Phantom-Susan Kay Chapter 1

"Mama, since it's my birthday, I can have a present, right?" He asked, and I nodded. "What is it that you want?" He stuttered, "I want two- two..." He didn't finish. "For Christ's sake, what is it!?" I yelled, impatient with the thing sitting in front of me. I watched as he set the napkin down on the mahogany glazed dinning table. "Kisses... One for now, and one for later..." He replied. I grabbed him and yell at him. I began sobbing. This thing doesn't deserve a kiss. "Why are you crying, mama?" He asked shakily as I pushed him away. "I'm not... Crying." He shook his head, "Yes, you are! You won't let me go outside and you won't give me my birthday present. You made me ask-you MADE me ask-and you say no! I don't want a birthday... I hate birthdays... I don't want a present!!" He ran upstairs, and when he came down, without his mask, he repeatedly asked me why he was supposed to wear the mask. I boiled with anger as I grabbed his shirt, pulling him upstairs. "You want to know why!? Look-LOOK at yourself!" He looked at himself in the mirror, in horror. The malformed yellow parshmented skin he was forced to burden was his new fear. His new nightmare. He suddenly threw himself at the mirror, his fists clenched as he repeatedly hit the mirror with his hands, making the mirror shatter. He broke down in sobs.