Welcome Home

A story I wrote years ago for a friend who asked for a horror/romance story. I'm not sure if I'm proud or embarrassed of it.

Welcome Home

 

My thick, black hair whipped back and forth as I shook my head. I hated when my brothers argued, yet it happened a lot. We were triplets, but we only looked alike. All of us were completely different in personality, my brothers proving that at this very moment. They were arguing over the climate in HOME, the town we were on our way to through a Foreign Exchange Program.

“I’m telling you, Yomi, it’s gonna’ be hot as hell there! It’s winter back home in Okinawa, so it’s gonna’ be hot ‘cross the world!” came the voice of Susano. He lived just to argue every little point across, and even if he realized he was wrong, he would argue just for the sake of arguing. Like my own hair, his was black and think, but he kept his cut short and constantly spiked it on top of his head.

“No, Zhu, it’s not on the other side of the world. It’s not far away enough for it to be summer there.” said Tsukiyomi. He was the complete opposite of Susano. He was normally quiet, and could keep his temper in check. His hair was jet black, just like us, but his hair was wiry. It was a little shorter than mine, but he constantly had it in a ponytail that was always tossed over his shoulder.

“No, it’s not! We’re going away, so it can’t be the same season!” Zhu screamed back.

Yomi just shook his head at brother, and then turned to stare out the train window. Zhu flashed a smirk, then turned and looked at me.

“Excited about our move, Ammy?” he asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders at him, then mentioned, “We’re not moving for good.”

“Might as well be. We had nothing in Okinawa, both our parents are dead.”

I sighed and let my gaze drop to the floor, hinting at my brother that I wanted this conversation to end. Unfortunately, Zhu has never been the brightest person in the world.

“Really Ammy, it’s gonna’ be so much better in HOME. Hell, it’s even called HOME, so it must feel like it? Right? We’ll have tons of fun!”

When I let my eyes turn to Zhu, he was giving me a wide smile, obviously excited for our pending doom.

I shook my head once again, but refused to say anything more to him. I didn’t want to argue with him. I wasn’t as brave as Yomi was.

 

***

 

When we got off the train at HOME, Zhu was upset to discover that it was, in fact, winter. Yomi and I both knew that it would be winter, but there was no use shoving it in Zhu’s face. He would just get mad.

While Zhu was glaring at the sky, as if cursing the world for letting him be wrong, a tall girl with long, blond hair walked up to us. The first thing I noticed about her was that her eyes were an odd, purple color.

The strange girl spoke, “You three must be the Shintao triplets from Okinawa! I’m Winter Masako. My siblings and I were going to be your replacements in Okinawa, but we haven’t left yet. We’re a little behind schedule because our father hasn’t bought our train tickets yet. He’s been busy recently, being the mayor of this town and all.”

I glanced at both of my brothers out of the corner of my eyes. Yomi was smiling at this Winter girl, when Zhu had an annoyed look on his face. I could have sworn I heard him mutter “Talk much?” under his breath, but Winter moved on before I could question him.

“I’ll take all of you back to my house so you can meet the family before we leave!” she grabbed my hand and started to drag me away, my brothers following behind us. I stumbled as she pulled me. I could barely keep up with her, she was so strong!

When she suddenly stopped a few minutes later, I slammed face-first into her back, successfully getting my sweat all over her brilliant blue dress. I was about to stammer out an apology when I realized she didn’t even noticed I had run into her.

She had turned around again, having let go of my hand when she stopped, and I realized that we were standing in front of a large mansion. It was almost the color of blood, and over five stories high. It looked ancient, like it had stood for thousands of years, yet it had a homely texture to it, as if it had just been built yesterday.

Winter’s voice broke into my thoughts. “Well, we’re here! Which reminds me, I forgot to ask you what your names were!”

Zhu was about to make some stupid remark, that was sure to be along the lines of “How the hell did that remind you?” but Yomi cut him off. “My name is Tsukiyomi, but I go by Yomi. My brother here is Susano, he goes by Zhu, and my sister is Amaterasu, but she goes by Ammy.”

“Wow, you guys have such strange names. Okinawa is going to be such an odd place!” Winter chimed, then turned and skipped up to the door. She opened it and my brothers and I walked in after her.

The room we walked into was a small kitchen and dining room. At the table sat four people: Two adults and two teenagers. The adults were obviously the people we would be staying with. The teenagers were probably the brothers mentioned before.

“This is Yomi, Ammy, and Zhu!” Winter exclaimed when she had everyone’s attention, “Over there is my mother, Rosalie, my father, Atticus, and my brothers, Blythe-Lee and Jace!”

We all bowed our heads toward the group, and the boys did the same in return. Rosalie instead stood up and walked over to us, then gave us all a hug. “It’s great to have you here!” she sang, “My children will show you where you’ll be staying! I hope you’ll love it here!”

I doubted that I would love it here, as the woman suggested. I didn’t like being in unfamiliar places, and just wished I was home. Of course, I couldn’t go home now, it was too late. I held back my sigh as Winter grabbed my hand and brought me up the stairs.

 

***

 

Once I had been brought to my room, I went down and ate supper, then returned to my room and fell into sleep. Unfortunately, I was woken up in the middle of the night because of a noise outside. I was sleeping on the floor when I first heard the noise. I opened my eyes and jumped up, but I didn’t see anything abnormal about the room. Winter was sleeping in her bed, and the sound of her steady breathing was the only noise I heard. I was about to lay back down when I heard the noise again, this time realizing it came from the window. Slowly I stood up and walked over to the window.

There was a person standing on the ground down below. I couldn’t tell what gender they were, or any other fact about them, but I knew that they were causing the noise. The person had thrown something at the window, of which I guessed was a stone, and when they saw me come to the window they waved.

I opened the window and stuck my head out to see if I could get a better look, but this person must have gotten a better look at me instead. They ran when they realized I wasn’t the person they were looking for, whom was probably Winter, and I still didn’t know a thing about them.

 

***

 

I had barely gotten any sleep the night before, so I was the last to wake up in the morning. I came downstairs to find that everyone was already eating breakfast. I helped myself to a plate full of food and sat down next to the brown haired Masako boy. If I remembered correctly, his name was Blythe-Lee, but I couldn’t be certain. I was always terrible with names.

“Did you sleep well?” the boy asked me, breaking me from my thoughts about him.

I nodded my head, completely lying, and he gave me a smile. He seemed nice, unlike his brother. The black haired boy looked a little older than Blythe-Lee did, and whenever he looked at me it was through narrowed eyes. I didn’t understand what I did to him, but some people were just like that. I wouldn’t have to deal with him much longer, hopefully.

As everyone finished off their breakfast, I noticed they would all walk out the front door. I was a curious person and wondered where everyone was going, but really, it was none of my business. As I finished breakfast myself, I wondered what I would do now. Luckily, that was decided for me as Rosalie announced, “Atticus and I are going out on a business outing, and we won’t return until tomorrow night. Blythe-Lee, do you think you could show the Shintao’s around the town today?”

“Sure, mother, whatever you say.” he answered, and she smiled at him and walked away. Blythe-Lee, who was the brown haired boy after all, stood up and turned to look at the three of us. With a smile on his face, he said, “Well, shall we get started? The town isn’t too big, but there’s still plenty to see!”

 

***

 

We didn’t return home until it was already starting to get dark. We had been out to eat, met a few people, and looked at the whole town. Like I had suspected, Blythe-Lee was a great guy. He was very nice and polite, and would always ask us if we needed anything. He seemed to be the exact opposite of his brother, whom we met on the streets while out walking and totally ignored us.

I was ready to go up to bed, but apparently the black haired brother of Blythe-Lee and Winter, who’s name I vaguely remembered as being Jace, walked into the front room, closely followed by Winter. “Hey, party at Spence’s tonight, you in?” Jace asked, looking directly at his brother.

“I’m in!” Blythe-Lee roared, “What about you guys?” He turned to look at us, which caused Jace and Winter’s looks to also rest on us.

Zhu and Yomi looked at each other, and then both nodded their heads. I shook mine and muttered, “Umm…if you don’t mind, I’d rather get some sleep.”

I know it sounded like a terrible excuse, but that was really the truth. Or well, maybe just part of it. I wasn’t the biggest fan of parties either. The guys seemed to accept the excuse though, and all four of them walked out the door. Left behind was Winter and me.

“Why aren’t you going to the party?” I asked her, completely surprised. I had expected she was the party type of person.

“Oh, I invited someone over.” she answered, “Would you like to meet him?”

“Umm…sure.” I answered, confused as to why she just didn’t invite this person to the party too.

“O.K., but you have to promise you won’t tell Mom and Dad that he was over, got it?”

“Alright.”

I didn’t get time to ask any more questions, because suddenly there was a knock on the door. Winter rushed over to the door and yanked it open, her blue dress fluttering as the wind rushed past it.

My eyes widened with shock as I saw the boy in the doorway. I wasn’t surprised because his long hair was an unnatural dark blue, or kept in a ponytail. I wasn’t surprised because he was wearing all black, and even his long overcoat was black as the night. I wasn’t surprised because he had a cigarette in his left hand and a beer bottle in his right. I was surprised because I recognized the unique shape of his body. This was the boy at the bedroom window last night.

 

***

 

Sitting on the floor in Winter’s bedroom, I found that I couldn’t force myself into falling to sleep. As much as I wanted to sleep, it wouldn’t come. My mind was replaying the information I had just learned only a few hours earlier.

The boy that had been at the window was named Axel. Apparently he was Winter’s boyfriend, but her parents hated him. His family had died when he was younger, and now he was living with his older brother. His older brother was always busy doing something, so he had turned to drinking and smoking to keep himself from going insane. Winter and Axel had been dating for quite some time, and because of a stupid mistake, Winter was now pregnant. That had been why she wanted to get away from HOME so badly, why she had wanted to enter into this foreign exchange program. She had planned to have the baby in another country, play a pity story on her parents, and hope they would adopt it as their own child.

I had no idea why Winter told me all of that, but she must really trust me a lot. Of course, I wouldn’t tell anyone what she said to me even if I did have someone to tell, but still, I found it odd that she decided to tell me all of that. Maybe she just needed to get it all off of her chest?

I sighed as I tried to get back to sleep. No matter what though, I couldn’t clear my mind of Winter’s problems. Winter was starting to grow on me, even though her father claimed he was going to locate the lost papers and sign them soon so the three children could go to Okinawa, and I knew I would miss her once she was gone.

Finally I could feel myself somewhat falling into a sort of light sleep, when a noise woke me up for the second night in a row. This noise made my blood curl though, and I almost wanted to puke. It was the sound of a scream, and from what I could tell, the sound of someone dying.

 

***

 

I had run downstairs as quickly as I could after hearing the scream, but no one was left in the house. The front door was wide open, and when I stepped outside I saw that Winter and Axel were both outside. There was a huge crowd of people running in my direction; Running to get the leader of the town. Atticus wasn’t here though, and he wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. The people formed a crowd around Winter and Axel, all screaming some sort of something at them.

From what I could hear, the body had been found shortly after the person had been killed. They were telling Winter where it was, and she was pulling out her cell phone from her pocket. I was guessing she was calling her parents to tell them about this. When she was finished on the phone, she and Axel started to follow a few people away from here. I ran to catch up with them wanting to know what was going on.

 

***

 

A couple minutes later, I could see a group of people up ahead. I noticed Jace, Blythe-Lee, and my brother, Zhu, right away. I wondered where Yomi was, but the thought quickly left my mind when I remembered how much he hated blood.

Winter and Axel were the first to reach the small group of people around the body. The guides hung back with the rest of the crowd, and at first I did too. I didn’t really want to see a dead body, but I slowly approached when I heard Winter say, “Ammy…you’d better come see this…”

I was scared by her tone of voice, but I went anyway. When I saw the mangled body lying on the ground, I recognized the long, black hair tied in an oh-so-familiar ponytail.

I screamed and fell to the ground sobbing. Yomi was dead.

 

***

 

It has been two days since Yomi died, and I had barely gotten any sleep at all. Since we really had nothing in Okinawa, we buried him here and I went to visit him every day. Sometimes Zhu would even go with me. He never cried once, but I could tell he was upset. He didn’t like to leave my side, being the protective brother that he was.

Atticus and Rosalie were very considerate, and they promised they were trying to find the killer. I believed them, but it was obvious that Zhu didn’t. Winter, Blythe-Lee, and surprisingly even Jace were being extremely kind to us.

I couldn’t imagine a better pity crew in my entire life, but still, I was sad.

Instead of getting sleep that night, I decided to go visit Yomi’s grave by myself. I had been there for a few hours at least, when a noise behind me startled me. I was so terrified of getting murdered, but I was too frozen with fear to scream.

I started breathing again when a familiar voice said, “Hey, calm down,” and a boy appeared out of the bushes.

“Blythe-Lee? What are you doing here?” I asked, brushing my tears away with the back of my hand.

“I came to check on you. You’re going to get sick if you don’t get some sleep.” he said.

The brown haired boy stepped forward, and my heart skipped a beat when I realized how gorgeous he looked in the moonlight. His blue eyes sparkled, almost as if they were an ocean themselves.

Blythe-Lee sat down in front of me, his beautiful eyes meeting mine.

“We don’t want you to get sick now, do we?” he asked quietly, but I was too breathless to answer. Suddenly he leaned forward, his lips catching mine. I was so stunned that I almost forgot to kiss back. Almost.

 

***

 

Blythe-Lee had relaxed me so much, that I managed to finally sleep again. In fact, I slept for three whole days. I was starving by the time I woke up, so getting food was the first thing on my agenda.

When I was sitting downstairs in the dining room, I discovered that there had been five deaths while I was asleep. They still couldn’t find the killer, for he or she left no traces, but I did know one of the people that died. Or well, kind of. He was Axel’s older brother, and I found out had also been one of Blythe-Lee’s friends.

Blythe-Lee hadn’t been in the house when I woke up, so I went out to find him. He was in the first place I looked, though that place had changed a little since I had been there last. There was another grave near Yomi’s, and Blythe-Lee was sitting next to it. I walked over to sit next to Blythe-Lee, and he leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

There we sat together in complete silence until the sun set.

 

***

 

Everyone seemed to be busy the next day, because out of the kids, Winter and I were the only two left in the house. Axel was too upset to have her around, so she decided she would spend the day teaching me how to play a game. She called it “Rock-Paper-Scissors”, but I didn’t see too much resemblance. I thought the game was ridiculous, yet by the end of the day, I was still playing it with her.

“We have no lives.” Winter said with a laugh as we finished another game.

I laughed with her and nodded my head. Winter was turning out to be a great friend, and I was glad to have her here with me through these tough times.

We were about to play another round when a figure came rushing into the house. It was hard to tell who it was at first, but her majestically blond hair gave it away.

“Mom! What’s wrong?” Winter asked, jumping up from her seat on the couch.

“Jace, he’s dead!” Rosalie screamed as she raced through the house to find Atticus, who I swore was here somewhere.

I jumped a little when Winter started to scream-cry, a sound that hurt my ears. I didn’t blame her though; I knew what it was like when a brother died. A wrapped my arms around her in a hug, and she returned the gesture. I let her cry into my shoulder, and watched as Atticus and Rosalie left the house.

 

***

 

Winter and I walked through the streets, hand in hand. A few days had passed since Jace’s death, and there had been plenty of new murders afterward. No one was allowed to walk the streets by themselves any longer, and must now be accompanied with someone else.

We were off to visit Axel and make sure he was doing alright. Blythe-Lee had offered to come with us, but as much as I wanted him to, Winter said no.

I found myself thinking more and more about Blythe-Lee recently. A flutter went through my chest every time I saw him, or even when his name was spoken. I wanted to be with him so badly, but now was not the time for love. Once they caught this murderer, Blythe-Lee and Winter would most likely be leaving for Okinawa, or they would send my brother and me back. I couldn’t picture living without either Winter or Blythe-Lee, so I tried not to think about things like that too often.

“We’re almost there!” Winter exclaimed, pointing at a house up ahead.

I smiled back at her, but said nothing. I was just glad to almost be out of the streets because it was starting to get dark out. I kept my eyes on the house ahead, but that caused me to successfully trip over something in the road. Both Winter and I went flying, and suddenly I heard Winter scream. I turned back to see what she was screaming at, and my eyes filled with tears. Zhu was lying in the middle of the road, his neck and one of his arms twisted in an unnatural fashion and wet blood all over his body.

I would have screamed, but I was too scared to scream at the moment. My only remaining brother was dead, and the blood was fresh. The killer could still be around. Winter and I were both in danger.

I scrambled up, and reached over to help Winter up, but she was already gone.

“Axel!” I heard her scream, and saw her run into the house ahead. I heard her scream once again, and against my better judgment, I ran into the house as well.

On the floor were two battered and misshapen bodies, one with blue hair and the other with blond.

 

***

 

Thanks to the recent murders that had me crying my eyes out, everyone was warned to stay inside until this murderer was caught. Blythe-Lee didn’t like to obey that rule though, and he would often take me with him to the gravesites of my brothers, where Winter, Axel, and Axel’s brother were all buried.

One night, as we sat next to our friend’s and families’ graves, I wondered if Blythe-Lee had known that Winter was pregnant. I was about to ask, when I remembered the promise I made to her. I decided that it was best to be left unknown, and I would secretly mourn for the unborn baby as well.

“I love you.” Blythe-Lee said unexpectedly.

I stared at him in shock. I just wasn’t expecting him to say anything like that, so I didn’t respond right away. He must have thought I was rejecting him though, because he awkwardly turned his head away.

“I love you too.” I answered him, and he turned his head back toward me and smiled. He kissed me on the lips once before grabbing my hand and dragging me up. 

“Sunset, we’d better get home.” he said.

 

***

 

There had been more murders recently, so Rosalie and Atticus always seemed to be gone. People were starting to move away from this town in fear, so I felt bad for Atticus. He was trying to protect this town that he loved, but he had already lost two children in this fight, as well as a grandchild he didn’t even know about. Surely no one had gone unscathed during these past weeks, and I was thinking about what I could do to help when I heard a scream.

Believe it or not, I still wasn’t used to screaming. I ran outside and looked for the source of the scream. I know, it was a stupid thing to do, but the murderer always seemed to disappear from that spot after a murder, so hopefully I could make it in time to help this person.

I found the beaten and broken body very close to the house, in the middle of the street like my brother, Zhu, had been. I reached down to check for a pulse, but there was none.

Silently, I cried for this person’s life. I felt terrible, and I just wanted to get out of here. I stood up to leave, but when I stood up; I noticed a figure in the distance. I froze in fright once again, terrified that I was about to die as well.

Slowly the figure approached me, and still I couldn’t move. It seemed like hours, but eventually he was close enough to me that I could see the murderer in moonlit detailing. The thing that stood out the most about him was that he had very pretty, blue eyes. To me, they looked like the ocean, and as he moved, they sparkled like the ocean too.

I gasped for breath as he stepped over the dead body and landed right in front of me. I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t run, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t cry. He leaned down toward me and kissed me on the lips, and then a stabbing pain shot through my chest. He caught me before I fell, and I could have sworn I heard him whisper, “Good-bye, my love.”

Then there was darkness.

 Serial Arsonist Award

Aug 17, 2011

• Crime Forever
• Welcome Home

 5th Place

Jul 30, 2011

• Dark/tragic storys/chapters
• Welcome Home

Reviews

[Sunni Davis]

Really good story! It kept me guessing right to the very end and I was totally surprised at who the murderer was. My only complaint was that the pace seemed too swift but I understand thats difficult to manage with a short story. Very nicely done. Keep writing!

[StillShorterThanYou]

wow. that was AWESOME! i kinda guessed that it would be him in the end, but how it ended was sad yet cute in a weird way...

[Leave me alone....]

OH. MY. GOD. i kept getting chills through the whole thing! Amazing story, i figured it was Blythe-Lee because its always the one you'd least expect. I was shocked at the end. I didn't think he would kill Ammy. This was amazing. I can't wait for more of your short stories!

[Coyote Poetry]

You are a amazing writer. You create a very strong story. I like how you introduce the three kids. I like Winter. She made the story strong and alive. No weakness in the story. You held my attention to the last word. A very strong ending to a excellent story.
Coyote

[Daydreamer54]

i agree this was intresting! I liked the description of the characters and everything! Great write! ^^

[Black Cat Fever]

Amazing ending! That really enhances the whole story. Who would have seen that happening to her? Your story here was an enjoyable read.

[Julie Beth]

first i would like to say this is great second i love the names i stink at pickin out names but these are really cool so was completely shocked at the end but i think this was amazing so great write :)

[Tina Kline]

This really is great. One by one they were getting picked off but I wasn't expecting that the main character would be one of the victims. Impressive writing, it was interesting all the way to the end, and ending which was a big surprise!

[Dearantlers]

This story is really good. Kept me reading, and well, it's really good. I'd say be proud of it, not embarrassed about it.

[BrightNeonBrilliancy]

Aw man, I was so frickin moved by that last part- I was like Aw but Hey but OMG at the same time XD Really enjoyed this :)

[Sebastian Catfi$h]

Nice stufff