Chapter Two: Blackout

All I can think about is where he got the chains. It's stupid, isn't it? You and your brother carrying a man who murdered your mother into your basement, chaining him up, and you're just there wondering where he got the chains from?

It's been almost six months since they were murdered, and I just cannot forget, the look etched on their faces, my mother lying in a pool of her own blood, my father with a broken neck, not breathing, and his eyes still wide open.

"Charlie," Henry says softly. I notice both him and William are staring at me. I was in a world of my own, horrified by my own realities. I could call them nightmares - I do get nightmares about it - but the thing is, that would be an insult. When you think of nightmares, you usually think of stuff that will never happen, like a zombie apocalypse, or the world being taken over by arachnids. Not a phobia of mine, but still. There will never be enough words to describe fully the intense horror of the situation. Imprinted in my mind, forever.

I mumble: "What?"

"Are you okay?" Henry asks me. I nod. "Good. Because if not, leave." He looks at William. "That goes for you, too. If you guys are gonna be crybaby b******s, just leave before the going gets tough."

I'm not going to say anything. But, I am going to stay. This is the one that stabbed my mother twelve times, cut her throat, and sliced my arm wide open.

Henry finishes chaining up the man. I'm curious as to when he's going to wake up. I guess we all are. So many thoughts are racing through my mind - questions, too. However, I don't want to ask them, for fear of making Henry annoyed, or even angry. Actually, apart from his harsh words, he seems strangely calm and accepting of the whole situation.

To my surprise, William asks for a word upstairs. When we get upstairs he begins to talk, in a loud whisper.

"Is it just me, or is Henry terrifying?" William asks. I shrug. A shrug is non-committal. Good.

He sighs. "Charlie, I..." William struggled with his words for a few seconds. "I don't wanna do this; I don't wanna be the bad guy."

"So don't," I say, in a normal voice. "Be the same boring person you always are. I guess you never cared about mum or dad anyway."

I couldn't believe the words coming out of my mouth, but they weren't mine.

Will runs off. I hear a door slam. Oops. Slowly, I make my way back to the basement. I don't really know why I was so harsh to him. The only conclusion I can come to is that Satan is channelling me again. I hate it when He does that. He's the voice that controls all voices.

I'm encouraged to listen to Him. Henry is jealous that he can't hear Him. I would be too...

The man groans, I hear it from just outside the basement. I rush back in. Henry is slapping him across the face. I take off my hoodie, exposing my big thick scar. The mans' eyes flutter open.

"Yo." Henry says casually. I look on in awe. "What's your name?" Henry asks gently. The man refuses to answer. Henry kicks him in both shins. 

"Mate, what is your name? Ain't hard to answer, fam!" Henry yells. I flinch at the power of his voice. All it does is remind me of when I was younger, and he, was so much older. I almost feel a pang of sympathy for the man in the chains. Then I remember, that he murdered my mother and put me in hospital.

"Jude," the man says sternly. Henry repeats this name. He starts off in an inaudible whisper, but the name from between his lips gets louder with every 'J'; Henry starts laughing manically, hysterically, terrifyingly. He starts pacing around in circles. I'm not sure what I'm meant to do.

"Do you know who I am?" Henry finally asks, after his weird shouting and walk around deal.

"I know who he is," Jude says, nodding towards me.

"You killed our mother," I sneer. "I swear to Satan if you, Jude, do not tell us where your little buddy is, the one that snapped our father's neck... I will rip your throat out with my bare hands," I say, shaking with anger, hot tears forming in my tear ducts.

"Oi!" Henry says, grabbing my wrist. "If you don't calm down, you are out of this basement. I warned you."

Fed up with Henry's hypocrisy, and not wanting to argue, I make the decision to leave. As I'm walking away, I hear Jude sobbing. "God, please forgive me, I never wanted to hurt you..."

When I reach my bedroom, the first thing I do is lie on my bed and before closing my eyes, pull a blanket from my radiator, and imagine the warmth radiate into my soul. What William said rang true for me, too. I do not want to be one of the bad guys. I guess, sometimes life isn't that black and white.