Leo, Adam and I all headed to the skate park later that evening. I was trying to show Leo how to do a bunnyhop, but he wasn't getting it. He kept getting frustrated until he finally gave up and just watched us hit the ramps.
I did a 180° in the air and landed awkwardly on my hands and knees.
Adam laughed behind me. "Bro, you good?"
"Yeah," I replied, dusting my scraped palms off. I glanced over at Leo who was scrolling on his phone.
I froze as I noticed someone standing only a few feet away behind the bench he was sitting on.
It was that man.
"Leo! Look out!" I called out, panicking.
He jumped up and looked around. But that man was gone now.
Leo shot me an irritated look. "What the fuck, dude?" He shook his head and started walking off.
"Leo, wait!" I called after him.
"What's his problem?" Adam asked, standing beside me.
I shrugged. "I don't know." I started running after my brother. "Leo! Wait up!"
"Okay? Bye?" Adam said behind me.
A twinge of annoyance hit me as I hurried behind Leo. I had to baby my brother every time he got pissed? That wasn't fair.
"Leo!" I said, grabbing his shoulder when I caught up to him.
He slapped my hand away. "What?" He snapped, turning on me. "You think it's funny to make fun of me in front of your friends? You think it's cool?"
His harshness took me by surprise. "No. No, that's not what I did at all!"
"Then what? What did you do?" He demands.
I sighed. "I--nothing. I just thought--"
"Forget it," he cut me off. "I...I hate you." With that, he turned and kept walking.
I hate you.
Ouch. I sighed again. Hopefully he didn't really mean that. Hopefully he knew I tried my best--Im not perfect, but I'm doing the best I can to fill in the hole our father left behind.
He died from a crane toppling on him nine years ago. He was a construction worker who loved me and Leo like there was nothing but us in the universe. Leo was especially close to him.
I remember the horrible day when my mother got the phone call--she was in the kitchen and me and Leo were both in the living room. I was nine at the time.
The wail of grief from our mother brought us running to her. She was sitting at the table, tears streaming down her face.
"Boys," she had whispered. "It's your father."
It's your father.
That was the day I fully understood the complete responsibility of being the man of the house. Of being the oldest.
YOU ARE READING
Slenderman
HorrorA young man gets increasingly tangled with an entity that is stalking him and his family for unknown reasons. Their time to escape is running out all too quickly...
