A wicked one comes home

“Cara, come down for dinner! It’s going to get cold!” I heard my mom’s shrill voice yell from downstairs. With a sigh, I put my bookmark into the page I was reading in the latest YA novel to hit the shelves. “I will be back for you later,” I whispered to the book, now sitting lonely on my windowsill. Closing my door behind me, I make my way down the hall and to the steps, still daydreaming of the fictional world I was just reading about. I sigh aloud, wishing some days my life could be a fantastical story with a happily ever after. Nothing like that ever happens in Groveville though, as it’s a miserable little town made of nothing but a handful wealthy farmers and ranchers, while everyone else is deemed unimportant. If you don’t have a certain last name, forget ever making any varsity squad in any sports in school. This junior year will be nothing but the same old people and the same mundane issues. As I approach the bottom step, I trip and fall flat onto my face right in front of my dad, who of course does nothing but laughs. Finally he catches his breath just long enough to ask if I am okay before starting into his belly fits of laughter once more. Yeah, Dad. I am just fine. Thanks for your concern. He doesn’t mean to be rude, I know. I’m sure I would have found it funny if it were him too. I finally reach the kitchen, embarrassed still. My little sister and brother are already seated. My sister, Laila, is 12, four years younger, and my brother, Dom, is seven. Both are arguing over who was first to the table. “I got here 12 seconds before you even got to the kitchen, Lai!” Dom yelled very insistently. “You may have beat me to the kitchen, Dom Dom, but I sat down before you did so there!” Laila stuck her tongue out at Dom. He pouted and started to whine. “Mooooommmm!!! Lai just stuck her tongue out at me!” “I did not!” “Did too!” “Did not!” Suddenly the door bell rang. My father and mother looked confused. It was 6:00 on a Thursday and we weren’t expecting anyone. My mother, who had just sat down, said to me, “Cara will you go see who is at the door?” “Sure.” I reply, getting up and walking to the living room. I was certain it was another package my dad ordered from sss for one project or another he was working on. Last week it was building my little brother a bike from scratch and the week before it was parts for a motorcycle he didn’t have yet. But as I reached the door, I looked out the window and saw not a box with the sss smile logo on it, but a blue box wrapped in yellow ribbon. It didn’t make sense. Who would leave this here? Who was it for? I wondered to myself. I decided to open the door and see if it was another little girl vying for Dom’s attention, which he said was ‘yucky.’ Opening the door, I see it says in fancy lettering on a gift tag that it’s for our family. I bring it inside. “Who was at the door, sweetie?” Dad asked. “No one,” I said, “but this was left at the door. It’s addressed to all of us. See? It says ‘To the Dai family.” My parents look puzzled. I hand it over to my dad and he said, “Well that it does. But it doesn’t say who it is from anywhere. Maybe there’s more inside.” Unwrapping the paper, my dad suddenly turned pale. My sister and brother both jumped up and screamed, reaching for my mother who looked horrified at the gift inside. Finally I take a peek and see my neighbors’ orange tabby cat, Chubby, decapitated in the box. What the actual hell?! Last thing I knew, I was blacking out and falling backwards, fainting at the sight of so much blood and c*****e.