It was about 5 years ago when I first started to get into trouble, at first it was little things like pushing kids over in the playground or teasing some of our older neighbors. There was one in particular, a German lady she had no teeth and kind of sounded like Taz from the looney tunes when she spoke. She always wore a white dressing gown, and her hair was always standing up, some of the kids thought she was a witch. I made up all kinds of stories about her, and she got bullied over it, every Halloween her house would get destroyed with toilet paper and eggs. The truth is my parents knew her well and she was actually really nice.
Besides that, nothing major happened, until one day I was playing with one of my neighbors cats. The cat was very friendly and at least once a day we would find her wandering around our house. My dad never understood why she kept coming into the house, I suppose it didn’t help that I kept feeding her. Well, anyway I was playing outside one day when she came over and started rubbing up against my leg, but I was losing in football at the time and I was in no mood for her, so I shooed her away, but she kept coming back. So, I thought I’d put her in the wheelie bin outside our house until I was done. The problem was it was garbage day, when I realized my mistake, I ran over and tried to stop them, but as I approached, I heard a loud screech, then silence, it was too late. You have to understand I was only 10 at the time and didn’t mean any harm.
Everyone loved that cat, so the whole neighborhood hated me. They thought I had done it on purpose, because of all the trouble I got into. My parents were so embarrassed, they grounded me for a full month. After that I was known as cat killer, and constantly got teased over it. For a while I really did try to stay out of trouble, but people started to blame me for every little thing that went wrong, and treated me like a monster, so after a while I became one.
To be fair to my parents they tried everything to help me and were really patient, but I was too stubborn and wouldn’t listen to them. When they tried sending me to a therapist, I told her, I was acting out because they on drugs all the time, just to fuck with them for sending me there. Child protective services were called and everything. It was a month before I told them I was lying. They went through a really tough time over it. Looking back, I do feel really bad, and I wish I could change things, but I can’t. The worst thing about that was It was probably not the worst thing I did to them.
By the time I turned 13 the cops were on first name bases with my parents they called so often, luckily for me, it was only because of small petty crimes, so they couldn’t send me to juvie, not that they didn’t try. My home life was unbearable by then, my parents were fighting all the time, and they weren’t shy about blaming me for all their problems, which is fair I suppose. I was sure they were going to split up because of me, I wish I could say I cared, but all I was worried about was staying with my mom since she was a push over and I knew I could get around her. I know I was a little shit and probably deserved everything I got and now I have no choice but to live with the consequences of my actions.
A few months ago, my parents suddenly stopped fighting for no particular reason, I should have been happy for them. I am not sure why, but it really bothered me, so I fucked with them every chance I got, but I couldn’t get to them anymore. After that, things started to get even weirder, they were always whispering to each other. Every time I’d look over at them, they would burst out laughing. Even when there was only one of them around, they were always smirking at me. Anytime I tried to ask them about it they would walk out of the room in stitches. Then they began going out late at night, that is when I began to worry, so one night I decided to follow them.
They didn’t go far they just walked around the block and cut across through the lane way that led to the back of Mrs. Moores (the cat lady’s) house. They watched her through the window for about 30 minutes, then went home. I thought it was very strange, but I never said anything to them, instead I followed again the following night, but it was always the same thing. So, after a while I got bored and forgot about it, until I got up one night to get a glass of water and saw my dad putting my baseball bat and a pouch of cat food into a black bag as he walked out the door with my mom. When they were gone, I went to the kitchen where I found a box of rat poison on the countertop.
I was so confused I couldn’t sleep over it, I kept trying to figure out what they were up to, but nothing made since to me. It was only after I heard them coming home that I finally fell asleep. The next morning, I woke up to a police officer standing over me, he dragged me out of bed, and I got arrested. Someone attacked Mrs. Moore with a baseball bat the night before, both her legs were broken and all of her cats were poisoned. They found a baseball bat and rat poison under my bed. I tried to tell them it wasn’t me, it was my parents, but they wouldn’t believe me. I was put straight into juvie; I knew it was my parents that set me up, and for a while I hated them. It was really tough in there, but I had a lot of time to think. I soon I began to realize it was my own fault I was put in there, and started to regret everything horrible thing I did.
I was in there for three months before I got an appeal. Luckily, I won on a technicality, by then I fully saw the error of my ways and didn’t blame my parents for anything that had happened. When I got home, I told them how sorry I was, and begged for their forgiveness. Since then, I have been doing everything I could think of to try make it up to them; I make them breakfast every morning and do most of their chores for them. There was not one day that went by when I didn’t tell them how sorry I was, but I don’t think they believed me: because after a while they started whispering to each other again.
I was terrified they would do the same thing to me, so, I tried everything to get through to them, one-night things got so bad for me that I broke down in tears and poured my heart out to them, but they just laughed at me. After that they started going out at night again, this time they took the car so I couldn’t follow them. A few days ago, I found a bag of cash in the back of their closet. I didn’t know what it was for, until I saw my mom putting a photo of me into it that night before they left. Since then, a big guy in a white van keeps driving past my house, every now and then he stops up and stares at my window. I am so scared, I want to go to the cops, but I know they won’t believe me, who would, after everything I put them through.