Does It Hurt

Leah was in the kitchen alone one morning eating her usual breakfast of a cereal bar and string cheese, while her parents weren’t home. The only people in the house were her, and one other.

Like a tea kettle, she didn’t hear it at first. The whimpers from upstairs. The little gasps. The tiny, tiny expressions of pain. Only when the blaring human alarm of an intense scream went off did she finally jump from her seat, dropping the phone she’d been scrolling through onto the floor covered in her crumbs to run up the stairs towards the direction of the screams, and the awful, rotten burning smell. Finally she reached the unlocked bathroom door and swung it open.

Inside, she found her big sister Ava with the hair straightener on her arm, still screaming. She screamed, too.

“What are you doing?!” She ripped it off her wrist, wincing as she burnt herself in the process before it dropped to the rug. Ava scrambled to pick it back up, but before she could grab it Leah pulled the plug and forced her away from the thing. “Ava… what were you doing?”

Ava didn’t say a word.

“Ava, what’s going on? Talk to me!”

Ava didn’t say a word.

“Oh god, oh god… I’m in trouble… I have to call mom…”

Ava didn’t say a word.

“Let me call mom! And I’m taking this! Don’t do anything!”

She left Ava out of her sight to carry the straighter somewhere else while she dialled Linda.

“Mom? Mom, I don’t know what it is… Ava, she was burning herself with the straightener!”

“…”

“The hair straightener! I took it from her.”

“…”

“I don’t know! She won’t- she won't say anything to me!”

“…”

“I miss her too… I miss my sister.”

“…”

“You’re right. She’s still her. Ava’s still Ava. Always.”

“…”

“I promise I won’t ever let this happen again.”

By the next time the sisters were home alone, Leah had forgotten all about it.

She took even longer to notice this time. First she missed the hiss. Then the crying. Then the yelps. Even the first second of screaming she thought was just the TV before she ran up to find Ava in her room with the scissors.

All of them.

The household had five pairs. One was pinning her hand. One was somewhere in her arm. One was through her cheek. One was falling out of her foot. One was still being placed in her thigh.

Leah screamed louder than Ava even could’ve. It didn’t even occur to her why the door was wide open or how the girl managed to put so many in her before she even began to scream.

The parents promised not to leave as often from then on. Linda even quit her job. Taylor, the father, just spent less time with his friends. It seemed to be worth it- because from that day forward, they never heard Ava scream ever again.

One day Leah was eating that same meal for breakfast again. A comforting breakfast for the worst cold she’d ever had. Itching her stuffy nose, she had just finished when all the water she had drinken began to weigh on her bladder. Like anyone would, she stepped upstairs to the bathroom, about ready for a release.

She hardly had her eyes open. The room was all dark spare a single red light in the center of it- one she didn’t see until it was too late.

She flicked the light on and saw her again.

Ava sat there motionlessly, on the toilet, looking back at her with the straightener on her arm just like before. A rotting, brown, steaming arm- not even making a peep as she smiled at her little sister.