Night

Chapter 1

“Wake up sleepy head!” His mother shouted while knocking his door.
“You’re going to be late for school!”
She continued knocking ceaselessly. At this rate he was sure she was going to bring down the door.
“I’m up mom!” He yelled. His eyes were still closed.
“You’re not up Greg. If you’re up then come and open the door.”
He forced his eyes open. It took every ounce of strength in his body for him to stand up. He stumbled to the door and opened it. His mother stood there. She was already dressed and prepared for work.
“Good morning mom.”
“Greg! It’s already 7am and you’re not ready for school. Hell, you’ve not even woken up!”
“I’m up now.”
“Oh yeah? Look at you! You look like you’re still dreaming”
He didn’t say anything. He just put his head down.
“Come on we talked about this Greg. You’re gonna resume school today. We agreed on this.”
“Yes mom, I know. I just overslept is all”
She sighed.
“Look. I’m gonna be late for work if I don’t leave now. Greg, just don’t be late for school okay”
“Yes mom. I won’t be late.”
“Your sister is already prepared and she’s waiting for you so be quick.”
“Okay mom”
“Alright I’m off.”
“Bye mom.”
She left. He closed the door, went back to his bed and sat down. He was still feeling a bit drowsy. No surprise there. He didn’t get enough sleep last night. He’d been having trouble sleeping since it happened. Since his father died. He’s been dead for 2 months now. It devastated everyone. His mother was most destroyed by it. She cried constantly for 2 weeks. All eforts to console her were in vain. His sister cried a lot though not as much as thier mother. But she hasn’t been the same since it happened. She’s been keeping to herself more. She used to be the mood lifter in the house. She was so funny. She told the most funny jokes. But now she hardly even spoke. As for him, he didn’t cry when it happened. At least not in front of anyone. He dealt with it privately. That’s how he liked to do it. He could say his mother and sister had changed all he wanted but the truth was, he’s the one that had changed most of all. Since it happened, he’s always been in his room. Hardly sleeping, hardly talking, hardly reading, hardly doing anything. His mother hated the fact that he didn’t open up and let go during the funeral. But he didn’t want to open up. He was scared to open up.
He rubbed down his face with both his hands and got up. He went straight into the shower. School today was going to be hell for sure. School had been going on for a month now. Senior year. He wasn’t exactly the most popular kid at school. He mostly kept to himself. Some would say he was shy or reserved, they’re completely correct. He wasn’t completely shy but he was the type that wouldn’t approach someone if  it wasn’t necessary. Some of the bullies picked on him because of his frail physique, although he’d expect them to drop off when they hear about the demise of his father. He wrapped up his shower and came out of the bathroom. Going back to school is definitely not going to be easy. But it is necessary. In ten minutes he was fully prepared for school. He’d done his hair, dressed up, arranged his school bag and was ready physically. Mentally though, not as much. He went into the living room. His sister sat on the couch directly opposite the TV. She wasn’t watching the TV though, she was on her phone. She’s always on her phone.
I swear that thing’s gonna blind her one day.
It had already started blinding her anyway. She wears glasses. When she was ten she was diagnosed with myopia. He wasn’t particularly sure if it was concentrating her eyes on screens that caused her eye defect, but he could swear it was part of the reason.
“Mabel,”
She turned to him.
“Oh, finally ready I see. You sure took your time.”
“Yeah, yeah. C'mon let’s go or we’re gonna miss the bus”

Millburn Highschool. It wasn’t exactly a beauty to behold. It was just like any other highschool. But, it was the most popular highschool around the area. It had the most number of students, the most number of staff, teaching and non-teaching and some would argue, the finest facilities. He didn’t really appreciate the facilities though. Hard to do that when you haven’t seen what other students are forced to work with in other schools. Another important feature of the school he felt should be added to the long list was the highest number of race or religion related fight breakouts. Over the years, many gang fights have occured over seemingly trivial matters but after close investigation, boiled down to race or religion. The atmosphere of the school always made one feel like someone was a tongue slip away from causing world war three. The school have obviously tried their best to make the students leave matters such as this outside the school but to no avail. These matters were buried too deep into school’s system for one to just dig it out and toss it somewhere else. From black students being the most expelled in the school, to middle-eastern students being teased with terrorist jokes, asian students being called derogatory names and so on so forth. It was rampant in the school. Teacher on student racism remarks were a bit frequent, and surprisingly, so were teacher on teacher’s. The school was just a living hell. Being a white vulnerable kid in such a school was something you wouldn’t wish on your enemies. But that’s exactly what he was. His sister got along well with the girls although he wondered how much that will change after the death of their father. He, on the other hand, did not get along well with anyone. He literally had only two friends in the whole of the school. It was always so tough for him. As he went through the school gates, he just got that feeling. That feeling he always gets when the day is going to be a bad one.
“Greg!”
He heard a familiar voice scream his name from afar. He looked around and saw who was calling him. It was Tyler. He and Jason walked toward him. His sister was already going to meet some friends of hers as well.
“Yo, Greg! Long time man” Tyler said when he arrived. Tyler stretched out his hand for a handshake.
“No see” Greg said and shook his hand
“Greg, where have you been man? A lot of people think you’re dead or something.” Jason said.
“Really?” Greg chuckled “Well, you can see I’m alive.”
“Yo man, I heard about what happened to your Dad. I’m really sorry man. It must be real tough for you” Tyler said.
“Yeah, it’s tough for all of us,” Greg said.
“Wait, what happened to his Dad?” Jason asked
“How have you not about heard this Jason. His Dad passed away.” Tyler answered him.
“Really?” Jason asked, “I’m so sorry man, I…”
“Can we just, get to class please?” Greg cut him short. Tyler and Jason glanced at each other.
“Okay, okay. Let’s go” Tyler said. They started to walk toward the class building. Something about the way people apologized for his father’s death irritated him. It’s always 'I'm sorry, I know it must be tough for you'. Acting like they care. Acting like they understand. What was he supposed to do, break down in tears in front of them and tell them how hard life is going to be without the his father?

         Time flew by very quickly. Mostly because he was in his headspace for most of the day. He kept getting, sorries and consolation speeches from his classmates, most of which came from a place of not wanting to be the only person in class who didn’t sympathise with the now fatherless Greg. It sickened him. School was over though. The final teacher had just stepped out of the class and the students wasted no time in following suite. Greg decided to wait with Tyler and Jason until the muddle of the students at the door was over and they could pass through freely. The muddle finished quickly, but Tyler and Jason were still talking about something.
“…right Greg?” Jason said chuckling.
Apparently, they thought he was present in the conversation they were having. But his mind was far away from them.
“Uhh. Sorry, I wasn’t…excuse me.” Greg stood up and scurried out of the class. Tyler and Jason called out to him but he ignored them. He just suddenly got this feeling. He didn’t want to be around anyone. He ran out of the school as fast as he could. Out the school gates and onto the road, he still ran at top speed. He didn’t want to see anything or anyone. He only wanted to see…his father. This feeling of immense hatred ran through his body in an instant. He hated everyone for pretending to understand what he was going through, he hated his friends for being so insensitive, he hated his father for dying. He hated himself. In what seemed like no time at all to him, he’d arrived home. He immediately doubled up and huffed away. Then a realization struck him. He’d left without his sister. When he finished huffing and puffing, he stood upright and lightly slapped his temple.

She’ll find her way home.

He walked to the door. His mom usually went to work before they went to school and didn’t come home until about seven o’clock, so they usually locked the door when they were going to school, and then opened it up when they came back. He was the one holding the house key though as the senior brother. Mabel didn’t have one because their mom didn’t think she was a safe pair of hands for something as important as the house key. He put the key in the keyhole and turned. The door was already unlocked.
That’s strange.
He opened the door and walked inside. Had his mother already come back? Or did he forget to lock the door.
“Mom! Mom!” Greg called out. No answer.
There’s no way he left it open. He remembered vividly when he locked the door this morning. So then, how was the door open. Did someone break in? He walked around the house checking for signs of a break-in or if anything was stolen. Nothing. The house was exactly the way he left it, except for the door. He decided to go to his mother’s room. She usually locked it before leaving for work, so if it was open, then maybe his mother did come back from work. He went to his mother’s door and pulled down the knob. The door clicked open. It wasn’t locked. He opened the door all the way and entered the room. There wasn’t anything particularly strange about the room.
“Mom.” He called out again. Still no answer. He opened her wardrobe. A bunch of clothes, some folded, some unfolded, nothing really out of place. He opened the bathroom door, nothing out of place either. He was about to leave the bathroom but he heard the feint sound of water trickling down. He looked at the shower. Water was pouring on the floor. Had she left the tap on? The shower curtains were closed so he couldn’t really see the bath tub. He quickly went over to the shower and opened the shower curtains. His heart flew up to his mouth. His mother sat in the bath tub full of water, tied up and gagged. She was muffling a sound which he couldn’t really make out and was shaking her head ferociously. Then he felt a sharp pain at the back of his head. He fell to the ground and his world turned black.