Thirsty for him

Today I turn sixteen, Sixteen years old already. It felt like just any other day in my life, lonely. Normally a girl who turns sixteen is excited and happy to have some party to enjoy early adulthood, but not me. I am an outsider, at school in my family, and everywhere. You would think, why do you think this way, are you in some kind of depression? No, I ain't, I am just ignored for as long as I know, especially from my family. The father who lives with us isn't there at any time, only at dinner, that's it. He doesn't say a thing to me, only to my older sister, Diana. Diana, the perfect daughter, is always polite and never has a bad day in her life. Not even a bad hair day, like I enjoy daily.

What does my father do when he isn't home? I would honestly not know if there hadn't been the incident of some rich school brats who came to our house to treat my father. Big mistake, because he isn't a man who will let you treat him like crap, and that's exactly what happened when a case of assault came later in the mailbox. Not something that could be fixed, dad has a lot of connections to get this file into the garbage bin just by asking them.

Then you have my always perfect mother. She doesn't come out of her room without makeup and her hair on point, like she has an important appointment to go to every day. She is the least happy with me. I am not like her perfect girl, Diana, who is nice, acceptable, and always does what she wants. Just like Dad, she can't do anything wrong. I am the bad one, the one with the hair that looks like it's dead. It's just strings around my head and my face with the bags underneath my eyes isn't something she accepts. I have to care more about my looks, and my behavior because I am a grumpy kind of teen. Not the grumpy kind like the Grinch who hates Christmas. I am just a grumpy teen that just hates this boring life that I live, all by myself.

If I hadn't had my best friend in school, I would not know what I would do. For suicide, I am too sacred and loving life too much and for running away I am too poor.

Today is my birthday, and again telling myself to not forget that I am getting a day older today. Everyone just skipped my birthdays, like I did even ain't there. But this birthday, something felt off. Dad was home for the first time on my birthday and Mom stood in the kitchen, cooking, longer than needed. It's not like she makes a whole dinner or cake for the unwanted child. Diana, gets everything, cake, candles, and they even sing for her. Not now anymore because she is already eighteen. If they did these things, it would be very creepy and awkward.

Later on, when I did do my chores, like cleaning the downstairs bathroom, I went back to my room. Why would I stay on the lower floor, nobody isn't going to care about me being here.

In my room, I felt a severe pain in my lower back, like something was carving into my flesh. Tears pour out of my eyes, and my feet can't hold me anymore, which makes me fall on my knees to the ground. Howling, I scream in my palms to mute the noises that come out of my mouth. What is happening to me? When the pain finally stops, I can hardly move my body, that's how numb I felt. It's like a power holding me down, marking me.

After a little time, I stood up and got to the bathroom in my room, where I locked the door and did what scared me a lot. I looked inside the wall mirror which showed me a red mark, in a moon shape, carved into my flesh.

I don't know what came into me at that moment, but I unlocked the door and ran down the stairs. In a panicked state, I come inside the dining room, where I look at my father and mother making the table. It's covered in my mother's best plates and there are candles on the table like we have something to celebrate. Then came it into my mind that it could be for my birthday and I forgot all the fuse why I came downstairs, running. “What's wrong dear?” Mom asked, in a nice voice, that I don't recognize from here.

“There happened something, something weird,” I start the conversation, although I don't know what to say. Why? Because I don't even know what is happening to me. Then came Diana inside with a platter with a cake on it, “Happy Birthday, sister!” She shouted like this is something we do every year. “What is happening!” I scream in a state of panic. First, the mark that comes out of nowhere, and now is everyone acting very strange.

“Dear, we just are going to celebrate your sixteenth birthday. I made your favorite dish and I made this cake this morning for you,” Mom said, creeping me even more out.

“Dad, what is happening to me?” I ask Dad, who looks at me if he sees a ghost. “What do you mean? What is happening to you?” Asks Dad when he comes closer. He takes his hand, holds it to my forehead, and whispers something I can barely hear, “it's starting.”

What is starting? What is going on?

“Great, now the celebration starts. You are finally turning,” Mom said like she knew what was happening to me, like they had it before.

Then suddenly takes my father my shirt and pushed it up my back to look at my carving. His laugh fills the room and goosebumps are covering my body. I am even feeling scared of my own family.

“What does it mean?” I asked all, am I not sure if I wanted to know what was happening? “She is marked Victoria, now we know for sure she is going to be just like us.” Why is he avoiding my questions, why are they so involved in this creepy thing on my back?

If this was weird, it got even more weird when they came closer and touched the mark. Then they got on their seats like nothing happened. Like it was just another day in their life. “Come eat,” Mother says, now in a stern voice, like before all this happened she did. My gaze got to Diana who was seated in front of me after I took the seat, I couldn't stop looking at her and her delighted expression. “Dad, can we eat, I am starving?” She asked Father, forgetting I was even there, looking at her with all these questions. Her big blue eyes are only pointed to Dad, seated at the head of the table. If you can even say she can see something with that much makeup on her face. It's so overpowering, and she knows it, but boys dig it, all do I wonder why.

Then it's like something snapped inside of me. I felt this upbuilding anger coming outside of me. “Tell me what is happening!” I yell, pushing the chair so hard back from the table that it falls on the ground. All eyes are now pointed at me. You would think they looked surprised, but they are not. They look like I am spoiling their party.

“Please, sit Avery, and eat,” Father commands. I look at my plate filled with my sister's favorite dishes. I could expect they don't even know what I like to eat. They don't care enough to ask me. Not like they do with Diana, sometimes I wonder if they even planned to have a second child in their lives.

Then a tingle starts going over my body. Fear is holding my body against the chair. The anger that I felt before is now gone, only the fear is lingering in my body. I thought they would be panicking or going to the hospital with me after the shaking is done, and I could back think about what happened. Everything is going so fast, it's like I am somewhere else.

“Just breathe, it will be over soon,” Diana said, the only one who tried to calm me down. “What’s happening? Diana?” I asked her in a trembling voice. She comes at me like the eighteen-year-old teenager she is, her high heels clicking on the wooden floor. “Sister, you are cursed,” she whispered in my ear. It was as if the world had stopped, that’s how I felt at that moment.

“Rick, why all this charade, we knew this would happen,” Mother said in that irritating voice of hers, making me look at them all.

“This means you’re finally one of us! Welcome child to our world.” my father said enthusiastically, he cut the cake into four pieces and that was it. No explanation, nothing, just cutting the cake like it's a typical party.

All the time, that sentence Diana whispered in my ear kept going through my mind. Could that be why they looked at me like I was some experiment? But what kind of experiment am I? What just happened? What kind of curse, just what! Why can’t they be clear with me for once?

“Avery, you are now a Nicroat!” Said my sister enthusiastically as she took me in her arms.

Thus, I squeezed the last of the oxygen from my lungs. It was as if all oxygen disappeared, after this revelation.