• I liked my normal life. I was perfectly content sitting at home reading a book, or going out to get groceries like any normal person would. My view of normality changed once I woke up that traumatic morning. My twenty one year old roommate, Ann, was sitting sideways in her favorite Lazyboy in the living room as she did every morning, her short blonde hair nearly touching the floor.
    "Hey, Marie." She yawned. "There's a package for ya by the door."
    "A package?" I asked. "I wasn't expected anything."
    "Well you got something." I walked to the door and found a box that ran up to my knees (And I am fairly tall!). "I found it outside this morning. It had your name on it."
    "Mariam." I read aloud. Other than the word fragile stamped onto it my name was the only thing on the box. I grabbed some scissors from my desk and cut the tape open. Curious, Ann raised her head up to look.
    "What's in it?"
    "It's...What are these?" Hundreds of tiny hollow chips each with strange markings carved into them. Ann finally got out of her seat and looked into the box.
    "I don't know, I've never seen something like them before!" She picked one up. "But they look cool!"
    "I'll take it to the post office later." I said, smoothing out my hair. "Maybe they'll know what it is." Ann shrugged.
    "Doesn't seem like a big deal to me, Marie. Maybe they're just little collectible chips, and we got someone else's box top prize or something!" I rolled my eyes and walked into the kitchen.
    "How many people do you know have the name Mariam?" Ann shrugged. "And who's going to mistake our address? We practically live in the middle of nowhere." Ann waved her hand like she was swatting at a fly.
    "Ah, you have no imagination, Marie!" I took the egg carton out of the fridge. "Two please!" Ann said laying back on the lazyboy and turning on the TV. I smiled. Ever since I remember she was always like a big kid. That after noon I taped the box back up and carried it out to my old beat up Saturn and tried to put it in the back seat. I wasn't too surprised to find it didn't fit. I heard something behind me. I turned and saw a huge buck, about three yards away, staring right at me. I almost had a heart attack! It was normal to see doe wandering around where I live, but never a buck! I couldn't take my eyes off the thing! And it just kept staring back at me!
    "Ann!" I shouted. "Come here quick!" I could hear the door slowly creek open. "What is it Mar- Oh my God!" The buck snorted. "Marie! Get outta there, now!"
    The buck charged, its antlers aimed right for me! To this day I still don't know why I did it, but I picked up the box. I held it as tight as I could and darted to my house with it! The buck crashed into my car with full force, leaving a nasty mark. I tripped on the porch barely escaping. I quickly picked up the box again and flung it inside. I heard the buck charging again and quickly ran inside myself.
    "What did you do to it?!" Ann asked.
    "Thanks I'm just fine." I said looking over some nasty scrapes. "I didn't do anything to it! It just attacked me!" A loud bang came from the door.
    "It must be having a really bad day!" she shouted. Another bang sounded from the kitchen wall. "What was that?!" Ann ran over to the window and slightly moved the drapes to look outside. "It's a bear!"
    "A bear?! What the hell is a bear doing here?!" I looked out the window on the other wall, and there is was! Trying to break into our house! Not only the buck and the bear, but even more animals were coming! Cats, dogs, squirrels and a whole lot of birds!
    "Marie, I'm scared!" Ann said, shivering. "What do they want?!" I ran back into the living room and tore off the tape with my nails.
    "I think they want the chips!"
    "Why would they want those?!" A loud crash in my bedroom. Bird squawks and barking blasted through our small home.
    "Just help me throw this outside!" Ann tried opening the window but two giant dogs were waiting for her, growling and snarling. I pushed the box up to the window.
    "Okay," I shouted over the animals. "Were going to have to throw it out!" She grabbed on to one side I grabbed onto the other and at the count of three we flung the box out the window.
    The animals ran after it as quickly as they could. I looked behind us and all the animals inside our house were stampeding down our hallway. I grabbed Ann and ducked as quickly as I could behind the kitchen counter. As soon as all the noise had gone down I peeked over the counter.
    The house was a wreck, but silent. I looked out the window. They had gone as quickly as they came. Only the buck could be seen, walking away. It looked back at me once more and snorted.