Revenge is a Dish, Best Served Pissed Off

I grabbed Kaner by the arm and dragged him out into the kitchen. I spun him around until he was facing me, taking great care to pin him up between the wall and myself; no escape.
“Alright Kaner, listen up. That’s my baby sister in there that you’re making ga-ga eyes at; and I’m not ok with that. I’m not gonna punch you in the face because I know that you’re harmless, and she’s shoot you down anyway… but from now on, keep your thoughts to yourself.”
He nodded eagerly, trying to avoid any further confrontation; but I let it go at that. I turned away from him and headed back into the living room.



“So, you guys wanna do something today? Go out somewhere?” I asked over breakfast, as Tazer, Ellie and I sat around the table.

“Sure, what do you have in mind?” Tazer asked between mouthfuls. I shrugged my shoulders in response.

“We could go over to Kaner and Sharpies’ use their pool.” Tazer suggested as Ellie nodded and grinned; taking part in the conversation for the first time.

“Alright, sounds like a plan then!” I said as I grabbed my empty bowl of cereal off the table and dropped it off in the sink. Tazer and Ellie followed suit, and soon we were cruising through the streets of Chicago on our way to visit Kaner and Sharpie.


Probably the worst two people to ever live together, ever; Sharpie and Kaner always had something going on at their place.
Like a hundred times before, I boosted Tazer up over the backyard fence; not bothering to tell the boys we were here. I tossed Ellie over next, into Tazers’ waiting arms.

Once we were all in the enclosed area, we dashed off towards the pool; stopping only long enough to kick off our clothes and dive in.
We swam around for a bit, while Ellie and I made fun of Tazers baithing suit: “It’s not funny! It’s in style.” He shot back as we laughed at the orange Hawaiian print.

“It doesn’t even have the Hawaiian flowers on it… it’s just leaves. You look like a tree!” Ellie shouted before Tazer sent a ‘tidal-wave’ of water in her direction. I glanced around the perimiter of the pool, smiling once I saw what I was looking for.
The pool-made volley ball net was sitting off to the side; just waiting to be used. I pulled myself out of the pool, onto the walk way and headed over; burning my feet on the hot concrete as I dashed towards the net.
I lifted it up with one hand and tossed it on top of Tazer. Ellie laughed and dove out of the way before it knocked Tazer under. She climbed out of the pool and ran off to get the volleyball.

I jumped back in the pool next to Tazer, proceeding the drown him under the water, while I waited for Ellie to come back. It was the shock of seeing her in her swimsuit that allowed Tazer to escape my grasp.
He shot up through the surface of the water, beginning to ramble a string of profanities at me, before the look on my face caused him to fall silent.
He spun around in time to see Ellie coming down the stairs into the shallow end of the underwater pool. He turned back to me, a look of horror on his face.

Compared to the rest of her body, the horrible angry scar on her face was nothing. Littered across her pale flesh was a gruesome collage of burns, scars and yellowing bruises. I shook my head slowly, trying to remove the image from my mind as she swam across the pool towards us.
I glanced over at Tazer; his face was twisted in a mix of horror, anger, disgust and sadness - mirroring my own. I looked back to Ellie who was tossing the ball up in the air and catching it again, oblivious to our reactions.



“Man, we need to talk about your sister…” Tazer had crept down the hall to my room that night, after Ellie had gone to sleep. “I mean, is she doing that to herself or… or what?”

“I don’t know… I don’t think so. I mean, she didn’t do that to her face; maybe it was the same guy.”

“Yah but, it’s so… so much! I know your parents were having problems with her but… how long has that been going on for?” He looked at me expectantly, but all I could do was shake my head and look away.

I was the worse brother ever. Seeing Ellie like that broke my heart. I had no idea what I was suppose to do to make it better; but I was determined that I would. Someone had been hurting my sister for a long, long time… and now it was their turn to hurt. “Tazer, I’m gonna go to Wisconsin. I need to find this guy.”

I was surprised to see him nod in agreement; normally Tazer was the one who always talked me down from things. “I’m going with you.” He said, catching me off guard again.

“No, you can’t… coach will kill me if anything happens to you… besides, I need to do this alone.”

“You’re not going without me; you’re practically family and that makes her family. I’m not just going to sit here and wonder what’s going on, I’m going.”
I didn’t have the concentration needed to argue with him; already my mind was forming a plan. A plan that would allow me to find this guy without anyone else’s knowledge; a plan that involved a lot of pain for the bastard that did this to my sister.