The Silenced Night
by Kelvin Lee Downer
Iris awoke in the middle of the night to find her sister packing her clothes. The window was opened in the room and an odd smell filled her nostrils, the room was cold, and only the moon lit the room. She observed quietly as her sister shoved clothes into a duffle bag. Her sister May seemed to be very scared; her hands shook frantically as she placed things into her bag. May stopped packing clothing then she grabbed her phone and iPod. May was 17 and she had done something that not even the bravest guys in the football team would have done. Iris sat up in her bed wondering what was happening.
"May what are you doing?" asked Iris rubbing her eyes. At that moment the curtain blew into the room masking both their faces.
"Iris, go back to sleep," May said her voice cracking. She knew her sister was only 10 but, she had to deal with it, she couldn’t take her it was too risky. Was she a bad sister for trying to leave her behind? Iris noticed there was blood on her sister's hand.
"Why are you bleeding?" Iris asked.
"I had a little bit of an accident" she answered quickly wiping the blood off without success.
"Are you okay? Should I ask Mom to get you a band-aid?"
"No, just lay back down" May said.
"Where are you going?"
May knew that she should have lied but leaving her sister behind would have been wrong. She walked towards Iris' bed and kneeled down.
“You have to promise that if I take you with me you will listen and do as I say, understood?" at first Iris was a little hesitant about this request.
"Why are we leaving?" she asked.
"You can't ask me that you have to pack your things and I'll explain later, okay?"
Iris nodded her head. She knew how things violent things could get in her house and that her sister wouldn't do anything to hurt her. She sat up and started to pack her stuff.
"Stay here, I’ll go get food from the kitchen," said May while walking out their bedroom door.
Iris peeked through the door; she could see lights flickering from the living room. After Iris was done packing May returned with a book bag filled with the little food they had. Her hands were cleaned now but the image remained in Iris’ mind.
"We have to leave now" She said.
Iris grabbed her stuff, put on her shoes and a sweater. "Is Mom okay?" Iris asked taking hold of her sister's hand.
"No she, but she's in a better place now far away from Bill too. He won’t be hurting you or me ever again”
The two girls jumped out of their bedroom window into the moonlit backyard and walked into the woods; not once did they look back.
No comments:
Post a Comment