Sun light was shining on the room through the slit of a curtain, alarm clock was ringing signaling the start of a new day. A young man groggily stood up from the bed and turn off the alarm. He headed to the bathroom and wash his face. He then brush up his hair causing it to look slick, coupled with his diamond-shape face and deep black irises, the young man has the look of a lady killer.
He headed down stairs to eat breakfast.
"Good morning Ken!" a little girl, that he bore a resemblance to, cheerily greeted him.
"Good morning Faye." He said while rubbing her hair.
"We're going to the beach right?" she asked with an expectant look on her face.
"Yeah, have you bought your swimsuit?", he said with an amused smile, "it's forbidden to swim in the beach without a swimsuit."
"Not true! I saw people in the beach without swimsuit!" she gave him an annoyed look and bared her canine at him.
"All right, stop it you two, start eating your breakfast." A middle-aged woman walked in from the direction of the kitchen. She put down the food one by one on the table.
"Mom, is big brother coming home for the holidays?" Ken asked his mother.
"Your brother hasn't responded to my text messages yet, he's probably busy but I'm sure he'll be back this holiday."
"He better be! or I won't pay him any attention!" Faye said with a pout on her face.
"Now now, I can't have my cute little sister ignore me now, can I." A masculine voice suddenly sounded in the direction of the front door.
Faye cry out and dashed to the front door. "Big brother Joseph!", giving her brother a hug.
He hug Faye and rubbed her hair. "It seems my cute little sister miss me."
She giggled and opened her hand with an expectant look.
Joseph grinned at her little sister antics, he reach in to his backpack and took out a bunch of sweets. "Here's some sweet but eat your breakfast first, okay?"
Faye pouted and took the sweets. "Alright."
Joseph smiled and looked at the people sitting on the table. "Hey Mom, Ken. How are you doing?"
"We're fine, how long do you plan on staying?" Mom asked with a smile.
"I took the rest of the week as a day off, so I have the entire week off."
"That's great! we have plenty of time for some bonding time with the three of us siblings." Faye interjected upon hearing his brother took the entire week off.
But Ken had another worry. "How about your salary?"
"No need to be worried," he smiled," it's a paid leave."
Ken gives a nod and fell silent. The dining room suddenly got awkward. He tried to find another topic to ease the awkwardness. Luckily Faye came to save the day.
"Let's buy shirts with identical design!" she jumped up the chair and waved her little hands in the air, feeling proud of her idea.
"Faye! get down from there and sit properly, we're eating." Mom scolded little Faye for her inappropriate action.
"Sorry mom." She sat down and obediently eat her food. While Joseph and Ken smiled at her.
"But I do think getting identical shirts is a good idea." Ken said.
"Of course it is! that's my great idea!" she shouted and puffed her chest.
"Alright we know it's your idea, no one's trying to steal credit of it." Joseph gives a laugh and pats her head.
"But yeah, we should get identical shirts for our family trip." Joseph agreed.
"How about Faye come up with a design and Ken contact the shop to get the details, sounds good?" Joseph gives his siblings a look.
Faye excitedly nods her head while Ken gave his brother a complicated look.
He knew his brother would shoulder the cost on his own and included them just to let Ken have a piece of mind. Ever since their father passed away, Joseph has been the man of the house, he provided for the the family, pay the bills, tuition and food. He's been the pillar of the family ever since.
The family of four continued their discussion for their upcoming family trip.
Ken cleaned the table and washed the dishes. Joseph wanted to help but Faye pulled him to play with her.
Ken washed the dishes while ruminating, not about the trip, but about his future. While deep in thought, Joseph came in and and wipe the dishes.
"So, how are you doing? any trouble in school?" he asked.
Ken glanced at him and continued washing the dishes.
"I take that as a no, care to tell me what's going on?"
Hesitating for a bit, Ken decided to come clean with his decision. "I won't continue to college."
Joseph pause, "why?"
"I plan to find a job and help you, I know education is important to get a good paying job but I also knew how hard you work. Your whole body tells me that you haven't been living well. So, I wanted to help you provide for the family."
Joseph said solemnly. "Is that your reason? If you think that I'm not living well just because I don't wear branded shirts, shoes or whatever, then you're terribly wrong, because each day I lived knowing that I helped my family has been the most fulfilling thing for me."
Ken give him a complicated look. "But you're not getting any younger, people your age already have family-"
Joseph hugged him. "I already have a family... it's you, Faye, and Mom and Dad."
He stayed silent for a while then hugged Joseph tightly. "But you're still not getting any younger."
Joseph laugh out loud and release him. "Don't worry about that, we'll cross the bridge when we get there. Besides I still haven't forgotten about you boasting that you would build a farm with thousands of livestock with a rice paddy as far as the eye could see."
Ken was embarrassed having been reminded of his childish boasting but instead of shying away, "that's right! I'm going to build a farm but this time the rice paddy will be as large as the Sea!"
Joseph laugh again. "You silly kid, the earth is composed of 70% water, there won't even be enough land to house your ambitious farm."
The two brothers continue to catch up while they prepare for their family trip. They only finish packing when it was almost bedtime.
"I'm so excited for the trip tomorrow!" Faye said with a smile on her cute face.
"Now, now, brush your teeth and get ready for bed. Save up your energy for tomorrow." Mom said with a gentle smile on her face.
Thus, the family retired for the night.
~~~
Having slept soundly, Ken awoke in the middle of the night to take a piss. He headed downstairs, when a sound of glass breaking sounded. Curious, he headed from where the sound come from.
He arrived at the living room, there he saw the most horrifying thing that could possibly happen, he saw Mom holding her stomach, blood gushing out of the wound, disbelief and terror written on her face.
"MOM!" Ken dashed to her side and put pressure on the wound using a cloth he snatched on the way.
"What happened mom?! who did this to you?!"
Mom cough and struggle to point out. "Burglars...they...they...", light faded out of Mom's eye.
"NOOO!!! MOM, MOM, WAKE UP!!! YOU CAN'T LEAVE US!!!" with tears in his eyes, he embrace Mom as tight as he could, trying to hold the fading warmth.
Joseph and Faye rushed down when they heard the commotion downstairs and saw Ken embracing mom's lifeless body.
"MOM?!" they shouted at the same time and dashed to the living room.
Ken looked at their faces, he saw Faye, face full of tears and terror written in her face. Joseph though no tears were shed, but the eyes were trembling and started reddening. All of this played out in slow motion for him. He also saw the murderer, the knife in its hand was stabbing to Joseph.
He dashed forward and leaped in the direction of the knife, stabbing him in chest. He plopped down, his vision started to get blurry.
He saw Joseph fighting back but was overpowered and stab four times. He saw the murderer walking to Faye, sobbing and crying.
She looked at Ken. "We're going to the beach, right?", she asked, tears staining her face.
Ken felt an unbearable pain from his heart, so painful that the stab wound couldn't compare to it when he heard Faye.
They were supposed to be going on a trip, where they would have fun, spend happy times and make new memories, but it was now ruined.
He suddenly realized he was weak, he started hating himself for being weak, for not being able to protect his family and happiness. Gritting his teeth, he ignore the pain and crawled in the direction of Faye, dragging a trail of blood.
Finally, the murderer reached Faye, with blood dripping from the knife, it raised the knife and stab it. But the anticipated splatter of blood did not occur, the knife was halted mid air.
The murderer looked down and stared at the bloodied hand that was gripping its leg, the owner of the hand looked at it and ask. "Why?"
It didn't answer or perhaps it didn't have an answer, it just silently stared at Ken.
Just when his consciousness was about to fade, it spoke. "You need strength to protect the things you hold dear."
That was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness.