Hi my name is Tess, and I had the weirdest experience when I was really young, when I was 10 years old I had developed a terrible infection in my lungs and I had gotten really really sick so I ended up in the hospital on the night of Christmas, the next day everything started getting strange, I have no memories of leaving the hospital but when I had awakened I was not longer at the hospital I was at home in my bed. After waking up that morning I did my normal routine, brush my teeth, wash my face and then I get ready for breakfast but for some reason I wasn’t hungry like I usually would be, but I knew that I was sick and haven’t really had an appetite so I wasn’t worried, but the thing that bothered me was that every morning my parents usually would come and check on me to make sure that I was up for school and then my mother would always prepare my lunch while I was getting dressed, but for some strange reason when I went downstairs to the kitchen there was no lunch prepared for me to take to school, and what made matters worse my parents were nowhere to be found as if they had totally forgotten about me like I wasn’t even there, so I really didn’t know what to think at that point. Since I wasn’t hungry I decided to go back to my room to play with my dolls, Although I wasn’t hungry I was not feeling sick like I were the night before, strange but I was glad that I were starting to feel better. Before I went to my room I looked out the window in the hallway to see if my parents cars were gone and oddly they were, and I felt so confused because I was wondering why my parent didn’t check on me before leaving the house. So after playing with my dolls for a while I decided to take a nap, but I couldn’t fall asleep, it started to get late and I noticed my parents still weren’t home yet which was strange because my parents normally goes to bed at 10p.m, and usually would be home from work at 6p.m, I felt even more confused after realizing that my parents didn’t come home to even prepare dinner for me, so I began to worry that something might’ve happened to my parents because they would always check on me especially with me being ill, but I never received a call or didn’t hear from neither. My concern grew stronger after realizing that they had been gone for almost a week and I still haven’t heard from my parents, I decided to call the police but for some reason the police didn’t respond, my mom and dad told me never to leave the house alone so I didn’t wanna go to my neighbors to ask for help but I was so worried and I felt that it was necessary to go ask my neighbors to help me, when I had went to my neighbors house and knocked no one would answer the door, I was knocking for at least 5 minutes before anybody came to the door, but finally someone came to the door and opened the door only to close it right back as if they didn’t see me, I had never felt so alone, I started to feel like I no longer existed in the world and like I was the only one who noticed my parents were missing. So I went back home and locked the door then went back to my room and cried, but oddly I had no tears I didn’t understand anything that we’re going on. Today makes 6 days that my parents were missing and I came to realization that perhaps my parents were nevwr gonna come back home to me, But finally the next morning my parents came home and I were filled with so much joy bit also anxious to hear why they had left me for an entire week without even checking on me or having someone to babysit me because I was only 10, but that excitement quickly changed when I noticed my parents still didn’t pay me any attention, they just went to their room and starting putting on dress clothes like they were leaving me again, I started to get angry because I didn’t have a clue of what was going on, I couldn’t figure out why I was being treated so cruel by my parents, the neighbors and the police what did I ever do to them to deserve this. So this time I vowed that my parents wasn’t gonna leave without me so I decided to sneak out the door and get in my parents car without them knowing it and hide. My parents finally came out the door and gotten in the car they started to drive off, but I noticed that my parents were sad and barely spoke, it didn’t take long for them to arrive at they’re destination, once my parents got out the car I waited for a few minutes before I did, but when I saw the place where they were going I couldn’t understand why they went to church because my parents never go to church on a Saturday, but nevertheless I had to follow them carefully to find out what was going on without being noticed. Finally I arrived inside the church trying to avoid anyone that might know me and my parents, it wasn’t too hard because no one seem to be paying any attention. As I had walked inside the main part of the church, I saw some folded up cards with my picture on it and it read celebration of life for Tess D Gilbert, and I thought maybe my parents were having a party for me since my birthday was the following day, so this may explain why my parents were acting so weird, but what bothered me was that if it was a birthday celebration for me why were everybody in tears, I also noticed that there were 3 different dates on this card one of the dates is the last date I remembered before everything became weird, (December 25), all the evidence were surrounding that day. When I got into the main area I saw a coffin with lots of flowers around it with some of my favorite stuffed animals that I didn’t realize were missing from my room, but I couldn’t see who was in it at first, I didn’t even know that someone had died but why did my parents keep this from me, so I was curious and decided to go see for myself if I at least know that person, but when I got to the coffin I saw that it was me, and then I realized that I had died on the night of Christmas but didn’t know it, all those strange things didn’t happen because no one cared or forgotten me, it happened because I no longer existed in the real world, I had lived for a whole week before knowing that I was dead.
Author: Tisa Gilbert