Chapter 2

          Grace went home and ran to her bedroom. she jumped onto her bed and cried. Mom was at work and dad was running errands. She was home alone with only her thoughts for company. Grace wiped her eyes and went into the kitchen for a snack. For comfort food. She opened the fridge and pulled out bologna, ham, turkey, tomatoes, lettuce, mustard, and provolone cheese. She took to bread out of the bread box and made a sandwich, trying hard not to get tears on the bread. After she ate that, she went to the freezer and pulled out chocolate icecream. She went back into the fridge to pull out hot fudge, whipped cream, and cherries. She opened the carton of icecream and dumped all of the hot fudge on to it. She put the whole can of whipped cream in the carton and the jar of cherries in the mixture too.
          Grace devoured the whole mess, failing to miss a drop. After her so called snack, she walked to Chase's room.  Tears were still streaming down her face.  In his room all of his possessions were untouched as if it was a shrine. Grace went to his bed and inhaled Chase's scent. She laid down and cried. She cried until she fell into a deep sleep. So deep she dreamt.
          She dreamt about her and her brother. They were little, playing in a sandbox. Laughing. Loving life. At the time, everything was great. Chase and her knew nothing of evil. They believed life was never ending. It was everlasting. They loved playing with each other. They loved each other. The dream was sweet.
          Then something happened. The ground started to shake and the two of them screamed. As the sandbox split in half, Chase fell into the darkness screaming for Grace over and over.
          grace woke up in a sweat with her mom standing over her, looking worried. "What's wrong, Grace? I've been calling your name for fifteen minutes.". Grace sat up and stared blankly. "I had a bad dream. Chase....". She started to cry and collapsed into her mother. "It's okay, Grace. I promise". But it wasn't all right and they both knew it. "The kids that picked on Chase just stared at me today." , Grace said. "Do you think they feel remorse?". Her mom wiped tears from her eyes. "I don't know, Honey."
         They hugged each other and left Chase's room quietly. "Dinner will be ready in a half an hour.", said her mother. Grace nodded and went off into her room to get her pajamas. She walked to the bathroom to take a shower.
         In the bathroom she stared into the mirror. What she saw was heartbreaking. She saw Chase. She was Chase in the form of a girl. She was his twin. It made the whole thing hurt more than ever. "Why is it so hard?", she asked herself.
         She started to run the water so it could get hot. Undressing, she cried even more and then she felt sick. She leaned over the toilet and let go of her snack from earlier.
         She definitely felt like showering now. Grace hopped in and washed up. She conditioned her hair and shaved her legs. Then she stopped everything. She thought. Studying the blades, she disassembled the razor until she had just one blade. She brought it up to her wrist and pressed down. Grace slid it across her wrist, expressionless. Letting the crimson liquid run down her her arm onto the tub floor, she smiled. She laughed as if nothing could bring her down. A couple more cuts and she felt amazing. She washed  up and got out of the tub. Under the sink, she pulled out big band aids and fixed herself up. Going to look into the mirror she saw a message written in the condensation. It said, "Please stop now! Chase." Now Grace felt bad.
         All of the sudden, there was a knock on the bathroom door. "Grace, dinner's ready!", her mother shouted. Grace quickly got dressed. Thank God her pajama shirt was long sleeved.
        At the dinner table, she was quiet. She didn't touch her food once. Her father was worried. He asked her where her appetite was. "I don't feel so good.", Grace replied. "Go lay down, Honey.", said her dad. So Grace did. She laid there. In Chase's room. In Chase's bed. Crying.







Chase,

         So you saw me, huh? You saw me with that razor blade? You saw me bleed? I'm so sorry. It hurt me to know you knew but the cuts felt good. It felt like nothing could hurt me emotionally. Emotional pain is way worse than physical pain. That's my theory. I'm sure it's yours too. I just miss you so much, brother. I love sleeping in your room. It feels like your home. Are you home? Why are you haunting me? I want to forget the whole thing but I can't with you haunting me. Don't you want me to forget?

                Grace