At first, I thought that Isaiah was going to be gone for the whole night. He wasn't. He came back to the house less than 5 minutes later, storming back inside and pacing back and forth like he always did. Isaiah sighed afterwards and looked down. When he looked at me and Tyler, Isaiah pointed his gun at Tyler, watching her throw her hands up and tear up in fear. Knowing Isaiah's mind, I had no clue what was wrong with him or what he was going to do.
"Please!" Tyler plead as she kept her hands up. "Don't shoot!"
"Yo Isaiah what the hell you doin'?" I barked as I gave him a worried look. "Why you pointing the gun at her?"
"You ain't gone snitch, is you?" Isaiah asked as he scrunched his eyebrows at her, keeping the gun pointed at her.
"No. No!" Tyler continued, hoping that he wouldn't shoot. "Just don't shoot!"
Isaiah lowered his gun, giving her a blank look. There was small things that told me that Isaiah was losing it. He looked at me and cracked a small smile, jogging back upstairs and going into his room. When I looked at Tyler, I immediately knew that she was scared straight. I placed my hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her as much as I could.
"Are you alright?" I asked as she turned around and continued to work on her costume.
"Yeah."
"Look, he wasn't going to shoo-"
"Josh, can we just finish working on our project?" Tyler said in a shaken tone, giving me a worried look.
Damn. Her cutting me off just assured me that she didn't want to talk about it. I turned around and picked up my costume, finishing my editing.
"Oh. Yeah..." I mumbled as I leaned forward and picked my costume up off of the floor. "Sorry."
I was so embarrassed. I knew that after today, it was a nail in the coffin for the only close friend that I had at my college. I knew that Tyler wasn't going to hang out with me on the weekend. I couldn't believe that Isaiah didn't know how to control himself in damn near any situation, even when I had a guest over.
It was really starting to piss me off.
The next day, I headed off to college in Isaiah and Noah's car since Noah said that I could use it. I talked to my mother and father in a morning to get some daily spiritual food from the both of them, then made my way to class. Today was the day of presentations. When I got there, my professor randomly selected the 4 groups that were going to present today, and the 4 groups that were going to go tomorrow. Me and Tyler were third. After spending almost 10 minutes watching each group perform, it was me and Tyler's turn. We placed our outfits on and went up in front of the class, performing the bad and the good side of Macbeth and his wife.
To me, I think we did a good job. But this wasn't high school. I couldn't tell what grade professor was going to give us because he always kept the same serious face on him when he graded projects. After performing for 8 minutes, the class clapped as the last group came up to perform. They went for 10 minutes, then the teacher got up and stood in front of the class. After everyone gave them a round of applause, he smiled and looked up at us.
"That was some very good performances class. However, I think that some of you are still in your high school phase. They could've been done better." Mr. Umlauf said in a serious tone. "On another note, that's why you guys are here. To IMPROVE. After I put these grades in, i'll tell you guys what your next assignment is going to be."
Mr. Umlauf was starting to piss me off as well. As a teacher, it seemed like he was never satisfied with ANYTHING. Me and Tyler bust our asses on that project, so him calling our work "mediocre" bothered me a little.
After spending the last hour of class listening to a long lecture and writing notes, I was more than happy to get out of class that day. I was quite irritated at the things that usually didn't piss me off on a regular, so I think that I needed to just go home and get some rest. As I and the rest of the class packed my books and everything, I walked up to Tyler to see what she was doing since it was Friday.
"Uh Tyler, um...............did you still want to hang out on the weekend?" I asked in a shy little boy tone.
"Sure, we can hang around in my area. Or at your house, I guess." Tyler nodded. "Just as long as your cousin isn't there.."
"Listen Tyler, he's not as crazy as he seemed yesterday." I sighed, lying through my teeth. "I know that he came off a little-"
"The dude acts like he has a twin brother and he pointed a gun at me yesterday, and he's not crazy?" Tyler said in a low tone as she looked up at me, giving me a shocked look. "Call me an over exaggerator, but he could've killed me last night!"
"He really likes you, Tyler. Everytime he see's you he..........changes. Also, he really does have a twin." I continued, trying to get her to side with me. "He compliments you all the time and he always-"
"Hahahaha! I would never even CONSIDER dating a psychopath like him. When he gets some help from a shrink, then i'll consider trying to be friends!" Tyler laughed as she walked outside of the classroom. "You can tell him I said that, too. Tell him I said HELL NO."
There was no way that I was telling Isaiah that. Not unless I wanted Tyler to be killed.
But based on Tyler's comment, that told me that Tyler didn't know him. I couldn't break down the reason why Isaiah was the way that he was without giving out too much information on his personal life, but her ditching him was the main reason why he was the way he was. People leaving him or not giving him a change always caused him to go in an outrage.
But it was Isaiah's own psychotic rage that drove people away from him.
While I was still at school, Damon asked, I mean demanded that the family should go out and have a nice breakfast while they were out. Each and every one of them agreed because they were all afraid of him. Of course Isaiah wasn't afraid of him, but he couldn't afford for him to have the police come after him and arrest him for all of the shit that he's done. It was too many things on the list. All five of them, including Kayson, ordered a big booth at the Big Boy restaurant. Aunt Shay coated her face with make-up, putting on a cool and calm demeanor as if nothing was wrong. After they all got their plates from the buffet, the five sat down and ate in silence.
What Damon wasn't realizing, is that eating together wasn't going to make all 5 of them a perfect family. The damage was already done 15 years ago.
"Damn." Damon smiled as he watched everyone eat, not giving each other any eye contact. "Why y'all so silent?"
"Cause you hit my momma, you fucking genius." Isaiah said in a low tone, looking up at him as he fed Kayson a little bit of grits. "Why do you think?"
Damon gave Isaiah an stern look, expecting to terrorize Isaiah. Little did he know, it wasn't going to work. Isaiah and Noah sat at the ends of the booth while Damon and Aunt Shay sat in the middle. Isaiah gave him a dark look back, looking back over Kayson's shoulder while feeding him some more grits. Kayson was really enjoying it. He clicked his tongue and bobbled his hear around, looking around the restaurant. Damon smiled at him, still trying to make conversation with Isaiah.
"My grandson is adorable." Damon smiled, chewing on his food as he leaned his arm across and pinched his cheeks. "I never got the chance to get his name!"
Isaiah looked up at Damon, thrown off by the "grandson" comment. He stared at him for a while, looking back down at Kayson.
"His name is Kayson." Isaiah mumbled as he scooped up the grits on his face with the spoon. "He's 2 months old."
"Mmm." Damon nodded. "And being only 18, you think that you can handle the responsibilities of being a parent?"
"I'm doing it, right?" Isaiah said in a snappy tone, looking up at Damon. "I know how to handle my shit."
"He didn't even want Kayson." Noah snarled as he gave Isaiah full eye contact, shaking his head at him.
"What?" Isaiah said as he looked up at Noah. "What you say?"
"Noah, cut it out." Aunt Shay said as he looked at him. "Don't start this shit today."
"Pst. Man.." Isaiah said in a low tone, clencing his jaw and placing his tongue on the side of his mouth. "You so lucky that we in public."
"Yeah, alright." Noah chuckled as he looked down at his plate, eating his food and smiling.
"Noah, I said stop!" Aunt Shay snapped as she looked at him. "Cut it out."
Everyone grew silent, eating and refusing to give each other eye contact again. Knowing Damon, he was still trying to make this "family" shit work, so he decided to ask Noah a question.
"So Noah, what's been up with you?" Damon smiled.
"Nothing. Just in college trying to major in this doctor and medical field." Noah said, nodding his head and refusing to look at Damon. "I got a free ride scholar ship there from high school for maintaining a 3.5 average and up for my four years of high school."
"Daaaaaaaamnnnn! Alright, Noah!" Damon nodded. "If you wanna be that doctor, you be it!"
"I'm trying out here." Noah said, looking up at him and smiling. "I really am trying."
Isaiah kept his eyes on his plate, smiling and laughing lowly at their conversation. Noah scrunched his eyebrows at him, giving him an angry look.
"And what are you laughing at?" Noah asked in a serious tone. "Because the last time I checked, you have a less than a 1.0 GPA for all four of your years, which is why your ass is going to be posted up at high school again."
"You know what, i'm so sick of your fucking mouth, Noah." Isaiah said as he dropped his spoon, glancing at him. "All you do is talk about grades as if that makes you better than me when you ain't nothing but a shithead nerd!"
"And what are you? Oh, that's right. You're not shit!" Noah laughed as he clapped his hands together. "You sit at home all day while i'm out doing something with my life."
"Both of you shut the hell up before I smack both of you in your mouth's!" Aunt Shay barked in a low tone. "This is the last time that i'm going to tell y'all!"
"Isaiah, you failed the 12th grade?" Damon asked in a serious tone.
"Yeah, I did. So what?" Isaiah snarled as he continued to feed Kayson. "I dropped out after doing it that long."
"No, you're going back. And this is not a discussion." Damon said in a serious tone. "When you go back home, I want you to start studying right away."
"What the hell?" Isaiah snapped as he looked up at him. "Who the hell do you think you are to think that you got any type of authority over me when you ain't been there for almo-"
"So you wan't me to bring up that serious talk that we had, yesterday?" Damon asked, giving him a stern look.
Isaiah gave him a furious look, using everything he had in his body to hold his tongue. He clenched his jaw, swallowing every smart word that he was about to say.
"No." Isaiah answered.
"That's what I thought." Damon nodded. "So when you get home, you're on punishment like I said."
Isaiah was so angry that he felt his skin begin to get hot. He looked away, staring at Noah as he snickered and laughed in the corner. Isaiah gave him a disturbed look, trying his hardest not to get up and punch him in the mouth.
"The fuck are you laughing at?" Isaiah snarled.
"You a father and you still getting punished." Noah continued, egging him on. "You remind me of Jody from baby boy. HAAAH."
"Oh alright. Since you're the Mike Epp's of this breakfast today, I wanna laugh too." Isaiah smiled as he tilted his head, squinting his eyes at Noah. "Hey ma, did you know that Noah hasn't been going to college for this whole entire time that he says that he has?"
Noah stopped chewing his food, giving Isaiah a serious look. Aunt Shay stopped chewing her food as well, folding her arms and looking at him.
"You bastard." Noah whispered to him, watching Isaiah keep his same goofy grin on his face.
"So what have you been doing this whole entire time since you say that you were "studying", Noah?" Aunt Shay asked as she gave him a serious look.
Noah was boiling. He placed his napkin down on his lap, shaking his head and looking back at her.
"I've been checking out a college in Massachusset's called Harvard." Noah groaned as he looked away. "It's the number one college in the USA, and I think that I have what it takes to go out there with my grades."
"And is it expensive?"
"Yeah ma, but I plan to get a jo-"
"Until you get a job, all of that money for books, a dorm, and all of that other extra shit is going to be coming out of my bank account!" Aunt Shay snapped. "Mind you, I still have to make sure that i'm alive and well enough to eat!"
"Ma, I could just get a job and pay for it myself!" Noah begged as he looked at her. "All I have to do is-"
"And where are you gonna stay? Who's gonna help you, and who's gonna give you any sort of transportation?" Aunt Shay contined. "Because me or your father can't pay for it, and i'm not moving out to no Massechusset's to do it."
"Ma!"
"And you've been lying this whole time! I'm thinking that you've been going to college when you've been leaving out and going some place that you wasn't supposed to be!" Aunt Shay continued, not letting him talk. "I'm very disappointed in you, Noah."
Noah combed his fingers through his hair, sighing in an irritated form.
"You're not going." Aunt Shay said as she shook her head, taking another bite of her food.
"WHAT?"
"You're not going to that college, Noah!" Aunt Shay said in a loud tone, giving him a serious look. "You heard what I said!"
"Why can't I make my own decision's since I graduated, now?!" Noah barked at her, unable to control his rage.
"Until you can afford to go without my payment, then that's when we can debate about it. I can barely pay for the shitty house that we have now." Aunt Shay said in a serious tone. "This discussion is over, Noah."
"Ahahaahaaaaaaaa! You thought that you were going to laugh at me this whole time, and look at you!" Isaiah laughed as he clutched onto Kayson, rocking back and forth and smacking his knee. "Tell me, what's the instruments do you use to fix up that salty looking face of yours?"
"Isaiah, cut it out." Aunt Shay said as she gave him a stern look. "Cut it out right now."
Noah had reached a new level of anger. He sat there with his fists balled, giving Isaiah a furious, almost possessive look.
"I fucking hate you." Noah said in a serious tone. "I wish that mom could've miscarried your ass."
"Coulda, woulda, shoulda." Isaiah said, taunting him. "I wish that them nigga's would've stood over you and shot you a few more times so you could've rot on that sidewalk."
"ENOUGH!" Aunt Shay shouted as she banged on the table, startling everyone at the table and at the restaurant.
Isaiah, Damon, and Noah looked around the restaurant, watching everyone place their heads back down and continue their dinners. And from that argument on, Noah or Isaiah didn't talk. Both of them were hoping that the other twin would go away and never be seen again, that's how much they hated each other.
When they got back to the house, I was already there. I watched Noah storm in and throw his bag of food aside, stomping up the stairs and slamming his door after he walked into his room. I lifted up and watched Aunt Shay grab her chest for a little while, then walk back up the stairs afterwards. I watched Damon stand at the end of the stairs, looking at Isaiah and pointing at him.
"Don't forget to start looking up some school shit, alright?" Damon said in a serious tone.
"Yeah." Isaiah yawned, not taking him seriously.
As Damon went into the room with Aunt Shay, I looked at Isaiah in a confused way.
"What's wrong with Noah?" I asked in a worried tone.
"He kept on trying to call me out on my shit at dinner so I told my mama on how he was bailing out on college everyday." Isaiah shrugged as he opened his bottle of mountain dew, drinking out of it as he cut the tv on.
"Wait a minute, Noah's not in college?" I gasped in shock, almost not believing it.
"Nope. He was meeting up with people, trying to leave the state. I ratted his ass out since he kept on airing my business out to my mama." Isaiah snarled, flipping the channels on in the living room and placing his feet up on the couch stand in front of us. "I swear I hate that nigga. I hope somebody come pull a 187 on his ass again."
"Don't say that, Isaiah." I sighed as I leaned back into the couch, shaking my head. "That's yo' brother."
"I don't give a fuck." Isaiah snarled, giving off a noncholant look as he stared at the tv. "I can't hate the nigga because we got the same blood and the same fucking face?"
"Y'all done been through thick and thin together." I said in a serious tone. "You only saying this out of spite."
"No, i'm not Josh." Isaiah said as he turned to me. "No real family member constantly tells you on a regular basis how better they are than you."
Isaiah didn't say anything for a few seconds. He flipped the channel's a few more times, still venting.
"Don't no real brother thrive off of the fact that you're not doing so well out here. A real brother would be trying to help you instead of downplaing you." Isaiah continued. "A real brother doesn't accept the fact that the woman who birthed the both of us treats you better than she treats me, a real brother would tell my mama that that shit ain't cool."
"Damn." I said, not thinking about it.
"A real fucking brother doesn't tell you that he's saving money for your funeral and waiting for the day you die. Noah might be nice and smart, but that nigga is just as ruthless as me when it comes to the heart! He just as evil as I am, accept he in a Dr. Professor outfit." Isaiah continued, getting a little angrier the more that he talked about it. "I regret killing that man in front of his daughter because I could've saved them bullets for some nigga that's worth killing for like you! I'm more upset that they didn't finish the job and left Noah's ass alive out there. So yeah, I do hate Noah. I hope he get's shot down like a dog or some shit on an off day."
"Wow, you actually think i'm worth killing for?" I asked, feeling a little complimented by Isaiah's comment.
"Yeah, Josh. I ain't no mushy nigga, but i'd kill a nigga for you before I kill a nigga for Noah." Isaiah said, giving me a small smile. "You my boy and you the only nigga who ain't left me in the dirt cause you find out that I kill or sell. I wish that you was my brother, nigga. We'd be kicking it like a mofo."
This was Isaiah's way of telling me that I was his only friend.
Also, now that he broke it down, I never thought about Noah in that way until he mentioned it. Noah was just as cold hearted as Isaiah, but in a different way. Noah never killed anybody out of spite like Isaiah, but one thing he knew how to kill was somebody's spirit. The shit that he said to Isaiah was so wrong and so brutal that I finally understood why they were always at odd's at each other.
As a brother, Noah said a lot of shit that he deserved to be knocked out for. He only seemed innocent because he acted like it. He should be helping Isaiah, not downtalking him.
"So what's up with yo' girl Tyler?" Isaiah smiled. "Did she say that she wanted to hook up with a nigga, or no?"
"Honestly Isaiah, she don't want to." I said as I shook my head. "She afraid of you, man."
"Scared of me?" Isaiah snarled, scrunching his eyebrows at me. "Why?"
"Because you held a gun to her head, nigga!" I laughed as I looked at him. "Are you serious?"
"I wasn't gone shoot her, nigga." Isaiah groaned, not thinking that it was a big deal. "I was just trying to make sure that she wasn't gone snitch, that's all."
"But you can't hold no gun to no girl head and expect her to want to date yo' ass afterwards, Isaiah." I said, shrugging my shoulders and holding my hands out. "I told you that every girl ain't like the girls in the Schaefer Projects. That shit scares people, Isaiah."
Isaiah wasn't closing to stopping his killing ways, but he was actually hearing me out.
"Damn, man." Isaiah groaned as he stared down at the carpet. "I was really trying to get at her ass.."
"I mean it's alright, bro." I smiled. "Maybe she'll come back arou-"
"No. No she ain't bro." Isaiah said, shaking his head and cutting me off. "You don't got to lie to me, Josh."
"What you mean?"
"Everytime a girl finds out how I REALLY am, they scurry they ass on. That's why I ain't never tell Taylor that I kill nigga's for fun." Isaiah said, shaking his head. "I mean, I can't change it. That's me."
Isaiah got up off of the couch, stretching and twisting around in place to crack his back. He gave me a blunt look, cracking a small smile.
"Just tell Tyler that I ain't gone bother her no mo'." Isaiah said as he made his way upstairs to his room.
I felt bad. I wanted to find a way to convince Tyler to try and date him, but there was no way that she would ever date any nigga who kills people for his own sick pleasure. Plus, I didn't want Tyler to get hurt if Isaiah ever had any sudden outbursts. So with that, I decided to just leave those two alone.
By nightfall, Isaiah had something else up his sleeve again.
When the clock struck midnight, Isaiah placed on some black gloves and crept into his mothers room. When he seen the two sleeping on the bed, Damon had his arm around her waist so that she couldn't go anywhere. Isaiah crept over to his mother's side and shook her leg, watching his mother wake up and glance at the end of the bed.
"Pst. Ma." Isaiah whispered as he crept at the end of the bed. "Get out of bed."
"Isaiah, what are you doi-"
"Shh!" Isaiah continued as he placed his finger by his mouth. "Just get out of bed real quick."
Soon after, Damon started to move around. Isaiah hid at the end of the bed, watching his mom pretend like she was asleep while he moved. Once he stopped, Isaiah lifted up again and waved his hands.
"Come on." Isaiah whispered again, giving her a more stern look.
As Aunt Shay crept out of bed, she snuck out of the room while Isaiah moved aside him and placed a smaller pillow over his nose and mouth. Damon slowly woke up out of his sleep, feeling and trying to see what was covering his mouth and nose. He started to squirm and move around for a little while, then stopped and closed his eyes. Isaiah placed his fingers at the end of his nose to see if he was still breathing. He was. He was now, unconscious.
And without him moving, this was Isaiah's perfect change to put his plan into motion.
When Damon woke up, his arms were tied to the end of the bed along with his ankles tied to the bottom of the bed. He looked next to him and seen that the lamp to the room was on, complimenting the darkness. He wiggled around and looked at Aunt Shay, scrunching his eyebrows at her.
He had on no shorts or no pants. Only his underwear.
"H-hey!" Damon snarled in a low tone as he looked around. "What's going on?"
"Oh no. There will be no screaming." Isaiah said as he walked in and locked the door, flexing a large butcher knife in his hand and walking up to him and wailing it around his body.
"What the hell is you trying to do, boy?" Damon barked. "Kill me?!"
"I thought about it." Isaiah smiled as he tapped the tip of the knife by his temple.
"Look. Listen to me......I know that you're angry because I wasn't in your life and i'm sorry." Damon plead, panting hard. "A-and that's probably why you're angry!"
"That's not why i'm angry!" Isaiah snapped as he placed the knife onto his neck. "I'm angry that you fucked my mom and forced her to raise us by her fucking self! After she done went through the pain of giving birth to us? That's what you do to her?"
"I cheated on her!" Damon cried out as both of their eyes widened.
Both Aunt Shay and Isaiah scrunched his eyebrows at him in confusion, he took a deep breath and placed his head back into the pillow.
"I had to leave y'all because I got another woman pregnant when y'all was at the age of 3.." Damon continued. "We both had a daughter named Lexi and she said that in order to raise her, I would have to leave y'all. So I did it......."
"So you left me just to be with some other bitch?" Aunt Shay barked. "That's what the hell you left me and my sons for?"
"I love her more than y'all so damnit if I was going to be with her, then I was!!" Damon barked. "That's just the way the fucking cookie crumbles!"
"Come on, ma." Isaiah said as he stormed up to him. "Let's do it."
Aunt Shay walked up to him and snatched down his underwear. As his balls flared out onto the bed, Isaiah placed on his gloves and gripped onto them, slicing them off with one swipe.
Damon screamed at the top of his lungs in agony as the wave of pain of his balls being cut off surged through his body. As blood spurt out all over the bed, Isaiah shoved them down his throat, gagging him. Seconds later, his screams were silenced. Isaiah gave him an evil look, taking his gloves off and throwing his gloves onto the bed.
"You can do whatever you want with him, ma." Isaiah said in a shaken and angry tone, giving her a serious look. "Take him to the hospital, throw him out on the street, whatever. t's all on you.."
Aunt Shay glanced at his face, looking at how pale it was turning. She covered her mouth and started to tear up, looking over at Isaiah as he opened the door and prepared to leave the room.
"Isaiah!" Aunt Shay cried out loud. "I think that we've killed him!"
Isaiah turned around and ran over to him, watching his mother take his father's balls out of his mouth. He felt on the side of his neck, touching on his small pulse. Isaiah took a deep breath and started the car with his automatic starter on his keys. He was going to take his father to the hospital.
Isaiah only had a conscience, because he didn't want to lose the only father that he had.