Winds Of The Apocalypse (3 page)

my lovely mother calls this torture a 'vacation', as if! I mean, what the hell is she thinking, calling it like that?! What the hell resembles a vacation here?! The repulsive food? The annoying teachers? No, no doubt it’s the company she thinks I would love to have with me, Morgan, the reason I am here in the first place! That boy….fuck, if he wasn't my brother I would have …ggrrr I would have bashed his head in already! Ok…I’m exaggerating, the boy does have my face….I doubt that I would want to see it all messed up and bloody…that would just be…well…disturbing much?

But c’mon! See it through my perspective! Like the year wasn't bad enough to torment me. Morgan did every possible and impossible stupid thing his little twisted brain could come up with to get us both up here, don’t ask what; the page isn’t long enough to contain that list. But I will mention some, starting with skipping classes, smoking on school grounds and actually kidnapping me. No, no, I’m not kidding. He kidnapped me off the stage in the middle of an assembly for a day of 'fun' in the local park which included: us in the park, smoking Colin's pot. (Actually, it was more like: he's smoking and I'm gagging, I could never get the hang of it, thank god.).

Anyway, anger aside, I will hate to admit this but maybe it is a good thing for us to be away from home for the moment. This past week was …well…kind of flaky…I would call it unusual to say the least.

Morgan, the other half of my being and by being I mean the complete opposite so being completely himself (confused? try to say that three times without getting out mindless gibberish)… Anyways my lovely brother had decided to play a little detective game when we were bored out of our ears one evening so he dragged me with him to the basement (with me kicking and screaming all the way there), while mom and Greg were out of the house on some grocery shopping or some shit like that.

We were never allowed to go up there, ever since I can remember myself or anything else for that matter mom always said that the old stuff up there are dangerous and that they might fall and crash us under a pile of junk and boxes, but you know Morgan, no way are the words: 'dangerous' and 'not allowed’, anywhere near his vocabulary, provided he has one of course (which he doesn’t).

So we got down there and started roaming through the boxes. It was really mostly old clothes and some decaying pictures but there was one box that coughs our attention.

It was buried beneath a pile of Christmas toys all the way back by the window and it was labeled: 

'The kids, age 0 to 8' so we assumed it had to be us, me and Morgan, I mean, what other kids had grown up in that house, right? Wrong.

When we finally got the lid open (it took some time, someone nailed the box shut and put tons of cello tape on it, I broke a nail!) we found loads of stuff from what was supposed to be our childhood, stuff that neither of us could remember having. And there was something else, too. Something creepy, like 'Chucky' creepy.

A toy, a tiny furry broken ugly creature labeled:
 

'Fluffy, the property of Jon .T.’ we were going to investigate the box further but that’s when mom came back.

We tried to ask her who Jon was that night after she gave us the third degree about going down to the basement, but she got even more pissed at us, like the whole reason for us to not go down there was to keep us away from that box.

I don't remember ever seeing her get so angry or upset before. It really scared us, we didn't dare ask again, and even Morgan understood that this is something we should not try to get into.

So mom obviously grounded us (yay, more quality time with Morgan….like I don’t see enough of him every day) for going to the basement and then she locked the door and hid the key so we won't go down there again. She was obsessed.

Morgan suggested Jon was a relative mom resented but I feel there is more to that. Why was his toy in our toy box? And why…"

"Oh god! I hate this place!"

Colin, a tall boy with long brown hair and one of the twins’ best mates had dumped his tray on the lunch room table, sitting down with a puff. They met him shortly after arriving to the new town when they were about nine. He ran up to them as the movers truck was pulling into the driveway and convinced them to go play with him in his back yard (The 'back yard' turned out to be his creepy basement and after a run in with a spider and a broken wrist on Casey’s behalf they became inseparable, best friends for life). Casey sighed and closed her diary, looking up at her annoyed friend, her brown eyes scanning over Colin’s enraged features. It was a typical 'Colin' afternoon mood, Casey chuckled, she had seen that look so often that she was already mentally preparing herself for what was about to happen next.

Colin was the type of person that always had the need to tell everyone how his incredible day was, usually; it was filled with bad things, mostly. Although he would never admit it willingly and will try to blame it on someone else, the bad things would happen by his own damn fault (or Morgan's of course). But he still had the need to complain.

"Why must I be punished by this evil witch?!"

Colin asked dramatically, raising his hands up as if the ceiling was supposed to be the god that could answer his rhetorical question. Casey smiled, trying to hide her real commentary on the subject.

"Mrs. Kafka again?"
Casey smiled sweetly, an image of the old hag popping into her head as she said that. Yes, if there was any name for evil it would be 'Ms. Kafka' she would even make Satan run and hide.

Mrs. Kafka was their English teacher and by pure coincidence (or just by her demonic need to torment students). She was also the head of the summer school, the grand
puba of punishment in the body of an old hag.

"It's her fault I ended up here!" Colin growled, remembering sadly the wonderful vacation he had planned for himself. This summer was supposed to be all about him, him and the beach and the red sunset (Oh, the girls, the alcohol, the parties, the pot and the girls….those wonderful girls)…

Colin sniffled. “Those wonderful girls…”

Casey smirked. “Colin, yo
u’re drooling.” She stated out.

 
“Sorry.” He wiped his mouth but the dreamy look remained plastered on his features.

"Well, I hate to burst your hate bubble but if you hadn’t ditched every one of her lessons and weren’t showing up wasted to th
ose that you actually made to…"

"That was all Morgan's idea!"

Casey laughed full-hearted; of course her dear brother was involved.

"But you played along with it and you are not even in the same class! You are a year above us; you are supposed to set the
example, to be the mature one!”

Colin gave her an ‘as if’ look and Casey shook her head, deciding to drop the whole adult subject. You would actually expect such a beha
vior from a seventeen year old.

“So what happened?" She asked. “I mean, how did Kafka land you here for the summer?”
 Colin sighed deeply and began telling his tale, something that Casey had already prepared herself for, pulling out the sympathy friend look on her smirking face.

"Remember the trip to Europe that my parents had promised to pay for, the one that I was supposed to take for two weeks in the end of the summer before my final year in this hell hole?"

Casey nodded. Of course she remembered, her ears were ringing just by the memory of Colin talking about it.

"Sure, you have been waiting for that thing all year, couldn't shut up about it." ‘And how I wished you did.’ She added in her mind.

Colin laid his head on the table, smiling bitterly at Casey.

"Well, I need to wait no more, it has been officially canceled!"

Casey almost choked on the slice of pizza she had just lifted off her plate and took a bite of, dropping it back to her plate and staring incredulously at Colin.

"I'm sorry, but WHAT THE FUCK?! What do you mean ‘canceled’?! They
can’t do that! They promised!!"

Colin raised his face a bit from the table, pouting at his sympathetic innocent friend.

"That's what I said, fat load off good that helped me."

Casey shook her head, still not believing Colin’s parents cruelness. You can’t just get someone’s hopes up and then j
ust take it away. It’s inhuman.

"I just don’t get it, why is it canceled? We finish the summer school before the vacation is over, you will still have enough time to take that tr
ip. Didn't you tell them that?"

Colin'
s frown grew; of course, he knew that.” Of course I did but it’s not about that.”

“Then…? What is the problem?” Casey threw her hands up.

"Kafka, well, I have the witch to thank for that. Remember? I told you, it’s all Kafka’s fault, if it wasn't for her I would have still made it at the end of the summer…But no, she had to ruin it for me… That bitch…”

Casey looked puzzled. "You have to explain it better because I just don’t get how she could stop you from going. What did she do?"

Colin let out a little laugh. "You're an idiot for not getting it but I like you anyway."

Casey stuck her newly pierced tongue at him (oh, how she loved that thing. She did it right after the basement incident, right with Morgan’s lip ring. They decided that grounding them was a really horrible move and the fact that it messed with every boy she knew was an unexpected bonus).

”Oh Casey, if I start drooling over you Morgan will have my head.” Colin warned.

"Then will you just explain it already?!" Casey burst, having had e
nough of the dramatic suspense.

Colin shook his head. "Well…that bitch sent a letter to my parents saying that I'm a lazy bum that won’t amount to anything and that she suggests from the depths of her kind heart that my hard working parents won’t waste their money on a mistake like me.”

He paused.

Casey waited for him to continue but he didn't. "And…?"

She urged him, trying to get him to go on with the story and at least get to the punch line of it all.

"And they agreed with her!" Colin bumped his head on the table again, letting out a low grown at the behavior of his ‘lovin
g’ and ‘understanding’ parents.

“Hold the phone!” Casey’s mouth fell open.
"What?!" She shook her head. "Holy fuck… I… sorry man… But nice parents." Casey stared at her friend, slightly amused by this outcome but feeling sorry for her grieved looking best friend. Colin let out a muffled sound that was in the area of ‘laugh it up spiky’ and then he raised his head again

"Yes, no kidding. “

He looked up at the ceiling as if he was still waiting for that godly answer.

“I can't wait until I finally move out of their man
sion, those stuck up assholes."

Casey laughed. "You know you won’t, you will just wait until they crock and you will inhe
rit the entire family fortune.”

“That’s true.” Her friend agreed and Casey smiled. Colin's family had come into a large fortune in the past few years with his father's business taking off overseas. The day he moved out of their neighborhood was not a happy one but his friends were more than happy to wreak havoc on the small town he moved t
o and his new five story house.

“So I guess that you are stuck here with us this summer, Again." She added and they both burst out laughing, maybe the su
mmer won’t be so bad after all.

"I hate Mrs. Kafka!"

An irritated voice came behind them and one of their friends, Toby, a teddy bear looking blond teen that was in Colin’s class had also landed his tray on the table beside them.

"You're not the only one." Casey assured him, having to already predict his arrival, cuss where ever there was Colin, Toby will surely be as well. They got along since the first moment they met a little after they turned ten. Colin was being chased by a vicious dog that he had irritated and Toby had saved him, leading the dog away and ending up in the hospital with massive bite marks on his leg, he
still proudly wore those scars.

Anyway, from that day Toby appointed himself as the official guardian to Colin, not unjustly, he really needed one.

"What did she do to you?" Colin asked, greeting his childhood buddy, almost involuntarily glancing at his leg.

"Did she give you an 'F'?" Casey asked.

"She fucking flunked me!"

Toby blurted out, almost missing Casey’s comment, then, when he realized that Casey had beaten him to his answer, he looked at the dark haired teen before him, utterly surprised. "How did you know?" Casey started laughing again.

"Like I said you're not the only one.” She said, gesturing across the table at the still sulking Colin that sat growling and irritated across from them.

Toby fallowed her pointing finger to meet Colin's stare. ”What?
You too?!” He asked incredulous. 

"Yes, welcome to the club, one
thousand dollars entrance fee."

"I'll give you a cookie to join." Casey offered, presenting the chocolate chip treat sh
e had a habit of always having.

"Sold."
Colin grumbled, taking the cookie and nibbling on it with that same sulking glare.