Moving to Hell

Anger is a bad emotion

I was startled. Neither Valentino nor I knew what to do. We were standing there, in front of my brother, who was impatiently waiting for an explanation. Johnny places his hands on his hips. 'Well?' You could tell he was not amused. 'Remember yesterday when I told you Valentino and I had a fight?' I ask. I don't wait for an answer and continue: 'Well, it sort of came because I told him everything- all the strange things that had happened to us since we arrived here. Valentino didn't believe me at first.' Johnny scoffs and rolls his eyes. 'Of course he didn't believe you!What'd you expect?' I ignore him. 'But when you suggested to talk to him and make things up, I did it. Just when we'd cleared the air between the two of us, something happened...' I stop talking. Thinking back at what happened at school, wasn't something I liked doing. My fear came back and so did my tears. 'Before you start crying, can you tell me what the Hell had happened that's so shocking? The two of you look like you'd seen a ghost or something,' Johnny says. I swallow. Valentino shakes his head. 'Uh-uh, not a ghost, something way worse than that.' He was right. Johnny frowns and looks at his sister. 'Okay...' he slowly says, 'what is this terrible thing that happened, huh?' I lick my lips. 'There is a rule in our class,' I start. 'What rule?' 'If you stop asking questions, I'll be able to tell you.' I start to get irritated as well. Johnny sighs, but stops asking questions. I continue my story: 'Our teacher, Mrs. Benson, tells us that we aren't allowed to raise our fingers. No one knows why, but none of us dared to ask her. Yesterday a boy who Mrs. Benson used to call Giggle, was bold enough to raise his finger. He said he had a question, only... Only he never got the change to ask it.' Valentino takes over the story from me when he sees how hard it is for me. 'Mrs. Benson was furious. Giggle nodded so heavily that his neck broke- I mean, all the bones in his neck literally broke in two and eventually his head fell off his body, onto the ground. You'd think after that he'd be dead, but he wasn't. At least the head wasn't. Mrs. Benson started to... transform. Then she walked over to Giggle's head, which was screaming, and she ate it. Shortly after that, the bell rang, and Jackie and I ran to her house. I've never been so scared before in my life.' Johnny doesn't know what to say. 'Seems like she's some kind of demon,' he says then. 'Or possessed by one, at least,' I add. Johnny clacks his tongue. 'It's very traumatic what happened to the two of you, to say the least, but Jackie...' he turns to his sister with a disappointed look in his eyes, 'you did a very irresponsible thing there.' He looks at Valentino, hinting that he could better leave. 'Err... I'll see you tomorrow at school, Jackie. We'll discuss what to do about the whole teacher-demon situation later,' Valentino says and he leaves the house.

Johnny and I are left alone. Brother and sister, together. You can feel the tension hanging in the air. Neither of us is saying anything, but Hell could break loose any moment now. 'What the Hell were you thinking?!' Johnny shouts at his sister. He's not amused. 'I couldn't lie to him!' I yell back. 'Couldn't lie to him my ass! You don't even know the guy, Jackie!' 'That not true!' I say. Tears are coming up. 'I've known him for-' 'For a few weeks only! You don't know if you can trust him!' Johnny interrupts me. 'He's my friend!' Johnny scoffs. 'Friend?' He raises his eyebrows. 'Listen, Jacklyn, I know you like the guy- but I don't think he can be trusted, okay? There's something messed up about this town- maybe it's possessed or cursed or whatever. At least there's something wrong with it and with all the people in it. They all seem to be a part of this.' He calmed down a bit and is no longer yelling at me. I shake my head. 'It's different with Valentino...' I softly say. 'You're naïve, sister, that's why you're saying this! Fact is what you did was bad and irresponsible, no matter if he's good or not!' 'Why are you so mad?!' I yell. Tears are steaming down my cheeks. 'Because we made an agreement and you broke it! You broke the specific rule we made right after you got attacked! When we agreed not to tell our parents anything about the events that had happened to us, we also agreed not to tell ANYONE at all!' That's what Johnny's mad about. 'You've been reckless and broke the agreement! I thought maybe you had a little bit of responsibility, turns out I'm completely wrong. You don't see the consequences of your actions, but I do! That's why I made up that rule in the first place, Jacklyn!' He only calls me that when he's mad or disappointed. I think he's both in this case. 'If you just stopped and thought for 3 more seconds before making a decision, none of this would've happened, but of course you do it the other way around!' I'm quiet. 'I'm sorry...' I whisper. 'Me too,' Johnny says, 'I'm sorry that your apology has come to late for me to care about it and to forgive you.' That one came in hard. I don't know how to react. 'Now do me a favour and go to your room, please. I don't want to see you for the rest of the day anymore.' The anger in me boiled up as well. 'Since when do you get to decide what I do and where I'm going?!' 'Since I'm your older brother!' 'I hate you!' I shout. More and more tears are coming. 'I thought that... maybe you weren't so bad, that maybe indeed we could like each other- turns out I was wrong. It was all in illusion, a mistake. Next time I'm in trouble, just let me die instead of saving me!' 'Cut the victim role already! Go the Hell to your room now! I'm done with you!' I looked one more time at my brother. 'I really hate you!' Then I storm off to my room.