Chapter 1 - For my Brother
"CHARLIE? OH CHARLIE?" Under the flickering yellow lightbulb in the hallway of a small New York apartment, the seven year old boy walked around aimlessly, calling out for his older brother. "Charlie? Where are you?" He repeated twice, then decided to just call for Charlie once more, and gave up. For a second, he thought about checking his brother's room again, since Charlie was just hunched over, finishing his physics homework half an hour earlier.
But the young boy swore that Charlie had gone to the bathroom since the door clicked. So, after the lightbulb flickered once more, he reached for the doorknob and twisted. The door was locked.
He tried a few more times before giving up.
Instead, he left the hallway and stood in the doorway of the living room. The lights were off, but his mother was smoking a cigarette, watching the TV with some stupid gameshow program. There was his younger brother, a one year old, sleeping soundly across from her without a care in the world. He watched the show for a few seconds before speaking.
"Momma!"
She turned around, a bit startled. "What is it dear?"
"Where's Charlie?"
A bit disinterested, his mother faced towards the television screen when the audience began to cheer.
"Wasn't he in his room?" The cigarette between her fingers nearly fell to the ground.
"I checked!"
"Try checking again."
"But—“
"Charlie might be sleeping."
The boy was getting more and more frustrated. This mother of his was supposed to care about her children, but clearly, she was too enamored in the poofy hair of some attractive game show host.
"But he was just doing his homework." He tried to reason with her once more, frowning deeply, though his mother wouldn't be able to see it in the dark.
"Check again, Alex."
He had enough.
So, young Alex swerved right around, getting the urge to stomp his feet, and landed right before the kitchen counter. House keys were always lazily tossed aside by his mother after she arrived home from work, so using his tippy toes, he felt around and reached for them. He wrapped his fingers around the cold metal, and finally, he went back to the bathroom door.
Using a random paper clip, he inserted it into the doorknob, struggling to turn the thing before it finally clicked. While the doorknob was open, he latched onto it with a good grip, and slowly opened the bathroom door. A chill from the crack of an open window greeted him, sending goosebumps crawling up his arms.
He opened the door fully, and saw his brother. But his brother wasn't moving.
The shower curtain rod had a rope tied to it, with a noose at the end. Charlie was dead.
