"Having hit a wall, the next logical step is not to bang our heads against it"- Stephen Harper

I pulled back, then away from him, earning a shocked expression. Quickly gathering my shirt, I reached for the door handle, ready to storm out. His hand wrapped around my wrist, pulling me back slightly.

"Don't touch me," I coldly stated as I turned to him, blood trickling from my lip.

I was slightly taken aback by the hurt I saw in his face, soon followed by a cold expression as he let go of me. He never spoke much when it wasn't focused on teasing me, but the dead silence that filled the room had me unnerved.

My breath hitched as I felt a cold chill across my skin, raising goosebumps throughout my body. I regained my composure, threw on my shirt and walked out to the living room, then out into the brisk night.

'How did I get to this point in my life?'

He just... showed up one day, his eyes affixed on me as I shifted my attention from my toys. He... was in my room, a closed and well known space to me. Placing a finger up to his lip, gesturing for me to hush, my mothers voice rang through the house.

"Alex, come on, let's go to the park."

I looked over to the door to my room, then back to where the stranger stood, but he was gone. Standing, I fixed my ruffled dress and hurriedly made my way down the stairs. 

My mother and father looked down to me, holding their hands out, to which I gladly hopped over and took theirs in my own. I smiled up at them and continued to the car with them.

This... was where it all started.

Soon followed the talks, the late night doctor visits, the child-proofing of drawers and locks... But they promised no matter what, I would never take the pills she had.

Mom would come to watch me play in my room, every so often looking over to the spot that the 'new house guest' was sitting. I never had to ask her if she saw him, of course. Every time mom looked at him, his mood would lighten, a huge smile creeping over his face. He never talked, save the first time when he appeared. He just let out small noises every once and a while to hint towards a 'yes' or 'no'.

I never felt the malice that my mother told me about in her stories.

"His name is... Mara," she paused, taking a sharp breath, followed by a shaky exhale. The room seemed to slowly cool as he made his appearance into the room, watching us as we talked.

"I, I loved him," she smiled, "not like your father, but more as a brother, or a best friend that I had known all my life... and I did."

I looked over to Mara, his expression a bit hurt, but as soft as I had ever seen. He pressed his eyes closed as he turned and went through the door frame.

"Mommy, how do you see him? You said that you and daddy couldn't see him at the same time.."

"An old connection, just weaker.." she trailed off. She shifted her gaze around and opened her mouth as to continue on, or say something else, but bit her lip as her eyes started to water. She reached her hand to grab mine and squeezed it firmly.

"Alex, know I care about you so much, your father and I both, care so, so much..."

"Please, just be careful," she came over to me and lightly kissed my forehead, then scanned the room. She continued in a hushed voice, "I have no idea what he's after this time."

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So........ Ya'll ready for this?

BellemueCat93