Today wasn’t any different. When my mom came home, she saw all the mess my dad had made, so she started berating him. And my dad angrily shouted that he was watching something important on television. Eventually, it turned into another verbal battle royale right before dinner. 

I’d gotten really good at floating. I would just relax and slowly float towards the sky like a rubber duck held underwater. It was really fun and relaxing to me whenever I did that. It just always felt like I was doing aerial gymnastics. 

When I floated through my bedroom window for the millionth time, I smiled at the stellar sight. The sparkling night sky was always so calming to me. And so I stayed there for a while. Just doing nothing and lazily floating around in the numbingly cold air, leaving behind the buzzing sounds of people yelling below me. 

Eventually, Mom called me through the ceiling. Her voice was strained from all the shouting, but she still tried her best to maintain a calm demeanor. I didn’t really want to, but I went down to see what she had in mind. 

“Mel, get down here for a sec.” I was still invisibly floating in the air, but it seemed like she knew exactly where I was. “I know it’s hard, and your father… Well, I won’t sugarcoat it. He’s a lost cause. But please don’t make this any harder for me, Mel. You could at least help out with the chores. You’re also part of this family.”

In the back of my mind, I knew she was somewhat right. But I didn’t want to hear it. My dad was assigned those specific chores and he couldn’t even finish one of them. That was his responsibility, not mine. Whether I lived here or not didn’t matter. He wasn’t able to do it, so why would I clean up after his negligence? Sure, I could just go ahead and make food, clean the dishes, take out the trash, but I absolutely hated the fact that it seemed like my dad was just getting away with everything. Even if my family became happier that way, it would all be fake. It wouldn’t really be true happiness. I firmly believed that my dad had to pay the price for his punishments. Or really, maybe I just didn’t want to care. 

I turned to leave. Floating through one of the windows, I heard my mom yelling a little louder.

“Mel, stop being so childish! I know you’re trying to leave! You’re just like your father!” She pushed past the front door, stomped over to the other side of the window, and grabbed me by the arm. I tried to shove her away, but she held on tightly… And then she embraced me into her arms.

I was a little surprised, but I quickly succumbed to her embrace. My eyes watered as my invisibility wore away. 

My mom wiped a tear from my face. “I’m sorry, Mel. I didn’t mean to lash out like that. Will you forgive me?” 

I nodded earnestly. 

But before I could say anything, she suddenly pushed me into the air. A look of terror filled her eyes. 

I looked on from above as someone dashed out from the streets and rushed towards my mom. My embrace was quickly stolen away from me. 

A quick bite. That was all it took. From the darkness I could only make out a figure of a white-haired female. She crunched down into my mom’s neck. And before I knew it, my mom’s eyes seemed to lose color and she stopped moving all together. 

One thought ran through my mind. An infected! 

The white-haired female seemingly stretched her arms out and sighed loudly as if she had just woken up. She didn’t seem like she was infected. But then why did my mom look like… that? 

In the heat of the moment, I subconsciously reacted in a way I thought was best. I had heard on the news that recently infected individuals could lose their infection if they passed it onto somebody else. I didn’t know how recent, but if my mom was really infected, I had to do something quick. I quickly made myself invisible and flew behind the white-haired female and shoved her forward hoping that my mom would bite this stranger and pass the infection right back to her.  

My mom lunged forward and grabbed the stranger. She bit down into her shoulder. Yes! This had to have worked. 

But the stranger just pushed my mom aside and looked straight into my eyes. Scarlet, red eyes. Glowing like fire under the dimming street lamps around us. I had never seen eyes like hers. I was sure I wasn’t visible, but it felt like her eyes were piercing through my invisibility. 

I felt a shiver run down my spine. Every part of my body signaled danger. But before I could react, she just smiled and quickly disappeared into thin air. 

She’s gone… I quickly peered down. Mom was still the same. All that was different was that she now had a bit of blood around her mouth, but she still didn’t move… She really was infected. 

I didn’t want to admit it, but all the symptoms were there—the pale skin, dull eyes, lack of movement… No… My heart felt like it was falling out of my body. 

I ignored everything. The symptoms, the virus… I didn’t care anymore. I flew down to my unconscious mom and embraced her as tightly as possible. I was being childish. I was hoping for a miracle. Hoping that maybe she wasn’t infected. Maybe she’ll come back because I hugged her. 

And at first, it seemed like it was working. She weakly pulled her arms around me. My mom whispered into my ears, “Your favorite… dinner. I… I got your favorite…”

But then she stopped. Her arms went limp. And the night was quiet. 

“Please…” I held her more tightly within my arms. “Please say something…” The tears wouldn’t stop. I could taste the saltiness in my mouth. “Please don’t leave me… I’ll do all the chores. I’ll be the best son in the world!” But when I looked back into her eyes, she was already gone. 

“No, please… You can’t leave yet! You’re all I have…” I held on for longer. As long as I could. I didn’t know why she didn’t bite me, but I held onto the hope that maybe she was fighting it. Maybe she was winning against whatever this virus was. “There’s still so much that I want to show you!” But she didn’t budge. She never came back. 

After a long while, I slowly let her go. And for the first time in my life, I told her… I whispered quietly to her what I should’ve said years ago— 

“I… love you so much.” 

Then my vision started to blur. And I felt relieved. I thought to myself, maybe she did bite me. Maybe I got infected. Maybe my mom will be… 

And then everything went dark before I could finish my thoughts.