My Brother, A Killer

CHAPTER TWO

My heart started to pound so disturbingly fast when Mum pulled up outside the supermarket. She was so slow and dandy about it, it made me mad.


I hobbled down the stairs to the street, stumbling with all the shopping in my hands. Mum leaped out of the car to help me.


'Here, here,' she said, taking most of it from my hands. I couldn't help myself from looking at Paul, sitting in the backseat. I don't know why, but it made me mad to see him picking at his bottom lip with a smug, smirky sort of smile on his face, looking out the opposite window at the park.


My eyes shot over there, to see what he was looking at, when I saw a young family with children running around at the park. I panicked, trying to keep my face cool. My limbs itched to run over there and protect them, which was silly. I couldn't protect them, not while i was up against a butcher's knife... a butcher's knife... God. This was my brother. MY BROTHER! Maybe I was going insane. I needed someone else with me on this. Shock maybe made you crazy.


'April?' Mum said, shaking me out of my reverie. 'Come on, honey, we're going home.'


I swallowed audibly and opened the back door. Brett was in the front so that left me with Paul in the back. I'd bet if Paul killed me ever so silently and sneakily, Mum and Brett wouldn't even notice until they got home and realised they had a dead daughter in their hands.


Paul didnt even look at me. He continued to stare out the window with that smirk on his face, pulling at his chapped lips. UGH.


I climbed in slowly and carefully. How weird it felt to be in the back seat with a murderer. How weird it was, was that that murderer was also your younger brother.


I was calling him a murderer now? A MURDERER. He hadn't even killed anyone. Yet. The unknown was killing me. As we travelled home, i always watched him, never looking away, from the corners of my cautious eyes.


He kept the same expression and continued the same actions for most of the way home. I twiddled my fingers and waited nervously for something to happen.


'Paul, darling, do you have that change?' she asked, looking in the rearview mirror.


I waited for his reaction. He said nothing, however, just shrugged, not looking at her. I was almost dizzy with this fear, the anticipation.


'I need it when we get home,' she said, closing off that conversation. She looked out front again, watching the road, while she and Brett talked about something trivial.


I turned my head to stare at Paul. He did nothing, not even flinch or look at me. He must have felt my eyes on him, surely. Nothing, though, he just looked out the window again. Then he reached for his pocket and my heart started to pound, vibrating my head.


HOLY GOD! He was going to do something! What should i do? I didn't panic on the outside, however, i kept a cool face and fiddled with my hands, looking sideways anxiously.


He pulled out just a five dollar note and a few dollar coins and kept his hand near his pocket, flicking them around in his hand... just sitting there.


I bit my lip.