DO NOT READ AT NIGHT! ║⋄Completed⋄║

Pay Close Attention

It was about 2PM and we were curled up on the sofa watching a movie. I was barely paying attention while my two children watched, instead scrolling down my Facebook newsfeed on my phone, occasionally liking or commenting on things. Every now and again I would glance up to make sure I had some idea of what was happening in the movie, and right now two knights were sword-fighting, the clanging of blades and shifting armor echoing around the room.

My boys were excited, imitating what they were seeing on screen with zeal and I smiled, returning to scrolling down my phone.

"Dad, is this real?"

"The movie?" I looked down at him with a smile.

"Yeah, can this really happen?" He looked away from me, back to the TV.

I shook my head, returning to my phone. "Not these days. It's a movie, son, so they're make believe."

It had been the older of my two boys who had asked, the eight year old, and he seemed satisfied with my answer, ruffling his younger brother's hair.

At some point, the film finished and the credits began to roll. I made my way upstairs to use the bathroom and the boys had headed towards the kitchen to get drinks. It was as I was washing my hands that I heard it, a blood-curdling screech from one of the boys.

Running downstairs, almost tripping and falling, I hurried into the kitchen and froze in horror, my hands up over my mouth.

My younger son was lying on the ground, a pool of blood spilling from his newly created wound.

"You said it can't happen these days!" The older son shouted at me, panic covering his face, blood still dripping from the knife clutched in his hand. "You said it was make believe!"

They had been 'sword fighting' with knives, the older boy had ducked, his blade slipping up under his brother's ribs, killing him instantly.

Apparently I'd missed one of the knights dying on screen.