The Brother of a Killer

I never thought I would be happier moving to a new house. A new life, new school, and new people. My dad had gotten a new job and it allowed us to move to one of those "rich neighborhoods". I looked at my brother Jeff to see him just as excited as me on the move. My mom and dad looked just as happy as we were on our new life.

As we were unpacking our bags, a lady with a little boy I guessed was her kid walked up to us. She asked us if we wanted to go to her son's birthday party. I really didn't want to, but our mom said yes not caring about our response. I could tell that Jeff was very angry about it. I walked up to him and studied his face. It seemed he was kind of out of it a second.

"Jeff, are you okay?" I asked as Jeff snapped back to normal as soon as I said it. He said in a very bored voice, "I feel fine." I decided to leave him alone for the moment as we had a lot of unpacking to do. It took us all day, so I figured it was time for me to go to bed soon afterwards. That night I had a strange dream.

I dreamt that some..... "Thing" was chasing me. It was extremely pale and looked humanoid. I could feel the black ringed eyes "it" had stare right into me as I continued running. The creepiest part was its smile, the horrendous smile that seemed to spread across its face. I tripped on a small twig and looked up at it. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" I screamed. I looked at it as it raised its weapon, shouted "GO TO SLEEP!" and then plunged what looked like a kitchen knife into me.

I woke up screaming and sweating, but decided to not tell anybody. "Its not like it was real." I reassured myself. I got dressed and headed downstairs, only to be greeted by Jeff eating cereal. I fixed a bowl and joined him, studying his face and noticed he had the same weird look as yesterday. I asked him what was wrong, Jeff said, "It's just a feeling. It will pass." I hoped he was right, but we had to go wait for the bus so I shook my suspicions off as we headed outside. We sat, patiently waiting for the bus before a skateboard headed over our heads, almost hitting Jeff in the face.

"What the hell?" Jeff said in surprise. I stood up with Jeff, wondering why he decided taking our head off was a fun joke. There were three of them named Randy, Keith, and a fat one named Troy. Randy walked up to us saying he wanted our money, that was bullshit. I walked up to him, getting ready to plug him before I saw him and his friends pull out switchblades. I backed up as Randy said "Don't make this hard, pay up or get stab-" Jeff walked up and punched him in the nose before he could finish, breaking it and blinding him I'm sure.

I stared at Jeff, surprised, before I realized his bravery was probably going to get us killed. But I stared with my eyes wide open as Jeff saw Keith rushing at him and as he stabbed Keith in the arm and he fell to the ground screaming. Jeff looked at Troy with an insane look, simply punching him in the stomach, causing him to puke all over himself. I looked at Jeff surprised. "How in the hell?" Was all as I could say as we saw the bus coming and ran away from the scene towards school.

As we made it to the school I asked Jeff what went on back there. He told me he had no clue but that we should keep to ourselves for the rest of the day. I agreed, although I wondered about it all day. I couldn't help but think I had seen Jeff's insane face somewhere and that it was important, but pushed it away quickly as we got home. We greeted our parents and they asked how our day was. I looked at Jeff and he told them in the plainest voice possible, "It was wonderful."

As the next day rolled around, I heard a knock at the door and looked down, what I saw made my stomach drop. Two police officers were at the door, questioning Jeff. I did the only thing I could think of and cut my arms to seem like I had been in a struggle and walked downstairs, getting the cop's attention. They trained their guns on me and I started shaking, but lied about what happened and they believed me. As they escorted me to the car, I saw Jeff crying and running after me. "TELL THEM IT WAS ME LIU!" I looked at him sadly and reassured the police that it was me that had done it.

We drove away, and as I looked back I saw Jeff in the driveway, crying. I thought along the ride about how sad this was for all of us, but that it would be better for my big brother in the future. We both didn't deserve this, but I'd say I had started the struggle anyways. We pulled into the juvy center and they dragged me out the police car. I looked calmly at everybody as they mocked me and made my way to my cell quietly. I put my head down, wondering why I thought this new life was such a good idea.

I woke up early next morning, and just realized how rough juvy was. I can't say it was all that bad, though. If anything it toughened me up and put me in pretty good shape. I thought about Jeff often and wondered how he was doing, then I remembered the kid's party. "Ooh I bet he's having fun there." I chuckled for the first time since I got here. As I put my head on my pillow after my first full day, I thought this might not be that bad. I closed my eyes, and woke up to cops knocking on my cell, telling me to wake up.

I got up, puzzled, then they told me to follow them. I did as I was told till they led me to the warden's office. The warden told me Jeff had fought the kids, got beaten up pretty bad, but had solid proof it was self defense. I was worried about Jeff but figured when I got out I could see him all I wanted. I got driven to the hospital, excited to see my brother again.

As we headed up to his room I could hardly contain my excitement, I walked in and me and Jeff seemed excited to see each other once again. The doctors told me I had to sit down to see his face, as they were going to remove the bandages. I sat patiently, watching the bandages being removed, leaning in eagerly to see it, what I did see scared the living shit out of me. Jeff's face looked nothing like what he used to look like. Even then, it still looked strangely familiar, though I couldn't put my finger on it. He looked at all our faces and was very concerned.

"What's wrong guys?" He asked as a doctor handed him a mirror. He looked into it and saw his pale face, bright red lips, and singed black hair. We all expected him to freak out or cry, we were all shocked when he began laughing crazily, twitching his left eye. "I LOOK SO BEAUTIFUL! THIS FACE FITS ME PERFECTLY!" He excitedly shouted. The doctor told us that it was probably just the painkillers so I wasn't too worried. We all headed home, trying to fit all of it into our heads as we went to bed.

I woke up around 3:15 to a loud crashing sound somewhere in the house. Something hitting the floor with a thud. I thought about getting up, but being the lazy person I am, decided not to and I would fix it in the morning. I tried to go back to sleep, but felt like something was staring into my inner soul. I opened my eyes and peered upwards, and to this day will regret doing so.

I saw the "thing" in my dream standing over me, only it wasn't a thing, It was Jeff! I saw as he raised a knife above my stomach, about to sink it into me. I screamed, "JEFF! WHA-". He covered my mouth with his free hand and whispered to me, "Shh... Just go to sleep." And sunk the knife into my stomach. I felt warm blood leaking out of my covered mouth, right before I blacked out.

I remember waking up in the dining room, with my face burning horribly. I looked around me with great difficulty and stared in horror at what I saw. My family, including the girl I had occasionally seen across the street's parents, were all dead in a dining chair, huge smiles carved in their faces. I couldn't speak in absolute horror, but lost consciousness once more as Jeff came in. "Liu, my brother. It seems I have messed up on trying to make you look beautiful, but no worries, I'll have you looking beautiful enough soon". I blacked out as I saw a white blur standing in front of me, tracing along my face.

I woke up again in an ambulance, looking at strangers all around me. I wanted to ask them what happened, but I'm sure I already know. My entire family is dead, and its all because of the brother I cared about. I started crying, wondering how I didn't see this coming beforehand and how I could have stopped it. Then a weird feeling came over me.

I cried out in maniacal laughter in the ambulance before the doctors finally gave me a shot to put me out until we got to the hospital. I woke up in the emergency room, still thinking about my family being dead and started laughing maniacally again. "What am I gonna do next?" I asked myself this question several times until a doctor came in to check on me. She asked how I was doing and I said in a strange voice I had never heard myself say "I feel wonderful". I guess I kind of did, this new feeling that washed over me felt reassuring.

I thought about my hatred for Jeff in all of this and thought about what I could do to feel better until I had a strange new thought into my mind. To never let my guard down and trust nobody. I saw that the doctor's back was turned, probably writing more notes on a patients condition. I ripped out all the cords holding me to the machine. I guess I had recovered enough I didn't need it at this point, although I was still weak. I grabbed a scalpel off the table beside me and advanced towards the doctor as the machines went off after losing their patient.

The doctor turned around just in time to see me enter the scalpel into his neck. As he collapsed to the ground, I felt somewhat happy. I felt happy that I ended a life I had full control over, that I crushed all his life had left waiting for him.I cackled once more, staring at his bloody corpse. I walked into the bathroom and studied myself in the mirror and was horrified at what I saw. I should have asked what Jeff had done to me before it was this much of a surprise.

I had cuts all across my face that ran across my body. Scars that will never heal that Jeff must have decided to give me to make me look beautiful. I studied the black T-shirt I slept in that night, only it now had a stab wound in the center and at my black and baggy jeans I had dozed off in. "This fits me perfectly!" I looked over at the doctor, soaked my hands in his blood and wrote a message on the wall as I left, hoping somebody would read it. I got suspicious glares and decided i needed to leave quickly as I headed towards the kitchen.

When I got there I noticed three security guards had rushed in and pointed at me. I quickly grabbed two kitchen knives and rushed at them. A new feeling had came over me, one that made me feel powerful, the power of burning hatred. One swung at me with his baton, but I ducked, stabbed him in the leg, and when he bent over to let out a horrible ear wrenching scream I slit his throat in front of everybody. The second attempted to jump on me, but I kicked him off and stabbed him in the side, then stabbed him straight into the heart, kicking his feet out from under him and looked down at him, knowing he was quickly dying and saw the third running for me. I grabbed him by his head, ramming it into the wall behind me as i stabbed him in the back of the neck, proceeding to run out the door quickly. I made it outside and looked at the kitchen knives, thinking they were quite a suitable weapon and put them away as I ran into the woods, looking back at the lifeless bodies in the front of the hospital and continuing on.

As I ventured through the woods, I thought about the killing I had just done, and I loved it. I thought about the hatred I had for Jeff and swore to myself that one day I would kill him for the death of my family. Until then, I would enjoy this new feeling of killing until one day I met him again. Revenge could wait. I had a lot of work to do. I ran forward, screaming "IM COMING JEFF!" followed by cackling laughter.

Two officers studied the hospital room Liu had been in and noticed the doctor on the floor with the scalpel still shoved into his neck. "At least he had a quick death." Officer Rogers said. His partner, Officer Peter was staring at something else, though. Officer Rogers looked up at Peter, wondering what he was so worried about. "What do you think drove a kid to do this?" Rogers asked. Peter said nothing, lifting his index finger and pointing at the message on the wall. It read, "ALWAYS WATCH YOURSELF".