8 Hours Past a Week

Gold Calligraphy

Claire sat up, her heart was racing and the front of her shirt was drenched in sweat. She tried getting her bearings and looked around to where she was.

It took her a few minutes, and she realized that it was just a dream and she was safely in her apartment. She wasn't laying there staring at her mother gasping her last breaths, and reaching out to her, trying to project her last breathing daughter. She wasn't staring at her beloved father and Luke slumped over against a wall. She wasn't staring at her twin sister, and youngest sister staring lifelessly at her either.

Three sets of eyes, an unwavering Glassiness, boring into her soul. Two more beautiful faces destroyed with a single shot. She wasn't begging for her life. She was safe.

Claire looked around her room. There was a faint glow shining in through the curtains from the streetlights. She knew it was still either really early, or she had only been sleeping for a short time.

She leaned over and grabbed her phone off the charger to check the time; 4:35 am. She laid down for a moment snuggling under her blankets, and scrolled through endless emails.

Claire, after responding to a few got up, and turned on the lights to her room. She quickly did a couple exercises, and then progressed into a 30 minute yoga session.

The exercises kept her fit and the yoga helped her relax and focus. It was her form of therapy. Once she was finished she progressed with the remaining portion of her routine and proceeded to get ready for jobs.

Claire, worked a full time job and was chairman on two different charity organizations. She preferred to keep her life busy, it didn't allow her a chance to dwell on her past. Claire's first job was as school aid for New York City Public School System.

She had promised to dedicate herself to changing as many lives as possible two years ago. She wanted to help rid the world of the evils that resided in it. She thought helping the youth, working in school systems to better the youth was a good place to start. She'd help those having issues, promote education, and personal growth in these adolescents.

Her work day started and finished on time today, without any drama today. After her extremely early start of the day today, Claire was excited to get home. Along the way she quickly stopped at a grocery story to pick up some necessities then more time on the subway, then a two block walk home.

When she got to her apartment building, she grabbed her mail and headed up the 3 flights of stairs to her apartment. Her apartment building had maybe 30 residential apartments in it. 6 on each floor; except for the first. It was relatively clean, compared to some of the places in New York. The residents were all relatively quiet, and all kept to themselves or least that's what Claire thought. She kept to herself and rarely reached out to anyone or spoke with anyone unless it was apart of the charity work she did, or unless it was at her day job.

Claire unlocked and stumbled into her door. Putting away the groceries she bought she sat down and went through her mail. Discarding all junk mail, she opened the one letter that looked to be of the most interesting.

It was a cream colored envelope, with postage stamps littering the top right. From the postage marks, with a foreign language across them, Claire could tell this piece of mail had traveled far.

Claire saw the yellow sticker as well. It was originally sent to her parents' house. She swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. Her heartbeat quickened ever so slightly, and a cold sweat began to form on her body.

The letter was addressed to Claire Harris, however who ever it was from still believed she still was residing at her parents, the only way that anyone wouldn't know she no longer was residing there is if they were someone she knew from two years prior. The sender's name, Claire couldn't pronounce nor did she recognize. She hesitantly opened it, curiosity getting the best of her.

Inside the envelope there was a piece of red paper folded into two. There was gold calligraphy on the front page, in a foreign language. On the inside of the folds was even more hand written gold calligraphy but in English.

‘My dearest sister,

It's been a couple years since I've seen you! I hope this letter finds you well. After I returned home, I apologize for loosing contact with you. I have tried numerous times to reach out but to no avail. This letter and invitation I hope is fruitful in contacting you. I am finally getting married! I would love for you to come, and see me get married, for you are the reason this is happening in the first place.

I want you there watching as I marry Aadesh. You and our other sisters were the only ones that supported my relationship with him. So on this day, I would like you there. I have convinced my father to purchase your plane tickets along with a few of our other sister's tickets as well to come here. You are welcome to stay with my family as well when you arrive.

The wedding is to take place in 7 months, more than enough time for you to obtain the proper travel visas as well. This trip will be free to you, please come!

I have attached my email at the bottom, I hope to hear from you.

~ Aamna'

Claire placed the letter down, and just stared at it. Feelings of regret, guilt, and worry filled her. Unable to handle to conflicting feelings she placed it on her dresser in her room.

She ignored the photos that rested there as well. She ignored the pictures of her real sisters and their eyes staring at her lying soul.

The gold calligraphy and their photos threatened the delusion that she built in the past two years.