my mouth careful not to swallow the contents.

"Open your mouth you obstinate-"

As she spoke I blew the mixture back into her mouth along with spitting the contents of the pill. She stumbled backwards trying to expel what went in there. I hustled over and put my hand over her mouth making her swallow it. I could feel her breathing slow .

After a minutes I scurried back to the door and begun insistently banging on it until someone came running. I could hear the rumbling of the keys and when I turned back I could see her foaming at the mouth. My hands shook when they came flying in seeing the discarded baggie on the floor and rushed her away. I told them almost everything.

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It's a beautiful Sunday morning and months have passed. I lay by my dad's pool taking in the sun while my newborn siblings napped upstairs. My father had been ashamed and got me out of the hospital; Leslie never made it out.

I looked to the garden that she had planted. A bouquet of poisonous herbs such as nightshade, water hemlock, white snake root, and rosary pea grew fervently. She didn't know much about my mother or that she compiled a comprehensive herbal guide. It taught me how to recognize them and in turn saving my life. I also knew the sedative the hospital issued us was strong and incredibly quick acting designed to sedate someone within minutes. Sometimes I kept it toying around in my mouth for fun game during the day to see if I would pop it or not. I laid my head back and watched the clouds dance above while the wind billowed through the trees, all the while remembering my northern lights.

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The popcorn ceiling never looked so hypnotic before. But as Leslie stared up longingly, the refracted colors from the window danced allowing her to drift among them as her wrists and ankles were restrained in their woolen cuffs. She'd jerk and twist as her withdrawal symptoms beat their way out of her body. She knew once she healed she was headed straight for prison.

Nurse Becky entered the room with her rickety cart. Her hair was pined up which was abnormal for her. Typically, she had her hair in a low pony tail. Those hair pins would do nicely for what Leslie had planned. She wanted another way out, and she was going to get it no matter the cost.