nowhere to go after a tragedy?

When my mom told me she didn't approve of my lifestyle,

I just bailed.

I had to get far away from everything.

My life, my Grandpa, my Mom,

even my younger brother, Ronnie.

He was the hardest to leave behind.

Before my mom's funeral, I hadn't seen my brother,

Ronnie, in years.

So, when he showed up at the factory where I worked

wearing an eye patch, I was confused.

What the hell had happened since I left?

(screaming)

(intense music)

I'd missed my brother

and he obviously had issues.

He asked if we could go somewhere private.

I took him to the break room.

My graveyard shift wasn't over

and I didn't have much time to talk.

"Hey Ronnie, look, I'm sorry for the way I was

"at Mom's funeral.

"I shouldn't have told you to just let it go.

"I know it was a hard day for you", I said.

"A hard day for me?

"She was your mom too!

"Are you even sad now that she's dead?" he asked.

I paused and looked down at my feet before answering.

"Look man, you know Mom and I were never that close.

"She and I never got along since Dad left.

"You were her favorite, she loved you

"and only tolerated me."

Ronnie looked tired, worn.

There was still some blood oozing from

underneath his eye patch.

I wanted to be truthful with my brother,

to tell him about the community that had changed my life,

maybe recruit him.

If it was inside me, it could be inside him too.

"I found something that has opened my eyes to the world.

"It showed me what the world could be.

"The world is sick and dark, but my new family,

"my new family has made my life a little sunnier."

As I spoke, Ronnie shifted in his seat with the knees.

The silence is broken when the door creaked open.

Ronnie told me to stop rambling about my new family

and this sick world we live in.

All he wanted to know was if I had it,

the necklace my Mom got me for my 13th birthday.

I unbuttoned my work shirt and showed him.

It was a gold chain with Mom and Dad's wedding bands on it.

This made Ronnie visibly upset.

"You got her love.

"I just got heirlooms."

But, this angered Ronnie.

That's when Ronnie noticed the tattoo on my hand.

It was a symbol for my new family.

A smiley face with a line through it.

Ronnie was in complete shock.

There was a fear in his eyes as he studied the tattoo.

"Do you want to know when I last saw Mom, Ronnie?" I said.

He replied with, "We can't think about Mom.

"I only wanted to know if you had

"the necklace Mom left you."

My new family trickled into the room,

masks covering their faces and gathered around Ronnie.

They knew that Ronnie's blood had to be shed

since he wasn't one of us.

I spoke as my new family closed in on him.

"Hmm, the last time I saw Mom,

(intense music)

"I had to show her how sunny my life was without her.

"Let me show you too,"

I said, drawing the long knife I had used to kill my mother.

And soon, my brother.

But then, I noticed a face in the window.

It was facing in from the darkness.

It had no facial features except for a

giant toothy smile that stretched across

the leather looking skin on its face.

The faceless man was wearing a suit.

It looked properly terrifying.

Everyone in the room froze at the ghastly figure.

Suddenly, Ronnie lifted up his shirt to reveal his chest

or what was left of it.

His chest had been cut up and carved to hell and back.

It was fresh enough to see bloody tissue,

but old enough to where it wasn't bleeding out.

First, I thought it was senseless cuts,

but then I saw it was actually a message.

"If you yourself can not release,

"then it will come to take a piece."

Before I could ask what the hell was going on,

the faceless creature was in the room

like it teleported.

(screaming)

Latching its dark, gloved claws to the shoulder

of one of my masked brothers in the room,

his mask flew off as the monster shoveled

his face first to the ground and proceeded

to bend him backwards at the spine.

The guy howled in pain as his bones snapped

with his tear-filled eyes peered into mine

as his body shook with tremors.

Blood oozed out of his mouth and poured down his

horrified, upside-down face,

covering his mouth and nose.

The rest of my masked family in the room fled

and I could still hear the muffled screams

under their masks.

The creature just stood in the corner of the room,

silently smiling as the haunting ticking sound began again.

My brother smiled and laughed at the blood

and chaos around us, then said,

"Looks like he's come to take a piece."

I decided that he had to die.

He was no longer the brother I knew.

He was a lunatic.

I raised my knife just above Ronnie's head,

but before the blade made contact,

the creature's long arms snatched my brother away

from the knife's reach.

I stumbled backwards, tripping over the guy

that had been folded over.

Judging by the noises he was making,

I think he was choking on his own blood.

Then, faster than the blink of an eye,

this Looksie stood in front of me and swiped at my neck.

It caught my necklace with its sinewy fingers

and then yanked me close to its leathery face.

It slowly smiled, revealing the horrors of its teeth.

This was the Looksie.

Then, Ronnie appeared behind it, smiled sinisterly,

and said, "I had to let go of Mom,

"but Justin, you're holding on."

The monster started to pull on the necklace

and lifted me up off the ground.

I was choking and hoping that the necklace would

snap from my weight but it just dug deeper into my neck.

I felt blood rush away from my head.

My skin was burning with tension.

I wanted to plead for mercy, but I couldn't speak

from the pressure of the necklace squeezing my throat.

I felt blood trickle down my neck

as the necklace broke skin.

I could feel the veins in my forehead exploding.

It was all too unbearable but then,

I felt relief.

All of the pressure suddenly just washed away.

I exhaled but for the life of me, I couldn't inhale.

In fact, I just fell to the ground.

It was the weirdest thing.

I saw my body and the bloody stump that was my neck.

Then I saw Ronnie look right into my eyes.

I had been decapitated.

This was it, the end for me.

I once heard an old wive's tale that

a severed head can live on for about six seconds

after separation.

One,

two,

three,

four...

(booming)