“Of course we are!” Said the mother. Ru ate as fast as she could, and so did Christina and William.
“Be careful not to chock, kids.” Their mother said and giggled She knew they were excited.
“May I go wash my hands?” Ru asked politely.
“Of course! Christina said. “Go to the kitchen to do it. It’s much faster. The washroom is all the way there.” She pointed. Ru nodded and went into the kitchen. She made sure no one was following her. She found many knives lying near the sink. She took one of them and hid it in her huge pocket. She adjusted it so it would hurt her or fall out.
When dinner was over, Ru said that she will be counting and the others can go and hide. She counted.
“One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight…nine…ten! Wherever you are, I’m coming to hunt you down!” Ru smiled devilishly and quietly took out her knife.
William and Christina were hiding together. “This is so fun!” She said. Suddenly they heard screams. “What was that?” Christina whispered to William. “I’ll go check. William you stay here.” William just nodded as Christina made her way out of the curtains. She ran down the stairs and into the living room, she saw a trail of blood leading to the kitchen. Christina wanted to scream, but she had to keep quiet. ‘Oh no! Who could have done this! Was it Ru? No way! But what if she did? I’m scared to go to the kitchen!’ Christina hesitated for a moment. She felt her feet move on her own and she peeked into the kitchen. Tears flew out when she saw the view. Ru was stabbing her mother all over with a kitchen knife and blood was filling the room. Her father was lying near the corner of the room and stabbed many times. Christina quickly ran away from the kitchen and up the stairs.
William was wondering what was going on himself. The curtains flung open and he saw Christina filled with tears, she quickly moved next to William. “Christina!” He whispered.
“William we must get out of the house! Ru hurt mom and dad! I have no time to explain, let’s call the poli—“ Christina paused as she heard footsteps. She put a finger on her lips signaling William to keep quiet. He nodded. The footsteps stopped. Christina’s eyes widened when she realized that Ru was standing right in front of their hiding area. Suddenly the curtains swung open. Ru was covered in blood; she laughed loudly and raised her knife. It was aiming to stab William. “William!” Christina pushed him out of the way and tackled Ru to the ground; she dropped her knife and growled at Christina.
“Big sister!” William cried and stepped closer to them.
“William! Get out! It’s too dangerous!” Christina was furious and started scratching and hitting Ru on the face, which made red marks. Ru suddenly kicked Christina and started attacking her. “What’s wrong with you, Ru?! I thought we were friends!” Ru just laughed and continued striking her. William didn’t move. He was startled. He looked around the room to see how he could help. His eyes laid an object on the floor. The knife. William quickly took it and ran to Christina and Ru.
“Get off my big sister!” William cried and started chopping Ru on the back, she collapsed and tried to get up again. Christina had a light scratch on her face, she got up and took the knife from William and stabbed Ru on the chest. She gasped and smiled when death got to her.
“William, are you okay?” Christina turned to her younger brother and began checking him.
“I’m okay!” He said and looked at Christina with a worried face.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine! Let’s call the police.” Christina said and went to the living room. “Oh and William. Thank you, you saved my life.”
William looked at her then smiled. “You saved mine first!” He said as they dialed the number.
After a few minutes, the police came. They checked Christina and William’s their parents.
“Be careful with them!” One of the policemen said. They helped them into the ambulance. A policeman walked to Christina.
“What? They’re still alive?” Christina yelled with happiness, tears started falling from her cheeks. “What a relief!”
Painting of the Dead
“Ruby, are you done picking flowers?” Mary was impatient to see her friend taking her time picking flowers for her mother. “I want to go home.”
“Wait, I need to pick every color.” Ruby held four flowers in her left hand and the other was picking two more. “There that makes six! See it’s a rainbow!” She held the flowers together, which indeed did make a rainbow.
“Hmm…maybe I should just pick one for my mom, she will be happy.” Mary said and picked a perennial flax flower.
“Let’s go before they dry out.” Ruby said and ran down the hill, but all the sudden stopped and looked into the distance. “Hey look!” She pointed to a small hut. Mary looked.
“Do you think someone lives there?” Mary said as they both began walking towards the hut. Once they arrived, Mary saw Ruby put her hand to the door handle. “I think we should just leave it alone, we can’t just go in.” She said. Ruby ignored and opened the door. “Ruby!”
“Hello? Anyone home?” Ruby yelled as she gasped for air. “What happened in here?” She started walking inside. The house was abandoned, the windows were cracked, there were dusty shelves, cabinets and desks filled with burned paper. Ruby turned and signaled Mary to come in.
“I’m not so sure about this…” Mary said but she still slowly walked in. “Do you think someone had a fight here?” Mary coughed from the dusty air. It smelled like smoke and old paint.
“Probably.” Ruby said and shrugged. She walked deeper into the house, it was a little dark inside but they were still able to see every object. Ruby stepped on something, something with a very hard; she looked down and picked it up. Ruby stared at it for a while.
“Wow it’s such a nice painting! Do you think whoever lived here painted this?” Mary said as she touched the frame and took it from Ruby. It was beautiful. It was a painting of a family, a couple and two children who looked like they were the age of three or four. The children were both holding hands and their parents stood behind them each with a hand on their shoulder, as if they wanted to say: these two are ours. “Ruby can I take this home with me, please, please, please?”
“No! I found this painting first! It’s mine!” Ruby said as she took the painting back from Mary.
“But I like this painting! You can come to my house and look at it if you want to?” Mary said and she gave Ruby a pleading look and but she didn’t seem to be convinced. “Fine I will pay you! How’s that? Deal?” Mary said and saw Ruby’s face lighten up.
“Okay! Since this painting is huge and wonderful, it will cost you eighty dollars!” Ruby said as she looked into Mary’s face.
“Eighty…? Alright fine.” Mary couldn’t refuse, she knew that Ruby loved cash and needed it as much as she did. “I will pay you once we get back home, okay?”
“Sure, let’s go!” Ruby said as she gave Mary the painting and started walking out of the house.
Mary looked at the painting. ‘Wow I’m going to look at this painting forever! It’s the best picture I’ve ever seen in my life!” Mary suddenly spotted something odd. The children in the painting were not holding hands anymore. ‘What the…? I thought they were holding hands…maybe it was just my imagination.’
“Come on, Mary! Hurry up!” Ruby said as she waved at her. She was impatient and desperate for the money she was about to receive.
At Mary’s house, Ruby was waiting for her when she ran up the stairs and took out eighty dollars. She counted the money and handed it to Ruby. “Thanks, you’re the best!” Ruby said and happily put the money in her pocket. “So where are you going to hang the picture?” Mary looked around the house and saw an empty hook on top of the fireplace.
“Right here.” Mary said as she took a chair and hooked the painting on the wall. “There! This is a good spot, now when my mom comes in she will immediately see it!” She took a vase from the kitchen placed the flower sh
e picked from the hill inside.
“Well I will be going now. Take care friend!” Ruby said as she opened the door and walked out.
“See ya!” Mary yelled and walked to the fireplace. She looked back at the painting. Her eyes widened. The children were holding hands again. ‘Huh? How could this be? I thought I was really imagining things!’ Mary stepped away from the picture and ran up the stairs into her room. She hid under the blanket and wondered if this was all a dream. She heard the front door open and footsteps come inside the house.
“Mary? Are you hom—Ah!”
Mary heard her mother scream in horror. ‘Was it the painting?’ She thought. She quickly ran down the stairs and saw her mother lying on a pool of blood. Her head was cut off and her eyes were gouged out. Mary yelled very loudly as she saw the splitting image of her mother lying dead on the ground. She looked at the painting. The parents were lying dead on the ground and both children had knives on their hands, they were smiling like maniacs, they had no more eyes, just empty holes. Mary yelled again, this time even louder and ran back up the stairs, locked her door and hid under her blankets for the rest of the night.
The next morning, Ruby was on Mary’s doorstep knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell several times. “Mary! Mary! Are you there? Hello?” She said and tried the door handle. “Oh it’s open! Mary did you forget to lock the door or