Birthday Surprise

It is an early weekend morning like every other. This one, however, is different from all the rest. Tommy, a 7-year-old boy with brown hair, wakes up. He looks around his room. It is what every other 7 year old boy’s room would look like. A sports team wall decor, a toy chest full of Legos and other toys, and posters of superheroes. He laid in bed but he jumps up from his bed, excited. Today is the day. Today is Tommy’s birthday. He opens up the curtain and the sun shines in his dark room. It is going to be a great day. Tommy smiles and rushes out of his room.

The kitchen is a bright room with sunflower yellow walls. We see a beautiful woman in her 30’s mixing up a batch of pancake mix. She pours it in a frying pan. The pancake mix starts to turn golden brown as pancake aroma fills the kitchen. Her name is Gwen and she is Tommy’s Mother. She grabs a handful of chocolate chips. One by one, the chocolate chips fall into the pancakes. She can smell the exotic smell of chocolate. She smiles as she looks over at a picture of her family on the refrigerator. Her smile begins to fade as she sees a younger picture of Tommy and her husband James. She looks closely at James and shakes her head. Tommy rushes into the kitchen.

“Good morning, Mom!” He cheers with joy.

Gwen quickly raises a smile. This is Tommy’s day. Nothing will ruin it.

“Good Morning, Sweetheart!” Gwen answers back. She blankets him with an enormous hug.

“I still can’t believe you are turning 8 years old. It felt as it were yesterday that brought home that cute big cheek baby.” Gwen smiles as she knows that it annoys Tommy when she says things like that.

“MOM!” Tommy shouted with embarrassment. Gwen giggles as she stands up to finish making his breakfast.

“Come on, breakfast is almost ready.”

Tommy could smell the aroma of chocolate chip pancakes. He closes his eye and gives a giant grin. As he closes his eyes, he hears a little whisper. Tommy opens his eyes and looks around. He hears a little crackle sound. It sounds like it is coming from the laundry room. As he walks closely to the room, he feels the cheerfulness of the kitchen disappearing. Instead, he feels a cold and dark feeling. He goes to the door of the laundry room. He opens the doorknob very slowly. He turns it, looks and nothing is there.

“SWEETHEART!” A voice cries out.

Tommy jumps for second, only to see his mother.

“What’s wrong?” Gwen asks.

Tommy looks back at the room as he shakes his head.

“Nothing, Mom. I thought I just heard something.” Tommy replies back with a happy face.

Gwen gives a puzzled look grin. “Go on, eat your breakfast.”

Tommy sits down at the table to eat his, chocolate chip pancakes. Gwen’s cell phone rings. Gwen goes over and picks it up. She looks at the phone. It is James, Tommy’s father.

“Hello?” Gwen rolls her eye. “What?!”

Tommy turns around and looks at his mother. He knew both of his parents were having trouble getting along. He didn’t like that.

“James, No! You better make it today!” She pauses for a moment. “You promised him that you were going to make it!”

Gwen’s voice faints as Tommy goes into thought. Tommy’s excitement begin to fade as he is sitting there emotionless.

Tommy looks in the mirror while brushing his teeth. He looks down to spit. He looks back up and sees a horrifying in his mirror. It has pale white skin with some red on its skin. It is wearing black clothes with a black hat. Its eyes were gray as smoke, and no pupils. The worst of it is the monster’s grin. They’re are rotten, and grotesque teeth that are stuck in a smile. It is the most evil grin that Tommy had ever seen. The monster’s hand is moving up closer, up to Tommy. Tommy screams in horror as he jumps back towards the door.

Gwen hears Tommy screaming upstairs as she is washing dishes in the sink.

“Oh my God! TOMMY!”

Gwen drops the dishes and starts running.

Tommy is laying on the floor scared looking as we hear Gwen calling for his name. The Monster is looking back at Tommy with his hand up to grab him.

“TOMMY!” Gwen runs through the dark hallway and rushes into the bathroom.

She sees Tommy scared on the floor by the door. She crouches down and holds Tommy.

“Tommy! Are you ok?! What’s the matter?”

Tommy is too scared to tell her what he saw in the mirror. He focuses on Gwen as he begins to calm down.

“There is a monster in the mirror and I…”

Tommy looks in the mirror and sees nothing it anymore. Tommy is puzzled. ‘Did he see what he saw?’ ‘Why would he make it up?’ Gwen takes a heavy breath and gets upset.

“Tommy! That was not funny! Just because it’s your birthday doesn’t mean you can play jokes on me!” Gwen gets up and storms out to the bathroom door.

“But Mom I…” Before Tommy could say anything, Gwen cuts him off.

“I don’t want to hear any more of this! Or I promise you, I will cancel your birthday party. Do I make myself clear?!”

Tommy takes a deep breath and lowers his head.

“Yes mam.”

Gwen walks out of the bathroom, still furious. Tommy still remanded standing still, and looking at the mirror.

A few hours pass, and it is time for Tommy’s birthday party. The entire backyard was decorated with balloons and birthday ribbons on parts of the deck, tables decorated in a birthday table cloth with plates and birthday knick-knacks. There is piñata of a donkey on the left of the deck, and of course, many birthday gifts. The children are playing around in the backyard with toys and a variety of sports balls. The women are sitting at the tables, visiting with one another. The men are by the grill, cooking hamburgers and hot dogs. Everyone is having great time. Tommy, however, is not. Tommy is sitting at the middle of table by himself in deep thought. Tommy can’t shake the feeling of what he saw in the mirror.

“TOMMY!” He hears a deep growl of his name.

Tommy turns around in fear but sees another young boy looking at him. It was another 8 year old boy named George. George is Tommy’s best friend since kindergarten.

“Come on, Tommy! Let’s go play.” George said as he holds a football in his heads.

Tommy looks at the backyard and sees his friends playing,

enjoying themselves. He sees his friends waving to him in slow motion.

“Come on, Tommy!” a boy cried out.

“Come join us!” a girl says.

Tommy shook his head, as he felt dizzy. George looks at Tommy with a puzzle look, knowing that there’s something wrong with Tommy.

“Are you ok, Tommy?” George asked.

Tommy looks at George in the eye. He wants to tell him so bad about the horrible creature but he knew that George will think he is crazy.

“Sure, let’s go play.” Tommy said emotionless.

George stops and looks at Tommy, knowing that something is wrong with Tommy. Tommy begins to throw the football around and run with his friends. Tommy freezes as he sees the other guest in slow motion as they enjoy the party. One man hanging up the piñata. A little girl eating a hot dog. ‘What is going on?’ Tommy thought. Tommy hears a faint whisper from a far.

“Tommy.” It hisses.

Tommy looks around and still sees the guest in a weird slow motion.

“Tommy!” as the whisper hisses a little louder. Tommy then snaps out of it and the guest are moving regularly.

“Ok everyone! It’s time for the birthday cake!”

Everyone stops what they were doing and made their way to the deck. George walks up to Tommy and whispers.

“Ok, what’s going on with you?”

Tommy just shakes his head and walks back to the birthday table. Tommy sits in the middle chair as the cake is in the middle of the table. The cake is a big, round chocolate cake with a lot of colorful icing and sprinkles. Gwen lights up a big number 8 candle. George and the rest of Tommy’s friends sit down on the tables, while the adults stand up. The guests start singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Tommy. Tommy is feeling nervous as he looks at his entire guest. As Tommy is about to get ready to blow out his candles, he stops and turns his head. James, a man in his late 30’s, walking up at the deck.

“Dad!” Tommy shouted with glee.

James waves back with a smile on his face. Tommy’s face and mood begins to brighten up. Gwen glares at James very angrily as she walks towards James. All of Tommy’s guests begin turning away to not look at the couple, while others begin to whisper.

“Where were you?!” Gwen roared.

“I’m sorry I was late, I…” James tries to explain as he puts his hands up. Gwen cuts him off before he could say anything.

“No, I don’t want to hear this anymore James!” Gwen yells at James.

James gets angry and the two start arguing silently in the background. Tommy is watching from a far, hurt by seeing his parents arguing. He looks around as he sees guest begin to whisper among them. One of the mothers of Tommy’s friends comes up to Tommy.

“It’s alright, sweetie! Make a wish!” She whispers.

There’s only on wish he ever wanted, he thought to himself.

Tommy looks at the candle. He leans in to blow it out. As he blows it out, everything begins to go into slow motion as it did before. He overlooks and sees that his parents stopped arguing and are standing there silently. Tommy gives a faint smile. A piece of cake and a hand comes from Tommy’s right. Tommy is more focus on his parents to care about cake at the moment.

“Here’s a piece…” a voice whispers.

Tommy turns to the left to grab his piece of cake. Tommy’s eyes widen up as he sees the monster sitting right next to him.

“…Tommy!” The monster shrieks.

Tommy jumps out of his seat and is screaming. The mother handing Tommy’s piece of cake is puzzled at him.

“Tommy!” She questions.

Tommy kicks over the food and dashes over the table. He knocks over two guests sitting next to him. Tommy runs to the backyard. Tommy’s parents run over towards him.

“Tommy! Tommy what’s wrong?!” Gwen questions as James hold his arms out ready to grab him just in case.

“It’s ok, buddy. Calm down.” James said.

Tommy didn’t answer her. Tommy starts seeing the monster everywhere around him. He sees more than a dozen of the monster all at once. Tommy is shaking in fear as he covers his ears.

“Tommy! Tommy!”

The monster’s voice keeps repeating Tommy’s name. He closes his eyes as tears start coming down. The voices fade out as Tommy focuses. A blanket of rage comes over on Tommy as he jumps on top of the monster. Tommy starts punching it in the face. The Monster gives Tommy a taunting laugh. Louder and louder the voice keeps repeating. Tommy punches in fury as some blood is present on his hands.

“Get away from me! Leave me alone!” Tommy shouts.

James grabs Tommy, as Tommy struggles to fight off the Monster.

“Tommy! For God sakes! What is wrong with you?!” James yells at Tommy.

“That Monster! He wants to kill me!” Tommy screams.

James looks at Tommy very strangely as Gwen looks, and covers her mouth in horror. Tommy looks at his parents as guest with a frighten look towards Tommy. Tommy is breathing heavy, and wonders why they are looking at him and not the monster.

“What’s wrong with you people?! Look!” Tommy shouts as he turns.

Tommy is in shock on what he sees. It isn’t the monster, it is George. George’s face is covered in blood. Tommy looks in horror as he sees his best friend frighten to death by Tommy. Tommy looks at his hands. The deep color red is all over his hands. Tommy is shaking in fear and breathless on what took place. He turns around to look at his guests. The children are in their parent’s arms, terrified. Tommy keeps staring at them with a horrific face.

Hours pass, and it is in the evening. Tommy is lying in bed, emotionless. The room is dark, with only the light from the moon showing through the window. Tommy hears his parents argue about the earlier event. Tommy touches his bruised, wrapped up hands. Tommy turns his head and sees pictures of Tommy and George from a far. ‘How could he have done that to his best friend?’ Tommy bunches up his legs and begins to cry.

“Tommy!” The monster whispers.

Tommy stops crying as he presents a scared face. We hear a cold, dark laughter that plays in the shadows of his room. Tommy grabs a flashlight by the right nightstand. Tommy shines the light towards the room. The light hits the Monster as he appears to the left of Tommy.

“Way to go, Tommy.”

Tommy screams in horror. James and Gwen come rushing in Tommy’s room. We see the lights turn on and the room is more visible. Tommy looks around, with the Monster nowhere in sight.

“Tommy! Tommy, What’s wrong?” James asks.

“He’s back! The Monster is back again!” Tommy said in fear.

“Tommy, Cut that crap out!” James yells at him.

Tommy trying to explain but being cut off by Gwen.

“George is in the hospital thanks to you!” Gwen yells.

Tommy looks over to his right at the doorway. The Monster lurking by door, giving his evil grin towards Tommy.

“He’s right there!” Tommy yells out, pointing towards the door “Please! Look!”

Both James and Gwen turn around and look behind. They don’t see anything.

“Tommy, there is nothing there.”

Tommy couldn’t believe what he was listening to. The monster was still there, laughing.

“Now go to sleep.” Gwen said.

Gwen and James walk out with the room. They leave the door with a tiny opening. Tommy looks back at the Monster. The Monster was nowhere in sight. Tommy hears his parents having another disagreement.

“Please.” Tommy whispers to himself.

Tommy sits there in the dark as he gathers up the covers together. The crack door opens a little wider. The Monster looks into Tommy’s room and gives a grin. Tommy is scared, feeling that he is about to die. The Monster lurks down the hallway. Tommy catches his breath for a moment. He hears a scream from both James and Gwen. Tommy bunches up his covers, so scared to even move. The blood splatters on the wall through the half opened door. Tommy screams in horror. A few seconds pass as Tommy sits in his bed, breathing heavily. Tommy slowly moves out of bed. His feet land on the floor as they move towards the door. Tommy is slowly walking out his bedroom door. He slowly walks towards the dark hallway and down the stairs. We see blood all over the hallways. He makes it towards the living room. He looks in horror and sees both of his parent’s bloody bodies on the floor. Tommy rushes to the floor where his dead mother lies.

“Mom! Oh God please! Mom! Dad!” Tommy cries out.

Tommy holds Gwen’s dead body. Her eyes and mouth were wide open, and the body is covered in blood. He looks over at James’ body. He is on his stomach, with his hand reached out. His eyes were still opened, as most of the blood is soaked through his shirt. Tommy begins to cry, with the pain of loss in his heart. Tommy pauses as he feels the monster is right behind him. Tommy turns around in anger.

“Why?! Why did you kill them?!”

The Monster just looks at Tommy with a dark grin. Tommy stands up and faces the monster.

“Answer Me!” Tommy screams.

The monster walks over towards Tommy and whispers.

“I didn’t kill them, Tommy. You did!”

Tommy froze as his face drops.

“What?”

Tommy looks down at his hands and pajamas covered in blood. He sees that he is holding a giant knife in his hand. The knife is dripping with blood. Tommy looks around for the Monster. The Monster is nowhere around. Tommy puts his hands over his face and starts crying.

“NO! NO!”