Reckoning

Chapter 1

She stopped in her tracks when she saw him talking to himself, it wasn't the first time but this time he seemed to be muttering really grave things and the anger with which he was carrying out his work glued her to the spot. She managed to move backwards and hid in the sharp turn that overlooked the passage way.

She watched as he walked into their parents' room, violently flinging the door open. "What's the matter, Mason?" his mum asked with a mixture of surprise and confusion in her voice jerking up from the romantic mood she was enjoying with her husband. "Has there been a power-cut in the neighborhood?" His Dad asked as he continued matching to the extreme end that housed the fireplace. It hadn't been used since winter but the gas tube hidden at the back still housed some gas. They watched with surprise as he violently pulled out the gas tube and placed in the middle of the room with the gas bubbling out the nozzle. "Mason!!" his dad barked jumping out of the bed and trying to hold him down since he seemed to have lost his mind. Mason flung him off with unprecedented strength and he crashed against the far end of the wall. By this time, his mum was glued to a spot crying as she helplessly looked at her husband wriggling and groaning in pains. They were yet to fully understand what he was up to until he lit a match stick. "Goodbye mama and papa. Today is your dying day", he said and laughed evilly. The room and, subsequently, the entire house went up in flames. He dashed out and locked the door behind him.

Calypso had hid behind the door watching all these play out. Naturally taciturn, she couldn't muster the strength to say a word. For some reason, she felt it was all a dream or one of her hallucinations. Mason had made her believe she hallucinates intermittently and it was the work of the devil trying to sow discord between them. Right from when she was a baby, he always succeeded in convincing her that whatever atrocity she saw him commit was not real.

One time when she was only 9-years old, both their parents had traveled and he was supposed to take care of her. He left her home alone on one of those nights and went clubbing till late. When he finally came back, he had company. Some strange blonde he had hooked up with at the club, he brought her home. Calypso heard them walk in, she heard sounds and she knew he had company as they both made it up the stairs and into Mason's room. Soon she started hearing arguments, she couldn't make out what they were saying but Mason was really enraged, she must have triggered his already volatile anger. The arguments intensified. "What?!" she yelled as her arms sliced through the air and landed a resounding slap on his left chin. His anger doubled, he grabbed her by the neck until she was almost out of breath then he held the nape of her neck and continuously hit her head on the mirror till it was all bloody. He didn't stop until she was dead. It was her screams and the incessant collision of her head with the mirror that drew Calypso's attention to his room. She stood right outside the door and heard her screams until they stopped. She saw when he dragged her body in a body bag. She saw when he cleaned the blood that was now littered all over the room. He knew she saw him commit the atrocities. Her withdrawn traumatic experience was enough proof. He still feigned the loving brother and tweaked her mind till she believed she was seeing things. It had always been the same since she was little and she had believed her big brother was all-perfect.

This time was no exception, she was hallucinating. "Mason can't possibly kill our parents", she tried to tell the voice in her head. Meanwhile he rushed out of their blazing room and grabbed his sister as they fled from the burning house.

"Well done", Mazzikim whispered into his ears as he ran to safety with Calypso in his arms.

"Young Boy Saves Little Sister From Raging Inferno". "Little Hero Saves Sister From Fire. As Parents Fall". These and more were the headlines that graced the dailies the next morning. The whole incident came off as an explosion of some sort. Experts were undecided as to whether it was a fire or a gas explosion as the entire bungalow was down to rubbles.