Human Sized Hurricane | Michael Clifford

Chapter 21 - Remaining World

The next morning, Michael woke up in his bed for the first time without any shouting or hungover laughing downstairs. He turned over onto his stomach under the covers and reached for his phone, finally charging on his bedside table, and unlocked it. His eyes were barely open as he noticed he had three messages and a missed call from an unknown number. So he pressed on his voice mail and put the phone back on the table on speaker. The recorder of his voice made him cringe, but he stopped after hearing the sweetest sound of them all; Emma. "Hey, Michael. I just wanted to say that dad and I are on our way back home because we heard that Bobby has gone missing... And we tracked your phone back to your house, so we know you're there too..." Her voice sighed as if she were exhausted. "... Look, Mikey, just pick up the phone. I miss you" She said and the message ended. Once more, Michael turned over in his bed and pulled the covers off of his body, feeling the cold air of the morning hit like a thousand buckets of ice. He quickly covered himself again and let the warmth of the bed keep him cool, then as fast as he could, he jumped out of bed and raced across to the open bathroom door in his room. He showered and checked the bruises and cuts covering his body which were nearly all gone, apart from the big bruise around his shoulder and the scratches from the crash.

Michael dressed himself in the usual black skinny jeans and boots, with a white Metallica shirt and a denim jacket, then ruffed up his hair and went downstairs, smelling the gross oder of the rest of the house, making him almost gag. He dared to peak his head around the corner of the living room door, and pulled it straight back once he saw his brother, lying motionless in the position he'd collapsed in with blood staining his mouth, chin and hands. Michael grabbed the house phone from its stand and dialled 999, calling an ambulance. The number rang twice, then someone picked up. "Thank you for calling 999, which service do you require?" The man said at the call centre.

"Ambulance please" Michael replied, as a wave of panic came over him and made his body shake with numbness.

"Okay and ambulance is on its way. Can you tell me what's wrong?" The man asked, pressing a few buttons on his key board to alert another ambulance.

"I've just found my brother. He's not breathing and his face is covered in blood. What should I do?" Michael asked, but didn't look around again.

"Okay, is your brother awake? Can you try and get him to talk?"

"No, he looks dead"

"Alright, well, don't panic" The man said as the ambulance siren came from the end of the street. "The paramedics are on their way. Can you tell me your name?"

Michael was shaking too much and he dropped the phone from his hand, letting it fall down to the floor and smash on the hard carpet. His body was turning numb and he had to sit down on the stairs to stop himself from falling over as the shock seeing Bobby's gross corpse flashed through his mind. There was a sudden knock at the door, making Michael jump and he cried out "Fuck!" As the sound unsettled him. He opened the front door and two paramedics burst through, one carrying the big medical kit and the other rushing through to the living room.  

Suddenly, Bobby burst to life and started writhing on the ground as the defibrillator had restarted his heart. He rolled onto his front and began coughing violently, then more softly until he could only breath normally. The paramedic placed a hand on his back to sooth him, but Bobby grabbed the broken neck of a glass bottle and wedged it into the man's throat, pushing him backwards. Michael shrank behind the door frame again and cowered a little, as the shadow of Bobby standing up spread out across the floor of the living room as the other paramedic put his hands up to show he meant no harm. But Bobby approached him quickly with the bottle top in his hand and placed him in a headlock, then slashed his throat and let the man fall to his knees. Then Bobby dropped the bottle top and looked up at Michael, a new sense of purpose in his eyes. "Hey, Mikey boy" Bobby said, his brow sweating a little. 

"Bobby?" Michael replied, furrowing his eyebrows at the man who was dead a few hours before. "You were dead. You died" He said, nervously as discreetly reached for a knife on the table behind him. 

"That knife will do you no good. I'm not going to hurt you" Bobby said, indicating Michael's hand behind his back. "Promise" He added. "Its not a war. It never was. It's just a stupid little pranking game that got a bit out of hand. Now lets go and get some breakfast. How about that?" He suggested, opening the front door a little while Michael brought the knife out from behind him and held the blade in his hands, staring down at it. 

"You're right" He murmured, making Bobby turn back to look at him. "This isn't a war any more. It's just a stupid prank game that went wrong" Michael kept his eyes lowered at the kitchen knife in his sweating hand as Bobby shut the door again and stepped closer to his younger brother who didn't acknowledge him standing there. "What are we going to do now?" He asked, finally looking up.

Bobby eyed his wearily for a moment, but shrugged it off. "We could go on that holiday to the South of France that we've been talking about" He said and Michael's eyes lit up. Bobby placed a hand on his shoulder and patted it enthusiastically. "Back your bags, little brother!" He said merrily. 

Michael raced up the stairs and into his room, getting a bag from inside his wardrobe and putting it down onto his bed. He placed some clothes into it, then glanced over his shoulder as Bobby passed his wide open doorway and into his own messy room next door. He turned back to his bag and moved some clothes away from a pocket at the side, and unzipped it, where the barrel of another gun gleamed in the dim sunlight coming through the window. "Hey, Bobby. Come here I want your opinion on a shirt" He called, grabbing a floral shirt from a drawer that he'd borrowed from Ashton a long time ago and turned on the recorder on his phone. He turned to face the door and held the shirt up to his chest as Bobby came into the room and leaned on the door frame. 

"That shirt is disgusting" Bobby told him, with a smirk. Michael smirked back and lowered the shirt so that it fell from his grip and onto the floor, keeping his eyes fixed on his Brother. Then he raised the gun in his other hand and aimed it at Bobby's head, making his eyes widen and fill with fear. "What are you doing?" Bobby questioned, raising his hands up. 

"Why did you kill all of those people" Michael quickly asked as if in a hurry. "Why did you make me kill those boys? You knew I didn't want to" 

"I knew you didn't want to" Bobby said with his hands still raised. "But those boys, the headteacher of their school owed me money that he couldn't pay himself so he sacrificed the 21 worst behaved boys. And the family in the house we burnt down-"

"That YOU burnt down!" Michael interrupted, still pointing the gun at him. 

"The mother of that family was pretty good in bed but she was threatening to tell her husband and move away from me. So I did what had to be done. And then that stripper, she wanted to die. So she gave me a time a place and all I did was pull the trigger" He said, not phased at all by the interruption. 

"You're a monster!" Michael snarled. 

"So are you" Bobby yelled, throwing his hand down onto the handle of the door. Michael fired a shot and Bobby collapsed to his knees, allowing Michael just a few seconds to rush over to his window and climb out onto the roof of the front door, then he jumped off and landed with an uncomfortable thud on the ground. Bobby turned and went down the stairs as fast as he could and opened the front door just as Michael reached his car. "You'll never find her!" Bobby yelled as he grabbed a gun from a hidden cupboard above the coats and took his car keys from their hook. He reversed out of the driveway and turned in the direction Michael's car went, following it down the road and onto the main road towards the school.