Happy Birthday Annabel Elder - Dani Matson (best books under 200 pages .TXT) 📗

lights in the house were on. I could see the christmas tree through the window. Dad was siting on the couch with his head in his hands, waiting up for me. This is the first time he's ever wait up. If I didn't know any better I would say he was crying. But that's impossible, the man has no feelings, no heart. His heart shattered a long time ago and he never bothered to pick up the peices again, not even for his own daughter.
I stood there, at the end of the drive way and watched his shaking shoulders. All day I refused to let myself cry but seeing this heartless man crying his eyes out broke me. I felt the tears start pouring down my face. Once they came they didn't stop. I can't imagine why he's crying. Surely he can't be crying because he's leaving. He wants to go. It's not like he's leaving anything he could ever miss.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to dry my eyes. It proved to be usless as more tears covered my face. I paused at the door before pushing it open and stepping through. I paused when I reached the living room. Dad hadn't heard me come in.
His shoulders had stopped shaking, maybe it was my imagination. He certainly wasn't crying now. I guess he was just frusated that he has to go find me before he leaves. That explaination fits better than a heartless man crying.
I felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest. I could only think of one thing to say,"Did you ever love me or was I just the gift you could never exchange?"
He jumped at the sound of my voice, "Annabel, how can you say that? Your my daughter,"he took a couple steps toward me.
He didn't answer the question.
"By whose definition?" I ran out of the room without waiting for an answer. I tour up the stairs and slammed into my room. I pushed my dresser in front of my door, grabbed my pellow and layed down in the window seat, my head proped against the window. My silent tears became sobs.
I don't know how much time passed but finally my tears dried into hiccups. I heard foot steps in the hall that stopped at my door. I held my breath and prayed. Don't ask me what I prayed for. I wouldn't be able to tell you if it was for him to just walk away or if it was for him to come on in and tell me that I'm wrong, that he really does love me.
The door knob turned half way. I squeezed my eyes shut.
And he kept walking.
I breathed a sigh of relief and stared out the window, watching the snow fall.
My last thought before I fell asleep was that my birthday is three days away.


***********************************************

When I opened my eyes, my alarm clock said it was three in the morning. My neck was screaming at me to move. I, very carefuly, stood up and rolled my head on my shoulders, trying to work out the kinks. That done, I walked over to my dresser and pushed it away from my door. Then I got out some sweat pants and a tank top. Despite the freezing weather, the house always stays hot.
I walked back to my window, intending on closing the blinds when I saw a shadow standing on the side walk, staring up at me. I frooze, my hand falling back to my side. The figure outside cocked his head as if to say 'follow me', and turned to the alley way next to my house.
Have you ever seen a scary movie that made you scream at the stupid girls for following the creepy guy into the dark, scary places? I've seen them all and I still had the strange urge to follow him anyway.
Call me crazy but I grabbed my sweater and tip-toed down the hallway and stopped at the top of the stairs. I glanced back at my fathers door to see if he had heard me and was coming out to investigate. Even if he did hear me. I didn't think he would get out of bed just to see what I was doing. I was right.
I slowly made my way down stairs and though the kitchen, out the back door leading into the alley.
He was the frist thing I saw when I closed the door. Leaned up against the wall opposite of me was a young man, no more than three years older then me. He was tall with shaggy blonde hair. He looked built, like extremly built. The closer I looked the more I saw. He wore a small cross around his neck. Just under that cross was a thin scar that ran from under his chin and disappeared down his shirt. He wore a ring that looked like he belonged to a private club of some sort.
"You look well, Annabel,"he said.
"How do you know my name? Who are you?" He didn't look familiar so I didn't think I had ever met him before. I would remember a face like his.
He whispered something I couldn't hear.
Against my better judgement I took a step toward him , trying to catch whatever it was that he had said. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"I said, we've been looking for you for a very long time now. You've caused a lot of trouble for us and in three days time you will pay for that," he lunged at me, grabbed me by the arm and pulled me toward him, trapping me between him and the other building behind him.I yelped when he leaned his body against me, preventing me from trying to struggle.
"Now be a good girl and don't scream. Don't worry I'm not going to kill you yet. You're not old enough yet. But in three days there will be nothing keeping me from ending your life and the lives of those just like you," he whispered in my ear.
"W..what? Who are you? Let me go," I was starting to panic. Who was this creep and how did he know me. A better question was why the hell did he want to kill me. And what did he mean 'those like me'? Did he mean the other unloved girls that hated there life? A thousand questions raced through my mind but they all disappeared when he started nibbling on my earlobe.
"I'll let you go when I'm ready. Mmm...You smell so good," okay, it was offical. This guy is a major creep. Worse yet, I was stupid enough to come out here to him.
I stopped yelling at myself in my head when his lips lowered to my neck. I thought I was going to be sick when he licked me. I was in big trouble. The way he was acting I was pretty sure he was planning on having his way with me. He already admitted to planning on killing me.
There was no way I was going to just stand here and let him do whatever he wants to me. I started thrashing and pulling and trying to throw him off of me. I only suceeded in pissing him off.
I didn't see the brooken medal pole sticking out of the wall until he lifted me up and and slammed me on it. The pole went straight through my shoulder.
There was nothing I could have done to stop the blood turning scream that ripped past my lips. I screamed so loud that I surprised the guy holding me and he let go. I could hear the slurping sound of my blood as I slid of the pole and down the wall, to the ground.
I couldn't see past my tears. The guy leaned down and whispered in my ear,"You think that was pain? That was only a taste of what is to come to you on your birthday. Then, you will be of age and I will kill you slowly and painfully. This was just a warning,"he grabbed my arm and brought it up to his lips. I thought he was going to kiss me. I was surprised when he bit me instead. He bit so hard he broke skin and left a gash that would need stiches.
I hardly felt the bit, my shoulder hurt to much to think, to feel anything else.
"You've been marked," and just like that, he was gone.
There were no more tears. The pain became a distant numb. I started seeing black spots. It was so hard to keep my head up. "Help....help me," I tried to scream it but it only came out as a whisper.
Suddenly, my dad's face came into my line of site. He had a phone to his ear and he was yelling something at the person on the other line.
"Anna! Annabel,answer me! Annabel, can you hear me? Baby, talk to me. Hang in there, Anna. You're going to be okay. You're going to be fine."
He looked so heartbroken. I tried to answer him, to assure him that I was fine, that I couldn't feel the pain any more, but I was to tired. I couldn't open my mouth and my eyes were closing.
The last thing I heard before the blackness took over was the sirens rushing to come and help me.


THREE


When I woke up, I saw the strangest thing. There was a little girl that looked about eight years old, leaning down over my face, looking at me