"Woahhhh!!!!" came out the joyful sounds of merriment from two delighted kids in a park having the best moments of their lives. As they enjoyed themselves to the fullest on the rollercoaster, yelling and screaming happily, a particular someone was having a hard time finding it comfortable on the swing. Oh, how she wished for the ride to end.
Olivia held her siblings close to her as the rollercoaster turned them around. Her siblings' shout of joy was threatening to burst her eardrum but all she could do was hold on to them for dear life with her eyes tightly shot. Her head was starting to spin and she felt that if the ride didn't end any time soon, she was going to throw up what she had been holding in for the past few minutes. She was scared.
Fortunately, the ride ended much to the dismay of the twins and to the happiness and joy of Olivia. Relief came swimming into her heart as she clutched at her chest while swiftly jumping out of the rollercoaster gasping for breath. Her twin siblings didn't seem close to ending the fun as each of them pointed towards their next choice of fun-filled adventure.
"There!! Let's go ride the merry-go-round !!" Maya yelled excitedly.
"No!! Let's go tour the haunted house. It's fun seeing all those ghosts!! " Jerry disagreed with his sister.
"No! it's so scary in there. They're not even real!! They're actors!!" Maya glared at her brother.
This boy was trying to spoil her fun. What a joy killer.
Now Olivia was torn between who to first yield to. She glanced at the merry-go-round and back at the twins, then at the haunted house which was just a few steps away and then back at the twins again.
Olivia was confused. What was she going to do? She opened her purse and heaved a huge sigh. She was running out of money and her siblings were hellbent on spending it however way they want without blinking an eye! Somebody help! *sob*
Olivia could do nothing but stare into her third grade worn-out purse and back at her siblings cute faces and their puppy dog eyes which stared back at her expectantly waiting for their requests to be granted.
An overwhelming happiness found it's way to Olivia's heart as she stared dreamily at her adorable siblings. She was happy. Happy that they were no longer sad. Happy that they were they were back to their usual annoying, yet cute and adorable attitude.
All she could ask herself was ' is it real? '. Her adorable pumpkins were finally out of the crying mode and now in the happy mode.
It was unbelievable that they had only just lost their parents two weeks ago. Then, she felt the world had ended for them.
How was she going to cope? How could this have happened? Would she be able to pull through?
*****
Two weeks ago.
Olivia had come back home from her part-time job and tiredly slumped down on the old rickety sofa in their two bedroom flat. She noticed her parents weren't back from their joint restaurant which was just along the street down the road. She then made a mental note to go help them out later. After taking a breather, she called for her siblings who were probably in their room.
"Maya!! Jerry!! Sis is back!!" She yelled out loud to make her presence known.
Some few seconds later, her siblings came running out of their room happily with Maya leading the way. Olivia was instantly engulfed in a bear hug by her two pumpkins.
"Yay!! Sis Olivia!!"
"We missed you"
"You got something for us right?"
" I won Maya in chess!!" Jerry made his achievement known proudly.
" What? You cheated because I didn't know how to play the game!!" Maya tried to defend herself, holding her arms on her chest while pouting her small pink lips.
"Huh? You don't know how to play it, how can you say I cheated? Jerry scoffed.
Another round of argument began.
They weren't even giving Olivia a chance to speak! Olivia stared at them in awe and laughed heartily, really amused by their behavior... if only she knew her happiness was about to be cut short.
"Okay, okay. That's enough, that's enough. Jerry what did we say about cheating?" Olivia made her presence known once again.
" Cheat and you're going to be cheated" Jerry grimaced.
"So..." Olivia was interrupted.
"But I didn't cheat!! Maya is lying!! I clearly won that game fair and square!! " Jerry protested.
" Alright it's fine. It's just a game, okay? Maya apologize to him" Olivia tried to reconcile the twins.
With a sad face, Maya pouted"I'm sorry "
Jerry's cold aura dropped to twenty degrees and his cute face softened.
Olivia and Maya stared at him expecting him to return the apology but Jerry's cold aura came flushing back to him. Apologize? He scoffed silently. No way. His ego was way bigger than that. How could he possibly apologize when....
" JERRY??!!"Olivia interrupted his thoughts with a deadly glare and a raised brow.
" S...so... Sorry!!" Jerry apologized half-heartedly. But Maya would have none of it.
" What?" Her high-pitched voice rang out in the room. Olivia covered her ears which of course was obviously useless as her adorable pumpkin's voice had done the damage already. Bells had started ringing in her ears.
" What do you mean by 's...so... sorry?' Huh? You said that through your teeth, it was insincere!! Say it again!! But this time, sincerely!!" Maya yelled at her twin brother. She was going to show him manners.
" Hahahaha!!!!" Jerry laughed mockingly." Make me" He challenged.
Olivia helplessly stared at her two pumpkins and couldn't help but question if those two were really her pumpkins. They were twins for crying out loud!!
And before Olivia knew it, another World War II had broke out. Throwing silly words at each other, the twins gave no time for the other to think of anything as they both pointed accusing fingers at each other.... Olivia was rendered powerless.
Their bantering was interrupted by a knock on the door followed by a handful of it.
The twins paused their incessant quarrel and looked towards the direction of the door at the same time like on reflex, likewise Olivia. They wondered who it was. ' Unusual' they thought.
" Could it be mom and dad? They never come home this early" Maya reasoned tugging at Olivia's hand.
Olivia nodded her head in agreement. She stood up and walked towards the door and on opening it, was met with a friendly looking face of a police officer. Although on that face was an expression of sadness and grief.
Olivia was instantly alarmed.
What situation could have possibly brought a cop to their house? Oh no, could their landlord have called on the police to kick them out? What was going to happen to them now? What if—
"Hello Miss? Are you Olivia Ernest?"
Fear slowly made its way to Olivia's heart.
Could the landlord have preferred her to be taken away instead? She didn't want to go to prison! Oh damn. She knew it! She knew that grumpy old man had always had his eyes on her! She definitely didn't want to go to prison, she wanted to live a free life. She wanted to go to the karaoke with her best friend! She wanted to get married to a handsome prince charming and have beautiful children! She's been saving up for a photoshoot with her two pumpkins. She had always bragged about having twin siblings. What was she going to do now? Should she call her paren-
"Miss? " the cop once again interrupted Olivia's thoughts.
"Y- ye- yes. I'm Olivia Er- Ernest" She stuttered amidst her loud banging heart with her fists tightly clenched.
"Sis Olivia? Does he wants to arrest us?" Maya inquired hiding behind Olivia with her small hands tightly clutching on Olivia's shirt. " Mister we didn't kill anyone!"
Everyone: "..."
The cop chuckled softly and said" I didn't come to arrest you, little girl." Then he turned to Olivia and said "Instead I came here to inform you about an accident that claimed the lives of two people in a restaurant down the street which I suppose are your parents." He paused then continued" If you don't mind, you can come and identi—"
" What?" It was Olivia's turn to interrupt the officer. Her heartbeat which was already racing tripled. What did he just say? Accident? Parents? Haha it seems she suddenly developed a hearing problem. "Wh- what did you just say? Th- that can't be t- true—
"Mom and dad is not dead! We saw them this morning! Sir, you're lying! Mom said she was going to get me a Superman toy—"Jerry protested glaring as hard as he could at the poor officer who was already sweating profusely. It seemed he shouldn't have volunteered to come give out the information to these people.
" And dad said he was going to get me peanuts!.... vanilla peanuts" Maya interjected, pouting.
The cop wanted to do his job quickly and get out of there. So he ignored the protests of the twins and said softly "Umm... miss, if you don't mind, come with me to identify the bodies so we can be sur—"
*WHOOSH*
The cop's words were once again cut short as Olivia dashed out of the house towards the direction of her parents small restaurant in an unbelievable speed. She couldn't stand the officer any longer. 'How could he say her parents were dead?! She saw them that morning. She greeted them. She hugged and kissed them goodbye! She was planning on helping them out with the restaurant later that day! How could that blabbermouth of a police officer come to their doorstep and say nonsense? That her parents were dea— no. No way. There was no way she was going to believe it! She didn't want to believe it but...why was her heart racing this much? She could have sworn that she had never felt that anxious in her whole twenty one years of living.
Olivia's mind was a mess as she ran all the way to her parents' restaurant with all her might, forgetting for a moment that in her disengaged state, had left her twin siblings behind at their apartment. Getting close to the restaurant, like a lightbulb, she remembered she left two anxious six year olds waiting for her and she instantly felt a pang of guilt.
'Well I'm coming back home with mom and dad and they're going to be happy' Olivia wholeheartedly welcomed the thought to ease her already uneasy soul. Oh, how she wanted to do that and prove that metamorphic officer wrong! Hmph! Just he wait and see. She'll sue him for spurting out such a grave lie! uh-huh *ahem* She has no money *sob*...well she would work extra hard for it!
While running, Olivia suddenly felt a stinging pain from her left foot, like something had cut into the sole of her feet. She looked down at the source of the pain and only then did she realize that she had no slippers on. Her two feet were bare! Oh cr**! She must have forgotten to wear her slippers when rushing out... all thanks to that officer! She would surely pay him back in his own coins someday, somehow! Pulling a prank wasn't enough and now he had to—
" Oh no, they were such good people!"
" Yeah, I know right? They never make trouble! Who could have possibly wanted them dead?"
" The couple were really nice!"
" And they made the best burgers! "
" Whoever did this must be brought to book!"
Olivia had reached her parents' restaurant when she saw people gathered in front of the restaurant and she clearly heard some people saying stuff about a couple being nice and didn't deserve to be killed and how they made the best burgers... Yeah, her parents' burgers were the best... Oh wait, wait, wait.... It- it wasn't her parents right? No.. no way!!
*THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP*
Olivia's heartbeat skyrocketed. With the little strength left inside her, she shoved her way through the crowd like a stray puppy. ' God please let it not be them. Please I'm begging you, it can't be them' She prayed silently. Oh how she wished her prayers would be answered. She paused her footsteps when she saw blood littered all over the place. On the floor. On the walls. Tears clouded Olivia's eyes as she stared blankly at the blood which looked fresh...like it was not too long when it was shed.
The tears which were threatening to fall out of her eyes came rushing down her beautiful pale face. She couldn't believe it. No, she won't believe it! *sniff*. 'It could be paint. Yes, red paint. Someone must have dropped it out of carelessness' She thought. Olivia started making her way into the restaurant in slow calculating steps, walking gingerly and slowly as if if she made any wrong step, she could fall down flat on the floor with a loud thud.
Olivia finally made it into her parents restaurant and saw two silhouettes on the floor, covered with blood. That was it. Her worst nightmare has happened. The two bodies which lied lifelessly on the floor were none other than her parents. Her legs which were trembling, gave way and with no strength left inside her, she collapsed to the ground, wailing on top of her voice. Her parents were....dead.