Short Story #1 (It Happened At Home)

 I remember it to be a cloudy day. There was a chill in the air as I remembered the past month that was made up of fights, and me comforting my twin brother, James. I, my brother James, and my mom all lived very unhappily together. My father had passed away two previous years before, and life had been one big fight ever since.  Now, what really stuck out to me was the night before the present. The previous night my mom and brother had the most heated argument that I had ever heard in my life. James had stumbled into my room so red that I thought he might burst, literally. He ranted to me for at least fifteen min. before giving out his last puff of air.  His final words to me before he went to bed were, “I want to kill Mom”. I went to bed pondering his words. My brother had always been a man of his word. But would he actually carry out his want? I wasn’t sure but when I got to school the next day I couldn’t help but worry when I couldn’t find James at lunch. There wasn’t much that I could do except drink my coffee, and sit on one of the school chair’s. The signs that directed students to the food quart didn’t even appeal to me, and the people wearing Goths that wore black clothes had always frightened me. So, I just sat there. At the end of the day I spotted James at our bus stop and ran towards him. “What’s wrong?” he asked. I said that I hadn’t seen him all day, and had started to worry about him. He said nothing back which I thought was weird. When we got home I noticed that morning chill again. There was something wrong. My feeling was confirmed the moment I noticed a lifeless hand lying on the floor. The body, I hoped, was to be found behind the kitchen island, and luckily it was. A part of me wished that the body hadn’t been there because what I saw next deprived me of taking a breath. My mother was lying all in red, and there was a knife wound through the center of her corpse. “James, come here!” I wailed. He came running, and acted just as shocked as I was. As I looked around I noticed that there was a bloody knife stretched across two chairs that were pushed into the island. We called the police, and they began the investigation procedure but I wanted to do something myself. I decided to check around my neighborhood starting with the house that was next door to me. On the outside of the house hung paper airplanes that twirled around whenever the wind blew in their direction. I’d always wondered if the man inside the house worked with airplanes, and if he had free tickets to airplane showings. Ever since I could remember I’d always wondered the strangest things. I grabbed the silver knocker, and banged it against the silver plating. An older looking gentleman peeked out, and gazed down at me. I took a deep breath and started in on my speech that was made up on the spot. “I’m sorry to disturb you mister but I have a very important matter to ask you about. You see, I came home from school today with my brother to find my mother dead in our kitchen. Did you by any chance notice anything out of the ordinary today around my place?” Next thing I knew I was sitting down in the older gentleman’s living room, and he was telling me the hard core facts. Somehow I knew the truth would come out from his lips the minute I knocked on the door. He proceeded to tell me that he had seen the scene all go down. My mother had been standing at the kitchen counter. My brother had stalked into the kitchen, had grabbed a knife, and while staring at my mother’s stunned eyes had stabbed her straight through her heart. With tears in my eyes I asked how the knife had turned up where I had found it. He said that my brother had fetched the suitcase that was lying on the counter and had stuck it in there for a brief moment before taking it out again, and laying it across the two chairs. I sat there in stunned silence, not quite sure what to say regarding the information I had just learned. So, I thanked my neighbor, and went straight to the police. I told them what my neighbor had said, and they said that they had examined the knife where they  found my brother’s fingerprints. They said that my brother would be tried for murder, and would probably spend his life in prison. I ran into my bedroom, and this is where you have found me writing. I couldn’t tell you anything else except for one thing. I want to avenge my mother’s death someway, somehow. I know what will happen to me. I will inherit the rest of the money my father left behind, and with that money I am going to go to college to become a real homicide detective. By the way, my name is Chloe Elizabeth Eden.