It took me long enough, but I finally got it up. I wrote this at night when I was really exhausted, so there may be a lot of problems with it. Just point them out for me. I need to sleep. Maybe I'll dream about part 5.

Part 4

I didn’t sleep well that night. I woke up a couple times from nightmares of what gift Mabel would send me next. I didn’t know if I felt any better when morning came ‘round.

We were to stay home again today. I wasn’t going to read my book, thinking horrors were getting to my head. Instead, I went downstairs to the basement and killed some people on a computer game. I couldn’t wait to kick some butt, being one of the best players among my friends. However, I was getting frustrated at the number of deaths I had after only ten minutes. I couldn’t concentrate on the game. My hands kept shaking and my shoulders were tensing to the point where my neck started to ache. Where were Mabel’s massages when I needed them?

I growled as my character fell to the ground, shot by a distant sniper. I banged the table in anger, my head landing on the keyboard in frustration. I couldn’t kill a single guy. I heard the familiar ring that told me my character was alive again.

I sat back up and walked my character through the silent room when my hand shot up to my right ear. I grimaced as the familiar earache returned. For years before, I’ve had ear infections and such. One year, my eardrum itself popped and I had to stay home from school due to the mess it made. Of course, I didn’t expect such a tragedy, though I knew the pain well and didn’t like it at all.

I closed the game after I died for the hundredth time and walked upstairs. The ear pain faded by now, but I was ready for when it would return. It never came to hurt me only once. It would come back to taunt me again.

“Phil, could you go fetch Teddy?” Mom said when I arrived in the kitchen where the delicious smell of hamburgers was calling me. “He ran off somewhere, and I’m afraid he’s attempting the staircase again.”

“Where’s Sara?” I asked, peeking over my mom’s shoulder. She was cutting up tomatoes as we spoke.

“Watching Susie in the living room,” Mom replied. “Go fetch Teddy now.”

I sighed and left the kitchen. I passed the hallway where I heard Susie say, “Barbie! It’s Barbie!”

“Yeah, it’s Barbie,” Sara repeated dully. I glanced in the room as I passed. Sara was reading her book as Susie stood in front of the TV, her mouth hanging open.

I turned the corner and stopped in front of the staircase. There was Teddy, lifting his stocky leg up over and over, trying to climb up that first step. I leaned on the wall, watching with amusement. Teddy grunted and slapped the green carpet with his hand before trying several times more to hop up onto that stair.

My face scrunched up as I took a big whiff of something unpleasant. I turned away and down the hall. “Mom, Teddy’s got a late Christmas present for you!”

“Can’t you take care of it?”

“Like I would open your gift…”

I heard my mom sigh irritably. “Then come watch the grill,” she said in exasperation. My mom stormed past me for the stairs as I entered the kitchen once again. I walked up to a cabinet and took out a bottle of ear medicine. Taking two red and green pills out, I swallowed them whole with a cup of water.

I leaned against the counter, listening to the hissing hamburgers upon the grill. Grease dropped into a thin try underneath. My stomach growled at the thought of a thick hamburger for lunch, piled with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. I had been waiting all week for such a meal and couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into one of Mom’s hamburgers.

“Hey, Phil, look at this!”

I walked away from the grill and peeked into the living room. My face fell as I stared at the glossy blue present in Sara’s hands. I retreated immediately into the kitchen, pretending I didn’t see, though I knew that was a hopeless cause.

I heard Sara enter the kitchen, saying, “Phil, it’s for you.”

“Where’d you find that?” I asked, refusing to look at her.

“Under the Christmas tree, of course.”

“Stop lying,” I said, frustrated. I lifted the lid of the grill and flipped the hamburgers as Sara continued to speak.

“I’m not lying, Phil,” Sara said sternly, sounding too much like Mom. “Just take the present. It’s from Mabel. What would she think if you refused her gift?”

I scowled and looked at her. “Something’s not right about those things. They may look cute, but they’ll be the death of me. I’m not opening it.”

Sara glared at me and I refused to look into eyes cloned from Mom’s. “Mabel will be coming home in a few days. Are you just going to stop opening them? What will you tell her?”

“I already know what they are!” I snapped. I leaned against the counter, calming myself before I spoke again.

“Just open it,” Sara said exasperatedly, walking closer to me and holding it out. “Nothing bad seems to happen when you open them, except you go a little crazy. That’s only for a short time, though.”

“Don’t jinx it,” I muttered, glaring at the box in Sara’s hands. She didn’t reply. I sighed before taking it from her and walking to the wooden table.

“You open it,” I insisted, stepping back.

Sara pushed me back to the table. “Don’t be an idiot,” she snapped.

I clenched my teeth with annoyance. I flipped one piece of tape off the end before glaring at Sara. I tore the next piece and continued as so. Soon the paper was finally off the box. Sara was more than ticked, her hands on her hips and her toe tapping anxiously. I smirked before staring back at the box.

After long minutes, I removed the final piece of tape and dramatically lifted the flaps of the box. Four tiny birds of different colors lay within the box.

I screamed and doubled over as my right ear seemed to have burst. The pain was excruciating. Both my hands clapped over it, my eyes shut tightly, trying to endure the pain. I couldn’t, though. It had never hurt this much, and I didn’t know how to handle it. I felt myself drop to my knees. Behind the loud beating in my ear, I could hear faint screams that never seemed to end.

I took a deep breath when I felt my lungs constricting. I opened my eyes and yelled again at the sight of blood spilled in front of me. I scooted away in a panic, my hand fully covering my ear. The screams continued, as did the throbbing. Those pills had done squat to heal the earache earlier. In fact, it seemed to have made it worse.

“Make it stop!” I screamed with fear. Tears flood down my eyes as I leaned against the wall. “Make it stop!”

Breathing was the least of my worries. I only took a deep breath when my lungs begged me. My knees were up to my chin as I cried on the kitchen floor. I felt the warm blood flow through my fingertips and down my arm. “Make it stop!” I continued to yell over the distant screams.

“Phil! That’s enough!”

I felt something nail me in the side and I fell over, flat on my face. My breathing was heavy, and it was the only thing I could hear. No more throbbing, no more screaming, no more crying. I lay on the floor, thankful that it was all over. My eyes closed as I felt the comfort of the cool kitchen floors on my cheek.

“Phil, get up!”

I didn’t want to. I was slow to obeying. The command was repeated twice before I finally budged. I sat up and stared up at Mom who glared straight back at me, hands on her hips. She was furious, I could tell, but I didn’t care. No blood was seen anywhere and my ear felt perfectly fine. However, sweat beaded my face and my breath was still quick.

“Get up, Phil! Stop worrying your sister—the joke’s over.”

It wasn’t a joke, I thought to myself, but I didn’t say anything to Mom. With the chair as my support, I stood on two feet and stared at the box on the table. Four birds of blue, red, black, and green sat inside. Four Calling Birds.

I heard the scream echo in the back of my mind as the three words repeated themselves over and over…

Make it stop...

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My ear hurt the entire time I wrote this. (The ear infection thing was written from experience ) Anyway, I'm kind of worried I spent too long explaining the horror part of this. Let me know about that. Er...I can't think right now. Tear it to bits. ^^