Everything // a short story

Everything

Anthony

     “How are you feeling, mom?” I ask while forcing a smile on my face. She smiles back. “I'm feeling... okay,” she looks up at the ceiling for a moment then looks back at me. “just a little tired. It feels like all I can do now is sleep.” I look away and remember the time we ran outside together playing, while dad sat in his chair and watched us for hours. Now, it seems I'm always sitting here watching her in the hospital every day after school as she's dying of cancer.
     “Are you okay?” she asks me as she inspects my eyes to see what's wrong. My eyes meet hers. “Yeah, why?” I ask, forcing another smile. “Nothing, you just look a little upset.” She says to me. I get up, out of my seat. “Mom.” I say waiting for an answer. “Yes?” she replies. I turn around and walk out of the room before I can say anything I’ll regret.
   I want to tell her. I want to tell her everything. About all the people I've killed. All the people I've hurt. But I can't, I'm her little boy. How would she feel knowing her little boy has killed around thirty people for others? All to get money for her treatment and her family because she and my now alcoholic father can't. She would hate me and herself.
     I walk past my dad and out of the hospital all the way home. Then I wait outside my door for my dad to come home. He should be on his way.

_____________________

    “Supper’s here!” I hear dad call out from downstairs. I go downstairs and see him sitting at our three-seater table with a pizza box and beer in front of him. I grab two plates from the cupboard then, grab myself a glass of water. I put one of the plates in front of him and sit in the chair across from him. I put my plate and glass of water in front of myself.
    “So, what was that all about?” He asks, looking up at me. I look back at him and say. “What?”
     “Why did you walk out of the hospital like that?” he asks while grabbing a slice of pizza. “What happened?” I take a sip of my water, then I look him in the eye. “Is she gonna die?” I ask. Both his eyes whip towards me. “No Anthony, your mother’s not going to die.” He continues to stare me in the eye. “And how would you know that?” I say looking down at my phone. Someone is calling me. I look back up at him and say something before he can reply to my question. “Never mind, I got to answers this.” I hold up my phone.
       He sighs and does a slight nod. I get out of my seat and go outside. Once I’m outside I sit on the steps and answer the phone. “Hello.” I say into the phone. “Hello. Is this Anthony?” I hear a deep voice say in response.
      “Yes, who is this?” I reply with. It takes a moment for the deep voice to answer, but when it does it says; “I need some ‘business’ to be taken care of.”
      “Who is it?” I ask. I hear a sigh come from the phone. “My daughter, Angel Duke.”
       “Why do you want me to kill your daughter?” I ask out of curiosity. “Let’s just say I’m not a very good man. I’ve hurt a couple of people, killed a couple of people and taken their money.” He pauses for a moment. “ I do dark business, and unfortunately Angel  found out. Now it’s either I find away to kill her or my boss tortures both of us. I rather her die fast then the both of us suffer.”
        “But she’s your daughter.” I say. I don’t understand how someone could do something as terrible as that. I hear him say, “She says she’s going to make sure that everyone knows what I’m doing. That’s not what real family does. She’s not my daughter, she’s a mistake.” Then he hangs up. What a horrible father and human being.

Angel

       “Angel! It’s time to wake up!” I hear my little sister call. Not long after, she enters my room. 
       “I’m up Amanda, you can stop it now.” I reply while rubbing my eyes, then fixing my hair a little. I slowly crawl out of bed. Then I ask. “What time is it?”
       “Eight thirty seven,” She replies. She’s ready to go. I quickly tell her to go downstairs so I can get ready for school. She leaves and shuts the door behind her.

___________________

     "What took you so long?” My best friend Marissa whispers from the seat behind me. I had arrived to class late, which doesn’t happen often so I wasn’t very surprised to see the looks on everyone’s face when I walked into class. I look back at Marissa. “I slept in.”
      Just then we see the door open, then a boy walks into class along with principal Gray. The boy had beautiful blue eyes, like mine, he was a ginger with short hair, and was wearing a black and white hoodie. I’m not going to lie, actually kind of hot! He looks over at me and smiles.
      “This is Anthony Welish everyone. He’ll be joining this class for the rest of the school year.” Principal Gray says. After she’s finished speaking our teacher Miss Cooper says, “Well how ‘bout you take a seat next to Angel?” She points towards the empty seat on my right. As he walks over and takes a seat next to me, he glances over at me and smiles once again. This time I smile back.

Anthony

         She’s beautiful. Her black curly shoulder length hair, her bright blue eyes, and light chocolate skin. With a face and body like hers it’s hard to believe anyone could want her dead. Especially her own father. Principal Gray had left the classroom  and Miss Cooper went back to teaching her math lesson.
   My daughter, Angel Duke.
       The words kept repeating in my head. I can’t kill her; she’s to beautiful, to young. I’ve never killed someone this young. Sixteen, I’m that young! She has so much to live for, I have so much to live for. She should tell the police, or somebody. Tell them everything she found out about her father. All the horrible things. I would tell someone, but if I do they’ll ask me how I know this and I’ll have to tell them about everything I’ve done.
     I turn to look at her. “Will you go out with me?” I whisper to her. She looks shocked for a moment, but not long after she nicely smiles and replies. “I would love to.” I smile back at he response, then realize.
     What the hell are you doing?
    I can’t ask her out, she needs to be dead by tomorrow night. I’ll do it on the date! Even though I really don’t want to, I will.

________________

     It’s Wednesday night. The night Angel Duke and I go on our date. The night I am forced to kill her. The night goes perfectly. We a have an amazing dinner together at chick fill A. She tells me about her little sister Amanda and her best friend Marissa. I tell her about my mother and how she’s sick and about my father, but I don’t mention his drinking  problem. We chat for a while longer until it’s the end of the night. As we walk to my car I ask. “Can I tell you something?” She stares at her feet while walking and says “sure.” I stop. What am I doing? This isn’t right. I know I’ve just met her, but she really is nice, funny, and smart. I don’t know why but I can’t kill her. Not her. So, I tell her the truth. Everything.
    About my family, my dad, what I have to do for money, and what her father asked me to do for him. I explained how I couldn’t kill her and how I didn’t know why. I was surprised when she asked. “Well, what should we do?”
    “I’m not sure,” I reply confused as to why she’s not upset or even I slight bit mad. I was going to kill her after all. “We should run away,” She suggests nervously. “You and me.”
    “That is the best option right now.” I say with a shrug. Me and her. What about her life here with her family? What about my family? I guess this is what she wants, it's for our safety after all. “What do you say?” She asks looking straight at me. I respond . “I’m in.”
      I hope this works…..