For his 18th birthday, Thomas had received a horde of gifts. He hated every single one of them. He ended up trying to be happy getting his sister's beat-to-shit used car. Every single thought that he had was telling him to give his parents the final "Fuck you" and move out.
The day would have gone by exactly as any other day had he not received a strange package in the mail. There was no return address on the plain brown box, but it clearly displayed his name as the recipient.
He retreated to his room, tossing the box on the bed as he closed his door. He looked in his mirror trying to notice if he actually felt any different after turning a year older. He noticed nothing but the same face that had stared back at him the day before. Gazing into his emerald-green eyes, he wondered how any woman would find him attractive. He kept his bright red hair to his shoulders, and although he never spent any time to work out, his body had actually filled out nicely from his fencing classes.
Thomas sat down on his bed next to the box, relieved that his introspective reverie was at an end. He carefully opened the package to reveal a small wooden box and a short letter within. The letter was quite short and cryptic saying only "Within the box lies your salvation, lost one". He was already pissed and when he opened the box he saw a small crucifix lying atop a bed of red velvet. Reaching down to pick up the religious icon, he found that the box had a false bottom and there was a small green pill inside.
Finding something this strange in the box had left Thomas extremely curious. His options were to just throw it out and pretend like he'd never received it, or to take a chance with this strange pill. The lack of a return address might have suggested that it was some sort of illegal drug, but he wasn't about to worry about something like that. He was tired of his life and this might end up being his ticket out of it.
Thomas grabbed up the pill and looked at it for a moment before tossing it into his mouth. He half expected to die instantly from whatever poison he had just ingested, but he didn't feel a thing. Hours later he couldn't even work up a decent placebo high from whatever it was that he had taken, so he went to sleep wondering what exactly he had taken.
One thing that was different when Thomas rolled himself out of bed was that he had slept for about 14 hours without his parents coming up to bitch about it. When he went down to see what was going on downstairs there was a man he didn't recognize talking with his mother. "Oh! Thomas, you shouldn't be walking around" his mother exclaimed when she saw him. "You were having a seizure when I went in to wake you up this morning, so we called the paramedics" my mother said to me searching for any signs on my face. "Yeah, that's really funny…thanks for letting me sleep in today" Thomas remarked with a dry look of dissatisfaction on his face.
Thomas then realized that the man he didn't recognize was carrying a first aid kit and was wearing what looked like a volunteer fireman's outfit. That was enough of a shock without the gradually loudening sound of ringing in his ears. He sat down as he began to hear what he at first thought was the sound of small bells but began to sound like high-pitched whispers. He told the man that he'd be fine and that he would head over to the hospital later today to get himself checked out. His mother seemed to be pleased with that answer and told him that he should go rest until the appointment later.
His mother helped him up the stairs slowly as he started to snap back into reality. "I can make it from here…thanks mom" Thomas said as he gave his mother a small smile. "Now you just get some rest and don't worry about the dishes today" said his mother as she walked lightly out of his room, closing the door. "That bitch…I could be dying and all she can think about are the fucking dishes…" Thomas thought to himself as he tried to tune out the small whispers.
The trill of the high-pitched whispers was starting to drive him mad. Just before he thought he would surely break under their incessant rambling they went completely silent, and he heard one voice above the silence that he welcomed. The voice said very slowly and deliberately "Now you have been found, would you like to come and play with us?"
