Joey Small

That Night (1)

Wednesday, 20th October, 1999 (12 years ago)

Papa? Mama? Wake up!

Tears soaked my face, as blood soaked my clothes. Not mine, no. The blood of my parents. This is that night, the night I lost more than my parents. My home. My happiness. My reason to live.
But I'm still here. I don't know why. Why my parents would go without me. To a better place, where magic never seizes to exist.

During the incident I was taking a nap. The darkness had always calmed me, protected me from the horrors of the outside world. Everyday a life is lost. A spark is dimmed, blown out. The passion goes. In an instant, you can lose everything.

I lost everything. Everything. And life will go on without you. It's from then on that I realised how selfish the human race is. As your body decomposes, while your soul lives on, but you are dead, and the world won't end, but your world will. Death's everywhere, it's always around us. We live then we die. However, we live with the fear of dying. I can't let a petty fear like that drag me down, I have too many burdens already. It's a dark world without light guiding you down the right path. There, in that moment, you are nothing. Absolutely nothing, and fate decides where you go next. None of that bullshit about good or bad deeds. Like life itself, its futile, and luck-based. Biased, too. If it were a game, it wouldn't be played competitively like Street Fighter; there's  too much hax. You could be walking down the street and randomly get hit by a meteorite. You could be falling in love, when really you're being played. It's free to play for a reason. But is it even really free to play?

I was having a nightmare. No, my parents weren't being killed; that, sadly, was all too real. A monster creeped out from under my bed. Four... No, Six years old at the time, I was paralysed with fear.  I tried to scream but nothing would come out. The monster took my voice and I think it wanted my life. It began to caress my hair, brushing it away from my face. Peculiar. I was a perceptive kid, did a puzzle in less than five minutes. He seemed so daunting on the outside, but he had a soft, gentle interior. Or so I thought. The brightest angels contain the darkest demons- the devil was once an angel.

It attacked! Slashing away with its razor sharp claws. I couldn't breathe. Wincing, I opened my eyes to face my nightmare. And as I looked, I saw nothing, like trying to catch my own shadow, a lack of light, lack hope, goodness, purity and innocence.

Nonetheless, I awoke from my slumber, dead-eyed, almost blood shod. My vision was blurry, but I knew that wherever I went, it would lead me down the right path.

I stumble into the sitting room, the TV playing Mum's favourite crime program, Homicide Hunter. I couldn't hear it, perhaps it was on mute. The black and white flashes illuminated the room. Walking forward, unaware of my surroundings, I slip and fall. My head hits the ground, going downhill. I tilt it upwards, unscathed, unfazed, and all I see, are eyes.

Red, certainly red, anger or blood, I don't care. The words that'll haunt me forever: "Goodnight, Joey!" H-h-how did he know my name?! The sinister, maniacal sound... I still hear it every night, whenever I close my eyes. I see glowing eyes, red with an evil not known to man, not even a God can possess such venom in their eyes. And the deafening threat of death haunts my every nightmare, lurking in the amygdala of my brain like a parasite, controlling my fear conditioning forever, slowing wearing me away. The darkness that once protected me has now seeked refuge within my mind, plaguing it for eternity with malevolence. My soul blackens as it is burnt by my burning pursuit of retribution. There must be something seriously messed up about that guy to make him want to end another person's life. But there's still no excuse. I haven't a care what crap that retard suffered to give him such a hostile, ill nature, I will put an end to this malignant behaviour. Such psychotic traits, yet roaming the streets among us. These people hide in the shadows of the ignorant, feasting on their inability to notice the inability of the hidden, to empathise with another human being. The shade is their friend, as it hides them from society- they stand out without being noticed. "Malum quidem nullum esse sine aliquo bono" ~ Pliny The Elder
"There is, to be sure, no evil without something good."