WM Topic: Cry little sister.
I've never been much of a man to settle. Take less than what I want? Are you serious? I take more than I could ever have use for. Why would anyone be surprised when I look over Santa Carla from the bluff at all those pretty twinkling lights, knowing that underneath them all is another walking body just waiting to die? Knowing, deep down, that I could have it all under the palm of my hand, ready to crush it if I want, or let Star grow her little weeds in it. If you'd met me for the first time, you'd probably think I was in charge. My gang followed me loyally and without question. The Boardwalk knew my face and feared it. Hell, you should see the file their fat security guards have on me. Yes, one would think that there was no place in this rinky-dink town locked away from me.
That's the way it should've been, anyway, but the truth is even I worked for someone. Get this? He owned a video rental store. How embarrassing is that? Big bad killer answering to mister 'Gone With the Wind is two days overdue'. It's all part of his cover, though. The big guise. He ran the behind-the-scenes, I owned the night. It wasn't too shabby a deal if you ask me, until the heat gets put on us and he yanks my leash. Oh, he's got a hell of a yank, too. Max has this gift, I guess you could call it, of finding out certain events that happened within your life and making you live in it over.. and over again, until you're too weak and beaten down to resist. Talk about not fighting fair.
There was a time I recall that I was finally fed up with the service I was in. I wanted more, and I wanted out. So after waiting for him to return home from whatever he had done that night, I appeared from the shadow of his doorway and told him, "Max, I'm out, and the pack is coming with me. If you want to stop us that's fine, but it's five against one. You make the call."
The look he returned to me was not one I was expecting. Smiling that charming smile of his, he removed his glasses and shook his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. "David, David, David," he sighed, clicking his tongue, "this was not something I wanted us to go through. I should've known that a boy like you would need some discipline."
"Is that a threat?" I questioned with a challenging smirk.
Max laughed, though his laughter appeared artificial. His eyes locked into mine. "Trust me when I say this," he began and that was when I could feel the blood inside of me boil upon his command, "this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you."
A blink was all it took. It was as if I had been awakened from some bad nightmare and I was in the mind of a nine year old all over again. Beneath my toes, I could feel the soft grass, and the air I breathed was sweet and warm. This wasn't a place I wanted to be. I knew what would happen, yet I continued onward as if I was completely unaware, seeking my destination, my mind working the way any child's does:
She promised to meet me that night in the thicket behind her house. Hailey, that is. She was a grade below me. Strawberry blonde pigtails and freckles, a contagious laugh, and not too fine a tomboyish way but she wasn't afraid to get dirty. This was someone whom I met on the playground at school. I learned that she lived only a street down from me. From the moment she shoved me in the sandbox and I shoved her back there was chemistry. She was my best friend in the whole world. We never kissed or nothing like that because that's just gross; we were kids, but she could understand me like I could understand her. We did everything together. We had our own secret spot in the woods behind her house, too. Up in a tree we built a fort there. It was somewhere we could escape to when we didn't want to be around nobody. Her dad wasn't feeling well, she would tell me. It was strange how her dad was always sick.
"Hailey!" I called out, but only the squeaky sound of my voice echoed in the woods and back to me. She said she'd be here. Why isn't she here? Why isn't Hailey here? My eyes scanned the dimly lit thicket, but I felt it at the pit of my stomach. Something was wrong. As I stepped closer to the ladder that led up to our tree fort, I could see something. It was just sort of hanging there sort of like where we were going to put a tire swing. A strangely shaped object suspended by a big rope.
I froze in place. Even though I couldn't see it all the way in the dark, I swear I knew what it was. The silence of the woods wasn't broken even by the soft breeze that ruffled the fallen leaves that crunched underfoot as I walked closer. "Hailey?" I asked quietly, as if something in my brain was telling me that she was just playing around. Of course there was no answer. When I stood close enough to touch her, I couldn't do anything else but look at her, just hanging there by the rope around her neck that someone had tied into a noose. I touched her shoulder and it turned, bumping against the tree trunk. Her strawberry blonde hair was messed up and draped over her face so I, with my hand trembling, pushed it back to see her. With a yelp, I jumped backward. She was staring at me and looking at nothing. Her face was blue and her lips puffy, her eyes red and unmoving, bulging. Even though her head was twisted awkwardly by the snap of the noose, I just knew it wasn't broken and that she had strangled to death. I didn't know how I knew, I just knew.
I felt physically sick. I wanted to throw up right there but my fast, shaky breaths and the ache of my heart pounding so hard wouldn't let me. Instead I just fell to my knees, held my hands to my head, and cried. I didn't want to be here. I wasn't here. This couldn't be real. "H-Hailey..." I pleaded, praying that she would laugh and tell me it was a joke at any minute. Any minute now and my friend will be here with me. I looked back up at her but she didn't move. That was when I noticed the ripped wound on the side of her neck. At her feet lay a comic book that I let her borrow to read. The cover was torn and there were pages scattered, but the title was still loudly visible: Vampires Everywhere.
I cried out her name again into the night.
It was in that moment that I shot my eyes open. I didn't even know how I got there. One minute I was talking to Max and the next I was lying on the floor, shaking like a damn leaf. Realizing what had happened, I forced my eyes to look up at my sire in shock and disbelief, my vision blurred by the tears that burned my cheeks. How did he have the power to make me relive that moment? How did he even know of it? I stared, even as he offered his hand down to me to help me stand up on my feet. "N.. n.." I stammered, my throat so choked not even my voice would work right.
"I believe we understand each other now, don't we, David?" Max asked me in his familiar parental tone. "I don't think we'll have to worry about this again, will we?"
I touched my cheek with a gloved hand and tore my eyes away from him long enough to look at the fingers that were glazed, not believing that I had actually shed tears. I felt so hollow. Empty. Every bit of that memory that I shoved forcefully into the back of my mind to be forgotten, I felt it all as though it was happening again for the first time. I slowly slid my eyes back up at Max and roughly grabbed his hand, yanking myself to my feet. I had nothing left to say and no argument. I tried to stare at him to regain what dignity and pride I'd lost, but my eyes danced away, those emotions still burning in my brain. Using a single wordless nod as my response, I shoved past him and left to find my bike.
Dying was, I thought, the most horrible experience I'd ever have to face. Looks like the stories are true. There really are some things worse than death.
Cry little sister (thou shalt not fall)
Come, come to your brother (thou shalt not die)
Unchain me, sister (thou shalt not feel)
Love is with your brother (thou shalt not kill)
That's the way it should've been, anyway, but the truth is even I worked for someone. Get this? He owned a video rental store. How embarrassing is that? Big bad killer answering to mister 'Gone With the Wind is two days overdue'. It's all part of his cover, though. The big guise. He ran the behind-the-scenes, I owned the night. It wasn't too shabby a deal if you ask me, until the heat gets put on us and he yanks my leash. Oh, he's got a hell of a yank, too. Max has this gift, I guess you could call it, of finding out certain events that happened within your life and making you live in it over.. and over again, until you're too weak and beaten down to resist. Talk about not fighting fair.
There was a time I recall that I was finally fed up with the service I was in. I wanted more, and I wanted out. So after waiting for him to return home from whatever he had done that night, I appeared from the shadow of his doorway and told him, "Max, I'm out, and the pack is coming with me. If you want to stop us that's fine, but it's five against one. You make the call."
The look he returned to me was not one I was expecting. Smiling that charming smile of his, he removed his glasses and shook his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. "David, David, David," he sighed, clicking his tongue, "this was not something I wanted us to go through. I should've known that a boy like you would need some discipline."
"Is that a threat?" I questioned with a challenging smirk.
Max laughed, though his laughter appeared artificial. His eyes locked into mine. "Trust me when I say this," he began and that was when I could feel the blood inside of me boil upon his command, "this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you."
A blink was all it took. It was as if I had been awakened from some bad nightmare and I was in the mind of a nine year old all over again. Beneath my toes, I could feel the soft grass, and the air I breathed was sweet and warm. This wasn't a place I wanted to be. I knew what would happen, yet I continued onward as if I was completely unaware, seeking my destination, my mind working the way any child's does:
She promised to meet me that night in the thicket behind her house. Hailey, that is. She was a grade below me. Strawberry blonde pigtails and freckles, a contagious laugh, and not too fine a tomboyish way but she wasn't afraid to get dirty. This was someone whom I met on the playground at school. I learned that she lived only a street down from me. From the moment she shoved me in the sandbox and I shoved her back there was chemistry. She was my best friend in the whole world. We never kissed or nothing like that because that's just gross; we were kids, but she could understand me like I could understand her. We did everything together. We had our own secret spot in the woods behind her house, too. Up in a tree we built a fort there. It was somewhere we could escape to when we didn't want to be around nobody. Her dad wasn't feeling well, she would tell me. It was strange how her dad was always sick.
"Hailey!" I called out, but only the squeaky sound of my voice echoed in the woods and back to me. She said she'd be here. Why isn't she here? Why isn't Hailey here? My eyes scanned the dimly lit thicket, but I felt it at the pit of my stomach. Something was wrong. As I stepped closer to the ladder that led up to our tree fort, I could see something. It was just sort of hanging there sort of like where we were going to put a tire swing. A strangely shaped object suspended by a big rope.
I froze in place. Even though I couldn't see it all the way in the dark, I swear I knew what it was. The silence of the woods wasn't broken even by the soft breeze that ruffled the fallen leaves that crunched underfoot as I walked closer. "Hailey?" I asked quietly, as if something in my brain was telling me that she was just playing around. Of course there was no answer. When I stood close enough to touch her, I couldn't do anything else but look at her, just hanging there by the rope around her neck that someone had tied into a noose. I touched her shoulder and it turned, bumping against the tree trunk. Her strawberry blonde hair was messed up and draped over her face so I, with my hand trembling, pushed it back to see her. With a yelp, I jumped backward. She was staring at me and looking at nothing. Her face was blue and her lips puffy, her eyes red and unmoving, bulging. Even though her head was twisted awkwardly by the snap of the noose, I just knew it wasn't broken and that she had strangled to death. I didn't know how I knew, I just knew.
I felt physically sick. I wanted to throw up right there but my fast, shaky breaths and the ache of my heart pounding so hard wouldn't let me. Instead I just fell to my knees, held my hands to my head, and cried. I didn't want to be here. I wasn't here. This couldn't be real. "H-Hailey..." I pleaded, praying that she would laugh and tell me it was a joke at any minute. Any minute now and my friend will be here with me. I looked back up at her but she didn't move. That was when I noticed the ripped wound on the side of her neck. At her feet lay a comic book that I let her borrow to read. The cover was torn and there were pages scattered, but the title was still loudly visible: Vampires Everywhere.
I cried out her name again into the night.
It was in that moment that I shot my eyes open. I didn't even know how I got there. One minute I was talking to Max and the next I was lying on the floor, shaking like a damn leaf. Realizing what had happened, I forced my eyes to look up at my sire in shock and disbelief, my vision blurred by the tears that burned my cheeks. How did he have the power to make me relive that moment? How did he even know of it? I stared, even as he offered his hand down to me to help me stand up on my feet. "N.. n.." I stammered, my throat so choked not even my voice would work right.
"I believe we understand each other now, don't we, David?" Max asked me in his familiar parental tone. "I don't think we'll have to worry about this again, will we?"
I touched my cheek with a gloved hand and tore my eyes away from him long enough to look at the fingers that were glazed, not believing that I had actually shed tears. I felt so hollow. Empty. Every bit of that memory that I shoved forcefully into the back of my mind to be forgotten, I felt it all as though it was happening again for the first time. I slowly slid my eyes back up at Max and roughly grabbed his hand, yanking myself to my feet. I had nothing left to say and no argument. I tried to stare at him to regain what dignity and pride I'd lost, but my eyes danced away, those emotions still burning in my brain. Using a single wordless nod as my response, I shoved past him and left to find my bike.
Dying was, I thought, the most horrible experience I'd ever have to face. Looks like the stories are true. There really are some things worse than death.
Cry little sister (thou shalt not fall)
Come, come to your brother (thou shalt not die)
Unchain me, sister (thou shalt not feel)
Love is with your brother (thou shalt not kill)