Chapter 31-Stories

"18 years ago my parents were a happy, young couple," Kyle said. "They both had well-paying jobs and lived in a nice house. They hadn’t decided to have any children yet. They didn’t think they were quite ready. Then their happiness was shattered. One night, my mother was raped as she was coming home from work. She was so ashamed. She wouldn’t tell my father though it ate her up inside. She couldn’t hide that something had happened though because soon she found herself to be pregnant. My father was suspicious because he thought that they had prevented pregnancy. He never asked my mother about his suspicions. He merely carried on as though he were the proud daddy. However, ever since then he began distancing himself from her. My mother noticed it but still did not tell him the truth. She couldn’t bear to. As you can see, their loving bliss was completely destroyed. That is the home I came into. One that was devoid of love on one half and the other half was broken hearted.

"My mother only went down hill from there. She became depressed and began abusing drugs. My father didn’t do anything about it either. I remember at my fifth birthday. All my friends were gathered around a table, waiting to sing me "Happy Birthday." My mom came out with the cake and was obviously messed up. Even I noticed it when she began smearing the frosting around saying that there were bugs on it. Bugs on her little boy’s cake. My father was seated in a chair across the room and he simply read a book. He let her go on ruining my birthday cake and making a fool of herself to all the other parents who were there. Needless to say, there were many fewer kids at my next party. She stopped taking drugs when I was about 10 but she was still emotionally unstable. She had been fired from her job after they discovered traces of drugs in her system and she never went back to work. She began spending all day in dark rooms. It didn’t seem like she was doing anything to me but who knows what her mind was conjuring up.

"When I was 13 years old, I ventured into a room she was sitting in. When I turned on the lights, she gave me a very crazy look and motioned me over. She smoothed out my hair and told me what had happened to her. She told me everything from the emotions to every descriptive detail. Her memory of the day was flawless. I was horrified and asked her who had done it." Kyle paused and glared over in my direction. His expression was full of righteous fury. I realized he wasn’t looking at me, but at Mitch beside me who was staring back at him with a shocked expression. "Yes," said Kyle. "We’re half brothers. It was your father." There was a complete silence in the room. So many things suddenly made sense to me. Aspects of our time together such as not being able to meet his family, comments he had made regarding Mitch’s family, and then, to my horror, I realized remembered Mitch’s older brother.

"You-you killed him didn’t you," I said, tears rising in my eyes.

"Killed who dearest Mel?" Kyle asked in that sickly sweet voice he used on occasion.

"Luke," I said. "Mitch’s brother."

"You are so very intelligent," he said. "Yes, I did. He was one present for my mother. Mitch will be another. Once their father, my father, spends enough time in anguish for losing both his known sons, I will reveal myself to him. Then I will kill him too. For my mother, for the man who I call my father, for me."

"Please Kyle," begged Mitch. "Don’t kill me. I hate my father too. I don’t want to die."

Kyle shook his head. "Sorry Mitch," he said. "But you have to die. You have to die for my mother. I’ve been planning this for 6 years. Though I wanted to kill you so many times, I knew I had to wait for just the right moment. Then our beautiful Mel went and suggested this lovely trip away from so many eyes of authority. It was perfect." He smiled at me. I cringed slightly and looked away from him. Suddenly he was beside me and turned my face with his hand to look at him. "You’re going to have to get used to looking at me," he said. "Because you and I are going to stay here, forever, once we’ve killed the rest of these people. That’s why I brought you into the group. I’ve loved you forever Mel and I will forever."

I stared at him in shock for a moment then shook my head. "No," I said through clenched teeth. "I won’t."

"I’m afraid you don’t really have a choice in the matter," he said. I reached my lose hand up and slapped him across the face. His head whipped back to me and for a minute anger rose in his eyes then it was replaced by an amused smirk. "For that," he said. "I’m afraid we’re going to have to kill Joseph first. Poor Joseph who talked about a beautiful girl in his English class to his buddy Kyle in conditioning. A girl he felt connected to and was going to ask out once he had the courage. A girl he had chose a college for so that he could be near her, even if she didn’t know he existed. A girl who was the reason he got invited on this trip by the only one who will ever really love her. A girl he is going to die for."

"No!" I shouted and stood up quickly but he shoved me back down then wrapped a rope around me quickly so I couldn’t get up. "Leave him alone! I beg you!"

I struggled against the bonds as he made his way over to Joseph. He patted Kat on the head as he passed her and she looked at him in horror. "Poor Kat," he said. "An innocent bystander. I was actually planning on simply abandoning you some place so that you could possibly survive. However, when Madeline offered her help in exchange for getting you out of Cerant’s eye, you became doomed as well. Now, you know too much and will have to die as well." Tears rolled down her cheeks as she pleaded silently with him but he looked away and moved down to Joseph. His handsome, unconscious face hung down, not expecting what was coming for him.

Kyle rubbed his hair then drew a knife from one of his pockets. He raised it up above Joseph’s head slowly then looked over at me. "Say goodbye Mel," he said. Suddenly Joseph’s eyes flew open and he slammed his chair back into Kyle. Kyle shouted and fell backwards, the knife clattered against a wall before sliding to the ground.

"Joseph!" I said happily. Then quickly worked harder at my ropes. They had been done loosely and if I could just get them undone. Before she had died, my sister and I used to tie each other up and try to get out of the ropes. It was a game we played but it led to us becoming pretty good escape artists. I stopped struggling. Therein lay my problem. I sucked my chest in as far as it would go and managed to loosen the bottom part a bit. Then I yanked one of my arms up with a shoulder. Success, it went up a bit. I did it again and again quickly until the arm was free. Then I used it to untie the rest of me.

Meanwhile, Kyle had risen and retrieved the knife. He looked furious and stalked toward Joseph, who was busy trying to free himself as well. Señor Montello had sat there with a blank look for awhile but when Joseph hit Kyle back he had risen and begun walking toward them slowly. Now he was almost next to him and Kyle was approaching quickly as well. I quickly got the ropes off and picked up my chair. Kyle was so absorbed with anger at Joseph that he didn’t noticed when I slammed it into him. Then I stood near Joseph, threatening the two of them with it.

"Now, now Mel," said Kyle. "Put the chair down." He stepped toward me slowly and I thrust it in his direction.

"I have a much longer reach with this than you do with that puny knife," I said. "So BACK OFF!"

He looked at me incredulously then stepped back a few steps with his arms raised in the air. Señor Montello followed his lead and went back beside him. "Mel," he said. "Let’s be realistic here. We’re at a stalemate. You set that chair down to release your friends and I rush at you and knock you out. I rush at you and you hit me with the chair, which I won’t bring down upon myself. However, my guess is that you won’t be able to hold that giant chair as long as I will be able to hold this "puny" knife." I almost let panic slip through to my expression but held it firm. Inside I was though. I knew that everything he said was true. I could feel it growing true as well. My muscles were beginning to ache but I was determined to hold my ground as long as I could. I waited for a few minutes then got an idea.

The chair slipped from my grasp and fell to the ground. Kyle smiled triumphantly and gestured at Señor Montello. "Roberto," he said. "Hold her while I take care of two of them. You may kill the third." The man nodded loyally and stalked toward me. I faked a cry of fright and cowered against Joseph’s seat. When he reached me I suddenly grabbed the chair and swung it at him. This time I aimed for the head. There was a sickening crack as it connected and he fell to the ground. Then I turned to the table quickly and grabbed one of the knives from the meat. I whirled back to see Kyle charging toward me. I held out the knife and he stopped inches away from impaling himself. "Come on now Mel," he said with a nervous grin. "I don’t want to have to hurt you. Put the knife down."

"I’d rather you kill me than harm a hair on my friends’ heads," I said.

"Come on now Mel," he said with a slight bit more anger than normal. "I’m doing this for my mother. You have a mother don’t you? Wouldn’t you want to take revenge if something happened to her?" I knew his words to be true and I almost eased up for a moment.

He stepped forward in my moment of uncertainty but I quickly jabbed the knife at him. "Not like this," I said shaking my head. "I wouldn’t kill innocent people. Even for her."

"I guess you don’t really love her then," he said.

Anger boiled up in me. No one questioned my love for my mother. It was the final straw. He was trying to kill my friends, my love, and now he had done this. I shoved the knife toward him but he grabbed my hand quickly and wrenched me around so I was in front of him and my arm was twisted behind my back. He tightened his grip on my wrist so that it cut off my circulation and the knife dropped from my hand as my finger’s relaxed. Then he whispered into my ear, "Tsk Tsk." Then I felt myself flying through the air as he shoved me toward a cave wall.