Beginning Again

Chapter 15 - The Past.

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©Sapphiresamo 

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Chapter 15

The Past. 

I stared at the picture in my hands for the longest time. The picture was taken the night before it happened. The night I lost my family.

Dad had managed to come home early from work that night, complaining that his headache had gotten worse. For almost a year or so he had been complaining of headaches. They’d come and go, mostly earlier in the day with varying intensity.

He blamed it on all the work at his shop. He’d take a few aspirins and then the headache would subside.

That evening he insisted on cooking dinner.

“Darling,” he addressed my mother. “The aspirin is kicking in, I can manage dinner. You go rest.”

That’s the way my father was.

He would always put others before himself, even if he was the one needing to be taken care of.

My mother had an exhausting day at work according to her grumbles when she picked me up from school late that afternoon, and my father knew she needed rest; though she insisted she was perfectly fine.   

Reluctantly she went upstairs giving into my father’s demand.

Sitting at the dinner table I watched as my father started preparing dinner. He was slow and careful about everything he did. He pulled the pots and pans out wish such care and devoted all his attention to dropping the pasta into the boiling water.

I didn’t like sitting there and not being able to help, so instead I turned my attention to the homework spilled around me, hoping to tune out the noises around with the sound of my pencil filling the paper with algebra answers.

After endless algebra problems, the food was finally ready so I went upstairs to put my books away and get the rest of my family.

Luca was holed up in his room; loud music streamed through his door. After banging on his door a couple of times, I gave up and pushed the door open. Luca was sitting at his desk, his big headphones glued to his ears.

I stepped over the piles of clothes on the floor and the other various items so I could switch off the stereo. Stumbling up to the stereo, I hit the button on the iPod connected to it which instantly stopped the music.

Luca didn’t even notice.

Even though I was standing across the room from him, I could still hear the music coming from his headphones. I’m pretty sure if Luca had normal ears they would have exploded due to the loud music.

Once again, I stumbled across the room to stand behind him. I watched his head bob up and down to the music as he slayed some green, hollow eyed creature on his computer screen. After witnessing many hollow-eyed murders, I reached out and snatched the headphones from his ears. He spun around so fast he practically fell of the chair. Glancing at his face, it looked as if someone had slapped him and stole his headphones.

“Hey!” he yelped as he caught himself and sat back on the chair. He reached out for his headphones and so I just stepped back, making sure to keep them out of his grasp.

“Dinner’s ready,” I told him.

“Okay,” He said lunging for his headphones. “Just give me back my headphones.”