RIVER OF LIES

by Pauline Grace Ponayo | 2COMM01

Blood dripping in the white laces of my sneakers, on the softest striped colored carpet my
house has, staring blankly as they beg for their lives, looking at myself in the mirror, tied hair-bun,
wearing my white gap sweatshirt and denim shorts to pair, smiling softly after gruesome death.

"Why are you doing this, Judy?" my mom asked.

Questions are being asked after what they did to my soul mate, the light in this cruel world,
my very own sister. Now, they feel entitled to ask me questions after what they have done. I
carefully held the face of my mother and watched her bleed to death as I cut through her veins
while smiling, knowing the pain would now end.

She was one of those pretty and bright girls as if by an error of fate, born into a family of
business owners. She had no expectations, no way of becoming known loved, understood, or
heard; so, she let it all slip into her mind and was fed every day with our parents' indignation. She
dresses plainly, yet radiates whenever she’s around. Her charm and elegance distinctively allow
you to be hypnotized by her character. My older sister, Candice, or as I call her Dee, was in college
taking her senior year in architecture and I was in high school studying at the same school. We got
to talk between breaks, go home every day and eat after school; she is my everything.

Our parents, Lewis and Carol, are both selfish and egocentric. All they cared about was
how they progressed at work, their relationship with their business partners, and how they looked
in front of other people. The sad truth is that no matter how much they try to be perfect, their mask
wears off and they show their true colors.

I never wished for everything to happen. I hoped for a great future for me and my sister,
living on our own, with no restrictions, and no more drilling of words every day for her. The irony
of my name, Judy, is that it means "praised," and there I was, even though I had failed most of my
classes, with the freedom to do whatever I wanted. With Dee, it is the other way around. Always
number one in her class, winning several titles in one competition after the other, she gets ridiculed
for excelling.
 Everything changed when my sister’s best friend came into our lives. I couldn’t reach her
anymore and she became distant from me. Until such time, there was screaming and throwing
things in our house.

Earlier that day, I woke up early to catch up with my sister going to school, and to my
surprise, she didn’t go home. I was worried sick thinking about where she could be. However, I
saw her at the school cafeteria with her best friend Steph. They were giggling. It seemed humorous
after seeing her laugh her heart out. As I approached their bench, she stood up and avoided my
gaze. I felt torn into pieces. What was going on with her?

I went home late and, seeing all the glass shards with a drip of blood, I thought someone
broke in. I rushed to see Dee with my father. Her face was flat, all red, and she had an open wound
on her face and arms. I screamed in shock, asking them to stop.

"Stop! Please? Can’t you see she’s bleeding and her face is all swollen up? Isn’t it enough
to see her like this for you, dad, huh?", I asked as I cried.

"No! It will never be enough! She will forever be your good-for-nothing mother bastard’s
daughter. My father replied angrily, "And she will never deserve anything she has now."

I was about to answer my father when Candice stood up with all of her strength and hit my
father really hard. My mother walked in and slapped my sister really hard for doing so.

"I never deserved any of this. Nor for you to be called my father. Or you, as my mother.
You never cared about my entire being. All you cared about was how you two looked at each other
outside this "prison" that you call a mansion.”, my sister responded, sobbing in pain and yelling
angrily.

The next thing I saw was another hand blowing on the face of my sister. That made her
drop on the floor, hitting her head, and making her unconscious. I trembled in pain and called an
ambulance, not caring that my parents were arguing and hitting each other. All I cared about was
my sister.

As I rushed her to the emergency room, all I could see was the swelling of her face, the
bruises, and the cuts she got. I begged and cried to everyone inside the emergency room to help
her, and never lose her. I was enraged, I want to blame myself for going home late and I blame my
parents for being the cruelest people I have ever met.

Hours passed my parents followed them into the hospital, asking if she was all right. I never
looked at them and completely ignore them. As the doctor approached, I immediately ask to see
her. He said, she is out of danger but has to stay since her head was severely hit. I looked at my
mother and father, and turn away, and went inside my sister’s room.

“Hi, Dee. The doctor said you are going to be all right, you need to just rest your beauty,
okay?”, I said while chuckling a little.

She just cried while smiling at me and holding my hand tight. I sat next to her and waited
for her to tell me what happened. But she went back to sleep. And I observed all the bandages she
had on, wishing it was me rather than her. She is graduating next month, and yet this happened. I
will never forgive myself if her dreams end because of the doings of my parents. I closed my eyes
as I held her hand and never left her.

The next morning, as I awoke, I saw all the nurses gathering inside the room. It was chaos.
They were asking me where my sister was. I answered while yawning that she was just beside me.
They explained that she went through their security guards.

My heart raced to hear those words, that she was nowhere to be found. I called her best
friend. I called my parents to see if they took her. None of them knew where she was. I raced back
to our house, thinking that she might be home. I wished that she was all right and stayed in our
house.

I grabbed a taxi near the hospital and told him our address. I can’t think of where she might
be. And that she wasn’t wearing any shoes; she was in her hospital gown and walking barefoot.

A tall rock-faced structure facing the city, as noisy as it appears, its windows were as shiny
as the eyes and large enough to welcome sun rays. All the people were turning their lights on and
off, the birds finally setting in and turning into night. Everyone is silent, except Candice.

As I arrived, I froze in horror. A tied-knot rope coiled up around my sister’s neck, hanging
in front of our porch, her curled black hair swaying through the breeze. I was out of breath and
couldn’t utter words anymore. I can’t hear anything, just my heart pounding loudly. My sister is
dead.

During the ceremony of her burial, I couldn’t help but just cry. I haven’t done everything
I can to help my sister. She needed someone, and she went all through this alone. I saw her best
friend, crying. I don’t know if this was a part of me, but I hated her at that moment. I walked up to
her and hit her in the face. She was shocked and slapped me in the face.

"You never helped my sister. You were the bad influence and I hope you’re the one who
died, not her!", I said while screaming in her face.

She did not respond; all she did was cry in front of me and walk away. Who will do that?
Such a psychopath, I think to myself. I went home with my parents, and they never talked to each
other during or after my sister got buried. And I can’t suffer in silence anymore. " You both killed
my sister! The only person I can be is myself. The one who took good care of me instead of you
two pieces of garbage! You never knew what she liked. You even picked white roses for her? Such
a hypocrite! Her favorite flowers are tulips, not roses! What is wrong with both of you? Giving
her all the bad luck in the world? You can’t fix your issues within yourselves, huh? You, dad, you
felt you needed to hit her? And you, mom? Do you really have to say to her face that she wasn’t
your daughter? Well, guess what, pieces of shit, she is your daughter! It clearly says when your
dad was her match for her blood. Now what? You’re going to feel sorry? That’s too late! She is
dead! My sister is dead! " In anguish, I said angrily, "Perhaps they both deserve to wake up."

This wasn’t a tragic accident; this was done on purpose by those who call themselves
parents. After a month, they went crazy. didn’t eat, and never showed emotions. You would see
them talking to the air, hallucinating that my sister was there. All their businesses went down,
which led to them having to go to sessions of therapy.

While I am looking for answers, I knocked on her door, Stephanie, apologizing for what I
did, and asked her why my sister ignored me for far too long before all this happened.

" Your sister moved out of your house because she found out that she was pregnant with
some jock she hooked up with. She didn’t want you to know because this might make you worry
a lot and you wouldn’t be able to focus on your finals. She aborted it after a week and stayed there
in her apartment to rest. I also thought she was resting, but she didn’t listen. She went searching
and asking why she was always called by her father and not her daughter. She found out that your
mom has a past relationship with a drug addict. Your sister found him and asked him if he was
really her father, and the junkie answered, "No. because he is sterile, and that will never change.
He cannot have any children of his own. Candice really took that hard and started drinking and
smoking. She didn’t want to be with you because she hates you, Judy. She loves you so much that
she even put in all her earnings while working part-time in a bar for your college. She did
everything to protect you from all of this. And I’m really sorry. I did not tell you this before. She
asked me to promise to keep it from you. So, you won’t worry about her so much.", she said while
holding my hand.

I did not know how to respond. She muttered the last words, but I couldn’t hear them
anymore, and all I thought about was going back to our house and ending this pain. I left her
hanging, walked away, and went straight home.

I walked into the kitchen counter, screaming and banging all the cabinets. I threw all the
things I could grab. I was angry. I was prepared for what would happen. And I stopped when both
my parents went down, asking what was going on. I went straight to my dad and stabbed him with
the two-edged knife I was holding. After my dad, I went straight to my mother and stabbed her.

I looked straight into their eyes, and I felt no remorse, no sadness, no pain. I felt joy and
peace. Finally, the suffering of my sister, seeing these two jerks die.

"This is all for you, Dee. I love you so much. This shit has to end now. " I smiled
mischievously.

"Why are you doing this, Judy? This is not you. " as my mother begged for her life.

They don’t deserve to live. Every breath they take is a joke and will forever be a joke.
They killed my soul mate. And this is what they get for my sister’s suffering.

I looked straight into the eyes of my father once and finally stabbed him multiple times in
his chest.

"Sweet dreams," I whispered into his ears as he took his last breath. I went straight to my
mom, who was trying to crawl and escape. I grabbed her hair and made her look at me. I went
straight into her eyes, teasing her more to beg for her life.
 Well, this is the end. No one will listen to you anymore. " I said while smiling at her sweetly
and watching the blood dripping all over the carpet as I slit her throat.

I was done. I felt happy. I went outside and burned the house down, and walked away from
all of this forever.

Pain is inevitable, but suffering is a choice. And I chose to end it. Are you willing?