Murder Day [The Novel]

Chapter 6

This year for my birthday my parents actually have a cake. It’s a big day and they saved all of their credit for a month to afford such an extravagant celebration.

“Happy birthday sweetie,” My mom smiles, she’s absolutely glowing with pride. My father isn’t paying much attention, he’s rooting around in the closet for something and my mom turns on him with anger in her voice, “Don’t you have something to say Carl?”

“Yes, of course!” He finally hauls himself out of the closet, hands behind his back as he approaches the table, “Happy birthday!” With a goofy looking grin he brings his hands around in front of him and holds out a package wrapped in old newspaper for me.

“You know you guys really didn’t need to do all this,” I shake my head, trying to hold back my exuberant grin.

“Nonsense!” My father laughs as I open my gift, careful not to rip the paper, “It’s not every year our child becomes an adult!”

I sit in silent awe of my gift – a long hunting knife with a decorative leather sheath. I hold my breath and try not to cry. I know what an expensive gift like this means, “A knife…” I say in a small voice.

“A weapon!” My dad corrects me, “Your saviour! The difference between life and death.”

“But…” I try to choose my words carefully, I don’t want to offend my parents after they’ve clearly put so much effort into my gift, “But I told you…”

“Oh don’t be foolish!” My mother says as she cuts us each a piece of cake, “I know you’re ready for the celebration, you’ll come out with us tonight and you’ll see how exciting it truly can be.”

“But…” I whimper and she cuts me off by slamming my plate down in front of me.

“We’ve got a very important job to do tonight, so you’d better eat up!” She smiles and I can tell it’s forced, “You’ll need all the energy you can get.”

I gulp, not wanting to disappoint my parents as I start to slowly eat my cake. Maybe if I take long enough they’ll get impatient and leave without me. That doesn’t happen though; my parents rush me along, telling me I’ll have to get changed and ready to go soon.

When I’m done eating my parents hand me a black outfit and instruct me to get ready, then we head downstairs to the lobby.

“I’m so proud!” My father says, putting an arm around my shoulder, “You’ll see soon enough what it means to be a grown up!”

With sweat forming on my forehead my parents push me through the front door, the sun is setting and they sweep me up in their arms, leading me towards an alley at the end of the street.

“Where are we going?” I ask and my mother squeals with excitement.

“You’ll see,” She says as we make our way into the darkness.

“There you are,” I hear a voice and spin around, knife held tight in my hand, “Careful now, sun’s not down yet. Besides, I’m with you.”

“Reginald!” My mother says and throws her arms around a dark man’s broad shoulders, “So good to see you.”

My father introduces me and I look around at the three of them, “Uh…what exactly is going on here?”

Reginald laughs and looks from my mother to my father, “You guys haven’t told the kid what we're up to?”

“We wanted it to be a surprise,” My dad grins.