Halloween Candy

You are trapped. And scared. The glass is closing in, suffocating and increasingly smaller. You cry out for help but no one hears you. Or maybe you just don’t have a voice.

 

Your parents. They are gone. They gave you away like Halloween candy to sit and rot in someone else’s pantry. But you are not rotting candy. You are alive; something that feels pain, emotion, love. This is not the life for you. You and your brothers and sisters don’t belong here.

 

But then she came. She came in one day to the place you are trapped and pulled you into the light. You have never seen such a beautiful face. A face wrapped in love and warmth, and you know it’s for you and she doesn’t even know you. Your suffocating diminishes, and you are filled with joy. Now you are the one receiving the candy on Halloween. Or maybe you are still the candy and this girl is your receiver. But she is not like the others. This one is something new.

 

You are picked like an apple being picked from the tree. The most delicious, plump, pretty apple is the one that will be eaten. Today is your lucky day because today, you are that apple. She pulls you up out of the dark, and wraps you in her arms. You are so filled with joy, you forget about the past and look forward to the future.

 

She puts you in her box and keeps you close. You look through a hole and back into your past. Where your brothers and sisters are left behind to suffocate. You realize you cannot escape the sadness. Why were you hers to choose? What makes you so special?

 

But you won’t be alone. Before you know it, your brother is sitting next to you. Just as afraid, maybe more so. He is afraid of change, always has been. You snuggle up next to him and tell him things will be alright. You can feel that this is the end of the bad, so you say let’s make some room for the good. He falls asleep in your arms and you snooze off too, but not before looking back one last time before you say goodbye.