Deux Frères

Tattered tennis X Debts

David's POV (Flashback)

The stench of urine and unwashed people was overwhelming but I was used to it. It's where I've always lived as far as I can remember. I was really hungry but father strictly warned not to step out without him.

A boy was wailing so loudly, I wanted to shove my tattered tennis show down his throat. I hate noise.

His face was a random face I had seen a couple of times. He was always with a woman who would probably look beautiful if she was cared for a little more.

The days when we lived an OK life was so much a blur to me, I can hardly remember when a properly made breakfast tasted like.

Mom died when I was four and it was all my fault. Father always said that she was the most beautiful woman he ever saw in his life. From what he says, it's not hard to deduce that he loved her to the moon and back.

I've always blamed myself for her death and I keep thinking;maybe I shouldn't have been born, maybe if I was not given birth to, mom would still be alive, maybe if I wasn't such a cursed child, mom wouldn't have  died on that cursed day.

After mom passed away, father never remained the same. He hardly spoke to me for two years and I can't blame him. After all, it is my fault his wife his dead. When I turned six, father started binge drinking and gambling . He would come home drunk and go on a cursing spree.

Father would smash anything in his way before slumping down in front of mom's picture. He would cry while holding her picture, his body shaking violently from the heart wrenching sobs.

I didn't know how to console him so, I would cry with him till we both feel asleep-a good distance between us.

One day, father came home looking like the walking dead. I was eight years old.  The economy of the country was recording and their company was laying off a number of staffs.  Father wasn't so lucky because his input at work had dropped considerably ever since mom died. (My fault again).

Father got laid off without much of a salary. Father's gambling increased, his debt increased, our bills increased, and it was all my fault. Eventually, loan sharks came and claimed our house. Our lives went down the drain faster than a rat sprinting.

I couldn't go to school because father couldn't afford it. I basically ruined our lives. We started living in the slumps with the government on our tails. Father would read me books on different subjects -thank God I was a smart child. I can't remember how mom died but I knew for sure that it was my fault. I had manage to ruin our lives completely.

How did she die?

How did she die!

I know I killed her but, how did she die?!

A loud bang jerkes me from my sleep and I look up sharply. A lecturer is glaring at me. I wipe the sweat off my head and saw how the class was looking at me expectantly.

I feel nauseous and sick to my stomach.  I dash out of the class and head for the restroom.

My palm is clammy and my heart is beating so loud I think a passers by might hear it. I burst into the restroom and I try to grab onto the wall for support but the wall is tilting to the side.

"oh god I can't breathe " I say more to myself.

I grab the sink and try to splash water on my face but the sing gives way and I fall to my knee. A screeching sound goes off in my head and I press my palm to both side of my ear.

"arrrggggghhhhhhhhhhHhhhh" a scream escapes my mouth.

My knee gives out and a sudden blackness engulfs me.