Merinthophobia

A small framed woman hovered over a child. For the third day in a row the child was throwing a tantrum. It happened so often the child's father grew used to it but her father wasn't there this time; he was away for business. What was left was her mother, a feeble woman with a short attention span, to care for the six year old. Since the child was born the mother never had to spend longer than a weekend alone with the young child. Her husband's departure was going on its third week, the first in six years. The mental damn in the woman's mind was slowly breaking. She could not understand what made the child so upset. The little girl would spit and throw herself around each time. This time it was over her mother trying to make her take a time out. Her mother saw it as the child being evil and couldn't possibly be human if the girl acted that way. The mother couldn't understand.

For days the mother grew more and more afraid of the child, in fear of her life and more importantly, her soul. The devil had to have processed her daughter. When the mother chanted a holy verse the child reacted. Not in pain but in anger because the child was hungry. The mother took it as a sign from her God that her daughter wasn't pure. The mother's greatest fear had manifested itself and all she could see was evil in her innocent daughter. In the woman's weak and broken state of mind she heard a small voice inside her instructing the unthinkable.

Her faith in her Lord refused to allow her to take another life but she thought of a plan. The devil would leave the girl's body if he had no control over her anymore. That's what the woman whole heartedly believed anyway. In the middle of the night, as the young girl slumbered, the mother snuck out to the garage and grabbed rope and tape. The rope would immobilize the child and the tape would make it so the devil couldn't trick the mother.

It happened very fast. The mother did the deed that night and tied up her own child. Fear ran through the mother's body and she was barely able to overpower the child. The little girl fought, for she was strong willed, but she loved her mother. Eventually the little girl stopped struggling after she saw her mother start to cry. The woman mind wasn't healthy, she saw and heard things that were not real. Her faith only helped her believe, though it wasn't the reasoning for her sickness. She took the voices as her God, or the Devil, instructing her to do things.

The woman bound the child tightly and placed her in a small nest of blankets in a closet. The girl being so young grew more and more frighten. When the mother taped her mouth and shut the door the little girl panicked. She couldn't fathom why she was so alone. She couldn't understand the holy verses her mother chanted or the stinging sensation on her arms and legs. Nothing seemed real, yet it was very traumatic. The girl waited, hoping in the tiniest bit her mother was playing a game. Hours passed, which felt so much longer to the girl, and she grew more and more frightened. Before long the girl defecated herself and tried to scream for help. Hours passed and the little girl was still alone. The hours turned into a whole day.

The little girl's father was homebound but it would still be hours. The mother never left the closet and continued to pray for the little girl. Her daughter meant so much to her. All the woman wanted was a healthy child to love and cherish. The things that raced in the girl's mind was indescribable. Fears manifested themselves and the feeling of her own feces made her sick to her stomach. Her belly ached from hunger and her legs were stiff. Her salty tears soon made the tape less sticky and the girl was able to move her jaw. Through the sound was muffled she could make noise.

The child screamed for her mother. The sole object in her life she loved so much. A mother and child's bond is unbreakable, even in instances like that. The mother tried her best to ignore her, thinking the pleas were from the Devil. The girl didn't give up and called her to mother constantly. The father pulled into his driveway, the lights were on and everything seemed normal. It was dark so he expected his family to be asleep. When he opened the font door he heard the chanting and the muffled cries of a child.

"Momma! Momma! Momma!" the voice called. The man dropped everything and sprinted towards the noise. He prayed his family was safe. When he entered his master bedroom he didn't expect what he saw. His wife was curled in a ball and snot covered her face, eyes she still chanted the verse. When he pried the closet door open he saw his little girl stuffed in the corner. She smelled of feces and was lying in a puddle of her own urine. The girl's eyes were bloodshot and her hair was matted from struggling. The man's heart broke and it never repaired itself after that. The father knew his wife was ill, he hoped her Faith would heal her. But that night proved he had made a mistake.

The little girl was broken too. Even after the police called and the girl got medical care, she was never the same again. Something was wrong about her. She couldn't stand the dark and became catatonic when she was grabbed, even for a hug. His little girl's spirit died that night.



Ten years later the little girl grew up to be a beautiful young woman. She did well in school and hung out with the right crowd. Her father remarried and she even got a younger brother. Everything seemed right, though she never saw her mother again. The girl's future was bright and happy. But inside her head two sides battled. She hated her step-mother and was envious of her brother. Nothing her father did made her happy. She slowly withdrew from the family and contemplated suicide at times. The side she was, and the side who she should be always fought.

It wasn't that her family treated her wrong, but she had such a deep fear they would hurt her, she pushed them away. Her fears made it impossible for her to see how much they cared for her. Soon they family brushed the issues under the rug and tried to live their lives. So at sixteen the little girl had struggled more than the average
person. She attempted to hide it from others but her fears made it impossible to live normally. Yet she was still like any other teenage girl. She had hopes and dreams and even favorite music. So to the outside world the girl was normal, but on the inside was a different story.

The little girl's name was Alyson Smith and this is her story.