Darkness surrounds me, and I can't see anything. "Hello?" I try to say, but I don't hear my voice. I try to speak again but the words just won't leave my mouth.

"Damn It Zephyrus," a voice comes from the Darkness. "What in the world were you thinking?! No that's right you weren't thinking. You never think. Heh, why am I not surprised."

...Dad? But, it can't be.. I try to call out to the voice in the Darkness, but my body just won't respond.

*sob* "Why Angel?" A second voice..female.. Is that...mom? "All we want is for you to grow up the right way and be happy. Why do you continue to fight us every step of the way?" The sadness in her voice makes me want nothing more than to just apologize profusely.

Then I realized...This sounds...strangely familiar. Then it hit me, a bolt of lightning; this is the last conversation I had with my parents... No, that's not why it's familiar. This is a conversation I've had with them far more times than I can count. Upon that realization, the Darkness slowly fades away and I realize that I'm standing in my old living room, facing the judge and the jury. The tension in the room was palpable to say the least, suffocating to say the most. My dad, standing with his arms crossed tapping his foot, his usual stance when I do something to piss him off. Except this time, instead of his red faced, shocked, and obviously miffed facial expression, the look on his face just looks...disappointed and somber. And my mother? I look at her face for a split second, and instantly regretted it. She had obviously been crying. Hard. Her eyes were swollen and bloodshot. Her hair was a birds nest and she was in her favorite baby blue bathrobe, so she had obviously just woken up. A look at the clock confirmed my thoughts: 3:17 AM.

"Answer your mother Zephyrus and look her in the eyes, or do you not have the respect to do even something as simple a task as that?" In all of my observations, I had forgotten she had even spoken to me, the whole thing just seemed... Surreal. Just as I was going to ask her to repeat the question, someone else asked it for me

"Oh I'm sorry," a voice from behind me says in a rather bored and sarcastic tone. "What was the question?". I turn to see who had intruded uninvited upon my quasi-trial, and I'm surprised to see...me. At least, a younger version of me. He- rather, I'm standing there in my signature white hoodie and black jeans, my ruby red eyes gleaming with disrespect, my muzzle set in a smug smirk that looked ready to spit a pipe bomb ready to blow, and I wasn't disappointed. "I wasn't really listening. You lost me at," and he did something that I would never imagine do- well, something I just couldn't believe. He put his face in his paws and cried : "Why oh why Angel! Oh the Humanity! We just want to help you. Blahdy Blahdy Blah." By this time he had dropped his paws had a sinister smile on his face. With a sick chuckle, like he was laughing at a morbid joke, he scoffed, "Oh come on mother, please tell me you didn't think I was gonna fall for that sob story? If so, heh, you must not be as smart as you think you are. In fact, you might be as dumb as you look." He finished with a triumphant smile on his face...No...this isn't me..is it? There's no way I would say something like this...not to them. I was a smartass but not even I would go this far...right? But it looked like I wasn't done.

"That's what's wrong with you people. You people think you can just change and bend me to your will. You think you can just control me like some sick puppet masters. News flash, I'm not a part of your system. So you better jus-

"THAT'S ENOUGH ZEPHYRUS!" Both of us jumped at the sound of my dad yelling. He never yells, ever. I- he, I say he because I refuse to believe that me and this monster are the same person, was no longer smiling. In fact, for the first time this whole conversation, he looked scared. "Just look at what you've done to your mother!" My father said as he motioned to my mom. She was in tears on the floor. She looked...broken.

"I've failed...I've failed as a mother," she kept muttering to herself, over and over again. Once again, I regret looking. And by the looks of past me, he did too. The disrespect gone from his eyes, and a look of guilt and shame replaced it. I thought if nothing else, this would shut him up and get him to apologize seeing as I didn't have the power to. But alas, I was being too optimistic. The look of regret and empathy left as quickly as it had come and was replaced by a look of pure rage and defiance as he saw his father go to comfort his mom. I don't get it though, I don't see why I, or he, or whatever; we, would be mad at such a sight.

"No honey, you haven't failed. This isn't your fault. If anything I... I should have disciplined him more. Yeah, that's right, this is my fault. Not your fault," father said caressing mother's hair as she cried heavily into his chest, staining his shirt with her ever flowing tears. Did I really cause all of this? All of this from one mistake? This just doesn't make any sense...Damn it..Damn it! If only I could have been smarter and thought my actions through. I shouldn't hav-

*clap*... *clap*... *clap*

I turned to see my younger self...clapping, and no, not the, "Good show, jolly good show!" kind of clap. It was a sarcastic, eerie, slow clap that echoed throughout the house that was silent save my mother's cries. Why don't I remember this? I don't remember doing or saying any of this...

"Oh bravo, bravo. Another great performance." Shut up... "Very inspirational, really." I said Shut Up! "In fact, you really had me going there for a second. Really." SH-

"SHUT YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH"

*smack*

The sound of my father's fist hitting my younger self right in his face vibrated throughout the whole house. My mother ran out of the room as my counterpart fell to the floor with a resounding thud, clutching his face, with a blank and emotionless expression.

"You...you hit me", he said, all the animosity from before was gone. I looked toward my father to see him standing with his fist frozen at the point of impact, trembling.

" Son I.. I didn't mean to.. I'm so-"

"I hate you...", my younger self muttered so quiet you could barely hear him. The three words no parent ever wants to hear from their child, three words I swore I would never utter towards my parents, no matter how much they got on me, or how hard they came down on me. Time stopped then, and my father slowly lowered his fist and stood up straight

"...w-what? What d-d-did you say?" My father stammered, hoping he had heard incorrectly. Hoping that he had not, in fact, heard those words come out of his son's mouth.

"You heard me...I hate you...I fucking hate you! I wish you would just drop dead!" My past self said as he got up. "Just go out and die! No, better yet, kill yourself! No one would even miss you!" He said as he walked out of the door.

I watched as my dad just crumbled to the floor in a heap, thinking the monster had left for good and started...crying? There's...there's just no way. I've never seen my dad cry before, never. It was unheard of that Joseph E. Davison would ever be caught dead with tears in his eyes. He was the macho man who never showed pain or fear. "Superman" people called him. Now here he was, in a pile crying because his own flesh and blood had grown to resent him.

"What have I done?" He said through his tears. "By God, what have I done?" I wanted nothing more than to walk up to him and tell him that he has done nothing wrong, that this was all my fault, but I knew my efforts would be futile. As a matter of fact, it turned out that I wouldn't even get the chance to try, because not long after my father uttered the last words I would ever hear him say, because as soon as I thought about talking to him, he started to drift away. The room started to fall apart as I tried to run and cry out to him, but as I thought, my efforts were indeed in vain, as no matter how hard I tried, my body just wouldn't respond.

The floor beneath me fell through, and I started free falling back into the Darkness. As I fell, all I could hear were the cries of my mother and father echoing throughout the Darkness that was claiming me once more.

Then I heard a different sound. A sound that tore through the Darkness, bringing with it a blinding light that brought me out of my free fall; my alarm clock. I opened my eyes to see my bedroom ceiling and that abnormally loud buzzing bringing me from my not so peaceful slumber. I wipe the cold sweat from my face with a sigh.

"That's right, today's Monday." I say aloud. First day of attending Elmore Jr High. Great, just what I needed.