The Sweetest Sixteen

She walked into the eerily quiet and dark room. There was one single box sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. Elisha had no idea what was in it. Frankly, she really didn’t want to know. It could be something horrifying, like a huge spider. Then again, it could be two tickets to Harry Potter world. Or maybe it would be just plain cash. There was an endless amount of possibilities.

Sadly, a spider was the least of Elisha’s worries.

Connor entered the room with a weary defeated look, yet he was still alert and stressed. 

Elisha stood to attention as soon as he entered.

“Don’t open the box, Elisha. Please.” 

“Is it your box, Connor? Did you put it there?” she demanded. “What’s in it?”

“Yes. It’s my box. No. I didn’t put it there.”

With that, Elisha picked the box up from the middle of the room and opened it in her lap. 

In the box, laid a piece of paper. It was thick and had a texture that made it feel like it was official. Grabbing the slick piece of paper, she turned it around to see the death certificate that Connor had so desperately tried to keep hidden from her.

The name was sprawled messily onto the name line, but she could still read it. The familiar name, Justin Carter, rang bells through her mind.

Her father was dead.

As she looked at the date, everything became too clear. 

Every time her father had texted her, it had been Connor. Every word he had said to her, every single moment since she had turned sixteen had been fake.

Elisha’s own brother had killed her father.

“Look. It’s not what you think.” Connor tried to explain.

But she wouldn’t have it. Connor had lied to her. 

Elisha’s tears rolled down her cheeks as she spoke. “That night, the night before I left for the academy, the night of my sixteenth birthday. You killed him. You came home with blood seeping through your jacket. And yo-you said that you went hunting with him. I didn’t know you killed him because he already told me he wouldn’t be there to send me off. You lied to me, Connor. You killed him.”

Sobbing, she left the room, leaving the eternal ghost of silence haunting the dark room and Connor on his knees.

Softly, he whispered, “But he was going to kill you.”