I stood in the doorway for a long time. It felt like I was there the whole night watching my parents sleep. I found myself mimicking their sleep, the way their chests rose and fell. My father was snoring loudly, an arm laying over his eyes as his mouth hung open. My mother had a strange mask on her face and her hair up in curlers as she, too, made strange little noises in her sleep.

One light step after the other, I finally reached my father’s side of the bed and watched his chest move with each loud and annoying breath. My hand tightened on the wooden handle of the knife as I imagined slitting their throats and shutting him up for good. Would their snoring turn into strangled screams? Would they scream at all or just look at me? Would they be scared or die in seconds like the animals did when we slaughtered them? My eyes took in the white sheet lying on their bodies, and my lip curled up with the thought of it turning red.

As if sensing my presence, my father startled awake and opened his eyes. He turned his head, looked at me, and then down to my hand. He sat up quickly, and I noticed the change in his breathing. He was breathing fast, his eyes wide. He was scared as he stared at my hand holding the knife. I liked that.

“What are you doing, son,” my father stupidly asked.

I wasn’t much for lying, so I simply answered, “I’m thinking of killing you.”

Chapter 2

CAIN

I stood over Heather’s body and stared at her mere inches away from her uninteresting face as the light slowly faded from her eyes. It was always the same. Even when they were silent and didn’t scream, there was this moment of complete fear as their body clung to life. Then as they finally died, you could see the shift. I wanted to understand this moment of acceptance and peace. The muscles in her face relaxed as the fight in her body disappeared and the eyes that seconds ago had stared at me in horror and fear now stared up to the ceiling at nothing.

Moving closer to her head, I got low to her body, so our cheeks almost touched. Turning my head to stare at the metal ceiling, I could only see the rafters, chains, and the plastic I used to protect from splatter. There was no bright light or hell-bound demon—everything was exactly as it had been before.