A Bright World

The world shines way brighter on a kid than it does on an adult. It is not because there is a high
power protecting the innocent – no, that is how a religious text might describe it.

Kids just have a different outlook on life that allows them to overlook the miseries of this world.
Hence, they see rainbows and sunshine when adults worry about poverty and war.

However, Tracy was different. She didn’t live her life like other ignorant children around her. This 12-
year-old always knew that the world was a horrible place.

She believed that humans were capable of going to any lengths to torture people that they didn’t
like.

After all, she was a victim of this hatred too.

Tracy only felt at ease when she was in school. Even though she didn’t trust anyone here, she knew
that it wasn’t possible to hurt her without falling in trouble. She knew that there were authorities to
go to if anyone even came close to hurting her.

But at home, she didn’t feel as safe.

Tracy hated the fact that she had to be the most defensive when she was at home. Sometimes when
she walked home, she saw her classmates running to their parents.

Your giggles won’t stop them from hurting you, she thought. While she felt guilty for thinking about
this for someone else’s happiness, she knew that it was a fact.

If her own sister could do it, so could anyone else’s.

Tracy’s schedule when she reached home was very simple. She quietly walked to her room, and
didn’t come out until her sister called her for dinner. However, this was not how she always spent
her day.

Life was different when her parents were alive – which was about 5 months back. Tracy had a happy
family – a loving father, a caring mother, an elder sister she looked up to, and an adorable brother.
But ever since she lost her parents in the car accident, everything changed.

As Tracy entered her room, she closed the door quietly. She slowly took off her bag pack and kept it
across the table, as if the slightest of sound might wake the dead.

“You’re back early.”

Tracy jumped in fright. She saw her younger brother, Jack, lying on her bed.

“When did you even get here?” Tracy whispered.

“I was here all the while, Tracy,” Jack said as he turned from facing Tracy to lying on his back. This 8-
year-old sometimes talked like a 40-year-old.

“Why are you talking normally? Tracy whispered with a little panic. “Rita will hear us.”
“Her friends came over, she has gone out for drinks,” Jack replied. He was staring at the ceiling, as
if reading something off of there.

“Thank god she’s out,” Tracy said, this time in her normal voice. “Did she seem angry at something?”

“No,” Jack replied. He kept staring at the ceiling. Tracy could sense that something was off about
Jack’s behavior, but could not point a finger at it. She just hoped that Rita didn’t try to hurt him in
any way.

Rita, 18, was the elder sister of Tracy and Jack. Ever since their parents died, Rita has taken the
financial burden on her shoulders. All the neighbors and relatives applauded Rita for her bravery of
taking all the responsibilities, but no one knew the truth. No one knew that Rita killed her parents,
and her next targets were Jack and Tracy.

No one except her targets themselves.

One the day that Tracy’s parents died; Rita had a huge fight with them. Tracy didn’t remember the
reason for the fight anymore, but she did remember that Rita was very angry. The same afternoon,
her parents were supposed to go over to a relative’s place for a quick visit.

Tracy and Jack stayed back with their babysitter while Rita took the job of dropping her parents.
Before leaving, Rita whispered to herself, “I just wish that everyone in this family dies.” The same
day, their car crashed and fell off the bridge Rita was driving on.

Rita was injured severely in the accident, but she survived. Her parents didn’t.

Had Tracy not heard Rita wish that everyone died, maybe she wouldn’t be so sure of the fact that
Rita was a psycho who wanted to kill them. She showed herself as the hero who was supporting her
family all alone.

But Tracy didn’t believe her act. She was sure that Rita killed their parents, and she wanted to kill
her next.

And then her brother.

Tracy’s claims were supported by her brother. She grew closer to Jack a lot ever since the accident,
since he was the only one she talked to at home. She hadn’t spoken to her sister too much ever
since she was discharged from the hospital.

Rita didn’t pay too much attention to it, assuming that Tracy was simply grieving. She was also way
too busy to notice any change in her behavior.

“Will you take the medicine again, Tracy?” Jack asked, breaking the silence in the air. Tracy looked
up from the book that she was reading and asked, “I have to, Jack. You need to stop with that
nonsense.”

“I am just warning you. Don’t take those pills. She is slowly killing you,” Jack replied emotionlessly.

“Right, and I should listen to you? You’re 8, you can’t even write your name correctly. Where did
you learn this stuff about killing? We need to add parental control over your iPad,” Tracy replied.

Even though her reply was firm, she was shaky from within. Jack had been talking way too much
about the pills these days, and Tracy was scared that he knew something that she didn’t.

No, Tracy thought. Don’t ask Jack anything. Don’t feed this negativity in his mind, or he’ll start
thinking like you too, Tracy. I need to get my act together and sound stronger. I DO NOT need to
make him feel that his sister hates him.

“I know she does,” Jack said. Tracy freaked out. Did I just speak my thoughts aloud?

Jack got up and started playing with his toy car. Maybe he didn’t say anything, Tracy thought.
Suddenly, she heard the door open. Rita was back, and so was the adrenaline rush within Tracy’s
body.

She looked at Jack, and could tell that he was feeling the anxiety too. Tracy knew the drill now – Rita
would enter Tracy’s room to ask how her day was, serve some food, the three of them would eat
silently. Then, Tracy and Jack would get up and go back to their room.

“How was your day?” Rita asked Tracy. “Fine,” Tracy replied without looking up from her food. Jack
didn’t eat anything, he just kept trying to steal Tracy’s gaze. When Tracy finally looked at him, she
instantly knew that he was scared of something.

She quickly ate her food and got up and used her eyes to signal Jack to get up too. He followed her,
and when the two finally entered their room Tracy shut the door. Jack started crying.

“What happened?” Tracy asked, panicking a little. “Tell me Jack, what happened? Did Rita do
something to you?”

“No,” Jack managed to blurt between his sobs, “but she will do something to you tomorrow
morning.”

Tracy felt a lot of emotions at once and didn’t feel them at all at the same time. She knew that this
day was going to come, because her sister did wish her whole family to die. But Tracy wanted to live.
She wanted her brother to live. She didn’t want to die so young.

“Why are you saying this?” Tracy asked. She was on the verge of crying too.

“When you were at school, I heard her on the phone. She said…” Jack said, wiping the tears off of his
face, “she said you were next.”

Tracy could feel the world revolving around her. She asked, “what did she say?”

Jack replied, “she said that she’ll give you the pills tonight like she always does. But before you wake
up tomorrow morning, she’ll kill you in your…. in your sleep…” he started crying again.

Tracy didn’t know what to do, and the world seemed to be revolving a little faster. She sat down,
holding her head in her hands. She whispered, “I don’t want to die.”

Jack came running to her and hugged her tight. The two cried in each other’s embrace, and Tracy
wondered if it was the last that she was hugging her brother. She asked Jack, “why didn’t you tell
this to me before?”

“I was scared. I didn’t know if it was true…. I don’t know…I am sorry…” Jack started crying again. Just
as Tracy was about to break down, Jack got up and wiped his tears off for the third time. He said,
“Tracy, I have an idea. Do you trust me?”
Tracy looked at her 8-year-old brother. She knew that she couldn’t trust his wits, but she also knew
that she might not see tomorrow’s Sun. Hence, she nodded.

A few hours later, Rita knocked on Tracy’s door. She came in, and saw that Tracy was already
dressed in her nightclothes. Rita sat at the edge of her bed and said, “Here Tracy, take your pills.”

Tracy took the pill from Rita’s hand. Rita stood up and started walking around the room. She said,
“why is your bed such a mess?”

“I didn’t do it. Jack did.”

“Oh,” Rita replied. “Goodnight, don’t stay up late.”

“Goodnight”, Tracy replied.

As Rita walked out of the room, Tracy looked back at Jack. He was sitting on the bed, and smiled at
her. She threw the pill outside the window, turned back, and smiled back at her brother.

The next morning, Tracy woke up without a feeling of anxiety for the first time in months. So, this is
what it feels like when we’re safe, Tracy thought. She got up and noticed that Jack wasn’t in her
room.

She got dressed for school and went into the kitchen to make herself breakfast. She had a
smile for no reason, but she wore it like jewelry. She called her brother’s name, but got no
response.

She was a little worried about her brother’s absence, but the joy of safety overtook that feeling.

As Tracy locked the house to go to school, she saw her brother. He was dressed for school and
waiting for her outside all this while. Tracy laughed, ran towards him, and gave him a hug. The two
kids walked to school holding hands.

Back at home, Rita lay in her bed still as death. Her sister entered her room last night with a pillow in
her hand. She used the same pillow to snatch the last breath away from Rita, and by the time Rita
realized what was happening – it was too late.

She could hear Tracy shout, “this is for mom, this is for dad!!!”. However, Rita’s muffled cries died
before they broke through the pillow’s barrier. It took a while for Rita to die of suffocation, but she
did.

When Tracy noticed that Rita wasn’t moving any more, she slowly lifted the pillow. She noticed how
lifeless her body was. I finally see the resemblance that everyone talked about, Tracy thought. We do
look similar. But I am smarter, because I am alive and you’re not.
As Tracy walked out of Rita’s room that night, she locked her dead sister in. She locked the
schizophrenia medicines that Rita bought for her younger sister ever since her parents died too.

Ever since her parents, her and Jack died.

All the therapists that Rita took Tracy to reported the same thing – your sister dissociates as soon as
she meets us. It is as if she doesn’t want to acknowledge the fact that she is getting treated for
hallucinating that her dead brother is still by her side, alive and well.

Rita understood the grief, but her understanding now lay dead in a locked room. Meanwhile, Tracy
received some horrified looks as she giggled while walking to school with her brother, who seemed
to shine a little brighter ever since she stopped taking the medicines. Her world shined a little
brighter for the first time in months.