The Dardens

The Family.

Chapter one, the family.  

I was named Kalli from the Greek “the dark one”. I always wondered I was the only one in the family with a Greek origin name and my mother always answered me “you are the chosen one, dear. Our masterpiece can’t be complete without you.”

I grew up with a sense of authority and control. I have always been the popular one, that girl who had everything no matter what were the consequences. And if someone, somewhere contradicted me that would cost their life.

Although I wasn’t that kind of blonde rich girl who thought she could do whatever she wanted. On the contrary, I’ve been taught to let people know they were the ones who controlled everything and in the end the result was always the same: I had won someone’s life.

I was already powerful with only fifteen years old but when I made sixteen no one could stop me.

It was July’s 5th and my life as the greatest murderer in the world had just begun. I got up at 5 o’clock just in time to see the sunrise. It was the beginning of a very good day for me. It was my birthday and I had set at least five murders for that date.

I looked out the window watching the sun rising above the clouds and smiled. There was something unique about that day, everything told it. Even the sun was shining at me happily like a child waiting to be killed. Oh, how I loved torturing children!

My bath was long and relaxing. I had to be on my best if I wanted to reach my personal record. Five murders a day was a dream I expected to realize. I got out of bath and looked myself in the mirror. My red straight hair reached the middle of my back like blood dripping from a neck. My pale green eyes travelled my face looking for any scar or wound. Nothing, my skin was perfect. Just the way I liked it.

Then, I got out of bathroom and put a simple back dress on, my family was waiting for me downstairs, it was time for breakfast.

“Happy birthday, darling!” Lilith Darden, also known as my mother. She almost flew between everyone to wish me a good day and give me a hug. “What’s your set for today?” I knew immediately what she wanted to know.

“Five.” I replied with a big dark smile on my face. I couldn’t wait to be with my first victim.

“You’re a bit of a dreamer, aren’t you?” My non-favourite cousin spoke with a very large dose of sarcasm in his voice.

“Shut up, Derek. I don’t remember asking your opinion.” Eighteen years old and he still had a mind of a child. Poor Derek. I really feel sorry for him. Well, actually I don’t. He was the most beautiful guy in my school. His muddy blue eyes shone like two diamonds and contrasted with his black hair. He was so gorgeous that I just wanted to murder him in a slowly and painful way.

“Oh, my dear cousin, am I noticing a sense of anger in your voice?” He got closer to me. “I can see you get nervous around me but you shouldn’t show it that much, you know?” Derek’s hand travelled my hips going down more and more. He suddenly stopped and grabbed my leg firmly. I closed my eyes trying to think of children crying and people screaming for help. I tried to keep my sanity otherwise he would suffer the consequences right there in front of the whole family.

“Stop it.” I opened eyes looking at him. Derek had a twisted smile on his face. The same smile he did when he thought he could control me. Unfortunately for him, no one could do it. “If you want to play, at least you should hide it in front of our family.” I whispered in his ear. “Or do you rather be tortured tonight by your dearest cousin?”

“Are you making an invitation, honey?” I saw him biting his lower lip as he pretended to hug me.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Derek.” I laughed at his face while I walked away heading to the rest of my family. I said hello to everybody and received kisses and hugs from all of them. Amazingly as it seems, we were pretty much equal to a normal family except for the simple fact we were the most wanted serial killers in our country.

My uncle Jack gave me a new knife as my first present of the day. We wanted me to try out my new weapon. And there was no better occasion than my birthday. My uncle was an amazing person. He was two years younger than my father and he was as skilled as my father when it came to torture and murder people.

Besides my cousin, Jack had two daughters: Chaos and Sabrina. Two beautiful seven years old twins with a wicked mind. They always dressed in the same way and walked around the house with two Living Dead Dolls. That was how I could distinguish them. Chaos had a Bloody Mary doll and Sabrina had a zombie pumpkin.

Another child in my family was my brother Damian. He was only five and he had already killed three people, one of them was his nanny.

Finally I looked across the room where my father, Harold Darden, was looking at me with a big smile on his face and both arms wide opened waiting for a hug.

“Happy birthday, sweetheart.” I kissed him in the cheek. “Are you ready for today?”

“Yes, I am, dear father.”

“Do you have any idea who will be your first victim?” I looked at my father and smiled. Then I came closer to the window remembering the first person who would suffer in my hands. The first person who I would hear screams in agony. The first person who would die covered in blood while I was just beginning the first day of my life. Better saying, it would the first day of my kingdom of horror.

 “Of course I know, dear father.”

“And who will that be?”

“Nancy Sullivan.”

And I couldn’t wait to get started.