A Different Depression

Chapter Two

I remember Charlotte's last day so clearly it's sickening.
Once upon a time, there was a family of four. Bailey and Richie Jackson, a young married couple. These two had a sweet seventeen year old daughter, Charlotte Jackson, and a devilish younger daughter, Victoria Jackson. It was the day before Cherry's (as we called her) eighteenth birthday. I was walking with her to the park to play with the puppy she got for her birthday from Dad, Leo, a huge bull massive dog. He was only the size of a chihuahua then, though.
Leo was tugging along and Cherry was giggling at all my stupid little kid jokes. It was, by definition, a picture-perfect day. The warm April sun was shining down on us and the smaller children were giving their parents and nannies a run for their money. Cherry bought us ice cream and we sat beside the duck pond with Leo whining and licking the dripping mint ice cream that dribbled down my chin and was making my fingers sticky.
"So, Vic, what's your boyfriend status like?" She asked with a smile and a small giggle.
"Eww that's gross!" I made a face and stuck my tongue out. "And my name is Tori, like that pretty country girl on YouTube." And I ate more of my ice cream.
    Cherry smiled and shook her head, staring at the ground before looking up at her baby sister with her bright green eyes that seemed to seep deep into your soul. "Oh you'll get there, 'Tori', but you're already a pretty girl," Cherry flicked a piece of firey red hair off her shoulder. She looked so much like their pretty mom except with their father's red hair.
   "Nuh-uh!" I remember protesting.
    Cherry looked at me and looked as if she wanted to say something but was stopped by a loud bang and screaming. "What was that?!" She jumped and looked around. Suddenly my sister had frozen, but was shaking at the same time. "Victoria,"
    "Tori," I corrected her, oblivious to the horrors at the park at that very moment.
     Cherry ignored me. "Victoria, take Leo," she placed his leash in my hand. "And this," she handed me the necklace I'd gotten her for Christmas the year before, a rose-gold locket with a picture of us in it. "Take them both and run. Tell my mommy and daddy to call the police, that something is happening at the park. Tell them I didn't want to leave the child to die." She hugged me and kissed my cheek. She stood and started creeping away. Leo whimpered and my sister smiled. "Don't be scared," before she ran towards the pavilion.
    I think I started to cry. But I don't know, it's blurry from this point on. I think I had ran about ten minutes before I heard the loud, horrible gun shot that ended my sister's life. But I didn't know that. All I knew was that Cherry needed me to get home, and I knew that I couldn't protest because of the urgency in her gorgeous eyes. I gripped Leo's leash in one hand and Cherry's necklace in the other and ran and ran and ran.
    "Hey baby!" Mom said when I burst through the door, dripping sweat and panting like Leo. She stopped whatever she was doing with that stack of books and hurried to me. "Oh my Lord! She took me by the shoulders and shook me. "Victoria Lynn Jackson!" She looked down at my hand, the one I'd been holding onto Cherry's locket with. "My my my! So much blood!" She cried out.
    I look down through teary eyes to see a bloody hand, a huge gash where the locket had cut me. "I think Charlotte is hurt," I said quietly, staring at the wall. "There were a bunch of bangs, and the air smelled of smoke like Uncle Jim's gun powder, actually. And there were screams." And I fainted because the next thing I knew I was in my bed, Leo at my feet and Cherry's necklace around my neck. 
    I stood and moved slowly towards my door, listening for anything. I heard hushed voices and Mom's sobs, and Dad's voice all troubled-like. I don't know what made me move so fast, but I ran into the living room. I wish I hadn't. There was three policemen in my house and two paramedics. Everyone but Mom was quiet, like funeral quiet.
     I didn't understand why they were upset, but then I saw my sister. Her eyes shut, she looked so peaceful. I remember thinking I was just dreaming, and Cherry was okay and they were all just imaginary dream people. She always had a crazy imagination. But no, nothing was fake. Charlotte May Jackson was lying on the sofa with a bloody hole in her forehead. She was dead. Dead. I don't remember much else.
     Now, we have a sofa with seventy stuffed animals, pictures, flowers, chocolates and photos. It's a memorial and it's been there for three years. We don't sit there, since Cherry's blood is stained on the fabric. Mom locked her room and has left everything hers sit wherever she left it. Her shoes are on the drier and her blow dryer? It's been drying nothing since 2013. We don't even use the bathroom that Charlotte and I shared. There's water in the tub and the television is still playing reruns of Full House. It's like she never passed away, especially when her Victoria's Secret perfume and lotion fills the house.
    She was pretty messy, but everyone loved her. We never argued, and I never touched her things. She always let me play with her pets and sometimes let me wear her clothes. Okay, enough about that.
    Where was I? Oh, yes, the seventh cut. It was Sydeny the bitchy. She had her little henchmen hold me down while she slit my wrist and laughed as the blood stained the walls. Brutal? Yes. Uncalled for? Yes. A bitch thing to do? Ding ding ding! I think she did it because she saw the other cuts. Or maybe because the teachers give me so much attention because of Cherry that they're jealous? Whatever I did, I didn't deserve that. Sydney has been after me since sixth grade, when I made the News as the poor little kid who's sister had been murdered. I don't even know who the child she was protecting was and nobody ever told me.
     But yeah, that's my beautiful life's history!