The quiet, desolate cottage that once held such life, sits lonely as the beginnings of water droplets start to fall from the sky. The fireplace, abandoned long ago, leaves the living room covered by a menacing chill. There on the rough and lived-in cushions of the couch sits Tim, the youngest of three brothers, who has been contemplating for a long while if he should leave the cottage, as his father and eldest brother did all those years ago. He has been frustrated and terrified at his brother’s frightening behavior. He tried for a while to ignore it, to believe that the pressure and fear of raising a child while having been a child himself, the stress of working two jobs while campaigning to be mayor, the violent ideas of his co-workers, and his immense hatred at his competition, and the overwhelming sense of self-hatred had not affected his brother far beyond means of help. But it was foolish to try, for his brother had finally snapped, turning into a paranoid and manipulative man. Tim could no longer stand living in what he now considered to be something akin to hell. His brother was his brother no longer, that much he knew. So when Bill came down the stairs, he planned to tell him just that. And soon enough, Bill came down the stairs with an intense look on his face and came to a stop near the kitchen counter.
“Bill.”, Tim said quietly.
“What is it Tim?”, Bill answered impatiently.
“I need to talk to you about something, something important.”
“Well you better be quick about it, I’m busy. I have to plan to win my campaign, you know. I won’t rest until I’m dead.”
“Um, well, you see..”
“Spit it out Tim.”
“I want to leave.”
It was as if time froze at those words, the world slowing to a stop and starting in just an instant. The droplets of rain outside fell hard and cruelly against the battered roof of the cottage. Bill’s head snapped up, face frozen with shock and disbelief in his eyes. He clearly had not been expecting that.
“What?”, Bill whispered quietly.
“I said I want to leave.”
“Leave?! You want to leave me?! Like our coward of a father and disgrace of a brother?! You want to abandon me too?! Why? Why Tim?”
“I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!”, Tim screamed suddenly.
“I can’t take you anymore. I can’t take your cold eyes, your lack of empathy towards me and towards your friends, your manipulative and harsh words towards anything I say or do, your way of controlling everything I do. You won’t even let me out of the house anymore! I can’t stand it, Bill. This is hell.”
Bill had that look in his eyes, the look that meant he had some more bull to say.
“Lemme guess, you want the old Bill back. He never left in the first place Tim! I’M RIGHT HERE!”
“Bil-”
“NO! I thought that as my brother you would still support me, still be by my side like you promised no matter what. But I guess you’re just like father, a backstabber.”
“No Bi-!”
“If you really loved me, you would stay Tim. Stay with me”, Bill pleaded with fake tears in his eyes.
Tim was conflicted, he did love his brother, he truly did but he couldn’t stand to be there anymore, the place he once thought of as home. His love for his brother was killing him. His memories of the good old times started to flow in, but were soon replaced with the memories in this place he now calls hell. He quickly comes to the decision to stay with his brother. Just not for the reason Bill thought.
“Alright, alright I’ll stay”, Tim replied with an odd look on his face.
Bill’s face broke out into a crazed grin.
“I knew you would come around and make the right choice. Come here and give your big brother a hug hmm?”, Bill replied softly, holding his arms out wide.
Tim hesitated in his spot on the couch, wondering if he was about to do the right thing. He spotted the knife on the kitchen counter, just behind his brother’s arms and then spotted the look on his face, in his void eyes. His hesitation disappeared and in three quick strides, he made it into his brother’s arms. Tim closed his eyes, in an attempt to feel comfort in the one last shred of his brother’s dwindling love and to pretend that everything was alright, even if just for a moment. He slowly reached his hand out towards the knife, grabbed a hold of it, and in one swift motion, plunged it straight into his brother’s back, where his heart was located. The sound of thunder suddenly rang out, rumbling deep and booming loudly. 
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry”, Tim cried out softly
Bill gasped out in pain and stood tense for what seemed like hours. Then he collapsed, Tim falling down with him. Tim held his now dead brother in his arms and wept uncontrollably in both joy and anguish. He was free and his brother was dead. Outside the rain started to slow, the sky clearing up to reveal a blue, gray sky full of possibilities.