The Unique

“Star! Get you butt over here!” Victoryia yelled. They were in her Cafe’. A brick building painted in a coat of sky blue. The door was bright yellow with purple flowers painted here and there. Inside of the cafe’ there was old wallpaper on the walls and tools, hanging on nails, on the wall. There were also paintings all over the walls, too, but they were painted by me.

“Man, we need a new paint job!” I said, walking over to victoryia.

“Don’t do that to me, star! Everytime I call you over here you say we need something new!” Victoria huffed.

“So what do you want?” I asked, ignoring her.

I looked at her, knowing my sister was more serious than a grumpy office worker.

Victoryia huffed again, and then crossed the room to a shelf. She pulled out a nail, hammer, and a canvas.

“You like to paint, right?” She asked.

I rolled my eyes. She already knew that I love to paint. In Fact I have my own little art gallery in one of the corners.

“Duh.” I answered.

She handed the canvas to me. “Go paint something.” She ordered. I rolled my eyes and then went to a table to get to work.

Victoryia owns her own Cafe’. I call it a fix-it cafe’ because it’s decorated with tools. Our mom used to own the cafe’ but now that she’s gone Victoryia runs it. Our mom passed away 1 year ago. When that happened it made us realize that life is short and if you don’t live it to the fullest then you’ll regret it.

Mom always said, “Even when times get tough don’t give up.” So we stayed strong and moved on. Don’t get me wrong, we were sad that she was gone, but we knew that we needed to keep going for her.

When our mom passed away the police took us in and gave us two choices: Victoryia takes care of me, (She is 18), or I go to the orphanage, (I’m 12.) Of course victoryia chose to take care of me, we had promised each other we would have each other’s backs no matter what. I knew it would be hard on victoryia with everything that was going on, so I proposed a compromise. I would stay with the orphanage but, I got to visit victoryia three days a week. (I would have asked for more days, but I didn’t want to push it.) They seemed fine with that so here we are now.

Today was Wednesday, June 1, 2021.

I finished my painting of a bird perched on a branch. I looked around for a spot on the walls to hang it, until I found one. I hung the painting in between two paintings of a panda, and a dolphin. I decided to go to my bedroom upstairs. In case you are confused, we live upstairs. Our bedrooms are upstairs and the cafe’ and kitchen downstairs. We make sure to lock the doors before we open the cafe’ though, we can never be sure who comes in and out. I took out my key and unlocked my door. I entered to find my puppy, Candy, snoring on my bed softly. I went to my desk and started sketching in my sketchbook.

I had been sketching for what seemed like an hour when I heard yelling. I rushed out of my room and crept down the stairs. Victoryia was yelling into the phone!

“No! You are not talking to her!” I could hear someone on the other end of the phone, but couldn’t make out what he/she was saying.

“Too bad, you should have thought about that when you left us!”

Left us? Who was she talking to?

“I said NO!” Victoryia ended the call.

She turned around and saw me standing there.

“Who was that?” I asked, confused.

“Oh, I-It was no one, sweetie.”

Sweetie? She never calls me unless something is wrong.

“You sure?” I asked again.

“Of course, honey.”

There it was again.

She glanced at her watch, and her eyes widened.

“Oh no! It’s almost time to open!” She hurried to the door and flipped the sign so it said: Open.

My sister ran into the kitchen to get everything ready.

I heard a buzzing and realized it was my phone.

It was one of the workers at the orphanage, Daniel.

I answered it. “Yeah.”

“Hey, I’m coming to pick you up.” He said.

“Don’t I get to stay ‘till 7?” I asked him.

“Plans changed, be ready when I get there.” He hung up the phone, he always had been a grumpy pants.

I sighed, and started to the kitchen to tell victoryia that I was leaving early. As soon as I got to the kitchen door I had a bad feeling. I could smell something horrible. It smelled like rotten meat and sour milk mixed together.

Had she made that dirt pie again?

I slowly pushed the door open and I couldn’t believe what I saw.

Victoryia was laying on the floor and I could see blood all around her. My hands went up to my mouth and I gagged.

I had always had a gagging reflex when I saw blood.

I looked up from victoryia and saw a man standing there, a knife in his hand.

I froze. I couldn’t move. So many thoughts were running through my mind and I didn’t know what to do. The man set the knife down on the counter, and then raised his hands as if trying to calm me. I then remembered my phone and looked down at my phone then back at the man.

He smirked, as if daring me to. The man had black hair and green eyes. He had a black T-shirt and black pants on, he was also wearing black gloves.

My fear got the best of me and I shakily slipped the phone into my pocket.

He smiled. “Good girl. You really are your fathers daughter.”

I am even more confused now. Our father had left my mom when I was just a baby, at least that’s what I was told.

He took a step towards me, and my instincts finally came back to me. I turned around and ran out of the kitchen. I headed straight for the main door. I would be safe outside.

Right as I was getting to the door, I felt strong hands on my shoulders yank me to the ground, I felt a blow of pain go up my side. I winced. He picked my feet up and started dragging me to the kitchen.

“Let me go!” I screamed. I squirmed, and tried to hit him with my hands but he was out of my reach.

He finally dropped me and I could feel a sticky substance under me. I looked down and saw there was blood all around me.

I gagged again.

I looked over and realized that my lifeless sister was beside me. Her hazel colored eyes were blank and her dirty-blonde hair looked dead. I looked away from her. I couldn’t look at her anymore. I looked up and realized that the man was staring at me, the knife was in his hand again.

“Do you want to end up like her?” He asked me, pointing at the body with the knife.

I shook my head, maybe a little too hard.

“If you tell anyone about me I will hunt you and anyone else you have ever loved! Got it?” He was now inches away from my face, and he had a dangerous look in his eyes.

I shook my head again.

“Good. When I leave you can call the cops. Also, I will be keeping an eye on you.” Before I could respond he ran out of the door. I didn’t move until I heard the main door shut.