I remember when we did it. Cooper and I drowned mom. Bruce and James stabbed dad. We tried to make it equal. “Well since James and I hate dad... Francis more, I think Cooper and Gian should kill mom... Jennifer.” It made sense. Cooper, Bruce, James and I walked outside of the room we were plotting in and walked across the family room quiet and shy. That's how we always were. With Francis and Jennifer raising us the way they did, you would expect it. They adopted Bruce, James, Cooper, and I, Gian, and barely made an attempt to be parents. It wasn't human. The way they treated us. We were raised believing the world looked at us as dogs. Dogs. Jennifer fed us like dogs. Jennifer talked to us like dogs. “You're done now, boy!” She used to say when we did something wrong. Francis beat us. Like dogs.




We were all raised this way for as long as we can remember.



The four of us sat in front of the television screen so Francis and Jennifer couldn't see their stupid reruns of Full House and Gypsy wedding shows. Francis yelled at us to move. We didn't. He got up quickly for being as disgusting and fat as he was. “You're done now, boys!” Jennifer said in the background. He lifted his hand to smack all of us one by one, but before he could, James jumped at his gut, and tackled him to the floor. He punched Francis' face. A lot. James got up and told Bruce it was okay to end him then. Jennifer was panicking. “Gian, shut her up.” Bruce said walking over to Francis with a hot knife ready. I looked to Cooper and I said, “Get a bath ready.” I was strong enough to pick her up and smack her a good few times to get her to shut up. I tied her hands, and taped her mouth, and watched Francis slowly die off after being stabbed, and branded. I felt nothing.


After a few minutes, I heard the bath water stop running. I said to Jennifer,”Time to go!”. I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her across the hall to the bathroom. Cooper stood there excitedly. He'd been waiting long for this. I pushed her towards Cooper. “Can I take the tape off?” Cooper asked. “You can do whatever makes you happy.” I replied. He smiled, and violently ripped the tape off of her face. He pushed her into the bath tub and only let her face out of the water so she could say something. “Do I even get any last words?” She asked. I was standing over Cooper's shoulder, and he looked up to me. I stood thinking for a second. And I leaned closer to her and quietly said, “You're done now, girl.”


We all decided that we would strategically bury the bodies six feet under our dead dog's grave in the back yard. That way, if the police showed with dogs sniffing, they would only smell the dead dog body. So we dug for a long time. We reached our dead dogs little coffin. And we dug more. We just through the bodies into the twelve foot deep hole in the ground, and filled it back up with dirt. We didn't show any regret.


When we finished digging, the four of us all stood and looked at the patch of dirt that the hole was in. we stared at it. Frankly, none of us knew what to do next. But suddenly, Bruce said calmly, and casually, “So, uh... What's for dinner?”