Mark doesn't remember much after waking up in the middle of the night, during a thunderstorm. Mark's face was drenched in sweat. He looked around his shadowy bedroom. He noticed his brother, Valentino, was turned over on his side, sound asleep, snoring heavily.
Then, Mark got out of his bed and went to look out the blinds in the window. In their front yard, he didn't see anything in the darkness of the storm. There was a big tree in their yard, blocking the glow of the full moon in the cloudy, night sky. Lightning crackled and struck the tree branch. Mark jumped back in shock as he watched the tree branch sprawl to the ground.
Valentino snorted and rolled over to face his brother's side. Trying to wake his brother's sleep, Valentino just groaned and snorted loudly at Mark's face. Thunder boomed and made the walls in their dark room rattle.
Then, Mark turned to look at their bedroom door. It squeaked open quickly. Their father, Russell Changeling, entered, carrying a burning candlestick in his hand. "You kids okay, in here?" Russell whispered, trying not to be spooked by the shadowy figures from the lightning outside the window, getting him jumping up and down with fright. "The storm blocked out our power. So, I'd thought I would come in here to check on you two," Russell said, wind blowing in from the open windowsill in Mark and Valentino's bedroom. Blowing out the candlestick Russell held in his hands.
Screaming in their dark room, Valentino and Mark both got to their feet. Hearing the strike of a match being light, they saw their father had another box of matches in pajamas. And light the candlestick again, shakily. Russell quietly walked over to our open bedroom window and closed it shut. Then, he locked it.
"You boys should be okay here, tonight," Russell said, lovingly. "It's just a normal thunderstorm making us nervous," he continued. "I'll be in the kitchen making some peanut butter and celery for a midnight snack. If you two kids get scared in your dark room, you can come join me," Russell said, thoughtfully.
Their dad started to walk away from them. Then, Valentino and Mark turned to look at each other skeptically. Finally, the two brothers followed their dad out of the shadowy, cold bedroom. Following the glow of the candlestick in his hand, they all stopped in their tracks. They heard something drop to the floor above the top floor in their parent's bedroom.
It sounded like somebody was jumping up and down on the bed or something. Hurrying up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Russell and my two kids made it upstairs to their parent's bedroom. Taking a shaky hand, Russell used his other free hand and opened their bedroom door quickly.
Looking in the darkness, Russell and the two kids gasped with fright. Their son Mark and Valentino's mom was jumping on their big bed up and down. Like she was just having fun being a grown-like child having fun in a thunderstorm power shortage. Because it seemed to be giving her energy and her excited face was brightening up the dark room.
"How did you get here, dear?" Russell asked me impatiently. "You got in a tragedy. And you somehow came back to life only to pretend like you're not sick," Russell reasoned. I just smiled and started laughing at myself. I was in my pajama robe, jumping on the soft bed mattress in our room.
If Russell and my two kids understood what I had to go through to get back home alive, they wouldn't judge me in a way to see how happy I am being back to life. I started tossing bed pillows onto the carpeted floor in front of me.
I spread my arms out to my side. I turned and looked at my loving family. Then, I fell backwards and collapsed into a heap of feather pillows on the carpeted floor in front of me. I laughed and giggled like a little girl. Who didn't realize how undead I was.
"You're acting like an immature child, Emma," Russell scolded me. I just laughed at his face. "I know you just got back from the dead for us. But you shouldn't behave in such a way to make others feel disturbed to be around you," Russell explained, unhappily.
I started to roll around the pillows and covers on the floor in my bedroom. "Every time I'm happy…or you see somebody else happy…you don't seem to want them happy," I said. "Why is that? I try to be myself and not let anybody get the best of us. Because I have a family and we're supposed to have each other's back no matter what. If you don't want me happy and back from the dead to be with you and my kids, forever. I'll just go back to the underworld, where I belong," I said, matter-of-factly.
Lightning flashed outside the closed draped curtains in our bedroom. As I walked over to the bedroom window. Open the blinds. I turned to look out at the cold, dark rooftop at the two-story floor drop to the backyard. I saw if I dropped to the ground, I could jump into our six-feet deep swimming pool. I could easily survive the drop. I started to climb out the window and plummet to my death…