365 Days (Part 2) | ✓

288. Sacrifice

288. Sacrifice: Write about something you've sacrificed doing to do something else or help another person.

I'm in two minds about this prompt. On one hand, I think telling someone about a sacrifice you made completely negates whatever that sacrifice was worth. On the other hand, it's 11:30 pm and I still have a chapter to edit, so I can't take long. So...

*

You know what I sacrificed? I sacrificed my safety. I sacrificed my mental health, my sense of self-preservation, and my sanity.

It was 10 o'clock at night. There were lots of shadows outside that could have been home to some killer clowns, for all I know. But the true horror was on the walls of our  porch: hordes or wiggling, beady-eyed geckos eyed me through the glass of the back door. Even more horrorifying (if such a level of horror is possible)? My mother, insisting I go outside into danger to water the lawn.

I don't care about grass;I care about my life.

Geckos would endanger my life, if only by the overwhelming fear I experience while in proximity to them. They are foul, nasty, evil little creatures. And I was expected to walk outside among them.

No no no no no --

You would be amazed at how good my mother is at making me do things.

So I reluctantly tiptoed outside, my heart pouding and my eyes swiveling, convinced there was a gecko behind me that I somehow missed. With an enthusiam totally due to terror, I flung the sprinkler attached to our hose to the place my mother directed me, trying not to think about all of the other creepy things that lingered in the darkness of our backyard. At least my mom's chickens  had already gone to sleep in the coop.

It was a harrowing escape back to the house. I almost didn't make it. Surrounding by evil, I had to run for my life into the safety of my cat-protected home.

Only, this all proved to be completely unnecessary, because as we were still watering the lawn, it started to rain.