Happy Death Day

Happy Death Day

“Happy Birthday to you! You live in a zoo! You smell like a Monkey, and you look like one too!” My mother, Loraine, belt out, I didn’t call Loraine anything except for Loraine. Why would I call her “mom,” when that was the last thing she was to me? Maybe I was being too harsh…? Well, I am the writer of this story and what I say goes.

She sounded so lively, as if this pleased her, taking time away from her work to parade around and show us how much she cares. Only on our birthday, which she had to mark down on her neatly organized calendar that hung in her “office”. Her daily bible, infested with business loaded commandments, obligations she had to take care of before anything else. Maybe I am too hard on her. Single working mother, doing all she can to provide... I couldn’t fake it; I wasn’t amused, and I wasn’t buying into it. Her blue eyes radiated their brew of love and praise on my brother, Tyler, and he, being the dumb Tyler that he was, gleamed, taking in all the bullshit she had to serve. Hot and steamy. She never acknowledged me nowadays, how could she. No one likes to have a constant reminder around of something she tried to bury.

“Thank you so much Mother!” Tyler exclaimed, almost jumping out of his chair to kiss her ass. I couldn’t help but giggle. Was he serious? Tyler and I were twins, and like any duplicate, we behaved nothing alike, as you can tell we had some simple differences. It was becoming more and more convincing as the years passed that he only wanted to be me, to gain Loraine favor, but he could never be me, not even half of me, but this story isn’t about me. Nope, not at all, this is just me confessing to someone, besides myself, the horrendous acts you can execute with deep hatred in your heart, and vengeance on your mind. All I ask, is you take it all in with a grain of salt and enjoy my confessions!

The sun was perched on a single fluffy cloud and the rest of the sky barred a blazing blue ocean and Loraine was hopping her little cheerful self back into the house to get our cake, homemade of course. Very heartfelt and all that but don’t you dare buy into it!

It was the ideal day for an outside event, breezy with just enough heat to keep you warm, even if it was only three people attending the “party”: Loraine, Tyler, and me. We moved from Texas a month before our birthday, because Loraine was just so distraught and emotionally damaged on the death of our father, a title he deserved, that she just couldn’t bare to stay in the same house or city or state that he passed away in. Pathetic? I know. How strange when she was to blame for setting up the entire thing, the things money will make you do. Isn’t it strange that she would put out a claim for a whopping 2 million dollars on his life insurance policy only a month before his “car accident” …? But like I said, this is only the confessions of what the typical damaged teenage American boy would do.

“How you feelin’? I feel old, man! The time is flying, soon we’ll be 20 or something in a bar full of sexy ladies singing Happy Birthday to us!” Tyler stated, a big grin plastered on his face. I could almost gag. He was always so pleasant, so content with this life. Always so bubbly, and oblivious! Oh, how I would love the pleasure… His blue eyes showered me with the depth of his admirations for me, seeing his self in me, but I couldn’t see myself in him. I didn’t have many problems with Tyler honestly, he bothered me on a very deep level, but the hatred wasn’t directly steered at him, just the love that attached to him cursed by Loraine.

“I feel amazing… Very much wrapped up in this circus freak show she’s conducting.” I explained, fully confident that it should resonate a little to him, but as expected, he only laughed and shook his head.

“You gotta ease up man, can’t have that cloud over your head forever. Brush that chip off your shoulder!” He joked as he brushed the invisible, but very real chip off my shoulder. I wanted to drill him on how she wasn’t who he thought she was, but it wasn’t worth the argument. He’d never get it, she had him in her trap.

“All right Tyler! Here’s the chocolate cake I made especially for you from the heart!” Loraine shrieked, all her white, fake teeth showing. She interrupted our moment like always and I was left feeling like the odd ball out. She couldn’t even muster up the courage to say my name, the same name as my father, Thomas. I felt the pain in my chest first, like a volcano exploding in my heart, the heat warming me from the inside out with the anger from the neglect she showed me. Loraine plopped the chunky, misshaped cake in front of Tyler, globs of white frosting wrote out “Happy 18th Tyler!” Not to be complain but the chocolate frosting was dispersed on the cake unevenly and obviously rushed, but it’s the thought that counts, right? Tyler, being dumb Tyler, squirmed under her glare and fake smile and slid the cake over so now it was between him and I. Disgusting, as if I wanted to be a part of this charade, she called love, I was almost elated she didn’t put my name on there.

“It’s Thomas’s birthday as well Mother.” He stated, in such a matter of fact tone she almost acknowledged the statement, like the hag didn’t know. She only continued to smile. Silence. She sat down in front of us, the picnic table was decorated with balloons and confetti, plates were already placed on the white plastic cloth that wrapped the usually dying wood planks.

“Oh, shucks!” She yelled, smacking her hand on her forehead. “I forgot the knife!” She wailed, another reason to get away from us, or rather me, and the awkward situation that just arose. I wanted to bail too, so I offered to go get it and she only nodded her head, focusing only on Tyler.

I gathered my wit not to flip the entire table over as I stood up and marched my way into the house. The inside of the house was empty, since we only just moved in and Loraine was too traumatized to move any of the furniture from our old home into this one, because everything was stained with our father memory. Such batshit that lady speaks, man. Only a chair dotted the living room and a tv with our game console, really mines since Tyler hated playing on it. The kitchen stood vacant as well, a big mess was on the counter from the last minute, finishing touches she rushed to do. The knife laid on the counter next to the glob of candles that carved out the number 18, but the knife was not in my plans. I had no intentions of getting anything for her but what she deserved. I walked down the hall to my room, and pushed the door open to revel a rather depressing scene, an air mattress pushed in the corner and a vacant dresser pushed in the other corner.

I waltzed over to my dresser, opening the topmost drawer, revealing unnecessary amounts of t-shirts and boxers, but tucked underneath all of that, was the Smith and Wesson 442. A spark of joy and adrenaline rushed over me. I picked up the cold metal, heavy in my hands, I checked the cylinder even though I knew only one bullet rested in it. I used the other 3 I stole to practice my aim in the nearby woods to see if I wasn’t going to squirm when it was actually time to shoot. My father gifted me the gun with good intentions, hoping I’d use it to shoot deer or something trivial and pointless, fully unaware the purpose I would be using it for.

I walked proudly out of my room, head held high, pistol in my hand, no need to hide, nothing was going to stop this. The sun was now hiding behind a cloud, I had no shame, maybe the Sun god didn’t want to be witness to what I was driven to do, almost like destiny. The wind blew softly, whispers of my father tickled my ears. My heart was steady, and my mind was clear.

Tyler and Loraine sat at the table still, Loraine across from Tyler, waiting. Waiting on fate? Karma? Whatever you would like to call it, I was the one to deal it to her. Tyler noticed me coming back and, of course, his face lit up, the party could continue, but it was only getting started. I was right behind Loraine now, of course she felt my presence, but she wouldn’t dare acknowledge me and that’s why her fate was sealed. Tyler realized too late that I didn’t have a knife to cut the disgrace of a chocolate cake with only his name frosted on it, no, I had other plans in mind. I leveled the barrel to the back of her perfectly platinum blonde hair that lay so flat against her empty skull, and I could feel the smile start to grow across my lips. I could only imagine the manic expression that rested on my face from how big Tyler pretty blue eyes grew. And just like dumb Tyler, he was frozen, frozen in place, a witness to the ghastly scene that was about to take place.

No more knight in shining armor, no more favoritism, no more pain, no more feelings of unworthiness from her own greed, no more. Pulling the trigger felt like butter, with ease the gun obliged to me and blasted its cool, unforgiving bullet out of its cozy home, the sound deafening.