It Could be Worse

It’s 2 O’clock in the afternoon and Rose is unable to get her mind off of the upcoming bills. It’s hard being in her early 20s and being financial independent of herself. The bills come every month, its not like she is the only one in the world who has to pay them. Bills are a natural part of being a grown up. The stress comes from the money that she needs to have to pay the bills. She sacrifices a lot to be independent and is extremely proud of herself for it…but this month is just a bit more stressful than most. Rose was looking forward to treating herself with a new book and maybe some new clothes but life had other plans for her. Her car needs a tune-up as well as a new tire. Her school bills are due the week after her car is scheduled to be fixed. She has to make sure she has food for the month, money for rent, money for her phone bill, and also money to pay her credit card as well as her lease on the car. “Why me?!” she cant help but think. True it could be worse but everyone needs to vent a bit. Trying to look on the positive side she thought “At least all my bills will be paid”.
Around three, she got off of work and headed to her car. “Just another 6 more hours at my other job then I can sleep”. Unfortunately she saw not one but all four of her tires slashed! Heaving a heavy sigh, she called a tow truck. The tow truck arrived in 45 minutes (originally they said they were 5 min away) and towed her and her vehicle to her house. With no money to buy new tires she had to beg one of her family members to drive her to work or she would be late for her 4:30 shift.
She lived with her extended family on her dad’s side. Her Grandmother, Uncle and his wife, along with their three children; ages 13, 6, and 2. She stayed out of the way and paid them rent every month. She wasn’t a bad roommate yet no one could be bothered to take her so she had to call a cab and her job to warn them she might be late.
The ride was horrible. The driver smoked in the car (which she informed she was allergic to) and said some very racist things about her. The female driver also almost sideswiped a motorcyclist just for fun. After paying the driver she walked into the restaurant she worked at and was called into the managers office. The manager was having a bad day and took it out on Rose. He wrote her up and threatened two more write ups and she would be fired.
Rose tried to stay positive. She kept the mantra ‘It could be worse’ into the back of her mind. Yet the truth was, it was a day that started with her waking up late, finding her shoes eaten up by the family dog, tripping on a random palm branch knocked down from the storm the night before and falling face first into a nasty puddle while successfully hitting her head. And that was just the first few hours of her day. Then arriving at her 1st job only to find out with the 4 hours they gave her, there was at least 8 hours of stuff to complete that day. Still she pushed through it. With everything that made the day worse she did her best to stay positive. At least she will be home before she knew it. Hopefully time would go by fast and she could crawl into bed.
No such luck. At the resturant each customer she encountered seemed to be having a bad day. There must have been a target on her back because Rose got the full force of their frustration. She was a waitress and no matter what she did she intended to be professional. One customer threw their smoothie at her because it wasn’t the right flavor, another called her dirty names because she thought Rose was flirting with her husband; an older man of about 102. The worse customer was the one that waited for her shift to end to walk her outside then mug her. She lost her phone, wallet, and keys.
That was it, she was done! She was pissed. She fummed the whole 6 miles she had to walk home. Her life s***s!! It couldn’t be any worse than this. The worst day of the history of days. She didn’t care how bad others had it. She was so fustrated and overwelmed. Getting to her house with no keys she had to knock on the door for someone to open it. Her aunt opened the door with an attitude which Rose returned; to angry to care about being rude. Still, after her shower, she told everyone that she loved them, sleep well, and stay safe. Exhaustion hit her hard. The last thought she had before plunging into a deep sleep was it would be better tomorrow.
Rose woke up at 4:30am. Still a bit groggy after only sleeping 6 hours, she stumbled to the bathroom to relieve herself before getting ready for the day. She slipped on something wet in the hallway leading to the bathroom, figuring the dog had an accident and wet the floor she continued on and did her business. Looking into the mirror she laughed at her reflection. With the bags under her eyes, the startled look on her face, and her wild hair…it looked like she had seen some things. She smiled and thought, “It could be worse”. She opened the door and was about to turn off the light when something on the floor caught her eye. It was red. Red like blood. Her mind tried to make sense of what she was seeing so she kept walking, turning on the lights in the dark house to see where the red came from. She stopped in the dinning room where the kids liked to sleep. Their beds had the red stuff on them to. She got closer and to her horror she saw the kids mutilated bodies stretched out infront of her. The 13 year old was positioned in a provactive way on his stomach. His head was hanging on to a bit of skin on the back of the neck and his eyes were open. One of his hands were dangling over the bed. The 6 year old was missing an arm. Her little body was contorted in an unatural way, like a puppet tossed across the floor. The 2 year old was cut open, like someone was practicing dissecting a pig. Rose froze. It was like her body was in autopilot, her mind refusing to make sense of the images laid before her. Shock, she was the definition of it. She felt a breeze and noticed the front door open; she closed it.
From the living room she wondered into her Uncle and wife’s room. Their bodies made her laugh. She had lost it. Her mind was warped. She started to shake. Tears were running down her face but a small smile stayed on her face. Their bodies were entertwined in an in human way. Chopped up pieces. They reminded her of the Mr. Potatoe head toy, when the pieces weren’t in the right spot. There was a leg where the ear should be, a mans arm sticking out of her Aunts petrified mouth. Apperently the person who arranged the bodies didn’t know anatomy. From the stump of her Uncle’s leg, jetting out of the sawed in half torso, was the aunt’s upper half of arm. Her hand (with the wedding ring still on) replaced the foot that was nailed to the cealing. Her uncle’s head was on top of the tv, like some kind of perverted old school antenna. His head was split in two by a hatchet the was in the left portion of his skull.
Walking into her grandmothers room caused her liquefied intestines to pour out. The smell of feces was quickly washed away by the scent of death. Tears tore down Rose’s cheeks as she smiled. She hummed a little to herself as she walked over to her Grandmother’s head that now had a hole in the middle. Her face was bashed in, like a pumpkin after dropping it from a tall height. Rose slowly worked the phone out her grandmothers claw like hand. Giggling a bit, her auto pilot body called 911. She left it on the dresser and didn’t reply to the responder.
The police arrived to the grisly scene. Outside on the porch was the family dog, hung up in its leash with its entrails hanging out. Some of it organs on the floor like misshapen water ballons. Braving it out, the police went inside. Upon finding the toddler’s remains, 2 of the 7 officers threw up. Seeing the other two children sent another officer into hysterics. At the hallway 2 officers went into the parents room. They screamed “OHHHHHHHHHH GOD! OHHHHHHHHH GOD!!!”. Never had they seen such a sight. The other two went into the grandmothers room to find Rose humming and braiding her grandmother’s hair on what was left of the scalp. “Miss, are you okay” one officer said while they both held their arms out as if not to frighten her. They were shaking and trying to avoid looking at the battered grandmother. Rose looked at them with a smile on her face and the stream of tears still coming down. “It could be worse” she said. The officers were stunned. “What do you mean” Rose replied with a nostolgic look on her face, “I could have forgotten to lock my door”.