When all else fails, don't call mum.

Have you ever wondered what your life would like to be free, to make your own decisions and to have your own responsibilities? Well I have, for a long time actually, pretty much since my 16th birthday party when I began to look at life from a different point of view. I began to have an obsession with myself; everything had to be about me.
Now, 5 years have passed and today I’m turning 21 and I’m moving out!

‘Honey, wake up’.

I awoke to my mother and my dad standing there in their pajamas and slippers. Mum sat down beside me on my bed with the camera and dad was standing by the door with this massive cake with ballerinas.
‘Happy birthday sweetie’ my mum said with the biggest smile on her face, ’21 today, my little girl is now a big woman’
What the hell, was she implying that I was fat, on my birthday?! And is that ballerinas on my cake? So now I’m fat and a five year old?

‘I can’t believe you, this is meant to be a good day and so far it’s being ruined by you and dad’ I yelled at my mother. This is just like her, trying to better than me, she’s 52 for god’s sake she can just give it up and stop trying.

‘But Alison, this is a good day, it’s a magnificent day in fact and there is no way that we would ruin it for you’ my mother replied with what looked like pity.

‘Well it’s too late for that isn’t it’

‘It’s never too late, Richard come here with that gorgeous cake.’ said Mum ‘a ‘lil bit of cake will cheer you up’

What, is she trying to be cool now with saying ‘lil instead of little? No cake will cheer me up especially with ballerinas on it.

‘I’m not five mum, I don’t want ballerinas on my cake, I don’t even want cake, I have a good figure going here and cake will ruin it, just like what your doing to my life!’
‘Honey, I thought you liked dancing when you were little’
‘Yeah, when I was little’ I cut in.
‘We are not ruining your life, we want the best for you, and we offered to pay for your college’

‘For the last time I don’t want to go to college!’ I screamed

‘Shhh, Use your inside voice and I know you don’t want to go college and I know you want to become a beautician instead, but at least we offered, we love you, now lets have some cake,’ Mum told me, trying to be positive.

I can’t believe she is talking about cake again! The amount of carbohydrates. Wait, I know now, she wants to look better than me, that’s it, she wants me to be an umpalumpa so she can look better than me. Fat chance she can, and by fat chance that doesn’t mean I’m going to be the fat one.
‘Get out! Get out of my room now! You selfish horrible Mother!’ I screamed.
By then dad already walked out of my room to avoid the drama. Mum just stared deep into my eyes like she was trying to be a threat. She makes me laugh at how pathetic she can be.

‘Didn’t you hear me? Get. Out. Of. My. Room. NOW!’ I shouted.
‘I have some boxes to pack if you don’t mind,’ I laughed in her face.
I got up and walked over to my drawers to pack my clothes. ‘I can’t wait ‘till I get out of this place’ I mumbled. When I turned around my mum was gone, that’s right she was scared of me.

I didn’t come out of my room the rest of that morning, not even for breakfast, not even for cake. I had to admit right now I was the one afraid of facing my mother. I kind of felt bad for what I did but I still think she wants to be better than me, I mean who isn’t jealous of me around here? Now where are my cigarettes?

‘Beep Beep’. Stephy is here, my bff, I am finally moving and she is helping me to do it. I couldn’t think of anyone else that I would love to help me move.

I rounded up my tacky brown boxes that said this way up with a large red arrow pointing upwards. The movalist is coming for my furniture later on today so I wont have any furniture for a few hours.

‘Come on Aly, I wanna see your new house’ Stephy shouted out while beeping the horn.
‘I’m coming, I’m coming’

I didn’t want to see my mum or dad, I was too embarrassed so I decided to go out through my window. ‘Stephy come give me hand with my boxes’ I tried to whisper to her so mum didn’t catch me.
‘Alright, alright’ Stephy sighed.

Once we put all of my boxes in the back seat of her car I hoped in the front with Stephy and we were off.

After about a 45minute drive we were here, 45 minutes is far enough away from my mother. We got out of the car and just stared at the house. I was more nervous than excited, the house gave of this weird vibe. I have never seen the house in person, only on photos over the internet. The house was only small but boy did it look creppy. The bricks were all this dark purple colour and the roof tiles were a deep black. There was paintings of bats and old pumpkins rotting on the front porch.

‘Hey Aly, looks like someone forgot to put away their halloween decorations’ Stephy laughed.
‘It’s kind of creppy don’t you think? I mean where in March, Halloween was 5 months ago’ I replied. A shiver went down my spine, this wasn’t an ordinary house.
‘Relax, this place has probably been empty for 5 months and the last people here were just to lazy to clean up after themselves. ‘Stated Stephy
‘You think so?’
‘Trust me, I know so, you’re only scared and over reacting because this is your first house, you’ll get used to it, I did’
That’s right, Stephy moved out when she was 18, she is used to all this stuff.
‘Hey stephy?’
‘Yerh’
‘Want to stay over tonight?’
‘Like a sleep over?’
‘Yerh, a little house warming gift for me’
‘Ah, ok I guess it will be fun!’

Me and Stephy loaded my boxes in the living room when I got a text from my mum



Dear Alison,
I am furious with you right now, not only did you shout at me this morning
Now you left without saying goodbye.
I am very disapointed. The movalists are here and I should just tell them to forget about it so that you’ll have to come back home to get your furniture yourself.

She wouldn’t dare do that. I scrolled down to read the rest.
But of course I won’t.
Oh thank god.
I will miss you and I hope to hear from you soon, please reply
Love Mum

I replied with a ‘back at ya’. I don’t really want to talk to her, I’m not in the mood.

It started to get late and me and Stephy got board just sitting on the floor talking all day and then we heard a knock at the door. We both jumped. Who could it be? It was 8pm, it couldn’t be neighbours welcoming me to the neighbourhood because this is like the only house within 3km of the closet town.

‘Do you want your furniture or not?’ The voice shouted from the door.
Me and Stephy just looked at each other with relief.
‘Oh sorry, I’m coming’ I replied.

The furniture movalists were really nice, not only did they unpack all my things they put them where I wanted it, they even hooked up my tv. Now it was 11pm and me and Stephy were on the couch with our blankets watching a scary movie. I got too scared so I made an excuse to go to the bathroom.

When I walked in I had that weird vibe again, shivers went down my spine but I just thought to myself, I’m over reacting. I fixed up my makeup and put my hair into a pony tail. When I looked closer into the mirror I could see a drawing in red, then I realised it was reflecting what was on the wall behind me. I turned around and let out a loud shriek.
‘Alison, are you alright?’ Stephy shouted out from the other room.
‘I’m fine’ I shouted back even though I was lying, I was definitely not fine, I was scared. I walked towards the wall. The drawing did not smell like paint, it smelt fouler, almost as if it was blood. Then I realized it was blood. I let out another loud shriek.

‘Alison, are you sure your alright? Do you want me to come in?’ Stephy shouted again.
‘No I’m fine, I’m fine’ There goes the lying again. ‘I just thought I saw a pimple on my face, it’s nothing, really’
‘Oh alright, I would be screaming if I had one on my face too’ Stephy joked around with me.

I studied the picture carefully. It was a drawing of a girl with long hair in plaits. She was lying on the floor with a knife in her back and had hash symbols where her eyes were meant to be. Which I believe that was to show that she was dead. I thought nothing of it, I am over reacting. It was probably more Halloween decorations left over by those lazy people that were here before us.

I went to sit back down with Stephy still quite shaken up.
‘Hey, since your still half up can you go make some popcorn, please?’ Stephy said with her puppy dog eyes.
‘I just sat down’
‘But this is your house, I am the guest, you have to make me happy and right now I’m not happy’
‘Fine’ I sighed.

I walked into the kitchen and got a packet of microwave popcorn and put it into the microwave. I punched in the numbers 2:00. I had 2 minutes to spare so I jumped up onto the bench and sat there. I could hear people screaming ‘ZOMBIE, ZOMBIE!’ in the other room from the movie me and Stephy are supposed to be watching. When the microwave went off beeping I put the popcorn into a bowl and went to get the serviettes from the pantry. When I came back there was all red in the popcorn. I thought to myself, ‘did I put sauce in this?’ and if I did, why? I looked up and saw blood dripping from the roof.
I nearly let out a loud shriek but I didn’t. I started to freak out; there was definitely something wrong with this house. I need to get out of this house and get some fresh air. What a better way to get fresh air then to have it be filled with smoke, I thought to myself as I picked up my packet of cigarettes.

I walked out of the kitchen and into the lounge room where Stephy was. I was heading towards the front door when Stephy stopped me.
‘Where’s the popcorn?’
‘Oh it’s in the kitchen. I already made it for you, can you just go get it because I’m going outside for a smoke’ I replied.
‘Alison, don’t you know the dangers of smoking, your only 21’
‘Stephy I don’t really care right now, I’m not in the mood to get a lecture’
‘Well, I care about your health and safety and smoking will harm you and the people you love, so please Alison, don’t smoke’

There was nothing that Stephy or anyone else could say to make me quit, well not now anyway. ‘I’ll think about it Stephy, but right now I need a smoke’
I walked out of the house before she could say anything.

It was way past midnight now and there was a full moon. All was quiet until this big gust of wind rushed through my hair. I shivered and dropped my cigarette to the ground. ‘Damn wind’ I thought to myself.

I stepped on the cigarette butt so that it wouldn’t burn the whole place down and headed for inside. When I opened the door the lights were out and the TV was only showing static.
‘Stephy?’ I whispered. ‘Did the power go out with that big gust of wind?’.There was silence. ‘Stop playing games with me Stephy, real mature. This is my first night of freedom and you’re trying to scare me already’. Suddenly I heard a little girl chuckle. I was now the most scared I have ever been in my whole life. That was definitely not Stephy’s voice. ’Who said that?’. No one answered.

I walked around the house shivering and crying. ‘Stephy, w-where are you?’ I stammered. I heard the chuckle for the second time. This time it was coming from the bathroom. I ran as fast as I could into the bathroom and then I stood there in horror.

The bathtub was leaking blood all down the sides and inside was Stephy floating head down in the tub filled with water with a knife in her back. I screamed, and cried and tried hitting myself so I could wake up from this horrible nightmare but nothing worked.
‘You see deary,’ The voice came from know where but I knew it was the little girl.
‘Where are you, What have you done with my best friend?’
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ She mocked me. ‘As I was saying, you see deary, smoking really does harm the people you love’

Maybe Stephy was right, maybe smoking does harm the ones you love, but wait, it hasn’t harmed me yet? Does this mean I’m next?
The little girl chuckled in the evil tone again like she just read my mind and now she was after me. The only bad thing is, I can’t see her, and I have no idea who she is. All I knew was the odds were totally unfair in my favour.

I raced into the kitchen and took the phone off my hook. My last resort was my mother. I knew I didn’t want to, but I had too. Then I felt this sharp pain in my lower back. I let out a massive scream ‘ARGH!’. What just happened, it felt like there was a knife in my back. Wait a minute, I turned around and placed my hand where it hurt and I felt the knife. I let out another scream. ‘ARGH!’ . That wasn’t because the pain got worse, that was because I just found out there was a knife in my back.

With my last amount of energy I managed to ring my mum.
‘Hi you’ve called Angela, I am at an exclusive party right now, leave a message’
Great the answering machine. The one time I ever needed her, she wasn’t there for me. Oh and not to mention the exclusive party, is she still trying to act like she’s 16? I really didn’t have enough energy to waste on caring about myself anymore. With what I had left I struggled to leave a voice message.

‘Hi Mum,
Thank you for letting me down in my time of need ………’

Then there was a light.