The Girl Who Couldn't Feel

“MAR-MAAAAAAAAR!” Tammy shrieked as she ran toward me at full speed. I couldn’t help but flinch when she finally reached me, fearing that she wasn’t going to stop. She ran straight into me, and I had to take a few steps back to prevent myself from falling. She squeezed me tightly. VERY tightly. “We’ve been looking all over for you! You’ve been gone for over a day! Where have you been?”

She continued babbling, and so I whispered into her ear. “Tammy, I…I trust you.” I managed to say, but the words felt funny in my mouth. “I understand if you don’t tell me everything, but don’t lie to me.”

Tammy was quiet immediately and her grip loosened for a moment, but then it tightened once more. “Ok, Marie. But don’t you ever pull a stunt like this again okay?”

“Marie, dear. It’s so nice of you to stop by!” Mrs. Pierce smiled. She quickly wrapped me in her arms as Tammy let go of me, but she kept her eyes on me. “You had all of us quite worried, hun.” She sighed as she continued to hug me. “Now, I think we should start by giving you a quick check-up. Jaden was saying you weren’t feeling too well.”

I immediately remembered the cuts on my back. “No!” I said, quite loudly. Mrs. Pierce looked at me questioningly. “I’m feeling fine. I…I’m just hungry. C-Could I please have something to eat?”

As soon as I said the words, I realized my mistake. Mrs. Pierce’s face lit up. “Why hun, I’ll get you something right away. I don’t think you’ve ever asked me to cook for you. I am going to make you the most delicious food you have ever had. You are going to love it.” She smiled as she patted my cheek and then went off to the kitchen.

“Oh no…She’s probably gonna go on one of those cooking sprees. We’ll be eating leftovers from today all week.” Tammy shook her head as Mrs. Pierce was out of sight. I nodded in agreement. Recently, I had stopped paying attention to what I said. I was just saying things. I felt like every other sentence out of my mouth was surprising not only other people but me as well. “Why don’t we head upstairs...before Mom uses us as taste testers.” Tammy said and we snuck upstairs.

We reached Tammy’s room and Jaden called someone on his cellphone. “Yeah. We found her. Yep. Tell the others. Bye.” He said hanging up. When he noticed me looking he smiled. “I had called a few friends to help us look for you.”

Jaden was about to say something else when the bell rang, and I was surprised to see Tammy bite her lip with worry. “What’s wrong?” I asked her, and she began chewing on her lower lip.

“W-W-well, we didn’t know where you were!” She stuttered, as she stood in between me and the window from which I would be able to see the guest. “I-I panicked! I-I thought we could use some extra help!” She said, moving back a bit as I moved toward the window slowly. What had she done? “S-So I decided to call someone yesterday…” I had reached the window, though Tammy had tried to hinder me. “I’m really sorry!” she squeaked as I saw who was at the door. She had called Parker.

Parker stood at the door, trying to catch his breath. He rang the doorbell a few more times before I was able to get down and opened the door. Parker was wearing a suit, but he was a mess. His tie was loose and his shirt was only half tucked in. He was running his hand through his disheveled hair as he sighed. I could tell he was edgy and stressed out. When he saw me, he looked surprised.

“Marie?” He said, softly touching my cheek. He was still a bit confused.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.” I mumbled, but he didn’t hear me. Instead, he hugged me, and sighed, but this time it was a sigh of relief.

“You’re fine. That’s – it’s great.” He said as he pulled away to look at me once more. “You had everyone pretty worried didn’t you, angel?”

I felt guilty. Everyone had been so worried, and I hadn’t considered them at all. I even considered not coming back. Even Parker came from wherever he was to help look for me. What I had done was so selfish.

“But, it’s okay. It’s okay to do what you want.” Parker smiled at me and I pulled my lips up a bit into a sort of smile. I did feel a bit better. “Why don’t we take a walk.” Parker said, and I turned around and saw Tammy and Jaden standing at the bottom of the stairs.

“I’ll be right back.” I said to them. Tammy nodded, but she wasn’t smiling. She was still worried. Jaden smiled softly. It took me longer than it should have to look away from him and turn to Parker. “Okay.”

“Where did you come from?” I asked him as we walked.

“I was in France. We just opened a branch there, so I went to congratulate everyone and make sure everything was okay.”

“I’m sorry you had to come all this way.”

“Didn’t I tell you? It’s fine. Don’t worry about it at all.” He said. Parker was running his own company, which he started when he finished high school. He went on business trips a lot, and he wore suits to those, but I realized that I’d never seen him wearing a suit. He looked different, now that he had tucked in his shirt and fixed his tie.

We walked silently, but it was a comfortable silence. Finally, I remembered what I’d wanted to tell Parker. “You know, I saw someone who looked like you.”

“What?” Parker asked. “Are you sure it wasn’t me?”

“No, he looked like you when you were my age. It was so strange…” I mumbled, talking to Parker but mostly to myself. “He was so similar to you.”

“What was his name?” Parker asked curiously.

“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me… He just left before I could get him to tell me.” I said, then I looked at Parker. “He gave me some advice.”

“What advice?” Parker asked.

I stopped walking, and Parker turned back to look at me. “Parker, I-I..” I sighed, it was one thing to whisper this into someone’s ear, and a whole different thing to speak it and hear the words you were saying so clearly. But I was going to believe what the guy had said. I would look past their lies. I would look past their pain, and I would hope I wouldn’t come to regret this. “I trust you.”

We stood there for a few moments, before he came toward me and gave me a big hug. “My little angel.” He smiled. He then turned back toward Tammy’s house.

“Where are you going?”

“I think it’s time we get back. You’re worried that they’re worried about you, right?”

“Just a little.” I mumbled and Parker chuckled softly. “When are you going to leave?”

“Well…”

“It’s alright, I understand. You should go. But, come back soon, okay?” I said as we walked side by side.

“Yeah. I will.” He smiled. “I’m sorry I can’t stay too long.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m glad you came.”

When we reached Tammy’s house, Parker said his goodbyes to everyone, and I walked with him to his car. He gave me one last hug and then let go and looked at me with a smile.

“What is it?” I said, with a smile.

“You’re wings are healing aren’t they, angel?” I looked at him, a bit surprised by his comment. Then I saw him look a bit behind me and speak. “Remember what I said.” Parker said, and I looked behind me and saw Tammy and Jaden, but Parker was mostly looking at Jaden. Jaden and Tammy both nodded, and then Parker was gone. We stayed outside till he was out of sight, and then we walked back inside.

I stayed near the door when we walked inside and the two of them looked at me. “I should head home.” I mumbled, as I reopened the front door, but Tammy closed it.

“You’ll be staying here for a while. It’s already been decided so there’s no point in arguing. Jaden will go home and tell them, so you don’t have to go anywhere.” She said quickly.

“Yeah. I’m going to head out right now. See you at school tomorrow, Marie.” Jaden smiled as he headed out the door.

“Yeah.” I managed to say before he left.

Tammy and I walked to the dining table, and sat down with her parents for dinner. The food was delicious, though I didn’t eat much. As I finished, Tammy spoke. “Mom, can Marie stay with us for a while?”

Mrs. Pierce smiled but looked at the two of us carefully. “Ofcourse, Dear. I love having Marie over.” She said, and I could tell she was being earnest, but she had many questions as to why I was staying over.

“Great! I’m gonna show Marie to her room. She’s had a long day.” Tammy said, standing up abruptly and grabbing my arm. We went upstairs and she prepared the guest bedroom for me. “Sorry, I knew she would get too curious soon and would keep asking millions of questions. Plus, I bet you’re pretty tired from everything.” She said as she handed me a set of blue pajamas. “Here, you can wear this. Goodnight, Marie.”

“You didn’t have to do this, Tammy. I could have gone home. I’m fine.” I mumbled as she headed toward the door.

She turned around and smiled at me, but it didn’t seem like a true smile. “No, I did. I really did.” She whispered, and before I could respond, she nodded and left the room.

I closed the door and changed my clothes. Once I finished, I headed toward the bed. Just as I got into the bed and wrapped the blanket around me, I saw the girl standing at the edge of my bed. I sighed when I saw her, knowing that this would be unpleasant.

“Monkey.” She said.

“Bunny.” I mumbled back, but she didn’t respond, so I spoke. “I’m asleep, right?”

“Ofcourse not.” She smiled.

“Honestly, what do you want? I don’t get why I’m always seeing you.” I muttered. I was so tired.

“That’s why I hate them. That’s why I hate all of them. How dare they! They don’t want you to remember me! They’re trying to keep you away from me!” she said hysterically.

I considered who or what she was. They couldn’t be hiding a whole person from me right? This had to be something else. She had to represent something, but the question was what? What could they be keeping from me? “I really can’t do this right now.” I sighed, rubbing my eyes, hoping she would disappear.

“Marie, aren’t they the ones you should be tired of. They’re tired of you. You know they don’t want you here. You’re just a pain to them.” She smiled. “Go ahead Marie. Listen to what they think. They’re talking about you. ”

I couldn’t help it. I got up from the bed quietly and opened the door of my room slowly. I looked around in the hallway but there wasn’t anyone there. I heard some noise coming from downstairs. As I walked down the stairs, I stopped. What was I doing? This was silly. I shouldn’t be doing this.

“But you want to find out don’t you? Or are you AFRAID to find out?” Bunny said from right next to me. I looked at her, and I continued to go down the stairs and realized that the noise was coming from the kitchen. Quickly, I knelt down next to the kitchen door so that I could hear. It was Mrs. Pierce and Tammy.

I listened to them talk for half an hour, but they weren’t talking about me. I was about to get up when I heard my name.

“So, is Marie asleep in the guest room?”

“Yep, I gave her a set of pajamas as well.” Tammy replied.

“Why’d you let her stay here?” I heard Mrs. Pierce whisper as she washed the dishes. I was a bit surprised by her tone. Was I just hearing things?

“Well, I had to. Parker said so. What else could I have done?”

“You could have said ‘No’.” Mrs. Pierce said. I didn’t know what to think. Mrs. Pierce wasn’t like that, right?

“You’re right.” I heard Tammy say. I looked into the kitchen. I had to see this myself. I could see Mrs. Pierce and Tammy. Suddenly, Tammy glanced my way, so I hid behind the wall again.

“She’s such a troubled child. Trouble follows her everywhere.” Mrs. Pierce mumbled. My head hurt so much. I had to leave. I didn’t want to hear anymore. I didn’t want to stay, but my legs wouldn’t move.

“Yeah, isn’t she so pitiful?” Tammy responded. I had to get up. I had to leave. “I feel so bad for her.” I didn’t want to hear this. I didn’t care. I closed my eyes tightly and I shut my ears, but I could still hear her. “That’s the whole reason I even talk to her.” I felt so dizzy. I stood up and tried to walk away. I could still hear Tammy and Mrs. Pierce talking. I ran into a table, but I prevented anything from falling off.

I had to leave. I had to go. I couldn’t stay here. I wasn’t wanted here.

You should trust them.

Suddenly, my head felt a bit clearer. This couldn’t be true. This wasn’t true. Because I trusted her. Tammy wouldn’t do this. She wasn’t like that. None of this made sense. That was when I saw Bunny. It had to be her. “It’s you. STOP IT.” I growled.

“I’m not doing anything.” She said innocently.

“Did you hear something?” I heard Tammy say from the kitchen, but I didn’t care.

“This isn’t real, BUNNY. You did this.” I said, and I could see Tammy exiting the kitchen.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Bunny insisted.

“Marie? Wh-what are you doing here?” Tammy asked nervously. “D-Did you hear-”

“If you won’t stop this, then I’ll wake myself up.” I said to Bunny. I pushed over a vase and watche dit fall to the ground, breaking into large sharp shards.

“Marie! What are you doing? Who are you talking to?” Tammy said, and I heard Mrs. Pierce enter the room as well.

“What was that noise? Marie! What are you-” Mrs. Pierce began to say, but nothing could stop me. I had already grabbed the sharpest shard and I held it at my wrist. I just needed to get hurt. I hesitated a bit.

“Are you sure about what you’re doing?” Bunny said. “Don’t do this!”

“This ISN’T real!” I shouted.

“How do you know? What makes you sure? Marie, you’re making a mistake.”

“No.” I shook my head. I held the shard against my wrist with more force. I was right. I had to be right.

“Marie. Please stop this. What are you doing?” Tammy continued to scream. She was crying, and Mrs. Pierce was holding her back from me.

“No.” I told myself. This wasn’t real. “I trust you Tammy.” I said to Tammy, who looked at me confused. “I trust you, and that’s why I’m sure. This ISN’T real.” I said, and I felt the blade pierce my skin.

“No! Marie!” I heard Tammy scream. The pain was almost unbearable at first, but as my vision faded, so did the pain.

This WASN’T real.