Her breath hitched; she was in the corner of the room, covering her mouth while screaming until the air in her lungs ran out and felt tight.
But no matter how hard she screamed for help, no one came to stop her husband, Jed.
Edith slumped, her back brushing the cold, dirty walls. She sat limply as if her legs were paralyzed. She wept in the corner of the room as she watched Jed grip the knife tightly as he stabbed it into his father's chest.
He stabbed him multiple times, blood spurting on his face, down to his clothes. With a grinning smile, he was like a monster from humanity's darkest dreams.
With his remaining strength, his father tried to stop him, to stop this nightmare. But Jed was a young man; the muscles in his body were proof of how strong he was. Jed wins at everything compared to his father, an obese smoker. Fat and smoke gnawed his body, becoming a burden he didn't realize until now.
While her mother helplessly lying on the dining table, bathed in her own blood, her head turned just to see Edit; tears dripping from her eyes. Her hands were spread across the dining table; even in her last moments, she was still trying to grab her child.
Jed stabbed her first when the old lady, with her sweet smile, told Jed to sit and eat with them. She was attacked by the same man who came to her two years ago, telling her that he had fallen in love with her daughter and wanted to marry her.
At that time, she was sure that this man was the one who would take care of her daughter, sacrificing anything for her like what she and her husband did all the time.
But tonight, she was confused, disappointed, and angry. The pain she felt from the gaping wound on her neck was nothing compared to the wound she felt in her heart. Whereas a few seconds ago, she had smiled with a sweet frown on her face when Edith took the roast chicken out of the oven and placed it on the dining table.
Edith's smile was as sweet as her mother's. She smiled cheerfully because the smell of roasted chicken was delicious; the smell spread like an air freshener to all directions, filling the house, and without her permission, they went to the neighbors.
All of that was ruined when Jed arrived.
In just a few minutes, he walked to the dining table and grabbed the knife; the smell of the mouthwatering chicken turned into a fishy, ââbloody smell, making anyone who smelled it want to vomit.
Jed drew his knife; he smirked at his father-in-law, who wasn't fighting anymore. He was silent; there was no movement in his puffy stomach; he must have died. Jed has no doubt.
Jed glanced at Edith, still in the place where she should be; it's perfectly what he wanted. She howled, with no one or anything coming to help her. Victory is in his hands.
Jed wiped the sweat that had mixed with blood on his forehead, but that only made itâeither blood or sweatâ enter his eyes. He groaned and closed his sore eyes.
Meanwhile, Edith's mother suddenly fell silent. No more tears were falling from her eyes, and her lips no longer trembled in fear. Her eyes stared blankly. Nothing is left in that body; life has gone. Whatever she does, life will not come back to that woman.
Now the two were nothing more than piles of meat lying on the sellers' stalls in the smelly and musty meat market.
Jed and Edith were still busy with their thoughts until suddenly they heard music coming from the music box. Someone accidentally bumped and dropped it. The music box opens, and a beautiful and calming song automatically plays.
Jed and Edith turned their heads. They knew that song too well and the person who accidentally bumped into it. He was a part of them, the physical embodiment of their sacred promise before the altar two years ago.
It was Oliver, their little baby boy. God gave it to Jed and Edith a year ago.
Edith still remembers well; she screamed when she saw the test pack with two blue lines. Jed was on the bed; he was startled and ran to the bathroom. he thought something had happened to Edith.
Edith hugged Jed tightly as soon as he asked what was wrong, so tightly she could never have imagined that he was the same man standing behind her now.
Their happiness swelled closer to the day when Oliver came into this world.
Moreover, the moment he was born, he cried loudly. His voice was so adorable and precious; Edith wept as she glanced at him. The doctor says he is a healthy baby, and don't forget, last but not least, he is a handsome baby.
Well, it's also important, you know.
Edith laughed at that, but Oliver was handsome. Edith remembered well how everyone pointed at Oliver and praised him while he was asleep in the baby room.
But all that happiness feels like a dream now. Could Edith have accidentally swapped lives with someone? Because her life shouldn't be like this.
Oliver hugged his teddy bear tightly, his face pale, his body shaking violently as he stared at his father holding a knife. Blood dripping from it.
Oliver never knew him. That man wasn't his father; he was an evil monster hiding in the darkest shadows. He appears to destroy and only to destroy everything. No one should blame him because he was created to do that.
"Jed, please," Edith asked, shaking her head.
Edith shouted; she got up just as Jed stepped towards Oliver. Oliver was too young to understand the concept of murder or the bad guy, but he was running towards his room crying; at least he knew he was in danger.
Just as Oliver was tripping over his feet, Edith managed to lunge at Jed's body. Jed fell to the floor, and the knife slipped from his hand.
But everything happened so fast that it felt like Edith didn't even have time to breathe in.
There's no chance she could match Jed, so that man quickly pushed Edith aside, pushing her against the wall. He stands up effortlessly as if what Edith did to him earlier meant nothing.
Jed took the knife and walked over to Oliver, and what happened next was something Edith could never have imagined, especially as a mother.
The baby had been inside her for nine months, his screams and pain becoming Edith's too. She can feel the blood flowing from his chest; it's hard to breathe.
Oliver's body immediately slumped, and without a fight, he just died.
Edith thought she couldn't scream anymore; her throat was dry, her chest was sore, her breath was panting, and it felt like she had run out. But seeing Oliver's body, she shouted in a thunderous voice, a loud voice that was deafening.
Even so, the screams seemed meaningless; she was still stuck in the same state. A suffocating silence broke out when she finished shouting, her chest rising and falling in an irregular motion just like a fish being pulled out of a pond, trying as hard as it could to breathe.
Even if the fish knew, it would never be able to take a breath of air. His body wasn't made for it, so no matter how hard it tried, it would still die if it stayed on the ground.
Edith felt that she was like a fish coming out of the pond. But unlike the fish, what will be the end of her life is not the absence of water. The pain will be with her for eternity.
He dropped Oliver's body onto the floor as if he were a doll, not a human child, not his own child.
Edith gave in; she didn't want to fight anymore. She was going to let Jed kill her so she wouldn't have to feel this pain.
However, Jed stepped past her instead. Edith turned her head; she followed the man. What she saw was supposed to be a terrifying experience; Jed had left footprints of blood on the gray floor of their house.
He went to the front door and walked out of the house.
Jed didn't close the door, so Edith could see what he was doing there. To Edith's surprise, when she saw Jed sitting in their front yard sitting area, he pulled out a cigarette and lighter. Jed had a hard time turning on the lighter as his hands were slick with blood, but after a few tries, he was finally able to light it.
Jed sipped the cigarette in his left hand affectionately, as if it were the lips of a hot slut. While the knife covered in blood was in his right hand, like a trophy, he was showing off to the whole world.
During her confusion, Edith got up while leaning against the wall. She walked while dragging her feet; she had stopped for a while just to glance at his parents and child.
She sighed heavily, forcing her trembling legs to walk because she couldn't do anything.