“Liam! Dinner is ready”

My mother shouted from downstairs, I put my pen down and got up; I tried my best not to run down the stairs as the smell of food got stronger as I descended into the dining room. My little brother and my stepfather were already there at the table digging in, the damned gluttons; I smiled slightly as I pulled a chair and sat down.

“Liam honey, did you wash your hands?”

My mother asked without turning around, I took on a pained expression while restraining a groan, my brother laughed and stuck his tongue out at me before digging back into his food, taking the occasional glance at my plate. I took my plate off of the table and carried it with me to the kitchen sink; I rested it on the counter and washed my hands beside my mother who was busy washing a spoon. Her auburn hair was tied in a ponytail and draped over her left shoulder while her hazel eyes were focused as she furiously scrubbed away at the utensil in her hand.

I took the spoon from her and smiled as she looked up at me with an angry expression she could only manage when it came to doing chores.

“Thanks”

I said as I turned around and briskly walked away, not forgetting to retrieve my plate from the counter. I could feel my mother’s glare boring into the back of my head as I took long strides back to the table, too afraid my mother would throw something at me as I made a tactical retreat.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case as I made it back to the table where it was relatively safe. I sat down once again beside my brother and began eating while he and my stepfather told jokes to each other and idly chatted, I jumped in occasionally when I had something to add to a topic or had a joke of my own to tell. For some reason they didn’t find my jokes as funny as theirs, they never could understand my sense of humour. My mother joined us at the table shortly after with her own plate of stewed chicken and white rice, Oddly enough, hers looked more delicious; I don’t know if it was because of the hot sauce or because she sprinkled some sugar onto it but it sure looked nice.

“Mom, would you mind doing me a favour?”

I asked hopefully, praying inside that she would, by the grace of the almighty, accept my request. My mother placed a forkful of food into her mouth and chewed while staring at me, silently urging me to go on; I distantly remembered yet refused to focus on a time she scolded me for speaking while my mouth was full.

“Would you mind giving me a piece of your chicken?”

I mentally crossed my fingers in hopes that the answer would be positive. Yet, my hopes were dashed against the shores of denial as she chuckled lightly and took a sip of her juice. Wait, we had juice? I entertained the thought of getting up and going to the fridge to check until I remembered the personalities of the members of my household.

We all appeared to be casually sitting and chatting but underneath this blanket of tranquillity laid four savage beasts patiently waiting for one of the others to slip up and leave their food unguarded. I’d be damned to be the one who would lose their food in the hopes that there might be some juice in the fridge.

Of course I knew better than to risk getting up and checking but the thought was there, you know? I had no choice but to trust in the power of my saliva as I began eating, the rich textures exploded in my mouth as I chewed and tried to keep track of the conversation between my family members.

“Didn’t it happen near your school, Liam?”

My little brother asked, though what exactly he was asking me was beyond my knowledge. I hadn’t been paying much attention when I began eating; good food tends to make you lose focus. I looked at him in confusion; his eyes which were a mirror of our mother’s stared back at me expectantly, awaiting an answer.

“The shooting, it happened near your school right?”

He asked again, my heart beat like a drum in my ears as I remembered the events of that day. The screams and panicked shouts seemed to echo all around me as I briefly travelled back to that fateful day; before I could drift any further however, my stepfather cut into the conversation and said something which brought my attention to him.

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“It’s a shame what happened, I knew the kid’s father. Robert’s probably cryin’ his eyes out”

Sadness laced his tone as he said those words; he stared off into space as if recalling something. That’s how you knew he was serious or deeply affected by something; whenever he stared off into space and looked constipated you could bet he was thinking about something seriously.

My mother and brother sat in silence after that statement, mom probably didn’t have anything to say anyway but my brother probably noticed the atmosphere and realized it was best to be quiet, as ridiculous as that sounded. The thought of my brother reading the mood almost made me laugh. I couldn’t even imagine it. Alex Reading the mood? I highly doubt that.

 My stepfather sat grim-faced staring up at the ceiling, possibly thinking about how he could comfort his friend in his time of need. That was just the kind of person he was I guess, always thinking about what he could do for others, as far as I could tell at least.

I wasn’t some kind of spiritualist that could read auras or anything nor did I care too much about why people were the way they were. I could never manage to force myself to be interested in much of anything to be perfectly honest.

Not sure why I was that way either, I guess humans were just strange like that.

We all sat together in silence for a while; Alex kept his eyes glued to his plate almost as if he was afraid that if he looked away a rice grain might hop off. Mom seemed content just sitting in silence, not that she was much of a talker anyways and I’m sure she’d much rather it continue this way but life never goes how you want it to. The peaceful silence was broken by the breaking of windows, the tranquillity of the moment shattered like the splintered pieces of glass now lying on the floor, I clutched at my head in an attempt to stop the loud ringing in my ears.

Flashes of white went off all around me causing me to squeeze my eyes shut, the ringing got more intense as time dragged on. I felt someone grab my arm and dragged me forward, I didn’t know who it was but I couldn’t resist even if I wanted to, my head was pounding too much for that.

I was dragged away until I could feel the wind blowing against my skin, I was outside. Out here, the wind seemed to drain away everything that was wrong with my body, my mind became unclouded and my thoughts seemed less sluggish. I slowly opened my eyes to the sight of polished black shoes, the kind you’ll see on the most political of politicians; I glanced up and saw the face of a young man looking at me dispassionately.

His steely gaze bore into me with an almost tangible intensity before he sighed

“I’m sorry for your loss, Liam”

His words were spoken without any emotion which gave his voice an almost synthetic sound, it also made it difficult to tell if he was actually sorry and ergo, what the hell was he sorry for?

“What- what’re you talking about?”

It was then that I saw a slight change in his facial expression, a twitch of the eyebrow one might have missed if they weren’t paying close attention. He sighed and closed his eyes, allowing a moment of silence to descend on us, it was then I heard the gunshots and screams.

My head whipped back to stare at the horrifying scene of men dressed in all black marching into my house with rifles at the ready. My eyes widened in horror as a group of men dragged my mother out through the front door as she kicked, screamed and bit at them like a wild animal.

“H-Hey! What the fuck are you doing?!?!”

I screamed at the men who manhandled my mother without so much as a change in their expression, I turned to the man dressed in the immaculate suit for help but he refused to open his eyes, he acted like the scene had nothing to do with him as he continued to stand in the midst of the chaos. I turned back to the men as they proceeded to restrain my mother as if she was some kind of savage beast; I opened my mouth to protest but froze as I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. I looked up and once again I was looking into the piercing gaze of the smartly dressed man who I presumed was the one in charge of this entire operation.

“Why? Why are you doing this? We didn’t do anything”

I begged for an answer as tears streamed down my cheeks, admittedly not my proudest moment but it seemed to do the trick as he sighed and reached into his jacket pocket before pulling out a round silver disc of some sort. Before I could ask what it was for, he pressed a button on the disc and threw it at my mother, the world slowed to a crawl as I watched the unknown device get closer and closer to her in silent horror.

My mind screamed at me to move, to try and stop it before it did something unimaginable to the woman I’d called my mother for the past twenty years but my body refused to listen to me. The situation was just too much for me to handle and as much as I hate to admit it, I was much too scared by the entire situation. My lips quivered as the object landed on my mother and exploded into a flash of light so bright it bathed my vision in white and seared itself onto my irises.

I squeezed my eyes shut and clawed at my eyeballs as I felt the stinging pain penetrate deeper into my eyes, a soul rendering scream burst from my throat as the pain intensified. As time passed my body began to increase in temperature, I felt as if I was bathing in lava which only caused my screams to increase in pitch. As I was beginning to think that this was how I would die, I felt something collided with the back of my head and suddenly, everything went dark.