In Saving the Imperfect

3. And knelt between the shatters

Layne sat on the kitchen floor wet with alcohol and blood. A mobile phone in his hand, its screen lit with the emergency number in display, yet he hesitated to press the call button.

It was too late, anyway.

His father sat against the counter, one could have through that he had drunkenly fallen asleep, but Layne had already checked. Right next to him, his mother, with her own pocketknife still stuck in between her ribs. Her life had just faded away. If only her son would have been faster to call the ambulance, perhaps she could have been saved.

The phone's screen turned dark one more time. Layne didn't bother turning it on again. Instead, he threw it across the room into the tiled wall. The glass screen cracked in the process and the device tumbled into the bloody mess.

The main door opened with a bang, to which Layne flinched and pressed his knees closer to his chest. Something rumbled at the hall. What sounded like a pair of shoes were tossed away and some heavy bags dropped on the floor.

"Hey, hope you haven't-" Levi froze at the kitchen door. His face turned pale, he seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.

"Levi," whispered his little brother and dug his forehead into his knees.

"Layne. What'd you do?"

"I don't know." He kept blinking, time from time – squeezing his eyes together tightly, trying to stop the tears. "I- I don't know."

Levi shook his head and took a step back. He grasped for the door, his look still fixated onto his brother. Then, he slammed it.

"Levi!" Layne jumped up just to fall back down again, staining his skin, hair and clothes in both liquids found on the floor. The injured foot stung with pain. "Levi, wait."

The lack of footsteps or any other sound indicated that Levi might have remained on the other side of the door. Layne crawled across the room and sat beside it.

"I messed up," he whispered. "So badly."

Even if his older brother was still around, he did not respond. The silence was making Layne shake in desperation.

"I didn't mean it- I didn't know it'd end like this."

Once again, he received no reply. He thought he could hear someone breathing rapidly outside the room. Sometimes – sobbing.

Their parents' corpses looked almost like a couple of dolls, dropped down in weird poses in the middle of a playtime. Layne saw them even when he closed his eyes. It appeared that he would never be able to remember those people in any other way. To think he's spent all those years avoiding them. It might have been for the better – if he would have kept doing that longer, perhaps they'd still be alive.

The time passed slower than ever before. Before, a hot summer day at the construction site with no available shade used to look like a nightmare. Now, Layne wished he could repeat every one of those just to avoid being in that kitchen. Behind the door, Levi whispered something. It was clear it wasn't meant for Layne.

"Levi?" Layne scooted closer to the door, trying to hear. "Levi, what are you doing?"

He kept on talking. Layne died down inside when he realised what was going on.

"It was an accident!" he yelled. "I didn't do it!"

He clutched down the door handle. Something was blocking the exit. Someone was blocking the exit. Layne forced it open with Levi jumping aside and putting his phone back into his pocket.

"You reported it."

Levi nodded. With those wide, red, horror filled eyes, he didn't look like the same person anymore. It crossed Layne's mind that he must have looked even worse. Like a murderer.