Bloody Apples by Agent Aries (read an ebook week .txt) 📕

I opened the door slowly before walking up to Iris by the apple tree.

"Hey Iri."She ceased she jumping to smile at me.

"Hi Persephone!"I blinked at the name.

"Is that my name?"

"Yeah!I read about it when I was in school.Persephone is the goddess of spring but her husband is Hades, the god of death.She would go to the underworld for winter but she would come back every spring."

"Whoa, that's some intense stuff to learn in third grade."She blushed and started staring at her toes.

"I really like to read."

"Well we have tons of books you can read if you'd like.And thank you for the name Iri.I'll treasure it and try to live up to it."

"Good!"She smiled brightly before spinning away to jump for the apples again.

I picked one and gave it to her.As she ate it I studied her, drinking in her joy over and apple and her smiles.My thoughts turned dark.Soon she will be crying, and possibly hate me.Sometimes I hate my life.

"Hey Iri do you like to sing?"I asked suddenly.

"Yeah!I love to sing!"

"Do you know the song London Bridge?"

"Yeah!"She smiled wide, her eyes sparkling.

"Can you do me a favor kid?"

"What?"

"Can you sing the whole song as long as you can until I come back?"

"Where are you going?"She looked worried as she gripped my shirt.

"Nowhere.I'm just going inside to take care of something.Now sit down, cover your ears and sing.Please sweetheart.For me.This once?"She looked hesitant but eventually nodded and sat down at the base of the tree.

"Thanks sweetie."I said and walked inside.

I could hear her sweet voice floating through the hall as I stalked up the stairs.Aaron looked up at me grateful but with shame tinging his expressive eyes.

"London bring is falling down, falling down, falling down.London Bridge is..."I reached the room where Aaron and Iris's mother rested.

She looked dead already.Her skin a pastly yellow and her eyes sunken in.Veins pulsed weakly and glaringly against the pale skin.She was nothing but skin and bones.Amazing what the Fever will do to you in a day or so.

Her raspy breath drew my attention to her face.She looked like a skull that someone stretched skin over.Her hair was sparse and I could see her milky blind blue eyes.

"Who is there?"

"It's me."I said to her weak voice.

"Ah,so it's that time is it?"She asked resigned.

"Yes it is."I said as I approached the bed, picking up a pillow.

"Before you kill me, can I ask you two things?"

"Sure why not?"I sat beside her on the bed, the same bed my mother died on.

"Why did you stop me from saying my name?"She asked and strained to sit up to face me.

"Because I knew that I would kill you.It's easier to kill someone when you don't know them."I said simply.

"I see.One more thing, will you take care of my children?Aaron and Iris?Please."She begged me, tears falling from her unseeing eyes as she grabbed my shirt sleeve with surprising strength.

"If they will let me after this."I said softly.

"Thank you.Will you open the window?I'd like to smell fresh air one last time."She sank down into the mattress, as if talking had taken the last of her energy.

"Ok."I stood up and opened the window that looked over the garden.

"Build it up with mud and sticks, mud and sticks, mud and sticks.Build it up with mud and sticks, my fair lady.Mud and sticks will wash away, wash away, wash away.Mud and sticks will wash away my fair lady..."Iri's voice floated up into the room.

"Is that Iris?So lovely."The woman from the bed whispered and smiled weakly.

"Build it up with brick and stone, brick and stone, brick and stone.Build it up with brick and stone, my fair lady.Brick and stone will crumble away, crumble away, crumble away.Brick and stone with crumble away my fair lady..."I slowly walked acrossed the room towards the bed.

"Build it up with iron and steel, iron and steel, iron and steel.Build it up with iron and steel, my fair lady.Iron and steel will bend and bow, bend and bow, bend and bow.Iron and steel will bend and bow my fair lady..."I picked up the pillow and stood by the woman's head.

"Build it up with silver and gold, silver and gold,silver and gold.Build it up with silver and gold, my fairlady.Silver and gold will be stolen away, stolen away, stolen away.Silver and gold will be stolen away..."I put the pillow over the woman's,no,Iri's mother's, face and held it there.She fought back weakly and instinctively but I still held it there until finally she stopped moving.

"My fair lady..."I whispered as a tear fell on my hand.

I didn't look at them when I came back down,the scars on my arm burning accusingly.I couldn't even face Iris when she came inside the house and her brother stood there with solemn gratitude.I just walked past them and then ran as fast as I could away from the house.

"Mommy!"I could hear Iri's shriek resound from inside the house.

I just kept running heading for somewhere safe and quiet.I didn't think killing that woman would bring it all back,killing the Order's men didn't before.The night where everything was stained red and my world was changed forever.It wasn't even the First Night that changed everything.I survived the change that rocked the world but that night.That night were everything went to hell.The night when I killed my mother and father and watched my little sister die.

flashback

I was drying the apple slices outside when a small object collided with my knees causing me to fall on my face in the dirt.

"Serenity!What are you doing!Are you trying to kill me?"I growled at my younger sister who just giggled at me.

Her large brown eyes looked up at me with mischief as she reached over and stuffed a slice of dried apple in her mouth so fast I couldn't even say don't.

"You look like a chipmunk with your little cheeks so full."I chuckled as I grabbed the ten year old and started to mercilessly tickle her sides.Her sweet laughter filled the air and sounded more beautiful than wedding bells.

"Why are you so mean?I was only having fun!"She puffed out her cheeks at me even more in frustration, trying to contain her freed laughter.

"Well,let's see.One; I'm your older sister so it's my job to be mean to you.Two; I'm not mean your just a sourpuss."I grinned as she freckled cheeks got so red her freckles disappeared.

"Fine!I'm not talking to you!"I laughed at her childishness, momentarily forgetting what the world had come to.

"Ok then."I smirked and started slicing up more apples.After a few seconds she spoke again.

"Hey, when do you think mom's going to get better?"My smirked lips pulled into a grimance as I thought about mom.

Two days ago when she went to get supplies something happened and dad had kept her locked up in their room.I hear her moans and soft cries at night.Those cries sound like the undead, and that mere thought is enough to stop my heart in terror.

"I don't know sweetie.I don't know."I sighed.

"Well,I know she'll get better.I know she will and when she does she will make that yummy apple pie she promised us."Serenity smiled brightly.

"Yeah, of course she will, chipmunk."I laughed and gave Serenity a noogie.

Then the back door slammed open.

"Where is she!Where is that brat!"I steeled myself against our father's rage as Serenity hid behind me.

Our dad used to be a fair man.He would always listen to each side of the story before passing judgement.He would be our knight in shining armor, even when we didn't need it.However, ever since the First Night he would drink himself into a stupor and then get violently angry.But recently, ever since mom got locked away, he became even more so.Now I don't even recognise the man in front of me as my father.Just a violent,angry and dangerous drunk that needed to be handled with care.

"What are you talking about?Your drunk again.Please go back inside and I'll make some food."I said before he charged up to me and backhanded me.

"Say that again bitch and I'll kill you I swear."

"Calm down Dad.Please just go-"I was cut short when he hit me,knocking me to the ground, with a rusted metal pipe.

The make-shift club made me see stars as the world spun around me.My vision started turning black around the edges as I watched horrorfied at what my father was doing.He rounded on Serenity and dug the knife I used to slice the apples into her small arm.Her blood fell to the ground and the sounds of the hungry dead rose to a deafening crescendo.I managed to grip onto our father's shoe in hopes of stopping him.

"No!Stop!Stop it!Please!I beg you!Don't.DON'T!PLE-"

This time it was my blood that hit the ground as he kicked away my hand, then my head, then my body.I couldn't move, coughing up blood.I could barely see but I can never forget the image that seared white hot into my eyes.I couldn't do anything but scream past the blood in my mouth when Serenity was thrown over the fence.

Into the ravenous hord of undead.

I threw up everything in my stomache when the first spurt of blood shot into the air. I strain to tear my head away from the horror unfolding in front of me.With every sickening snap and crunch I heard I dry heaved until I couldn't breathe.My eyes burned with the unstoppable tears that seemed to permantly stain my face.My vision blurred but I couldn't look away until I finally fainted into darkness, the sounds of her gurgling cries still in my ears.

When I woke a little while later there was nothing left of Serenity except a few shattered bones and a puddle of blood.I dry heaved painfully as tears stung my eyes.That bastard!That Bitch!THAT MURDERER!!!

I was suddenly holding the very knife that was used on Serenity in front of the kitchen room door were that man resided.

I felt different, like I wasn't really there.No more like someone else was controlling a body I happened to be in.I was here, nor was I there.I was just watching a movie in first person.

I walked in quietly, observing him drink down the vodka.I managed to get right next to him before he noticed me.

"Whachta do ya whant ya fookin whore?"His words were slurred and I could practically taste the alchohal on his breath.

I just stared at him for a moment.

"I hate you."That was all I was able to say before I stabbed his shoulder.Blood spurted acrossed the room.

"Arghh!!You slut!I'll get you for this!Fuckin bitch!"He choked as he ripped the knife out and threw it on the ground.

As I knelt and picked up the bloody knife he stumbled out of the