Insanity Chapter 8

The nightmare played in my head as it did every night since my parents' deaths. I watched both of them die. I was weak and couldn’t do anything to help them even though I was the one that caused their deaths.

From a young age, I was sick. I could barely move until I was four years old. I wasn’t active as the other kids, I never smiled, nor did I cry. My parents thought that there was something wrong with me, even Mal was creeped out by me.

They thought that they could fix me, fill me up with a bunch of different medicines and hopefully one of them would be able to help me. While the medicine did help my physical strength it did nothing for my mental state.

It wasn’t long after I started to get better that I found out that my parents were paying for my medication with money that they borrowed from loan sharks. I only knew this because Mal told me so. He resented me because of how he was overlooked by our parents.

Unfortunately for my parents, the loan sharks were not eager to wait to be repaid. My family lived in the levels above the slums, not quite the upper levels, but somewhere in between. I haven’t been there since I was younger, so the name eluded me. We weren’t well off, but we were in poverty either. Or at least that would be the case if it wasn’t for me.

Xavier was a close friend of my father’s. Their relationship was never made clear, but after living with Xavier as long as I did I could piece together that my father wasn’t always a kind hardworking man.

Xavier tried to help us pay off the loan sharks, using every connection he had, but they weren’t enough. Eventually, the loan sharks came to take what they were owed by force. They barged into our home and murdered my father right after my mother hide Mal and me in the closet. It wasn’t long after that she killed herself, abandoning us.

Instead of trying to protect us, she took her own life. How was I supposed to react, but cry? My family died because of me, and I knew it all too well. Xavier managed to save us in time, but by then the scars were already formed. Wounds may heal over time, but scars remain with you forever.

Xavier took Mal and me with him to his home and adopted us into his family. He’s treated us well over the years, but, because of that my nightmares only got worse.

At first, they only showed my parents dying, but now they show everyone I love and care for dying right in front of me. Each one of them crying out my name as they meet their end. Each one of them unintentionally telling me that it’s all my fault.

Over and over I am plagued by these nightmares, and all I want is for them to end. I want to become a person that my brother and the rest can rely on, but I can’t I’m not strong and I never will be.

I woke once again after seeing my brother's head hit the ground. Tears were rolling down my eyes. I quickly wiped them off and hopped off my bed. I made sure that I was properly dressed before I walked to the door, but I stopped as soon as I heard my brother’s voice from the other side.

“You can’t be serious!” Mal yelled. I peered through the crack of the door to see that Mal was yelling at Xavier while Malik and Jessica were sitting down at the table saying nothing.

“I am,” said Xavier back to him in a stern tone.

“I won’t allow it!” he yelled back at Xavier. I didn’t know what was going on, but she that Mal was yelling at Xavier meant that this couldn’t be good.

“Quiet,” Xavier said as he pointed at the door to my room. “Any louder and you’ll wake Cal up.”

“So what! Cal deserves to hear this! He deserves to know.”

“I agree with Mal,” said Jessica. “If you want to make this kind of decision then Cal should know about it. Deciding this without him here is just cruel.”

“You don’t think I don’t know that?” Xavier said back to them. “I want to tell Cal, but I can’t.”

“Then why don’t you tell us!?” Mal yelled at him. “Tell us, no tell me why you think I’ll just sit back and do nothing while you take Cal away from me? Tell me!”

“I won’t,” Xavier said without even looking Mal in the eyes. “You’re not ready to know.”

“I’m not a child!” Mall yelled, punching Xavier in the face. “I will not let you hide this from me!”

“I’ll let that one slide,” he said, wiping the small amount of blood flowing out of his bottom lip.

“Ugh, this is too annoying,” said Malik. “Come get me when you are done figuring out what to do with the runt.” Malik got up and left the house without waiting for anyone to respond to him.

“Why now? Why all of a sudden are you doing this to us?” Mal asked, not caring that Malik had left.

“You don’t need to know,” he said to Mal.

“It’s that box that Cal stole isn’t it?” said Mal as he looked around for the box. “What was in it? I know that this has something to do with whatever was in that box. Tell me, what was it?”

“None of your business. Now back down and accept it,” Xavier said as he stood up from his seat.

“No! I won’t! I won’t let you take Cal away from me!” Mal charged at Xavier, but it was a fruitless effort. In a split second, Xavier knocked Mal out with a single punch to the face. He caught him before he hit the ground, and then laid him down gently before looking back to my room.

“You can come out now,” he said gently, as I slowly opened the door and walked out to him.

“You were awake this whole time?” Jessica asked me, but all I could respond to her was a nod. I didn’t know what was happening, but I could feel the fear in both Xavier’s and Mal’s voices while I listened.

“It’s fine,” Xavier said as he looked at me. “Come here sweety,” he said, opening out his arms to me.

“Your brother and I had a bit of a disagreement, but you should know that we only want what’s best for you. For now, being near us is not that. You aren’t safe here. It’s time that the three of us go on a little trip.”