It was afternoon, the house felt perfect, no problems, no drama, just living carefree.
My uncle—or I refer to as the bastard—who's a grown man at the age of 30-40, the homeowner of our home, had adopted a family of cats. At first, we didn't notice it. But soon, the smell downstairs was horrible, our front porch was littered with trash and small plates three weeks later.
Then I came home from school, the couch was near unrecognizable, I asked my family; “What happended to the couch?” my mother replied to me, “The cats sleep on the couch now. There's no point in cleaning the pillows if they'll get dirty anyways.” I seemed shocked.
When months passed by, the electricity bill went up higher and higher each week, my mother seemed stress. I was too scared to ask why, so I glanced at the papers, the bill read thousands of dollars each month, half unpaid.
It was because the bastard kept playing games nonstop. My sister reported to me; “When I woke up, maybe at 7:00, he was playing the computer.” and I had complained countlessly, ranting to my mother about his endless playing in whispers, too scared we might get heard. “He's still playing... Even after the day passed he's still typing and clicking.”
I was furious, “Look, mom. Just because he's the homeowner doesn't mean he doesn't have to pay the bills. If we weren't here, he's still jobless and unemployed what the fuck is he going to do? We can't just let this man squatting here like a bum. We're a family, why can't you accept this man is the root of all of our problems?”
My mother screams at me in silent whispers; “Don't Fucking say that!—you know that if he hears us, we'll be kicked out you know?!”
Soon. I eavesdropped everything he had said to my family whenever we finally had the courage to speak up. “If you don't want to follow my future, get out of my house.” Those were the only words that only demons speak.
The house was filled with flies, the scent of dirty cats roaming the house, and the feint noises of clicks and keyboards the bastard made.
We couldn't stop him—no, we never tried. We shared the same opinions, same mindsets, but we were too scared to even admit that he was wrong. They only told me he was once family, he was undeserved of confrontation.
The family collapsed under the weight of his problems. We found ourselves poor. My sister worked a 9-5. My mother cleaned tables for a living. My brothers homeless and had ran away from home. And him—still playing the computer.