The Totem

The laughs of my mother and nan bounce off the walls within our living room, filling my insides with a warm fuzzing feeling. My lips begin to form a smile as I throw my arms around her.

“Oh that reminds me” She said, as her wrinkled hand disappeared within her velvet purse. “This is for you my dear”

My eyes widened as I looked at the wooden object, carved to resemble a mask, in her hand.

“What is it?”

“Oh I’m not quite sure” She said furrowing her eyebrows “I believe your cousin found it whilst he was exploring the caves of Egypt, he wanted you to have it for your tenth birthday”

The palms of my hand began to wrap around the object only to be struck with a burning sensation which travelled up my arm causing me to drop it.

“Louis!” Mom yelled “don’t throw gifts bought for you, go to your room”

“But-“

“No buts”

Feeling my heart sink within I reached for the object and marched upstairs. Closing my room door behind, I placed the carving onto my desk and traced the outlines with my fingertip.

“this is all your fault” I scuffed, whilst jumping into bed.

“…that’s not nice…” a voice whispered, and I hid my head below the sheets. The blood rushed to the tips of my fingers and my mouth became dry.

“W-who’s there?” I uttered

“...Did you hear that?” It asked, but nothing happened “… that’s my Dad calling… he said its dinner time.”