Raven's Tears

I have always hated the smell of fresh paint.  I figured since my sister is a psychologist at this hospital, I got special privileges.  She is now looking at me from across the long woodened table, holding back tears as she tried to keep her work hat on.  It wasn’t always that one of her flesh in blood had to become her patient.  Last time I checked I thought they banned those privileges.  But in her mind only she could treat me.  Her eyes reminded me of freshly cleaned glass at how glossy they were.  Knowing her she hasn’t gotten any sleep.  The cycle was taking a toll on me as well.  All we do now is stare at each other until the other one breaks down.     “Raven,” my sister was unusually persistent today for some reason, “In order for me to help you and get you out of this place you have to tell me something.”     I turned my head away from her because she and nobody else would get me right now.  I can’t talk to anyone because I don’t know how or what to say.  I was hoping that I could just forget everything, but life was always funny that way.  I thought someone out there was playing a sick joke on me.  Before any of this happened, before we moved to Ashfield…it would always be a perfect world before we moved to Ashfield.  My sister never tried to be my shrink, I wasn’t locked away in a mental institution, and my mother…well she is another story.     “Raven…you haven’t said anything to anyone since you been here.  It’s only been two weeks now.  What happened to you?  For the longest time you could trust me and now, you won’t even say two words.  It’s unhealthy.”     I can’t speak to her, not her or anyone else would understand.  I walked over to the window and could see the night sky was starting to take hold.  Tonight, will be a full moon, who knows maybe I will be a lunatic from now on.  The scenery of the grounds reminded me of the nights I snuck outside just to catch some of the cool breeze.  The trees were starting to change, and fall was right around the corner.  My eyes started to play tricks on me as I stared at a spot on one of the large oak trees.  I thought I saw someone peak their head from around the base.     I didn’t remember crying at all as I reached up to feel the tear falling down my cheek.  My sister walked over to me and I could feel a strange chill in the air.  It wasn’t like her to invite such coldness.  Her hand trembled as she placed it on my shoulder.  When has she ever been nervous to touch me?     “I love you Raven…you know I do.”  Her words sounded foreign to my ears, like it wasn’t my sister.  It wasn’t said with much conviction.  I finally looked at her and on her face was a wicked sneer and her eyes glowed a bright red.  Then only thing I could do was scream at the top of my lungs and started to fight the monster off.  It wasn’t long before the orderlies barged into the room and held me down on the table.  The screams that were coming out of my mouth were uncontrollable.  She wasn’t my sister…she wasn’t Skylar at all.  Some creatures of the night that has been haunting me.     Before I could fight them off anymore, I felt a sharp pain in my arm and the next thing I knew the world was getting darker.  At least in my dreams I got to see him again.                                                                                         *     This was a long ride from the city to a small town in Pennsylvania, and apparently the town was do new that not many people even knew about it.  But my mother she felt as though we both needed a new start.  It’s a long ride to nowhere and the more I looked out the window to the dirt roads I thought she was taking me somewhere down south, but no…we were only going further up Pennsylvania.  My parents named me Raven—Raven Jones.  I don’t know what made my mother decide on my last school year she wanted to move.  I left all my friends, close family, and life back in the city.     My sister Skylar lives in this town.  She is a registered therapist and probably got mom on one of her couches and told her that change was good, and we needed to move.  We both have different fathers, but they had one thing in common…they both left without a word.  Not even the normal “I’m going to get cigarettes” gag.  I hated my mother and my sister for making me uproot my life just so they both can feel better.     “Raven?” she has been trying to talk to me this entire ride, but I wasn’t really trying to hear anything she was trying to say at this moment, and yet she was still persistent, “I know this is all so sudden but just know I’m doing this for a reason.  Maybe we could get back to our old routines?  I miss the times we hung out together.”     “You mean the times where you locked yourself in your room all day?  No thank you,” yes I’m sure people would think I should lighten up on her but when I mean that she literally uprooted me…she literally uprooted me without any warning.  I came in from ballet class and everything was packed.     “Does dad know about us leaving?  I mean what if he comes back and we’re gone?”     “You don’t honestly think he’s coming back do you Raven?  I know my fair share of heartache, and one rule is to never hope.  Just act.”  Well, she was honest there.  My mother is a beautiful woman.  She has peanut butter skin like mine and her hair was sandy red, her eyes were hazel and wherever we went she always had eyes on her like she was a movie star or something.  My sister was beautiful like that to.  I don’t know what happened to me in that category.  I considered myself plain.  I have copper skin complexion and brown eyes.  My hair was long, but I never really let it down, it was always in a ponytail.     I’m also lean, I guess years of dance would do that to you.  But I was a plain jane standing next to them and I liked it.  I wasn’t one for such attention on me all the time.  Honestly, that was one of the things my mother argued with me about was my tomboyish ways.  No, the only thing feminine about me was that I loved to dance.  I do pointe and one day I would love to dance for a major ballet company.      “We’re here,” I looked up to see a small town on the hill.  It looked as if you could count all the buildings from where we were looking.  Small towns meant small worlds which I would be the shiny new toy.  A young black girl from the city, I could hear the breakfast table conversations now.  Skylar said there were a diverse amount of people, but I still would be an outsider.     Yes, it was small, but I could also see the beauty in it.  Most of the house looked as if they came straight from a postcard and behind town you could see a large lake with a forest surrounding everything around us.  The more we rode through the town my stomach started to sink when I noticed about two supermarkets that were small, although I wasn’t even sure they both were supermarkets.  But the more we rode the more my heart sank.  My mother continued until we started to get closer to the lake.  And there, at the very end, near where the dense forest began was a small house.     “Home sweet home,” she said with a smile trying to look her best to be pleased, “can we try to make this work?  Let's try to do this until winter break, if not then we can move back.”     “Is that a fact?”     “I promise,” I looked up to see Skylar on the porch holding a key in her hand with a huge smile on her face.  She ran over to mom to give her a hug and all I wanted to do was punch her in the face.  The last time her and I spoke she wanted to use her new therapist powers on me.  Assumed that I was living such a reckless life and all I had to do was stop blaming my problems on others.  But once again she thought she was right.  I miss when we were younger, when the world and what others had to say didn't matter.  But in her world currently, that's all that matters.  So, she made her own family a case study and used us for her dissertation, if I wanted my life's business out there I would've wrote the book myself.     "Hey little sister," she tried to make eye contact with me, but I just grabbed the keys from her hand and walked towards the large oak doors.  I had nothing to say to her.      "It will get better now that we will be able to see each other often," I heard my mother's wishful thinking as I opened the doors.  There was a loud creaking noise as if they haven't been opened for years.  The large foyer had a strong wood smell.  No fresh paint which mean this was becoming a fixer upper place, something I was not looking forward to doing.  But the more I wandered through the house into the living room, it was starting to look more ancient than ever.  The wallpaper was of mystical creatures like small fairies and gnomes.  In the living room there was a large painting of an ogre.     "Interesting place isn't it," my mother was busy bringing in some boxes, "When I heard about this place, I knew I had to have it.  It was cheap and the artwork is to die for."     "I wonder how cheap," I said sarcastically, "How long is she going to be here," I whispered hoping Skylar didn't hear me, she had the ears of a mouse, "I mean you didn't say anything about her being here."     "Oh come on Raven...she is your sister and you really need to get over it.  Skylar said that in order for our family to become a unit we have to let the bad things go and heal during the growth."     "Please don't talk to me if you're going to be quoting things from her book.  And haven't you noticed how--different she seems?"     "Different?  How?"     I shook my head and just let it go.  There was no point in trying to show her what was going on around her, "I'm going to find my room."     "Ok well the sooner we get these boxes in the sooner we can get dinner on the table."       I didn't really care for eating now, all I wanted to do was find a place of my own.  Upstairs, it was the same kind of creatures as downstairs but some of these I have never recognized from the stories I read growing up as a child.  It was about four rooms, not sure why my mother picked a house with four rooms when it was only the two of us.  Maybe she will turn one into a study.  I walked down the long hallway, I could hear my feet echoing off the wooden floors, towards the back there was a room where the door was slightly opened as if daring me to take a peek.  This door also creaked opened and I was met with a blinding light.     Once my eyes adjusted, I could see the large window with a balcony overlooking that forest I saw on the drive up here.  The room was large and to my surprise, it had a dancer's corner.  Three large windows and a barre was on the opposite side of the room.  This was my room...I could stay here forever and allow the outside world to disappear.  It was quiet and away from everything and everyone in the house.  I walked over and starred at myself in the mirror.  I will be turning eighteen this coming December and I have yet to kiss a boy.  The longer I starred at myself I started to do simple ballet moves to see if anything needs to be adjusted, but the more I moved I could feel goosebumps sprang all over my body when suddenly I heard a low whisper somewhere.     I looked around the room and then towards the window.  On the corner I thought I saw something move from in front of the door.  I rushed over and flung the doors opened and to my surprise there wasn't anything or anyone out there, just the cool breeze that was coming from the direction or the trees.  They swayed back and forth as if they wanted to dance with me.  But the longer I looked I thought I saw a boy, leaning up against one of the tree trunks.  But as soon as I tried to get another look, he was gone.  Downstairs there was a knock at the door.                                                                                         *     As I walked downstairs, I could hear voices in the living room.  My mother was putting on one her exaggerated acts as usual when she was meeting people for the first time.  I walked in and she was talking to a short woman, she looked to be in her early sixties and standing next to her was a young girl who looked to be around my age.  Both had long dark hair and although the older woman seemed to be cheerful and exciting, the young girl looked as if she wanted to run away and hide somewhere.     "Hello Raven," said the woman, "Your mother has been telling me about you.  I'm your neighbor Miss Angela, you can call me Miss Angie for good measure."  I smiled a small smile at her.  Her eyes were filled with intense joy, "This is my granddaughter Megan.  She will be a senior this year as well.  I hope the two of you can get along.  I heard you are a dancer.  Well Megan isn't much of a dancer, but I know there are somethings you both can connect on."     "Welcome to Ashfield," she mumbled.      "Well anyway," Ms. Angie continued, "I brought over a few things to munch on.  I know that moving is tiresome and having to cook after all that work just doesn’t seem fair.  But--" she stopped mid-sentence as my sister walked into the room.  I could have sworn I saw them exchange an evil glare.  But you could tell Miss Angie was paying attention to the other's in the room because she quickly turned on her heels and went into the direction of the kitchen.  I could feel eyes on me and looked to see Megan starring so intently at my face.  One by one everyone left the room, and it was just her and I standing there not sure what to talk about.     "So," she finally said, "you dance?  I hear you're an amazing dancer."     "I do ok...I just wish I could stay somewhere long enough to gain some notice."     "You and your family travel a lot?"     "You could say that.  I haven't stayed anywhere long enough to even call it a home.  I'm sure we will be out of here before the holidays honestly."     "But you can't!" Her raised voice startled the both of us, "Sorry...I'm not used to talking so much.  I normally keep to myself.  Are you homeschooled or will you be starting the school year at Ashfield high?"     "I'll be going there...do I need to worry about anything?"     "Like what do you mean," she looked like she had one of those faces where she was hiding a secret and was afraid it was about to slip out any moment.     "Nothing special...I mean is there any bullies or cliques I have to worry about there?  Are the people nice to newcomers?"     "I suppose it's like any other high school.  Honestly, you might be the talk of the school.  We don't normally get newcomers in this town.  I have lived here my entire life and I'm willing to bet so has everyone else.  My Gran might possibly be the oldest one in the town."  We both shared a laugh together that made the mood in the room change to a lighter space, "But when you do go there...just know that I will be your friend and that you can trust me out of everyone there.  I won't let you down."     I thought her saying that was kind of deep considering I just met here today.  But I figured it was something about small town hospitality, "Thank you...I will make sure to keep that in mind.  Do you know who lived in this house before we came here?  They're really into the occult I see."     "I'm not sure.  Whoever did it was long before I was born.  And yes, they do seem fond of those things."  I thought I heard another whisper from the one before, but before I could investigate it, I could hear my mother calling from the kitchen for us to come and eat.