What A Woeful Night
I had never truly understood the reality of the world I was living in until an event brought me out of the darkness and the light came upon me. For it was after that fateful day that I started seeing the true light.
It was a cold summer’s night in the late nineties, I’m afraid I can’t really remember the actual year because my brain doesn’t seem to be as functional as it used to be these days.
There I was in the bedroom lying on my bed, fast asleep. Just then, I heard a noise from a distance as I was still asleep. Those voices were so loud that they summoned my spirit back to the real world and I opened my eyes.
Then, I realized that the voices had not come from my sleep but actually from where I lived. I couldn’t really tell if the voices were coming from one of my neighbor’s apartments or if they had come from my own apartment as I was still battling with inertia.
Though the voices sounded loud, they didn’t sound like they came from my parent’s bedroom which was the room next to mine but rather like they were coming from a distance. So I thought to myself that the noise could have either been coming from one of our neighbor’s apartments, most certainly the Drews because they had always seemed to go at each other, or probably my parents. If the latter was the case then they must have gotten into another heated argument which had seemed to be their regular routine recently.
As I tried to listen carefully so that I could make out what the noises were really all about, I realized that the voices emitting were those of my parents.
The more I listened, the more it became clear that they were indeed fighting, again.
I couldn’t really comprehend what the quarrel was about but I could tell that they were just having one of those misunderstandings, so I laid back on my bed and tried going back to sleep.
Just as I laid my head, I noticed that the noise had lessened but a voice had become louder, my mother’s.
I could hear the agony in her voice. It sounded like she was in pain because what I heard wasn’t pleasing to my hearing. So Immediately, I came out of my bedroom and rushed down to the kitchen.
As I got there, I saw her lying on the floor drowning in her own pool of blood with a knife stuck into her chest. I rushed to her as she lay helpless on the floor. She was wheezing, struggling to breathe as blood gushed out of her chest.
I had no clue whatsoever what had happened but I could see that my mother was dying. With my eyes filled with tears and with a bawling voice, I cried out to my father to help my mother but he just stood there rigidly.
My father stood there like a statue without making any movement at all. He just watched his dying wife gasp for her last breath and let his little child watch his mother as she took her last breath. I felt so powerless to do anything. I knew there was nothing a five-year-old could do at that time but I felt I failed her.
Just as I watched my mother take her last breath, I then saw my father remove the same knife used to stab my mother in her chest and use it to slit his own throat wide open.
Just then I saw a lot of blood gushing out of his neck as he gasped for air until he dropped dead. I had never seen that amount of blood gushing out from someone before in the whole of my young life but I would still sleep fine the next couple of days.
Before my father took his own life, I could remember that the only words he uttered were, “son, this is your reality now”. I didn’t really understand what he meant but I felt he actually wanted to teach me something in his own twisted way.
Just as I watched my parent’s bodies lying lifeless on our kitchen floor, it became clear to me that they were actually gone but I still couldn’t comprehend what had actually happened because it all seemed like a movie to me. I never really could make out the reason why a law-abiding citizen would have decided to take the life of his own beloved wife of almost a decade and why he had to leave me all alone in this wicked world. I guessed that was my reality
Home at Last
After the death of my parents, I moved from one Foster home to another for many years without finding a suitable family. It was like no family wanted me. I wouldn’t blame them if you asked me. Who on everything green and blue would want a child from a psychotic family? No one
It was not until I had already been in the foster care system for ten years- by that time I was already fifteen and had given up hope on ever being adopted by any family- that I was informed that one of the families that had previously visited wanted to adopt me.
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I knew that my foster parents had wanted to get rid of me for a long time but I had thought that it would be when I was already an adult that they would let me go to the world to fend for myself not to get rid of me to a strange family who may or may not give a damn about me.
Mr. Castro valley was a 6 ‘6 feet muscular man. He always wore a fancy suit with a long coat and a branded hat. He had always moved about with a long black cane, just a little bit shy from being the same length as his legs. One could tell that he had no form of fracture in any of his legs nor was he up to the age of a senior citizen that he needed the aid of a cane to walk but for reasons best known to him, he never went anywhere without his cane.
When I learned that I was to be adopted by Mr. Castro or I would say Don Castro as he preferred to be called, I was exhilarated. My heart was filled with joy. I had always admired Don Castro. I mean who didn’t?
He was one of those people who had an ideology that there was a need to give out to society and he walked and talked in a manner that spoke elegance. To me, he was a perfect role model.
Don Castro lived in a big mansion in a place called the “rich villa” somewhere located in uptown. The houses there looked exactly the same both in color and size. The neighborhood was as peaceful as the falls of the dew. Though it was filled with people of the elite status in society, it was known to be free from criminal activities and the people there had always behaved neighborly.
The house where Don Castro lived was a three-story mansion with a big garden that ran from the gate to the main building. There were a lot of rooms there but the biggest of them of all was the one located at the top of the building where Don Castro resided. I learned that no one dared to go in there except when being summoned. There was also the antique, the study, and a room located on the ground which was never left unlocked; only Don Castro knew what was inside.
Soon, I was legally given the last family of Don Castro “Valley” and I was fully made a family member of his family. There were other children both the same age as me and the ones I was way older than.
There was big Max who was not only the biggest in size but was actually the oldest among them all. He always had an intimidating look and spoke with a high bass voice. Big Max never seemed to like me for reasons best known to him. The thing there was that he didn’t like anyone, not even Don Castro.
Unlike the rest of us, Big Max was found wandering around the street looking for what to eat or steal until Don Castro found him. It was well known he had this thought of being the favorite of them all as it had seemed that most of the house rules didn’t seem to apply to him, and he also felt that no one was going to take his place as the favorite. No one even wanted his place if you ask me.
Then there was Maria, a blonde curly-haired girl with a light skinny body and a big attitude. One could tell that she was almost the same age as Big Max if not older as she was the only one who seemed to stand up to him.
Then there were Peter and Paul. We called them inseparable twins. They always seemed to do everything together even the most annoying things like speaking. The way and manner they spoke at the same time could give chills to one’s spine. It was both creepy and annoying at the same time.
And there was my favorite, Isabella. She had this dazzling look whenever she entered the place. The color of her eyes was the same as that one, a cloudless sky. She had this angelic voice whenever she spoke and it felt magical on my skin whenever she touched me. I knew it was forbidden to have that kind of feeling for her as we were practically siblings but I couldn’t help it.
I could go on and on telling about all of the Valley children but I’m afraid that I would put a sleeping spell on you.
The Family Tradition
It had been just seven since I became a family member of the Valley family when Isabella came into my bedroom and requested that I follow her to the basement. I had never been down there as I was specifically warned to never go there and a part of me wanted to decline her offer but on second thought, it was Isabella asking. So for a split second, the idea of her liking me and how she wanted to express her love for me clouded my brain.
I thought to myself that it could be the only opportunity I would have to get lucky with her. So without a second of delay, I followed her.
As we went through the hallway that led to the elevator which would lower us to the basement, I saw a different set of portraits of people mounted on both sides of the wall. Most of them were pictures of young children almost the same age as me judging by looks and there was a portrait of an old man with his wife and three children. In that same picture, I could see the face of little Don Castro in there. He looked so young and innocent. One couldn’t have imagined that a huge muscular man was once a tiny-looking boy.
I asked Isabella about who the children whose pictures were mounted on the wall were, but she only said that they were all dead.
I felt excitement flowing through my body as the elevator lowered us to the basement. I had always wanted to express the love I had for Isabella in any possible way I could but was afraid of what Don Castro would do to me but at the time, I cared less about the consequences.
As we entered the basement, I came out of the elevator while Isabella followed me at my back. I could see that the basement was covered in nothing but total darkness. I then asked Isabella for the first time what we were actually doing there but there was not a single response from her. Then I turned around to face her but she wasn’t there anymore it was like she had vanished.
Just as I realized that Isabella left me, I could feel my heart pounding and my body sweating. So I ran toward the elevator so that I could go back to the upper floor. Just as I moved toward the elevator, I felt the impact of a hard log on the back of my head and I fell on the floor.
My head was banging really hard as I opened my eyes. Just then, I noticed that I was still in the basement but I couldn’t move any part of my body. It was as if every part of my nervous system had been shattered. I couldn’t feel any part of my body, not even my heart beating or my respiratory system functioning.
I then tried to scream but there wasn’t any form of sound coming out of my mouth. I thought I had given up the ghost until I heard footsteps coming toward me. Then I realized that my sense of hearing was still intact, at that moment I knew I was still alive.
As I lay on the floor totally paralyzed, I saw a group of people holding a touch of fire forming a circle around me. I couldn’t see any of their faces as the room was still dark but I could hear them chanting some words that I didn’t understand. When they came really close to me, I noticed that I could raise my head up and with the light reflecting, I then saw that I wasn’t the only one laying on the floor.
There was someone lying next to me. I could tell that the person was in the same state as I was because just like me I was the person who didn’t move any part of their body.
Still unable to move, I saw one of them bring a chalice to my mouth and ask me to drink. The way I felt at that moment, I didn’t think there was anything that could be worse than that state. So without hesitation, I opened my mouth and drank from the chalice. The taste was so foul that it made me throw up. But at that moment I could feel every part of my body to the tiniest detail. From the flowing of blood in veins to the cracking of bones and joints to the wobbling of my stomach. It was like I had just been reborn.
The substance was also given to the person that lay next to me and I then noticed that it was one of the new boys that Don Castro just adopted. I didn’t really get his name.
Immediately, the person who gave us the substance, saw that our body’s system had been fully restored, a sword was placed on our necks and we were asked to swear with our lives that we would never depart from the confraternity. Of course, we accepted like we were given a choice but that was just the first part. The final part of the ritual was that one of us wasn’t going to make it alive.
They dropped a sword and told us that in order for the ritual to be complete, one of us had to take the life of the other person. On hearing that, I said to myself that it wasn’t what I had signed up for and there was no way I would take the life of another person. I would rather die than do that…
That was the thought I wished had played in my head.
Story by: Quincy Charles
