Demons Control Us All

The Phone Call

Johnnie, Tiger, Juliet and Josh couldn't speak for days. The younger three had moved in to Johnnie's apartment, but all four locked themselves in different rooms and cried. They had lost the last person they had left that was always there and truly cared about them, no matter what.

And even though none of them talked, they were all thinking about the same thing; the phone call from the police officer that informed them of what happened that fateful afternoon. It was playing like a broken record in their heads, echoing through their bodies and the empty rooms they sat and cried in.

Johnnie remembers it clearly, but he just hoped it was just a dream. He pinched himself to try and wake him up- but he soon realised that this was in fact reality.

He remembers that his siblings and he were sitting on their hill, smiling and laughing, until his phone started to ring and buzz. Johnnie had put the call on speaker, so Tiger and Josh could hear too.

"Hello?" asked Johnnie, quizzically.

"Hi, is this Jonathon Smith? I'm Detective Susanna Mills from the Agloe Police Department." replied the voice on the phone. Johnnie replied, and stated that Tiger-Lily Smith and Joshua Smith, and Tiger's girlfriend, were with him at that moment.

"Okay," Detective Mills continued. "Unfortunately, I have some very tragic news to share with you. I'm at your apartment now, Mr Smith, after we got an anonymous call that something was happening on your floor. We also checked the CCTV cameras to double check the story.."

"What's happened? Is everyone okay?" Tiger was tarting to get anxious, and she had grabbed on to Josh's arm as she piped up to ask this.

"It's your mother, Lilly Smith, sweethearts...She...she's been found dead in your apartment. She was found with a severe head injury, which has lead to blood loss, and we believe that she passed on approximately 13 minutes ago. Our team also found a smashed bottle, the shards all over the floor, and the remaining segment of the alcohol bottle. These are all being sent back to the labs, and your mother's body is being transferred to the morgue in the Police Station where our team will hold her until we find the culprit. Our main suspect is, at the moment, your father, Ben Smith, I assume? Another resident on your floor saw him fleeing your apartment moments after a heated argument. Unfortunately so far, we are unable to locate him, but footage shows that he left your building 23 minutes ago. We have some of our team tracking him down now." Detective Mills paused, waiting for the siblings to say something, anything...

But they couldn't. They couldn't speak, or form any words, or even breathe. They couldn't believe what they had just heard.

Johnnie managed to form a partial sentence: "thank...you...W-we will call t-the police..station..if we have any f-further-r q-q-questions..." he tried to hold back the tears, but as Susanna apologised again and gave her condolences and hung up the phone, Johnnie, Tiger, Josh, and even Juliet, started crying their eyes out as they held each other, trying to mask their deep and destructive pain.

As the four of them calmed down, Johnnie began thinking, plotting, scheming, promising. Finally, he muttered aloud; "I will make that man pay, i will make him suffer for what he's done to us. I'll kill him myself, if my homicidal girlfriend doesn't get to him before i do..."

The other three first looked at him, taken aback, but then agreed with him, because who hurts their family without getting what they deserve? Who dares to kill the one person that will forever love them all?

But, Johnnie knew he had to wait, pounce when Ben least expected it. So, Tiger-Lily, Juliet, Josh and Johnnie walked begrudgingly to heir building, hand in hand, and decided to stay in their dads apartment on the floor below, as they weren't allowed near the active crime scene. But, a mere 16 hours later, they were allowed back to Johnnies apartment, where they all sat and mourned together, before they all dispersed to their own rooms to grieve in their own way.

And then they all had a funeral to plan. A funeral that they all needed to be absolutely perfect, to make sure that their mom would think of it the best way to be remembered; the perfect music, flowers, eulogies, guests...everything. They wanted to thank her, and make her proud, one last time.

And that's how the four young adults remained, for 6 weeks after Lilly's passing. They were hurting, more than any of them had ever hurt before, but they were being productive. Everything they did in those short 6 weeks were leading up to the day where they had to pour their feelings and emotions for their mom again; her funeral. And it was slowly approaching them, although Johnnie, Tiger, Juliet and Josh all wished that this day wouldn't come for at least another 20 years, given Lilly's drinking habits. But no, the day was coming up, and the four of them were not prepared for what was going to happen on the day of mourning.