7 Days of Madness

My House

It's my birthday, both me and my brother's since we're unfortunately twins, or it's supposed to be my birthday since the poor soul I've terrorised has his birthday on the 20th of February. My real birthday is on 5 August, but I guess it's nice to have your birthday earlier in the year and be older than those born any day later.

'I'm going out to visit mom and dad.' My brother said to me as I entered our shared living room. Originally, I had planned in the back of my mind that I would live alone and that if the circumstances allowed it, I'd live with a significant other. And I had never considered in a thousand years that I would purposely torture myself by letting my brother invade house space with me. He's already done it for most of my life, why choose to let him urinate his territory over mine?

But nowadays I don't complain, since I chose to stay with him. The moment the both of us turned 18, we began looking through house catalogues. We wanted a place that wasn't so monotone like your simple baby-acred backyard and front yard, small land, little to no flora and trees around and definitely not an apartment or space that doesn't allow animals. I love animals, don't tell me I need to send off my dog, cat, ducks, quails and swines somewhere else no matter how dirty they are—I will share my backyard with them, which is why I need a bigger backyard. It's why both of us do.

My brother and I tried to find a house that reminded us of the childhood home we grew up in. We had great memories there, we want to continue to make great memories as our immortal lives go on.

So when we found a house that was situated just twenty minutes away from our then current house, all bruised and beat up which made it cheaper, yet having foliage surrounding it, it was truly a steal.

Of course, we had to make it livable and replace floorboards and repaint it to our desires, but it's now a comfy little cottage cut off from the world momentarily. The landscaping part-time work me and my brother broke our backs for since 16 had really paid off in decorating our house and the place surrounding it. But there was less of a contemporary disposition and more of like thick big rocks and classic bricks, stained ancient wood and lots of flowers; honeysuckle, peonies, lilies, rose bushes and more...

The impressions of the house—aka outside—were mostly done by my brother, while I refurbished the inside. Let's just say the toilets were the hardest parts. A neat thing about our home was that it was oddly just two fairly small houses connected by the living room quarters which was visible as one fat block, with a balcony section set atop of it.

Aydyn told me to leave his side of the house untouched and undecorated but clean so he can decide what to paint the walls and furnish his place with. I suited my house to remind me of Hell, my real home. Red everything, golden seams and golden pillars, intricate designs carved in the tops of the pillars that the simplistic society would deem a waste of time and crude paintings plastered onto the wall. There was minimal light as I had shuttered all my windows, so the vibe was a dark crimson with the occasional Mammon mineral shining with the chandelier lights.

After Aydyn was done calling upon the phantoms to come after him since he hadn't slept for like 2 days in efforts to make our yards look pretty, he slept for 15 hours in his naked house and I had to be the one making breakfast for us. My cooking wasn't superb—or rather it just doesn't fit my brother's taste buds—but Aydyn couldn't complain, so he just had to eat whatever was served. It was the first time he cleaned his plate empty with foods he wasn't comfortable with. I don't know if he was being nice or fair. I could almost hear him say, 'I'm really tired so I can't cook for us. I'll eat whatever you cook since I can't.' Him and his golden heart.

When he finally got to making his house adapt to his personality, surprisingly he used more dull greens and blues for his interior. I had guessed that maybe he'd use red for everything. Lots of flowers in vases, and lots of sophisticated paintings that have meaning behind them plastered on his walls, mostly heartbreak. There were iconic statues from the Greek times just erected in his living room, small paint cups on his table and brushes thrown into a black basket along with an easel always having its subject changing every few days. On one day he'd be painting the 'Fall of Man' and then suddenly he's painting the Tree of Knowledge. The only gold hinted at in his abode were streaks of shiny yellow in the carpet laid over the stairs. His bathrooms were mostly black and red, his bedroom being desaturated and devoid of any bright colour. He says it reflects his heart better than a mirror could. Edgy, I say.

So that's my house, my lovely, cheap turned affluent house with pretty decor and trinkets and just fanciness all around. Then there's Aydyn's house being a haven yet a reminder of his being; a heartbroken artist who is still deathly hungover on his last love.