Night Terrors -(TordTom)

Sunshine Lollipops

Tord

My mind went back to worst memories of my life.

My childhood.

As a child, my fondest memories were of my mother, since my father was never home most of the time. She would pat me on the head and call me her Tordle.

I remember the time my father actually came home once. He tore my life apart.

My mother was making dinner while softly singing to herself. I knew the tune all too familiar. Sunshine, Lollipops. That was the song she used to sing me to sleep with. That was my lullaby.

The door swung open and I peeked out from my bedroom.

No. It couldn't be.

My father stood in the doorway. He wore his uniform with so much pride. He was decorated from his chest all the was down to his coattails.

He stomped into the kitchen and called out to me. "Tord! Come down here! I have a surprise for you."

I was confused.

He never cared about me. Why would he now?

I walked downstairs towards my father, my hands in fists behind my back.

"Y-yes, father?"

Dammit. Why is he so fucking scary?

"I'm aware that I've been very tough on you since you were a little boy. But I promise that has payed off. Let me show you something."

He closed the distance between us and rolled up his sleeve. A symbol had been branded on his arm. It looked familiar. Almost as if it represented my hair.

"Take a good long look at it, son. That's gonna be on you someday."

I looked up at him confused. "What do you mean?"

"You're gonna be leader of this magnificent army when I retire or die. Your going to take control and dominate the world!"

I backed up. "I don't want to do that! I'm not like you! I don't want to be decorated like a Christmas tree. I don't want to be the bad guy!" I paused. "I don't want to abandon my family like you did to us."

This sent him over the edge.

"You piece of shit!" My father pushed me up against the wall. He punched me in the jaw. "You WILL join my army, and you WILL take my place as leader!

Feeling confident, I stood up straight and jeered, "And what if I don't?"

He hit me again, this time in the gut, making me double over in pain.

"I'll destroy everything you love and care about! Then you won't have anything or anyone to abandon! You'll be a cold, ruthless killer, just like me." He hissed.

He turned to leave, but before he walked out of the doorway, he said this: "Kill or be killed. You don't have a choice." He sauntered off.

I slammed the door.

Fuckin asshole.

I pretended that the encounter never happened for the rest of the night, shrugging whenever my mother would ask me what had happened.

I went to bed that night hoping that my father would die a slow and painful death in a fatal car accident.

*Timeskip*

"TORD!" I shot out of bed at the sound of my mother screaming my name. As I raced down the stairs, the pungent smell of smoke filled the air and choked me. Coughing, I crawled to the kitchen, where the awful memory, that would haunt me forever, burned into my mind.

There my mother lay, in a puddle of her own blood, surrounded by the burning kitchen, trying to drag herself over to me by her arms. My father stood over her with a smug look on his face and a pistol in his hand. He stepped on my mother's back, pinning her to the ground as her screams echoed in my mind.

"Time's up." He said, jamming the end of the gun to her head. "Join me or she dies."

I sighed and stood up, raising my arms in surrender.

I have to calculate my every move here. I have to save my mom. Even if it means taking my own life in the process.

"Good boy." He sneered. In one quick movement he grabbed me by the hair and tugged me over to him. I let out a surprised yelp, which was quickly put out when he jammed the gun into my hands. I looked up at him in confusion.

He jutted his head over at my mother, who was quickly bleeding out. "Finish her." He held me in place by my shoulders as I hesitantly raised the gun at her. She lifted her head at me with scared, teary eyes.

"I forgive you, my Tordle." She started smiling up at me while softly singing that familiar tune I knew so well.

"Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows everything and-"

BANG!

She flopped onto the floor like a fish out of water.

I lowered my gun slowly, my vision going blurry from the tears. I hadn't even noticed that I was crying.

My father praised me with a pat on the back. "See? Look at that. You're a natural!"

Anger boiled inside of me, my rage eager to burst from my tiny body.

"I killed her..." I mumbled to myself.

"Its just like old family traditions. I taught my son how to shoot a gun!" My father celebrated, unaware of my slowly deteriorating sanity.

"I killed my mother..." I looked down at her corpse, the shock and adrenaline wearing off.

Every second I was near him.

Every time he said something.

Every time my mind replayed the moment where he made me kill my mother.

I wanted him dead. I wanted him gone. I wanted him to watch as I slowly slaughtered him.

Something snapped. I wasn't in control anymore. My mind was there, but it felt like my body was on autopilot.

I turned the gun in my hands, which were not shaking anymore. Slowly, I turned around, sneaking peaks at the monster whom I once thought of as a father figure. He was on his walkie talkie with what I would assume would be his second in command. His back was turned to me.

Big mistake.

I aimed the gun at his head and held my breath. I did this once, I can do it again.

I pulled the trigger with ease as the gun went off. The kickback of the blast shook my hand, changing the pathway of the bullet. Instead of hitting its initial target to the back of the head, it went through his neck.

He dropped the walkie talkie and fell to his knees, choking on his own blood. His eyes widened at me, surprised that I had the balls to shoot the Red Leader himself.

He folded to the ground in his own blood as his heart beat its last.

There was nothing but silence except for the crackling of the fire from the burning kitchen.

The walkie talkie suddenly came to life as the person he was talking to started to panic.

"Sir? Sir are you there? We heard gunshots. Sir!" There was shuffling in the background before I heard their words: "Get help now!"

I ran out of the burning house, into the woods. I was a wanted criminal now. If I got caught, I would probably be killed by the most dangerous army in existence.

Damn.

And I don't even have a fully loaded gun.