I half-screamed as I slapped the old book from her hands.
"Oow! What was that for!?" Abby looked at me with panicked and vexed eyes.
"Are you a Satanist now or something?" She shoved me aside as I looked at the title of the book. As I did, I immediately felt guilt. I just smacked the Holy Bible out of my sister's hands and onto the floor.
"Oh. Sorry...." I struggled to regain my composure. "I thought it was a different book."
"What did you think it was? A encyclopedia of arachnids or something?" Abby rolled her eyes as she lifted the book carefully and set it on a cleared-off bookshelf.
"Just forget it." I mumbled as I continued my work.
3 hours later, we were still there. Nothing was said after that except for the occasional question from me and the usual insults from Abby. We had only made a little progress and the hard floor was killing my knees. I had to stop. I couldn't take it anymore. Setting down the papers I was holding, I turned to Abby and opened my mouth to speak...
"David! Abby! Dinnertime!"
My mothers voice shot through the silence like a scream in the middle of the night. It made Abby jump.
"We'll be there in a second!" I shouted in response. I (painfully) stood up and followed my sister up the stairs and to the table.
"Smells like fish. I sure hope it's not fish!" I thought as I searched the table for the meal.
"Fish. Great." I said, a little too loud.
"Yes. And It's your dinner, so you can either eat it or forget about having any food tonight." Mom said strictly.
"Guess I'm not eating then." I turned to go up the steps to my room.
"Oh no you don't! Get down here and eat or I'm shutting off the WiFi tonight!
Why do moms have to be so convincing?
———<——<————>——>———
After we ate dinner, we watched a movie, got ready for bed and went to sleep. Well....most of us did.
I waited until I was sure everyone was asleep and then took out my laptop.
I stared at a blank search bar, trying to phrase my thoughts.
Finally, I typed "Why do good people have to die?"
I read a lot of articles, and they should have encouraged me, but my own thoughts overpowered any encouragement.
"Why did he have to go to war?", I asked myself. "He had a perfectly fine life here. He wasn't even forced to go. He volunteered... For what? Freedom? So we could live a life of freedom, free from a father who loved us? Did he even love us?"
I closed the laptop, clearing my history. An emptiness, and anger welled up inside me.
"How could you do this to us!?" I said, looking towards the ceiling. "How could you just leave us like this!? I thought you loved us!" My eyes began to water, but I refused to let a tear fall. Wiping my eyes with a sheet, I thought "A man who abandons his own family doesn't deserve to be mourned."
The anger and confusion exhausted me. I laid back, closed my eyes and fell asleep.
"Huh!?!"
I woke up with a start. Drowsily, I reached for my alarm clock. 3:15 AM!? Why in the world would I wake up at—
*thud*
"What was that?!"
Now fully awake, I crept downstairs to see where the noise came from.
*thud*
There it was again! It sounded like it was coming from the guest room. "Abby, you little brat!" I thought as I hurried down the second set of stairs and opened the door.
"Abby, what are you doing!? You woke me up!"
"I'm sorry to disturb your 'beauty rest' but I couldn't sleep, so I decided to do something useful. Care to join me?" Abby said somewhat less than respectfully.
"Fine, I guess." I stood there for a monent, thinking. "But you have to be quieter! If Mom wakes up, we're both toast." I added suddenly.
"Yeah, I know. Just start on the papers again." She replied without looking at me.
"How long have you been down here?" I asked.
Abby continued working without answering. Then I noticed she was listening to music on her iPod. Rather than ask again louder, I resumed sorting the seemingly endless sea of papers.
After about 10 minutes, I noticed a flash of gold out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at Abby who was holding an old leather book with gold letters on the front. This time, I was not mistaken.
By @Siling-La
