I hear the front door open downstairs and dad say loudly that he is home. The plan officially rolls into motion. Quickly I slump down and make myself hang slightly so I am not chocked in the process and make my head dangle. I try my best to make it all look convincing enough, no matter how uncomfortable it was, until I begin to hear footsteps coming up the stairs to the attic.
My body immediately goes still, and I close my eyes and try my best to make it look like I was not breathing. The door is unlocked and quickly slammed open as dad says loudly, "Daddy's home," and he goes silent, "Cassie!"
Dad quickly rushes over to me and unties the rope from the wall and from around my neck before Carter comes running up to see what is going on. Carter pretends to have no clue what is going on and rushes over to me too.
"What happened," Carter asked in a loud sob, "What did you do to her?"
"She hung herself," Dad said in a low voice, "I can't..." His voice was low and shaky, and I had to believe it was a good sign. My plan must have been working.
I felt a pair of hands wrap under me and lift me up off the floor, carrying me out of the attic. These arms are too large to be Carter's so they must be dad's. My legs and arms just dangle from his large muscular arms, swishing and swaying with each step he takes, and my face and shirt grows wet from each tear that falls from his face. Dad is crying because he thinks I am dead? He has never cared about anything he has ever done to me; he must be faking to see if I was just pretending.
When dad's footsteps stop and a door opens, I am gently laid down on a soft cushion and feel dad's dry hands run through my hair and over my cheek. Then he says something that made me feel bad for trying to get away from him. "I'm sorry," Dad says quietly, but I still hear him, "I'm so sorry that what I was doing to you led you to this." I felt my body tense up and I immediately start begging that dad did not feel it. "Cassie, stop pretending. I know you're still alive." He did feel it.
Slowly I open my eyes and see dad on his knees besides me with red, teary eyes looking at me in sadness. He reaches a hand out to me, and I scoot away quickly.
"You remind me so much of your mother, Cassie," He says in a soft voice, "I just want to talk. I won't hurt you anymore; I swear on your mother's grave."
He had to have been serious if he swore on her grave. I node my head and slowly sit up, watching him as his eyes follow mine. Carter walks into the view of the room, looking scarcely at dad and I; since he sees that dad knows I was not dead.
"I have been awful to you, Cassie," Dad begins, and Carter was surprised that dad had actually admitted it, "and I hate the way I treated you. I took out all my anger on you when never did anything wrong. It was never your fault that your mother died then because...it was all my fault."
"Wait, what do you mean your fault," Carter asked, and dad went silent, "Dad?"
"Your mother did not die when she was giving birth to you, Cassie," Dad started to explain and more tears began to stream from his eyes, "I bloody murdered her."
Both Carter's eyes and mine went wide and just stared at him in shock. We were too surprised to speak, but a strange feeling started to run through my body, a heated feeling. My body began to shake with anger at the thought of dad killing mom.
"I was so angry with her after she had you because you weren't mine, Cassie," Dad said, and Carter ran off away from us to his room across the hall, "I have treated you so badly and I feel awful asking you to do me just this one thing." He went into the pocket of my hoodie, pulling out the kitchen knife Carter had put there and puts it in my hand before saying, "I want you to kill me. I want to to run this knife right through my evil black heart."
"No," I tell him and try to put the knife down, "I won't."
He stops me from putting the knife down and points the knife at his neck, "Please, do it for your mother." I did not hesitate and quickly shuck my head again, and he quickly reacted by grabbing my face roughly and pulls my face close to his. "Kill...me," He says more seriously, "...or I'll kill both you and Carter the exact way I killed your mother."
I stayed completely silent after that, feeling more anger in me, and something in my head saying, 'Stab the bastard already, you'll enjoy it. Then his face cold in an instant and his hand started shaking from anger. He releases my face and gives me a large slap before telling me how he killed my mom.
Rage makes me shake even more and make my heart rate rise. "I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed the shit out of her," He yells at me, "Even after she was dead I was still stabbing her over and over again! Then I went and burned her body to make sure no one would find her damn blood body! Everyone thinks that she just died when she gave birth to the baby that doesn't even belong to the husband!"
Still I say nothing, and it gets him more aggravated. He kept going on and on, telling in extreme detail how he killed her that night sixteen years ago.
After he finished, he gave me a long stare and looked towards the door before saying, "Fine Cassie," He says in a weary node, "Then I'll just kill you and Carter." I stop shaking and stare at him for awhile. "Okay, Carter first then."
I felt like I was close to the edge of losing all my sanity. My body shuke with nothing but rage and hatred flowed through me. I would not even give a rats ass if he just killed me, but when he threatened to end Carter's life because I would not kill him, the man who says he is not even my father. The feeling was getting stronger as he kept on, especially when he stood up and walked out of the room.
Ronald, that abusive bastard, kicked open Carter's door, and I did nothing. I did not even bother to look at him now. Carter is shouting at dad, and I hear the shuffling of feet. He is trying to fight Ronald. I though to myself, and Carter is quickly tossed into the living room to my feet.
I did not even flinch when Carter grabs me by my arms and gives my face a scarce look; like he was pleading for me to help him. He stares at me, surprised that I would not do anything, and starts shaking me. "Cassie please help me," He begs as dad...I mean Ronald...rushes back in front of me and grabs Carter by the back of his shirt. Then Ronald wraps one of his arms around his neck and pulls out a pocket knife from his back pocket before holding the blade close to his throat, "Cassie help me! I'm you brother! I took care of you! I protected you!"
There was snap inside of me when he said that last sentence. 'I protected you,' Insanity began to take its toll on me now. I want to kill Ronald and...and Carter too. Ronald spent everyday for the past sixteen years living in the guilt of killing his wife, my mother, and took it all out on me. Carter did take care of me though but...he did stand by while Ronald would beat and cut me. There was plenty of times when he could of let me escape when he would let me out of the attic when the man, I thought was my dad, was a work, but he would not let me because he wanted to make sure Jenny was safe. They both drove me to this. They drove me to the very edge of my sanity. There was none of that left. All that was left was hate, depression, and anger...lots and lots of anger.
My body stopped shaking and only one thought was in my mind. The one awful thought that Ronald wanted me to do so badly. Slowly I stood up, raising the knife up to the height of my neck as I loomed over Ronald with a dull uncaring look wiped across my face. A quick smile went across his and he let go of Carter as he stood up on his feet and spread his arms apart, waiting for me to stab him.
"Go ahead now," Ronald said in a voice mixed with nervousness and glee. I look to his right hand at the pocket knife and took it out of his hand slowly while he looks at me in confusion. "Stab me already!"
I quickly shake my head and give him a spin chilling evil smile. "No," I said in a crazed voice, that made Carter back away from me a bit, and Ronald's smile go away, "I would rather watch you suffer."
With a quick twist towards Carter I flung the kitchen knife towards him and watch as it embeds itself in his chest. A loud squeal escapes his mouth as a large ring of blood began to appear around where the knife penetrated his heart. I let out a laugh, seeing Ronald rush over to him to stop Carter from pulling it out. Carter must of been surprised that I had done that. When he tries to speak, all that leaves his lips is a loud gurgle and a stream of creamy red blood.
"Oh my god Carter," Ronald says with teary eyes as he constantly reaches out to touch him but pull away because he is too scared. Then he looks over at me with fear in his eyes with a small glint of pure hatred, and I simply just smile at it.
A loud evil laugh roars from inside of me and erupts into a wicked cackle. "Get up and fight me," I shout at Ronald who shakes his head after looking at me like I was crazy. I let out a deep sigh and walk right past them both to the hallway and into the attic, grabbing the rope I used to stage my death, before heading back down.
Ronald is crying into Carter's chest as his lifeless body just dangles from off of Ronald's lap with wide cloudy eyes, starring into the distance. As I watch this I let out a small chuckle, which gets Ronald's attention.
"You bitch," He spat and gently laid my dead brother's body on the ground. As he rises to his feet he pulls the kitchen knife out of Carter's chest and stands in front of me, starring me down with eyes filled with no emotion. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get your revenge, Cassie."
Another laugh leaves my lips, and he walks forward, towards me. "You must of thought that I kidding," I told him pocking his belly with the pocket knife hard enough to draw blood, "I said I wanted to watch you suffer." A twisted smile appeared on my face, and he held the knife close to my neck. I chuckled again and did the same thing he did. I felt no remorse; in-fact, I felt amazing. There was just one thing I really wanted to make me the happiest person in the world. It was seeing Ronald laying in a puddle of his own blood, dead. Oh blood...how I want to see more of it. "But then again, I might not want to make you suffer. I just might want to go ahead and kill you now."
I drove the tip of my knife deep through his neck, laughing at the sight of his eyes grow large and blood squirt everywhere. A small string of blood splashes across my face, making me smile, until I feel the knife in his hand stab my shoulder deeply. I scream and yank the knife out off Ronald's throat before thrusting it into his chest and into his cruel heart, making him fall back onto the floor with me on top of him.
While he is clutching at his throat, I cut him open, laughing madly as I cut out his red beating heart. Before I manage to cut his heat out, he stabs me one more time. This time he stabbed me in my side puncturing one of my kidneys, before I just ripped his heart out with my bare hands and threw it across the room. He officially went still and all color left the lights of his eyes, making a cold smile go across my face. Slowly I stood up, starring down at my work, and feel sick all of a sudden. I came to my senses, realizing what I have done. I killed them...
...I killed Carter too.
