Dead or Alive

🧋𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧🧋

𝙴𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗'𝚜 𝙿𝙾𝚅

I never meant to kill her. Mrs Cooper. She had always been the perfect neighbour. She bakes us brilliant chocolate chip cookies on weekends, offered to babysit me and my little brother, Aidan when everyone was busy. She knocked on the door whenever she heard mother or Mr Kim getting angry again. I never thought I would be capable of hurting anyone, let alone killing Mrs Cooper.

But she tried to hurt me first... 

I was sent home from school on the day due to a mini flu, nothing too serious.                                             I had to pick Aidan, my baby brother, up from a friends house, as my big brother couldn't take him to work anymore. His forty-something-year-old boss, Mr. Anderstown, had found out about the extra seat in my big brother's car being filled, "If I find out you are taking children to work with you one more time, China Boy, I swear to you, that will be your last pizza delivery ever." My brother couldn't say anything. He couldn't even correct Mr. Anderstown about our origin. He just simply said "Yes sir, I understand."

He had to because you see, we couldn't bare loose anything more; we were one bill away from the streets. 

Our routine was always the same. Wake up to angry drunk men trying to break into our apartment- if you could call it that. Eat breakfast- if you could call it that- which usually consisted leftover pizza crusts from my big brothers work place. My older sister, Hannah, and I would head off to our schools, my big brother would drop Aidan off at his friend, Alex's girlfriends house. Get home- if you call it that, and sleep. All four of us slept in the same bed with one ratty old blanket- one of the only things mom left behind.

My dad died when I was three- brain tumour. We were okay at first, financially (not so much mentally), we got by, until mother met Mr. Kim. He made us sell father's convenience store, sold our toys, books, clothes. Used the money for drugs and alcohol. Turned mother from a kind, loving woman into an addicted, angry one. 

Soon, she was out all night and asleep all day. She came home smelling like a sweaty man's armpit, burning plastic or a permanent marker. Eventually, like many things, the money they made selling our stuff, they soon ran out. 

So, they took their anger out on us, my brother more so. Whenever they raised their hand to me or Hannah he would step infront, using himself as a shield to protect us. He always came out with more bruises or cuts. We were lucky enough to have made it out with just the scratch.                       

When I turned 8- the age I am now, we had a new member to our small family, and for a while he made mother normal again. She cared.

However,a few months later my brother soon turned 16, we woke up one morning and her and Mr Kim were gone. 

Having no-one to care for us, my brother had to drop out from his senior year of high school. He became a drifter, but no matter how many jobs he took up he couldn't afford our current apartment rent. 

This is where Leaky McFee, our now home, comes in. 

Anyways, Mrs Cooper heard I wasn't feeling well, so she came to see how I was feeling. Aidan was taking a small nap on our bed, and I was on the floor (still in my uniform) doing homework. After a few hours of keeping me company, she decided to go make me some Doenjang-jjigae. 

That's when it happened. Screams erupted outside, bombs went off. Everything went fuzzy for a few small moments. Aidan woke up within moments, his screeching matched the citizens of Michigan.

I ran to our yellow stained window to look out and see what was happening. I could hardly make it out, all I could see was crowds of angry or frightened people running in all directions. Some were so scared they were a sickly yellow.

Soon, a thumping came from my front door. At first it was slow, consistent. The longer I hesitated to open it, the louder and quicker the bangs became before I grabbed a knife from the kitchen draw and whipped the door open.

It was Mrs Cooper.

Her skin had become the same sickly, puss-like yellow as the people outside. Her eyes were no longer the same welcoming green, but a hungry milky white. 

"M-Mrs C? Are you o-" I got stopped mid sentence as she bolted forward and grabbed me, attempting to bite me. I could hear the violent clacking of her teeth as I held her back, melting in with Aidan's cries of horror as he watched the scene befall in front of him. I couldn't think. It happened so fast. I lifted the knife and pushed it into her skull, earning a loud squelching noise.

She fell to the ground with a pound thump, as did I.

I cradled her limp head in my chest, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Forgive me, I'm sorry..." I repeated over and over and over, tear streaming down my naturally pale face (that had become even more white due to everything I witnessed in the span of 5 minutes)

My tear filled eyes lifted from the dead body infront of me, and met Hannah's dark brown ones. I didn't know what to feel. I was numb. Had I really just murdered her? Somehow ignoring what she had just witnessed, Hannah began, 

"Ems, we need to leave. Bring the knife, and pack a bag. It's not safe in Michigan anymore." she emptied her blue rucksack onto the wooden floor, schools books flying everywhere, and began shoving items into it.

There were only 3 things I wanted to bring: our photo album, Aidan's teddy our big brother bought him, and the necklace dad bought me. 

As I put on my old converse and strapped Aidan to my chest with a scarf, I realised something 

"What about big bro?" I whimpered, lips quivering, as I hugged my brother's head for comfort.

"We need to go Ems. I trust he'll be safe, and we'll find him."

"B-but..."

"NOW EMMERSON!"

I chocked and ran towards Hannah, grabbing a few of my brother's baseball hat's on the way.

"Did you really need those?"

"If we find him, he'll want them," I cried as we ran towards an army bus, where a group of people were being pushed inside, hands entwined as we galloped "I know it."

I didn't know if that would be the end, or the beginning.

 Either way, I knew I had to survive. 

For my big brother. 

For Aidan. 

For Hannah. 

For Dad.

🅰🆄🆃🅷🅾🆁'🆂 🅽🅾🆃🅴🆃🅷🅸🆂 🅸🆂 🅹🆄🆂🆃 🅵🅾🆁 🅵🆄🅽, 🅸 🅺🅽🅾🆆 🅽🅾🅱🅾🅳🆈 🅱🆄🆃 🅼🆈 🅵🆁🅸🅴🅽🅳🆂 🅸🅽 🆁🅴🅰🅻 🅻🅸🅵🅴 🆆🅸🅻🅻 🆁🅴🅰🅳 🆃🅷🅸🆂. 🅱🆄🆃 🅸🅵 🅰🅽🆈🅾🅽🅴 🅳🅾🅴🆂 🆁🅴🅰🅳... 🅴🅽🅹🅾🆈 🅰🅽🅳 🆃🅷🅰🅽🅺 🆈🅾🆄 🅵🅾🆁 🆁🅴🅰🅳🅸🅽🅶! 🆇🆇🆇 𝔸𝕝𝕤𝕠, 𝕒𝕟𝕪𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕚𝕟 𝕒 𝕗𝕠𝕟𝕥 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕕𝕚𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕝𝕪 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕨𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕡𝕒𝕕 (𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕒𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕣𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖) 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕖𝕚𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕓𝕖 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕞𝕖 𝕠𝕣 𝕖𝕩𝕥𝕣𝕒 𝕚𝕟𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 (𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕨𝕙𝕠'𝕤 ℙ𝕆𝕍 𝕚𝕥 𝕚𝕤) :)