The Beginning

At first I didn't notice the signs of disease with my mom but as time went on the symptoms got worse. My mom began to lose track of time, sleep more, and her blood didn't clot as fast when she was bleeding. I tried my best to keep my mom alive and as time went on I wished her suffering would end. She was bedridden and she couldn't move anything but her eyes and her speech was nothing but groans of pain.

She was crying constantly from what I hoped and assumed was only muscle pain. But when she began to sweat blood, I knew that it was much worse. The blood wouldn't clot and she wouldn't stop crying. The doctors couldn't explain it and our family had been trying to stay away, all of the family but myself. I was determined to save my mom, but the night she died I knew I had to find out why it was always my loved ones.

When I got home I took a long warm shower and thought over what had happened in the past year. My grandparents died of some odd disease they got from Africa, my father died from a new disease that originated in Russia, and my mom had just died from a disease that nothing was known about. 'Why me? Why do I have to have the family that has a terrible immune system?' I thought to myself. As I patted myself dry and combed out my long jet black hair, my phone began to ring in the familiar tone of my best friend.

I answered and right away she said, "I'm so sorry! Can I come over? I just bought your favorite kind of ice cream and I don't have room in my freezer for it."

Somehow she always knew when someone died because she would say the same thing and call the same amount of time afterwards. "Yea, sure. Come on by. It's only me here now." We both laughed at this and I hung up the phone. As I got dressed my mind wandered to the small book my mom always read when she was sitting in the livingroom. She would never let me touch it, I never wanted to either. I walked into the kitchen to wait for Issy, my best friend, to get here and I started to make the chips and dip she always liked and the cups we always drank tea out of. I shook my head at them every time I got them out because they looked like something from a tea set.

I carried everything to the living room along with two spoons for the ice cream and sat it all on the coffee table. I looked over at the small table beside my mom's old rocking chair and saw the book. I stared at it and walked over to see it closer. There wasn't anything written on the side or the cover and I didn't want to touch it because it seemed eerie.

Soon the doorbell rang and I was snapped out of my "book trance." I walked over to the door and opened it expecting Issy but seeing a tall slender man with long shaggy blond hair and dark blue eyes. "Um, hello?" I said looking at him in awe.

"Tallia Burnham? Does she live here?" He says looking in my eyes as though he were a king.

"Why do you ask?" I say trying to sound as brave as possible but his gaze was scaring me.

"She is needed," He says squinting at me like he was trying to see what I was thinking.

"Well, who needs m - her?" I say now more nervous because I almost told him that I was her.

"You're Tallia Burnham?" He asks like he's surprised. Probably because I have hair the length of my torso and I'm currently 5'9 in height.

"Yes," I say eyeing him suspiciously. "Who are you and why are you here?" I feel braver because of his moment of amazement.

"My name is Tallows. I am here to tell you your choice," He says quietly. Like he was either waking up from a dream or hypnotized. I liked both options, they made me more confident.

"What choice?" I ask curiously.

"Your family has died for many years of horrible disease and you have the choice to stop the death or pretend like you never had the choice to begin with." He looks deeper into my eyes and adds, "I hope you want to end it because your soul is very strong."

"Do I have time to decide?" I ask, first, because I need to know, second, because I need time to process.

"You have until the next blood moon," He answers and hands me a small book similar to the one my mom used to read. I looked over to see if it was there and it wasn't, it had vanished.

I looked back at him and said, "What is this book?"

"All questions will be answered within its pages." He says this and then in a flash of what I assume were headlights vanish. I hear a car door slam and next thing I know I'm laying on my couch with the little book clutched in my hand while Issy looks at me from the chair by the television.

The only thing I could get out was the word, "What..."

"I pulled in and you were standing at the door in a daze and then you just collapsed. I barely managed to drag you over here to the couch," Issy says with a small hint of worry in her eyes. "I tried to take that book and put it on the table but you kept muttering something about your family and a curse. I don't really know what that little thing has to do with your family or curses but you were holding onto it for dear life." I listened to her and then looked at the clock, it was 1:30am.

"How long have you been here?" I ask looking back at her.

"About four and a half hours," she says, clearly glad that I'm coming to.

"I'm sorry that you had to be here for so long watching me sleep," I say looking down at the coffee table and putting the book down on it.

"I actually planned on staying the night tonight, though," she says laughing.

I laugh and then try to stand, "Woah!" I say nearly falling over. "I probably shouldn't get up for awhile," I say laughing harder. She could always make me feel better.