The Pain of Laughter

The Pain of Laughter One-Shot

Alisa Bane, for as far back as she could remember loved the sound of laughter. Her little sisters believed that it had to do with the fact that her name itself meant great happiness. Alisa was skeptical, but laughter had always been magical for her. The sound of joy coursed through her system, leaving her feeling refreshed and alive. To her , it must have been laughter that caused the plants to grow and all the rivers flow out to the sea. That must be what helped the trees stretch high towards heaven and what pushed the winds in all different directions, keeping the breeze swirling all across the world, stirring up the Earth.

Alisa had always firmly believed in the myth that the first time a baby laughed a fairy was born, well maybe not a fairy but something wonderful flooded the world with every giggle and gurgle. Alisa's favorite thing to do was to share laughter with her sister. She was not an only child, but the furthest thing from it. She was the oldest of the eight kids of the Bane Family. She had a twin sister named Mara, who she was younger than by mere minutes. Although Alisa still considered herself the oldest because they were the same age in years so who cares about the technicalities. Mara and Alisa fought about very few things, except for when it came to Alisa's ideas on laughter.

Every time someone cackled with merriment, especially loud or joyously, Alisa could not help but look around and watch as their laughter caused the grass to grow a little greener and the sky to seem little bluer. She was always amazed by the affect the loudest guffaws and the tiniest giggles had on the world.

Mara, on the other hand, could not understand why her sister felt the need to stare at everything wide-eyed like a fish as if she had just seen the world for the first time when people laughed anywhere near her. She genuinely loved her sister, but it grated on Mara's nerves when she did that, and it scared people away from them. Whispers of the girl with the crazy twin followed Mara wherever she went. The whispers did not bother Alisa much. She had never cared what people thought, other than her family. Mara, who was quite the bookworm, often said that she was looney Luna Lovegood but with a happiness obsession instead. In the end, it was because of Mara's love of books that she was not there for that life-changing day.

The Bane family parents were the proud owners of a 2016 Moomba Helix, a boat that had been gifted to the Bane family by their long gone and insanely rich grandmother. You see, both Mr. and Mrs. Bane were only children and their parents, who were also only children, knew of all the loneliness that accompanied being an only child. This fact and the fact that the Bane family members were always quite talented and rich left a lot of money in the remaining Bane Family members' hands. These circumstances also explained why the Family owned not one but two jet skis, but one was unfortunately broken. Normally when the Bane family went out for an afternoon boating trip, Mr. Bane would let the children take turns on one jet ski and he would watch and follow alongside with the other jet ski.

Mara, who had recently gotten into another spat with her twin over laughter, did not want to go on the weekly afternoon boating trip on Cayuga Lake and she was allowed to stay home and read as long as she was mature and responsible about it. So Mrs. Bane, Mr. Bane, Alisa, Kyra, Sophie, Jack, Ellie, Annie, and little baby Kurtis headed down to the docks for another fun weekend. While Mara was perfectly capable of acting in the way she was supposed to, Alisa in comparison was far more reckless than her sister. But Mr. Bane still let Alisa ride the jet ski without his supervision keeping her in check. As Alisa was putting on her life jacket her younger 12-year-old brother Jack approached her with a bet. Jack bet Alisa that she didn't have the guts to try and jam the handlebars at top speed without their father noticing. And Alisa, without Mara to let her know how much of a bad idea this was, accepted the bet. As soon as Alisa was able to she took off the tether that connected her to the failsafe that as she always told Mara was for "cowards who couldn't drive jet skis". Mara responded cleverly, telling Alisa that the tether was "perfect for her then". But now it was time for the real fun. Time to show Jack just who was the coolest sister. She smiled, Alisa couldn't wait to see the look on Mara's face once she heard about what Alisa was about to do. The only problem was that she would have to head back towards the boat so she didn't anger her parents by not only speeding but going outside the zone the kids were allowed to. But she did not have to worry about hitting swimming siblings on accident because Mr. Bane required all those not on a jet ski to stay on the boat while jet skis were running. Turning the jet ski around Alisa twisted the handles up as far as they could go as hard as she could. But she chose the wrong time to do so. A nearby boat speeding along too close that Alisa hadn't noticed in her excitement left a giant trail of wake behind it. And almost immediately after she had started towards the boat she caught unawares and knocked off her seat in surprise. The only problem was that Alisa had actually managed to jam the handles and she had stupidly taken off the tether, so the jet ski zoomed towards her family. Mr. and Mrs. Bane who trusted their daughter had not realized that something was wrong until it was far too late. The jet ski smashed directly into the engine of the boat and blew up in a loud and horrifying, but strangely beautiful explosion. The wreck then slowly sunk to the bottom lake as Alisa frantically tried to swim towards her family, so she could do something, anything to help. Hours later after she had been picked up by the coast guard wrapped in a blanket and endless questioned, Alisa was still shocked with the sounds of screams and the destruction of the boat that she had inadvertently caused all for a stupid bet. She could still hear her mother crying for help as she was slowly dragged under injured from the explosion. Alisa could still remember the feeling of hopelessness as she tried to swim faster, to just get closer so at least she could have been dragged under as well. Almost absent-mindedly she wondered if anyone had informed Mara yet that they were familyless orphans without even an evil aunt to take them in for the money. Maybe they could become like the boxcar kids before they had to be wards of the state. That is if Mara ever even looks at my face again, thought Alisa miserably. Later that night Alisa was able to return home and was told that the next day a social worker would stop by to talk to the twins. As soon as she stepped into the house Alisa searched the bottom floor for her sister, her last remaining family member. When Alisa couldn't locate Mara downstairs she climbed up the 17 stairs, counting each step as she walked. Once Alisa reached the top she looked up from her feet and saw her twin staring back at her. There was a beat of silence, and then sobbing. "It's all your fault'' screamed Mara "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE SO SELFISH THAT YOU COULDN'T AT LEAST WEAR THE STUPID TETHER. IF YOU HADN'T BEEN SO STUPID THEY ALL WOULDN'T BE DEAD ." "Mara..." Alisa started to say quietly but stopped how could she argue, when she thought the same thing. "I HATE YOU" is all she got in return. Finally, for the first time since the accident Alisa began to cry, she let all the feelings that she held locked up inside of her out in the open. Alisa hated crying with a passion for viewing such an act as the complete opposite of laughter. Instantly, Mara realized that she may have been a bit unfair when assigning all the blame to Alisa and enveloped her sister in a hug that promised that things would get better as long as they were together. Once the sister managed to dry their tears and open their eyes, Mara stepped back and gave a small sad smile to her sister. At least we still have each other, she thought relieved to herself. And then aloud to sister, she said: "I can't believe that you cried you punk".

To which Alisa rolled her eyes and responded: " Shut up jerk". With a wide smirk, Mara shoved her sister hard and laughed as Alisa flailed her arms in a windmill fashion to try and keep her balance. Alisa could feel her sister's laughter in her bloodstream pumping her full of life again. Making the house look less lonely and cold, resurrecting her twin sister from the coffin of grief she had been placed in. Once again, it was a lack of attention that led to a downfall. In the split second where Mara had laughed instead of helping her sister and her sister seeking the life-giving magic that laughter always brought her, focused on the beauty of the laughter. The girls had forgotten about the stairs behind Alisa. Alisa violently slammed against the stairs hitting almost all 17 steps as her sister watched, too surprised to react. Looking on, a loud SNAP filled the air and the light disappeared from Alisa's eyes at the bottom of the steps. Only one out of the ten Bane family members remained all over the course of one day. By the next morning, the Bane family name was gone. One might argue that the killer, in the end, had been laughter, what Alisa had loved for so long eventually was the pain and death of the Bane Family.