Jimmy slowly exited out of his room and made his way down the stairs. On his way down he saw a plate of food, and a note on the kitchen table in the dining room. Jimmy slowly reached out to the note and began to read it.
' Hello Honey, me and your father were called back to the lab for an emergency but before we left I made you your favorite dish. Stay safe, love mom.'
Jimmy looked down at the still slightly warm plate of food, it was a plate of nicely stewed Oxtail with Caribbean style rice. Jimmy was about to have a sit when the object in his hand reminded him of its presents when he heard its voice in his head.
" Hey kid, you have some good taste if this is your favorite dish. It is sweet and savory, the meat is so tender and soft that it just melts in your mouth like meat butter."
Jimmy grimaced at the description of his favorite food only now remembering that he had been subconsciously carrying a plank of wood in his arms. He looked down and said.
" um, brother can you kindly never use the phrase "meat butter" in a sentence, you know what can you flush that phrase down the metaphorical toilet so it can be at home with all the other crappy phrases that people have come up with?"
Jimmy sat down in front of the plate while also pulling out the chair next to him to sit Ban. Soon he began eating with relish while conversing with Ban.
" After I finish eating we'll go out to visit the mall of America, you know the last time I visited that place was when I was 5, before that me and my family would visit that place and I would find myself playing a lot with the other children in the child play area. My parents would also enjoy their time together, it was probably one of the best periods in my life..."
Ban could sense a sad and melancholic tone from Jimmy's voice so he couldn't help but ask.
" Why did you stop going?"
Jimmy stared blankly at the remaining food on his plate which was almost finished and spoke only one word, but that one word carried massive weight to it.
" Death. "
The room fell silent once again, after a few minutes Jimmy continued speaking.
" Back when I had just turned 5 I made a request to my parents to go to the mall to stay and play as my birthday wish. I thought that it would be the best day ever, but that day ended up being a nightmare that would follow me around for the rest of my life..."
Jimmy took a deep but shaky breath.
" It was mid day when we heard a loud explosion followed by massive tremors, then came the screaming and gun fire, I didn't understand what was going on but my parents did and quickly grabbed me and started running in the other direction of the noise."
Jimmy's hands began to shake slightly but he still continued.
" My parents ran with me in their arms, but as we got close to the other end of the mall we heard more gun fire and so we ran into the nearest store and hid. We hid for what felt like hours and the only thing that hit my senses were the screams of people and the thick scent of blood."
Tears started to fall onto Jimmy's hand but he was too engrossed to notice as he told the story.
"Soon the world fell silent, I could hear nothing but the breath of me and my parents. But that didn't last for too long as we began to hear the sound of footsteps. We thought that it could be help coming to take us away but what met us instead was despair."
Jimmy began to shake even more and his eyes became red.
" We were captured by a group of masked men who dragged us to a store with 10 other people. We thought that they only wanted to rob the stores, but they may have gotten pinned in by the police, so they would use us as hostages. But when they began to pull out cameras we knew something was wrong, then they spoke."
Jimmy's eyes flash with a look of pure rage.
" They said that this was a cleansing, that America is the den of heretics and that only their blood would make the world pure. That only the true children of god deserve to exist and all others would be cleansed. Then one of the masked men grabbed one of the unsuspecting hostages and without saying another word he pushed that hostage face down on the ground towards us, then began dissecting him."
Jimmy clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.
" The masked man began by cutting off all of the poor hostage's limbs with a dull jagged blade, you would think that the man would die after one or two limbs being cut off but they wanted to show that he was suffering so they would administer first aid to him to prevent the hostage from losing to much blood. Finally when it came down to the man's head they faced him towards us and pulled his hair, raising the man's head to show us his listless eyes full of despair, then the masked man with the dull jagged blade began to slowly saw through the man's throat."
Jimmy began to gag but managed to keep it in and continued.
" The sound...the sound of flesh being winched into, the sound of bone crunching and snapping, and a pool of blood steam under them due to the cold weather, along with the agonizing gasp for air that would never come. I had to watch this seven more times, until a man grabbed my father."
Jimmy's voice began to become horse but Ban didn't stop him from speaking, only listened quietly.
" It felt odd to watch someone being put under the butcher's knife keep telling you that everything will be alright and try to calm you. Then they severed his arm, but no scream came, only the loving and tender voice of a father telling his family not to be scared. My mother couldn't take it and rushed up to try to do something only to be knocked to the ground and have her legs broken. While I froze, unable to process what was happening."
" Soon the masked men turn their attention back to my father after he screamed at them to get away from his wife, the masked man and company all began to laugh, but before they got ready to continue there torture on my father, the man walking towards my father head suddenly exploded in a red mist and before any of the other men could react, a hail of bullets hit them turning them into sieves."
" Soon we were escorted out of the mall, and my parents were given medical treatment before being taken out on stretchers with me following, and while my parents tried to keep my attention from my surroundings, I saw it... the lifeless corpses of many people, who just not too long ago were still happily walking and chatting, I even saw some of the young kids that I was playing with just earlier that day, laying on the ground covered in blood and faces still twisted in fear."
Jimmy started to calm his breathing and spoke once again.
" It was at that time that I began to be visited by those shadowy figures that you scared away back in my room, I blamed myself for the injuries my parents got. Before today I would be too paralyzed to do anything or subconsciously inflict harm on myself. But today you helped me and I no longer feel that pressure that originally weighted me down."
Ban finally spoke, his voice carrying gentleness.
" None of that was your fault, not only were you only five at that time but you could not have seen that on that day those events would have taken place."
The room went silent for a minute before Ban spoke again.
" Besides, why are you going to the mall?"
Jimmy turn to Ban and gave him a genuine smile and said.
" before this I feared that the pressure that I felt would crush me and send me down a path of no return. But with the protection of my big brother I feel that I can face and overcome this fear."
Jimmy looked at Ban only to be greeted by what could only be described as a wooden shit eating grin before he heard Ban say.
" Yep, yep, this big brother is willing to carry all of your burdens for you because I am great and mighty, hehe"
Jimmy sighed, then gave an exasperated smile.