A woman in her forties was helping her daughters get ready for school. She was helping them dress, preparing lunch for them, helping the youngest one finish up her homework. In all, she was very busy.
They lived in a small house on the outskirts of one of the poorest places in the whole town, the slums, but luckily for them, their house wasn't that big nor was it that small — it was just right. It was a two-room house with everything they had and owned all cramped together, leaving it hard to move around.
The woman had prepared breakfast for her daughters, and now they were eating, but there was a third plate, and the breakfast they were eating was brown porridge.
"Has anyone seen your brother?" the woman asked as she was stacking what looked like sandwiches in a container.
"Last time I tried to wake him up, he said to me to give him five more minutes, so as the good sister that I am, I gave him a few more," the youngest daughter replied as she was eating.
"Penny?" her older sister called her.
"What?!" she responded.
"He's going to be late!" her older sister said.
"Uh-oh," Penny realized.
The woman chuckled softly. "Don't worry, I'll go and wake him up. Your brother is fast, he'll be done in a jiffy," the woman said as she was closing the container.
"No need, I'm already up." A boy in his teens came, and he was already dressed up and ready.
The woman was relieved. One thing she hated more than anything was seeing her children be late for school because she thought that they were missing something important. So, the boy went around and kissed his whole family good morning.
"Good morning to you too, honey. There's your breakfast, now eat up quickly. You know you're not supposed to be late for school," the woman said as she brushed his head.
"Ooh, brown porridge, my favourite," he sounded so excited.
The truth was, he wasn't even that excited. Matter of fact, he really hated porridge, but because he didn't want his sisters to feel bad about eating it, he had to pretend and act like he loved it.
When he sat down, he took his spoon and ate it like a maniac, making both his sisters and his mother laugh in the morning.
The woman was happy to see her children laughing, especially since she knew that the place that they lived in wasn't a perfect place for them, especially for her children. But because of the hope she had for her children's dreams and future, she couldn't help herself but get all teary.
She saw her family laughing and having a good time, and now all of them had finished eating, and it was time for them to leave for school and for her to leave for work. The boy was just finishing up washing the dishes; they were waiting for him.
"Alright, I'm done." He took his bag and headed out the door.
The woman was the one who was locking the door. In the early morning, she looked well, but the second she stepped out, she suddenly got all dizzy. She tried to lock but she couldn't even find the keyhole. Her children were clueless — they had already left her.
Now they were all waiting by the bus stop, and it's been quite some time now, and their mother hadn't come to join them, which was weird, because by now she should have joined them, waited with them, and made sure that they got inside the bus.
But she was nowhere to be found.
"Big brother, where's Mom?" Penny was now getting worried.
"I don't know, Penny, but I'm sure she'll join us soon. I'm sure she left something in the house and she went to get it," the boy assured her.
Penny had believed what her big brother had said, though she was still having her doubts. She trusted her brother more than anything in the world, so she took his word.
Time was really waiting for no one. Their mother hadn't joined them yet, and truthfully, it wasn't long before the bus would come, so the boy got worried too.
"You guys wait here, I'm going to check up on Mom, okay?" He begged them to stay put.
The older sister saw in her brother's eyes that there was a possibility that something might have happened to their mother. After all, they were the only ones who knew the truth about her condition. She had worked hard her whole life, and now it was taking a toll on her, and if something bad were to happen to her, they might be in trouble, 'cause they didn't have medical aid, let alone money to take her to the hospital.
She was very much aware of what she was supposed to do. She had to find a way to distract her younger sister, 'cause there was a high possibility that their brother might come bearing bad news.
So, he went on to check up on his mother, only for him to find her lying on the porch unconscious, with the key still in her hand and the door opened.
"Mom!" He rushed as soon as he saw her.
That reaction of his alone had already alerted his sisters — not that it was his aim — but the way he reacted, he realized it sooner after he saw his sisters come running to them.
"What happened?" the older sister asked.
"I don't know! Help me get her inside!" the boy said.
They did exactly that, and Penny picked up the key and the container. She went inside and closed the door behind her.
Their mother was now laid to rest in her bed; she was really burning up. She knew that it was bad, and before she even realized it, it had gotten worse.
"Mom, you really need to rest. You can forget about going to the markets; your health is way more important," the boy said.
The name of the boy was Callum Knight, and he was a fifteen-year-old boy with dark black hair, brown eyes, and he looked handsome for someone who lived in a poor part of the city and its slums.
"I can't, honey. Most people have ordered, and they have paid to get their food, and you know I can't refund them. We need that money," she tried to get up.
She was in pain; her children knew and saw that.
"No, Mom, don't push yourself any longer. Just rest, okay?" The older sister, who went by the name of Tracy, pushed her down gently.
"But the food," the woman cried weakly.
"Today you rest, and I'll be the one who takes care of delivering food. Tracy and Penny will be the ones that take good care of you," Callum said.
"But you guys need to go to school. I'll be fine, I promise," she tried to pretend that she was not in that bad state, just to make her children think this was nothing.
Obviously, the children saw through her.
"Yeah, nice try. Just know that today I'm going to be handling today's food delivery. You focus on resting and getting better, and these two will stay with you, just to make sure you are taken care of." Callum didn't have any intentions to back down.
Before their mother could say anything else, Callum had put down his bag and put on his mother's apron. He was ready.
"Okay, give me the names of everyone who I should deliver all this to." He had taken a page from one of his books, and he was ready to take notes.
Their mother saw that she was indeed defeated. If one thing was for sure about her children, it was that they had one heck of a stubborn mind, which they did get from her.
Callum wrote everything that his mother told him to do. The list was something he thought he was going to be quick and done with in just an hour or two, but after the names he'd taken down, he saw that he was going to spend almost half a day there.
"Damn, this is a long list of people," he looked at his mother.
Both Tracy and Penny were busy in the other room trying to prepare warm soup for their mother to eat. They may have been a family of four, but their mother was everything to them — a mother, a father, a teacher, a nurse, and many more — she had even taught them her own secrets.
The two came back. Tracy was the one who was carrying a bowl of soup, and Penny, since she was young, was the one who was allowed to carry medicine.
"Here, Mom, try and eat up. Then rest; we'll take care of everything," Tracy said.
Penny didn't like seeing her mother in that state. She was so emotional and her tears were close. She put the medication down, and she laid next to her mother and held her tight.
"I'll try to be back as quickly as I can. Just make sure Mom gets enough rest, and you two don't forget to take care of yourselves too," Callum picked up the container.
Callum was really smart. He saw that this was going to make him slow, so he got creative. He took two strands of belts and tied them on the container and made it look like a bag, then he left.
Callum got to the markets. He wasn't lost since he used to come with his mother here a lot when he was still young, so it was impossible for him to get lost. He looked around and almost got distracted.
"Man, it's been so long since I've been here," he stopped to admire.
Then he warned himself and continued with his mission here. He knew every single person who had ordered his mom's food, and he delivered it.
Nightfall had come, and after a very long day, Callum finally returned home, and he was so tired. He got there and saw that the lights were actually off.
"Huh, they must be properly asleep by now," he said to himself.
He got to the porch and saw that the door wasn't locked, but he didn't think about it that much; he probably thought that they were waiting for him.
He got inside, felt the floor was kinda wet. What Callum didn't realize was that whatever had made the floor wet did actually go under the door and came out on the porch, but he was just too tired to care.
Callum walked slowly, as if he was sneaking in. He did that 'cause he was trying to avoid waking them up — it must have been a very long day, he assumed. So, he put down the container, which was now empty, and he went to check up on his family.
His mother's room was so dark, so he couldn't make out anything.
"Hey guys, I'm back," he whispered before he joined them.
When he got to bed, Callum felt his mother's bed wet and warm.
"What is the meaning of this?" he asked himself.
Curiosity got the better of him, so Callum got up and went to check. He turned on the lights just for him to see one hell of a gruesome image.
His mother and two sisters were lying on the bed with blood coming out of their slit throats. The white aprons that Penny and Tracy had worn earlier in the morning were now all covered in red.
"Mom? Tracy? Penny?" Callum's eyes widened; he couldn't believe what he was seeing before him.
He rushed to check up on them and saw that, out of all of them, Penny was the one who was still alive, though her pulse was weak.
"Penny! Penny, what happened?!" Callum tried to wake her up.
Penny couldn't talk — probably though she did try to talk — but her blood choked her.