#psychopat

I looked at all the cheerful memorabilia that brightened my room. Each object was special in its own way, representing a memory made with my perfect family. Photo albums, trophies, and similar objects filled the room, with sunshine filtering on them all. On one shelf was a stack of pictures I convinced people to draw of us. It wasn’t too hard to convince them, really. And why should it be? My family was perfect.

_______________

“Good morning, LoLo!”

Silence. In the past, Logan could be a bit… cold, sometimes. I thought I had fixed that, but maybe I was wrong. Most likely, I just needed to try again.

“I said, good morning, LoLo.” I dropped my voice a level and stopped smiling to get my point across faster. It was a good way to get people to listen to me. They always listened now.

“Oh-- uh, good morning, Patton.”

I smiled again. “Better.” I walked to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. People always said cooking was hard, but I didn't see why. You just put ingredients into a bowl and cooked them. I hadn't gotten any complaints, at least, not in a while.

I mixed the instant pancake mix and water in a light blue bowl, then poured in a bunch of sugar because you can never have too much sugar. What else would be good in pancakes? I added fun size candy bars, marshmallows, m&ms, pieces of raw pop tarts, crushed Oreos, lucky charms marshmallows, maple syrup, and chocolate syrup. That seemed good. While cooking the pancakes, a very sweet smell came over the kitchen.

Some might call it sickeningly sweet, but I thought it was perfect.

And so would my family.

They had to.

_______________

All of us sat at the breakfast table, eating.Well, everyone ate except Virgil. I forgot that he couldn't eat, but could only drink liquids with a straw. He could get food some other time, anyhow. Virgil picked at his pancakes with a fork, watching the sugary goop get stuck to the utensil.

Logan, Roman, and I ate in silence, no one saying a word about the food or anything else. Tension was pressed deeply into the air, like something could go wrong at any second. But that was ridiculous. I fixed everyone and everything. Nothing would ever go wrong again.

And then something did.

Roman projectile vomited all over the table. A storm of anger wrapped around my chest, but I wasn't going to express it just yet. Better to wait. I forced my face to remain stony and impassive.

It looked like I'd have more work to do to fix everyone.

Roman’s eyes widened and his mouth stretched into a shocked O. His entire body stiffened for a moment, but then he turned and ran, knocking his chair over on the way out.

I took a couple of deep breaths. Mindless rage wouldn't get me anywhere-- I had to be more disciplined than that. Soon, my usual cheery demeanor returned, even though it didn't match how I felt inside.

“Come on, LoLo! We have a lot of work to do!” I said with false brightness, getting up from the table. Slowly, hesitantly, he followed suit. On my way out, I saw Virgil glance over.

The familiarity of his face calmed me.

The messy bangs.

The black eyeshadow smeared under his eyes.

His mouth sewn shut like an obedient doll’s.

_______________

It had been almost a week since the breakfast incident. I preferred to wait before punishing misbehavior. That way, the punished wouldn't see it coming. I finished sharpening my knife and looked towards Logan.

“Where did you last see him, LoLo?”

Logan pointed to a hallway to the left, staring at the ground. I knew he was telling the truth. He knew what would happen to him if he wasn't. I put down the sharpening tool and picked up my leathery whip. I had made it myself from an old belt, and it worked quite well.

“Okay! Come on, I need an extra set of hands for this!” Knife in one hand, whip in the other, I started down the hall. Logan followed unenthusiastically behind.

I was going to make Roman bleed until I was sure he regretted his disobedience.

It seemed a little harsh, sure, but it was what had to be done to fix my family, to make us perfect.

And the thought made me euphoric.

_______________

Humming, I walked to check my mail. The punishment the day before had gone well. I ended up using more tools than expected, but no matter. People could survive losing a surprisingly large amount of blood. My family would be perfect now.

Today was a good mail day. We got lots of drawings.

Drawings of Virgil, with his stitched-up mouth. He’d never frown or say anything snarky now.

Drawings of Roman, posing flamboyantly. He had been so gloomy for a while. No matter. He couldn't act gloomy anymore.

Drawings of Logan, the doodles carved into his chest oozing the same color as his favorite jam. I knew for a fact he wouldn't act like such an emotionless robot again.

And drawings of me, the one responsible for all of it. The drawings wouldn't stop coming anytime soon, I was sure of it.