Chapter 10
Blame
!Disclaimer!
I don't own Cartman OR Happy Bunny!
I DO NOT OWN COCA COLA!
The flying piggy shoes are from Vans!
GIR belongs to Jhonen Vasquez, and the earring are at Hot Topic! ...Or, they WERE... Haven't seen them in awhile...
Trapt kicks ass!
I don't own Homer Simpson!
Elli woke up to the smell of pancakes wafting through her bedroom door. She unzipped the sleeping bag she had spent hours trying to sleep in and stepped into her Cartman slippers (What the hell's a story without Cartman slippers! ) and trudged to her closet door. She looked back at her bed, where Stu had been temporarily moved for his flu, because Ellen said it would "be more comfortable" for him, even though they had twin beds! Getting Stu to sleep the night before had been the most greusome experience in her life, worse than all the births, measles, and smallpox she'd encountered in her housecalls. Stu had been especially sick because Basil had come over with some crappy herbal medicines, and force-fed the kid every last stem of mint and rosemary. But instead of helping him, it had made him nauscious (sp?), and he had barfed all over Elli, and as if she didn't get enough restless nights with all the murders going on, he had coughed, choked, sneezed, puked, and woken shaky and sweaty from night terrors, ALL NIGHT LONG! Elli rubbed a sleepy eye and tried to make herself think it was just one of the most unpleasant dreams she'd ever had in her life, but she knew that it wasn't true, that she was still stuck taking care of her little midget of a brother. She opened the walk-in closet, slipped inside, and closed the door softly.
Her closet was a girl's paradise, unless you were like her ex-friend, Nikki, who had grown so distant from their friendship that, when Elli had stopped by to make sure she was okay, she had yelled, "I DON'T NEED YOUR FUCKIN CHARITY!" and slammed the door in her face. Elli had never spoken to her again after that, but the drinking and smoking were going to ruin her mind. (She'd just seen Nikki smoking behind the bar the night before, and everyone in town had witnessed how much beer she can get into her system before she collapses. She could outdrink Homer Simpson, for God's sake!) She shuddered to think of what Nikki would look like in a year if she totally lost her mind and took up drugs, She pushed all thoughts of Nikki out of her mind and looked through her shirts for the right one to wear that day. Wednesdays were the best day of her life now, since her boyfriend Doctor was taking her to Mother's Hill every week to gather herbs for medicine, and she wanted to look perfect for him. She chose a tight purple midriff with Happy Bunny with his mouth wide open and jumping, saying "Hooray for guys with money!", purple jeans with embroidered smoke poofs going from the knee down, black shoes with clouds and flying pigs printed across, five rainbow-colored rubber bracelets to each wrist, and dangly GIR earrings. She stared into the mirror and smiled. Today was going to go well, she could feel it! Or... were those nerves? Was something bad going to happen? She shrugged and rushed out of the closet, flicking the light off as she slammed the door behind her.
"WAKE UP, DOOFUS! WE GOTS PANCAKES!" She looked down at her little brother and saw that he was still sleeping.
"Ah well, I tried..." she sighed. She opened the door and stepped into the kitchen, where she was surprised to see her grandmother, Ellen, sitting next to Doctor.
"Doctor! How good to see--" Then she noticed his eyes: they were wide in terror, rolling all around, and glazed over.
"What the hell happened to him?" she muttered, tears coming up as she ran to him and wrapped her arms around his limp body.
"Nikki stopped by carrying him," Ellen said solemnly, shaking her head. "She said that she found him up by Mother's Hill, along with something... er, distrubing..."
"What? What was it?" she said frantically, gently slapping Doctor's face.
"It... it was a body..." Ellen sighed. "And Karen won't be too happy about who it is..."
"Not Jeff!"
"Oh, heavens no! It's Rick, her husband. He was found with his intestines in a bush, his head and brain in the lake, his bones in the river, and--" She stopped as Elli retched onto the floor, her face white with shock.
"You have to be making this up, Gram!" she said as she surfaced, wiping blood off the corner of her mouth.
"I'm afraid I'm not, honey..." Ellen stopped as her granddaughter stared her down. "Well, okay, maybe I'm exxagerating. His body is still connected, but he's been decapitated, so it'll still be pretty greusome when you go up there."
In the split second that Ellen stopped to catch her breath to give more details, Elli had rushed out the door, slamming it behind her.
Five Minutes Later...
"Police? Yes, I'd like to report a body I found up on Mother's Hill. Name, Rick, age 16, lives at the Poultry Farm. Yes, there's evidence of the killer. Yeah, there's a note that says, 'I told you I'd get you back, big brother...' on it. Yes, he does have a little sister. Name, Popuri. Yes, you can tell her mother. Thank you..."
Elli hung up her cell phone and stared back at Rick's decapitated body. She couldn't believe Popuri would do something like this! She shook her head and slowly walked away, her brain dizzy with shock.
At the Poultry Farm...
Popuri sat on her bed, her stereo cranked up to the max, with her favorite rock station playing. Her diary was open in front of her, and she was writing with a pink gel pen that matched her hair. Her mom was banging at the living room ceiling with a broom handle below, so she turned it up even louder, as the DJ annouced the contest to win tickets to Tokyo Disneyland to see Trapt live, and even ride Space Mountain with the band! She longed to win the tickets for that, so she and Kai could go, once he was out of the Clinic. In honor of the concert, the station played her favorite song, Stand Up, which happened to be by Trapt. She grinned and started lipsyncing the song in the mirrored door to her closet, using her purple and black hairbrush as a microphone.
Downstairs...
"POPURI! TURN THAT SHIT DOWN!" Lillia shouted at the top of her voice to her daughter, slamming the broom into the ceiling harder than before. Barley had just stopped over to complain, saying that May was trying to take a nap with Hannah. Lillia sighed and rubbed her temples, hoping to calm the throbbing migraine in her head, although with Popuri's noise playing, she probably wouldn't be in a quiet place for miles! She banged the ceiling one more time with surprising force before giving up. The phone rang a second later, yet Popuri still kept the music up, even though they both had the same phone line.
"POPURI! COULD YOU TURN IT DOWN! THE PHONE'S RINGING!"
Finally, there was silence.
"THANKS!"
She could feel her daughter flipping her off through cement and dry wall. She sighed again and picked up the phone.
"Yes?"
"Hello, is this Popuri's mother:
"Yes."
"I'm with the Small Town Police, and I heard that your daughter is a prime suspect in the murder of Rick--"
"WHAT!"
"A teen named Rick was recovered today at Mother's Hill. He was decapitated, and whoever killed him left a note. Quite clever; they must have been wearing gloves, because we can't find any traces of DNA on it. But it's written in pink gel pen: it says, 'I told you I'd get you back, big brother...' on it. Does this mean anything to you? ... Hello? Ma'am, are you still there?"
She was, but not in spirit: inside her mind, something had snapped clean in half, and a little voice was saying, "Your daughter killed him... She killed him! YOU HAVE TO KILL HER!" She closed her eyes, letting the tears fall along with the phone. It landed with a crash on the floor and shattered. She hurried to the counter and drew from a slim drawer a silver pistol that she kept in case of a stick-up or a burglar. There were miniature waterfalls pouring from her eyes as she spun the chamber: there were two bullets in it: enough for a homicide/suicide. She smiled to herself and silently climbed the stairs, feeling like a character in one of the shooting games her husband had played before he ran off to the desert for that stupid flower... She kicked down the door to Popuri's room and saw her, lying on her bed, with her headphones plugged into the stereo, head nodding to the beat of the music. Lillia ripped the headphones off her daughter and aimed the gun in her face.
"Mom, what are you doing with our emergency gun!" she screamed, standing up suddenly and throwing her arms in the air in her defense.
"Taking revenge for your brother!"
"What are you talking about!"
"DON'T PLAY DUMB! I KNOW YOU KILLED HIM! YOU FUCKING KILLED HIM! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"Mom, you can't do this!" she shouted, starting to shrink back onto her bed in fear.
"I CAN AND I WILL!"
BANG!
TBC...