Sundown

Chapter 1

I can hear the music coming from my speakers, I’ve heard this song a million times with a pint of exaggeration coming from my always exaggerating mind. I don’t really get the meaning of this song, I just like the beat and the chorus. But it has nothing to do with my story though. I am Vishca Montano, from where they get my name I cant really be bothered to know or ask. Besides, it has nothing to do with my story. But I am bothered why my mind seems to work indifferently. I woke up hours ago and I know that the sun is up and shining but I have never really seen it for ages, I should eat since I haven’t eaten for two days now but I’d rather stare at the wall and think of nothing. My body is functioning with the influence of caffeine. Its all I have been feeding my body not to mention the nicotine in my lungs.

I get up because I can hear my brother knocking, I really feel lazy but I should get up if I don’t want to hire a carpenter to fix my door when he gets piss off and force his self in.
“What do you want?” I ask not expecting anything so interesting about his answer.
“Do you want to eat something or do you want me to shove something down your throat?” He’s talking as if I don’t have a choice. Well, do I?
I push my way through him and leave him and the door of my room open. I can hear his steps following me and if I don’t hurry up he would never stop talking. So I walk faster, a little more faster and people will think I’m running from a maniac.
I am now in the kitchen and the first thing I do is pour all the coffee in my amazing mug, not leaving anything for him. I grab a cereal and pour it in my favorite bowl. I pour half of my coffee to it. I don’t like milk, fresh milk especially. It smells and I cant really imagine myself sucking milk from a cow’s nipple. I had my fair share of sucking from my mom, and I cant say I enjoyed it either, I wasn’t in the proper state of mind. Besides I would never do it if I was aware of what I was doing. I hear my brother breathing heavily and I do the same thing. I’m in for a wild interrogation. Brad is an asshole. If I didn’t know better, I would think he’s a gay. I mean what kind of guy would nag at you 24/7 instead of going out and date chicks drooling for him. I have always thought that I have a hidden treasure somewhere,it is something that Brad wouldn’t get if I am dead. Why else would Brad care for me, ask me to eat something, ask me how Im feeling or bring me shawarma when he gets home from work. I mean there must be something in me, don’t you think? I know what you’re thinking, he probably cares for me. I was almost fooled by that but it all changed when he killed my pet snake when he saw it loose and crawling around my room. Tailhead was special. I called my snake tailhead because his head has the same shape of his tail. He dint like me calling him tailhead but come on we should laught at ourselves sometimes, shouldn’t we? He is the most intelligent snake I have ever seen in my entire life but that’s not because Ive seen a lot of snake.I can actually count all the snakes ive seen in my fingers. Its just because he was really sympathetic about my feelings, He imitates what I do, if Im looking at my brilliant wall, he would do so too. If I knock my hand on his aquarium he would knock his head too, If I eat a strawberry he would knock his head on his aquarium simply meaning that he wants to eat it too, and so I will throw a dozen strawberry on him and rest assured he will be done by night time. We were that close, but the closeness was ruined when stupid Brad grabbed his tail and whacked him on my favorite wall. He knows it wasn’t a good idea, but you know he’s stupid. I can do nothing about it.


“Do you have plans of going out?” I look at him showing him my fake facial confusion.
“Where?” I shove a spoon full of cereal down my throat thinking that he would be happy if I do so.
“Anywhere! You should go out, look at your self. You look so pale, you need the sun, meet up with your old friends, go to the beach, its summer, or go to the bar later tonight, get laid, flirt around, enjoy.” Brad seats in front of me and looks at me as if im being interviewed.
“Then?” I ask him again. 1,2,3. I know what he’s gonna say so I mentally join the chorus.
“JESUS CHRIST VISHCA WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?” The more he pushes that I should go out, the more I want to stay at home. Maybe he knows where my treasure is, and he is just waiting for me to leave so he could do his evil plan. I aint stupid.


“Nothing is wrong with me, I will go out if I need to. If you want me to leave because you are having a party tonight, its ok. I wont mind just don’t let anyone near my door or the party is over.” I see brad grinning at me, something he doesn’t do a lot.
“What?” I ask wanting to know what he’s up to.
“When was the last time you talk to other people?” He asks me still grinning.
“What are you up to Brad?” Im getting really suspicious about how this conversation is going. He lifts his shoulders and sighs.
“Nothing.. just..asking.” I quickly ate up all the coffee cereal and run to my room with my precious mug.
“See you later!” Brad shouting and I hear his evil laugh, the laugh he used when he smashed my door knob with a hammer.
Asshole

What really is the point of going out? Why does he keep pushing me to do it. As far as Im concerned I’m ok with what is going on with me. I don’t need to go out and get drunk just because I want to enjoy. Besides its not really fun hearing loud music being played whilst you shout out what your trying to say. Music for me should be relaxing, and shouldnt be played as loud. I mean whats the point. You get dressed, wear make-up, drive to the bar, see your friends and shout every word you want to say so that they’ll be able to hear you. Why not just drink somewhere quiet and private or why not just shut up? And drink. Alone. My mom used to do the same thing to, she kept on insisting that I go out and have fun because I look lke shit hanging around the house doing nothing. It seems to me that they are suffering just because I don’t want to go out.
They want me to have fun and enjoy. They cant accept the fact that I cant be happier even if I go out.
“What makes you love this house so much that you don’t want to see the world outside?” I recall her asking me before.
“I don’t love this house, I stay here because this is where I live.” She hates that. We share the same feeling. I hate it when they talk and talk about things that they have been talking about since day one. Maybe their not familiar with the two words. GIVE UP. I contemplated of giving them a dictionary but I don’t think they’ll have time to read it since they’re too busy going out and having fun. I also thought that part of their enjoyment is saying how boring my life is. So I just say. “Oh yes it is, but the biggest part f my boredom is when you guys push me to do things not worth doing”

My mom is not around anymore. She has been claimed by someone from up there as they say. I don’t know about them, but I think that mom has been claimed by the cocaine she’s been sniffing. She now lives in the cocaine world. Happy. As to my dad, nothing I could say about him. Ive never met him. And I don’t have plans whatsoever of meeting him. Im not related to him. Well maybe a tinny tiny part of him belongs to me. Something they fancy calling, sperm. Good thing though that before Mom and the sperm donor separated, our educational plan has been settled and we both have two hundred thousand dollars prepared to be withdrawn at a certain bank after we graduate. I must admit, the sperm donor isn’t so bad. Brad, the asshole, is working as an architect in a construction firm, it gives him lots of time to hang around the house and use rulers and massive amounts of paper. I am a graduate from a not so popular college from a not so distant place here at home and after I graduated from the course that is called dentistry, which was forced by my Mom, its when I started staying home and do nothing. I think that if they really want me to work after college they shouldn’t have told me about that thousand dollars. We work to survive, so why should I work if I can survive without it, besides, Brad is taking charge of all the expenses here at home and I haven’t even touched my money yet to buy anything. I don’t really need anything just for as long as there’s coffee and Marlboro. I can never be a burden to him. I’m 25 and he is 29, not like the usual brother taking care of his younger sister thing, but you know its not care. Its hidden agenda, so why bother thinking that its not normal?

I light a cigarette and look at my empty aquarium, Tailhead was the only one who understood me, too bad my favorite wall claimed him. And too bad my brother is so stupid he dint know that snake+wall+whacking=Tailhead’s death. Its been more than a year now but I haven’t moved on yet. I should probably buy a new snake or a shark or a snake. Right a new pet, it might not be as easy to train him but I will try my best. I’m gonna go out and buy a pet, I should just lock my room so Brad wouldn’t have a chance to steal my treasure.

Chapter 1

“Where are you going?” Brad asks me with a big question mark on his face.
Its half past 2 in the afternoon and already he has a beer on his hand, and a cigarette on the other. He probably just came home from work because he is still wearing his uniform, a white shirt that says Dakota Construction Firm and he is still wearing his old shoes. He never ties his long hair makes him look like a rocker only that he cant play the guitar.
“I’m going out.” I answer while tying my shoe lace.
“I know you’re going out, but where?” He asks again in a more stupid way.
I sigh, a while back he was asking me to go out and now he is questioning me. I could confront him with that but I choose not to.
“My snake was killed more than a year ago and I think its about time to buy a replacement.” I say. He starts laughing, makes me think if I was being funny or not
“So you still cant forget tailhead.” He says with a grin on his face and then drinks from his beer and puffs his cigarette.
“I would have forgotten him if he died in a not so brutal way, but some maniac, whacked the shit out of him.” I say and grab a cigarette in my pocket and light it.
“How many times do I need to tell you that he was loose and he was aiming to take a shot at biting me? You don’t care for him more than your brother do you?” He asks in disbelief and seats in front of me. He thinks Im ready for a small chit chat.
“I do.” I answer and get up and approach the door.
“Be sure to be here before sundown.” I hear him saying. I ignore him. He is used to it.

Im still puffing my cigarette while I walk at the street. The sun hasn’t change much since the last time I saw it. Its still round and really hot. But the breeze is cold that’s why im thankful that im wearing a sweater. I can see people walking around and about. Busy talking while walking. Entering shops and going out empty handed. I see and old bald guy around fifty years old with a young lady, wearing a skimpy skirt and a low neckline. His hands is wrapped around the lady’s tiny waist while whispering perverted things on her ears. I look away and see a lady who can almost not see the way shes going because of the grocery bags in front of her face. I remember my mom, she used to do that too. Only that my brother was always with her helping her out. Maybe this woman has no son, or maybe his son doesn’t care. I am few meters away from Joe’s Pet shop and im still contemplating on getting a baby shark or a snake. Im walking blankly when I hit the lady with those grocery bags.
“Oops!” I say unintentionally. The cereals, breads, apples and oranges are all over the floor. I instantly bend to help her pick it all up.
“Sorry, sorry…” She says trying to avoid to look at me.
“Its ok, Im sorry too.” I said trying to look at her face but she intentionally looks the other way so I could not see her face. I aim to get the orange and she is about to get it to so our hands touched. I realize it is trembling and really cold.
“Are you ok?” I ask curiously. She takes her hand back and leaves all the other stuff on the floor and walks away. I quickly take all the oranges and apples and run towards her.
“Miss, you left all this!” I yelled but she walks faster almost running. Shes wearing a black pencil skirt and a white sweater on. Her grocery is still in front of her face and her heels are about to give up because its like almost 3 inches high.
“Hey!” I shouted again and followed her to the parking area. She is running fast now. I know I could just thrown away the fruits in my hands and let her go but there is something in me that needs to know whats going on. She is fast aiming a gray car in the parking area and I see her getting the key from her purse so I run faster to reach her.
“You left this all.” I said gasping for air. I throw all the fruits into her grocery bag while she is still avoiding face to face contact. Thank you are the only words that I heard from her, after I give her all her fruits.
“Are you ok?” I ask once again.
“Yes, and thank you again.” She slightly looks at me and I see a bruise below her left eye. It is huge and looks fresh. I am unaware that I am now holding up her chin so I can see it better. She finally looks at me and I can see fear and sadness in her eyes. She is beautiful, maybe around 40 but she I still has a good shape. She pushes my hand away. It’s still cold and shaking.
“What happened to you?” I ask. I don’t know but I think I saw a tear in her eyes before she decided to get in the car. I might be day dreaming but I think she said Help me before driving away. I decide to go back to the main street and head to the pet shop. I can feel that someone is looking at me while I enter the pet shop. Maybe I am again, day dreaming.
“Well look who’s here” Joe welcomes me with a smile on his face.
“Hey Joe.” I say and proceed to the cages of the different animals. The shop isn’t big but you cant say it is small though. It is a four cornered room, and the first corner youll see when you enter is Joe’s table, the sides are cages and aquariums. I look at the small fishes swimming around in a huge aquarium. Another aquarium beside it have gold fishes and the other one are betas. Beautiful small fishes with huge tails of different colors.
“So how are you Vish?” I hear Joe saying. I didn’t even hear his steps towards me. We went to the same high school back then. He was my classmate. We weren’t that close, but we probably were because I don’t usually talk to anyone other than him. He have always loved pets, I remember him showing all of his dogs, and cats and fishes at his house when he invited me for his birthday. He had told me that after he finishes university he’s going to have a business concerning pets. He took Veterinary and I thought he was going to have a pet clinic but he ended up running this Pet shop. He believes that animals have different unique abilities. And it makes him wonder what drives each and everyone of them. Is it emotion, the will to live, logic or just simply survival. I told him that even humans has unique abilities so he should probably study human first because it is what he is. And he would say, enough people are studying it and he will give them the honor of discovering all the secrets of a human being. I would ask again, after you discover your secrets what will you do with it? Spread the gossip? He would say he will use it to act accordingly when he is with them. And forget how a normal human really acts? Would be my final question. He says Im a sarcastic witch, and I will just say he should be thankful because sarcasm cant kill.
“Im ok, same old same old. How are you? I look at him to wait for the answer. I don’t really care how he is doing but just for old times sake I would act like I do.
“Oh this pet shop is giving me all I need in my life.” I try to suppress the laugh that was about to get out of my mouth to prevent him from being embarrassed. He s being exaggerated but I don’t say it.
“That’s good. I can see you’re enjoying it.” I say trying to hide the apathy in my face.
“So what brought you here?” After my effort to hide it, I think he noticed it and he just diverts the topic. Do you thing Ill get to the trouble of walking down here jut to say hi to you? But I didn’t. Its not called for.
“I want to buy a pet. A snake perhaps?” I say looking around and looking for snakes. I cant see any, Maybe this place has a secret room where he hides the dangerous animals to prevent it from scaring people away.
“Oh I don’t have snake here, they are too hard to feed and maintain, and no one really buys it. I have some Iguana though.” He says pointing at the other side of the room.
“How bout a shark? A baby shark, preferably shark that doesn’t get too big.” I say looking at the betas again.
“I don’t have sharks either. I never thought of it.” I smirked and proceed to the cages of the cat. I see a black Persian cat looking at me. Its eyes are bluish gray. He is looking at me as if he has something really important to tell me. I extend my hand to reach for him, he stays still and waits for my hand to reach his head. I’m about to reach him when he suddenly looks at the door, he looks surprised. I look at the door too and I see the old man I saw a while back. The one with the young lady wearing a skimpy skirt. He is alone this time and he is looking straight at me. I step backward when I see him walking towards me. I look at Joe, and Joe casually greets the old man. But the old man continues to walk toward me with anger in his eyes. He is now in front of me.
“What did she tell you?” he asks through his teeth.
“What are you talking about?” I ask back and stepped backward again.
“The lady you helped!” I m surprised by how loud and intense his voice is. He grabs my arms and gag me to answer him.
“What did she tell you!?” He asks again. I remain shocked and scared and shaking. I see Joe walking towards us and pushed the old man away.
“Back off man! What the hell do you think youre doing?” He says and pushes him away again. I don’t know how it happened but suddenly the old man has a gun pointing at Joe.
“You back off if you don’t want your brains shattered all over the floor. Joe is speechless. It seems to me that I am the only one who can get us out of this confusion.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t talk to anyone. Are you crazy?” I try to sound normal but my voice is still shaking. Now the gun is pointing at me only to point at Joe again when he saw him dialing on the telephone.
“Drop it!” He yells and Joe has no choice. The old man looks at me again and in a calmer voice he asks again.
“The lady with the grocery bags, what did she tell you?” The lady with the bruise, you mean. I wanted to say.
“She didn’t tell me anything. I just helped her with the bags.” I say and at the corner of my eyes I can see Joe grabbing a 3x4 wood. I get more nervous, what is he thinking.
“Bullshit!” The old man yelled again. “You followed her in the parking area.”
“Its because she run away with some of her groceries left with me.”My eyes widen when he grabbs my arms again and pushed me do hard on the wall. I screamed, my back is aching, and my head was also hit. And then out of nowhere Joe hit the old man with the thick wood he is holding. He hit him three times. The old man is unconscious. Joe is helping me to get up when I hear 3 gunshots. I screamed. Joe’s hold is tighter and he suddenly become heavy, and then we both fall on the ground. Joe is shot. Three times. I look at the old man, he is now slowly moving out of the shop, I grab the wood and hit him again. He lays on the floor and I see a police car approaching. My eyes seem to have a shock because outside the shop is a completely different place. The streets are now, dusty roads, and the shops that are in front and all over the street are old houses that are closed.I look at the parking area, they are all trees and grasses. There are no people around and the police car I saw is now an old rusty police car on which the two cops are wearing a funny and old fashioned police uniform. It is brown where the pants are like 2 individual skirts because the leggings are really wide they are also wearing a funny bandana covering their heads.
“What the…” I m not able to finish what Im about to say because one of them approach me.
“Is there a problem Maam?” He says with a funny accent. Its like Arabic only worse with all the bandanas and all their beareds.Im definite though, they are Muslims. Im still thinking of Joe. So I decided to ask for help.
“My friend is hit, and old guy shot him at the back.Help him, We need an ambulance too, he can still survive. Call the ambulance and capture the old man, he is there inside!”I look at the pet shop behind me only to see an old house. My heart starts to pound really hard. This isn’t funny anymore. What the fuck is happening!? I close my eyes realy ahrd and open it again. Hoping that it will bring me to reality. But its still the same.
“Maam please, speak slowly. We can not understand English, You speak too fast.” I look at them. Its good they did not understand what I said. Because if this is reality, they would think Im crazy.
“What is this place?” I ask them very slowly. And they look at each other. And then look at me again. They look at my clothes. Im still wearing a rubber shoes, my pants and my sweater, over my shoulder is my small bag. They slowly walk to me. I step backward.
“Don’t be scared.” It sounded more like Don’t be skerd.
I see desire in their eyes while they look at me again. I smell trouble. I step backward again and look at the house behind me, the door is open. I start to run to the house when the cop who has been talking grabbed my still swelling arm.
“Let go of me!!!” I yell. But he is not even bothered by it. He is big and lean. He looks at the other cop who looks a little unsure of what they are thinking of doing. The one holding me speaks in a language I cant understand. And the other one answers and laughs. They are agreeing with what they are going to do with me. I start punching him and hitting him and kicking him. He throws me inside the house behind me and again my back and my butt is aching. I see it as a chance for me to run away from them. I quickly get up ignoring the pain im feeling and closed the door, I can hear their footsteps coming so I gurried and searched for the lock. I failed. They push the door and I was thrown away. I see an old stair and decided to climb it, I run up and the silent cop grabs my feet and pulls me down, I try to kick him but he wont let go, the other one is coming now too and grabbed my waist and lift me up. I keep on moving so he will let go of me but he just laughs with his friend. Upstairs there are three room and they choose to bring me in the middle room. I see an old wooden bed, dusty and dirty. He lay me there while the other grabs my hands and ties it on the headboard. I start yelling.
“Help me! Anyone! Help!!” both of them just laugh and got up and start to undress. I panicked and yelled louder.
“Help!!!!!!!” My eyes are full of tears now and I can hardly breathe with the nervousness fear and anger.
“No one can hear you my sweet little lady.” The first one says while he slowly stroke her fingers in my face. “
“Don’t touch me.” I say with my teeth gritted. He continue what he is doing while the other one is just laughing while puffing tobacco. I look at the one holding me. His eyes are black and his skin is tan, his mustache over grown and his beard is longer than his chin. He has a big nose and I could smell his stinky breath while he talks.
“No one will find you hear. They are all scared of us, we have killed most of them.” He says and then laughs. His hands went down my neck and I can feel its going down my chest, I move as far as away from him as I can but he grab my shirt and rip it. He could now see the top of my chest. My tears are flowing and my sweat is going nonstop. Im so scared. I realize that it will lead me to nothing. I should think of something to get out of this hell. He starts to go kiss my cheek and I move away again.
“You will enjoy it, don’t force yourself to not enjoy it my sweet.” I spit at his face and kick his balls really hard. He fall down the floor screaming in pain. I see the other one coming to me and so I pull my hands really hard to let go. They tied it hard, its giving me bruises on my wrist. I am in a full force of pulling my hands when a huge black cat jumps into the other one who is approaching me. The cat covered his face and scratch it and bite it. He went crazy and walked around blindly out the door and I heared someone falling down stairs. I look at the one that is now recovering from my kick. And I feel the rope getting loose on my hands, I pull my hands again and its set free. I quickly jump into the cop and punch him and kick him again, I pull the gun from his waist and aim it at him.
“Don’t move or Ill shoot!” I said trembling.
He is staring at me with a grin and slowly stood up.
“Don’t fuckin move!!” I yell but he wont listen. He steps towards me.
“One more step and Ill shot your brain out of your skull!” I am in panic, my vision is blurring and Im hyper ventilating. I see him stepping again and in one blink of the eye I pull the trigger.