They Are Watching

I woke to a chilled room, pain in my neck from falling asleep in such an awkward angle. I give my neck a turn to the left, then to the right, popping the kinks out of it, but I freeze when I spot the window.

I know for a fact it was closed when I fell asleep. My heart jumps into my throat as I jump from my bed and slide my window shut as quick as I can. I turn from it, not wanting to see what may lay right outside and spot my open door.

Were they inside? They entered the house and walked right past me? They obviously didn't touch me because I would have woke from that; I always woke when someone touched me, my father use to wake me like that all the time.

I glance around my room, scared to move. Nothing in my room seems out of place, but did I really want to exit my room and look around? It was a Saturday, so I had no school and my parents usually slept in since neither of them worked the weekend.

I shuffled forward, shaking despite the fact that I was trying to hold back my fear. I didn't want them to see that I was afraid, but.. They had come inside the house, something they had never done before. Something had changed about them and I was worried that they were getting far more bold.

I gently pulled my ajar door open, slipping out into the hallway as quietly as I could. There, laying on the carpet right outside my room, was a picture. It was a Polaroid picture.

I knelt down to pick up the picture, but I freeze as my fingers grasp the right corner of it. It was a picture of me as a child, the confusing thing was... I had never seen the picture before, nor had I ever seen the two other people in the picture before. But they sure knew me.

It was a picture of a man and a woman, both looking down at me with bright smiles and loving looks. Could they be distant relatives of mine? I lift the picture from the carpet and hold it up closer to my face, only to have it snatched from my hands by my mother.

"Wait!" I exclaimed, reaching for the photo, only to have it pulled even further away. I stood from the carpet, looking confused and upset.

I'm told to go back to my room. I'm told to forget about the photo. Mom and dad both glare at each other, then at the picture, then me. I back away into my room. I've never seen either of them look so angry before.

I locked myself in my room and leaned back against the door.

Diary, what the hell is going on? Why were they so upset and who were those people in the photo? Why does everything feel like it's falling apart and why can't I seem to piece it all back together so that it makes sense?