A Family Boil

Disclaimer: This story is graphic.

It was a cold and wet Sunday evening. Claude sat on his porch steps drenched by the rainfall just minutes earlier. His son had just passed.

"Can't fucking believe it. My son is dead... He was just about to graduate university as well..."

He stood up, wiped his wet hair out of his face and went into the house.

"No more wife, no more child, nothing..."

He walked up the stairs straight to his room and opened his bed side table's top drawer.

"Colt 45, high enough caliber to paint the ceiling with my personality..."

He picked up the gun and turned to sit on his bed.

"Its not my fault, but I know my ex wife's gonna disagree"

He put the gun back down on his bedside table, stood up and dragged is son's corpse to the bathtub.

"Come on buddy, you're all covered in blood and shit, lets get you cleaned up"

He took the clothes off his son's corpse and threw it in the bathtub, took the hand of his son's corpse and dragged it by the arm all the way to the master bedroom's bathroom.

"I'm also in dire need of a shower bud, we'll do it together"

Claude takes off all his clothes and opens the shower tap and door. He takes the corpse by the waist and picks it into the shower and gets into the shower with it laying there half on the floor, half against the wall.

He takes his son's hand and lifts it up, no motion, no color. The shower water runs down Claude's face in harmony with his tears. He looks the corpse in the eyes and thinks "I used to look at those eyes and see myself, now I see nothing"

Claude folds over and starts sobbing uncontrollably. "This was never supposed to happen. Your mother was never supposed to leave me!" He fell over on his back in the shower, right next to the corpse. "I told her I would change. And I did, I really did change" The tears suddenly stops and he sits upright.

Claude steps out of the shower naked, and walks into the bedroom and stares at the gun on the bedside table.

"I had such big plans for him... I gave so much and received so little, and I never questioned it. Not once."

He takes the gun and retreats to the bathroom, standing outside the shower, staring at his son's naked corpse clenching the gun tight as a knot in his hand. A tear rolls down his cheek, "I used to love you" Claude whimpered. "Look what you did! How the fuck do you think I should just move past this?"

Claude's face started losing all emotion until he, himself looked like the corpse.

He points the gun at the head of the corpse, finger on the trigger:

"Your dumb whore of a mother, she also loved you"

"So many people loved you..."

"And this is how you repay us?"

He walks a bit closer to the corpse, "Oh whats that? You aren't done giving up yet?" Claude suddenly kicks his foot hard against the corpse' head making it bounce off the wall with a hollow thud.

"Pathetic"

Claude walks out the bathroom and goes to sit on his bed. He takes the gun and holds it against his head as he stares blankly at the feet of the corpse sticking out of the shower, visible through the doorframe.

"I ain't no pussy like you. Not even leaving a note..."

"So what do you do? You hang yourself like a cunt..."

He throws the gun down on the bed and leaves the house.

[5 Days Later]

The front door swings open and Claude walks into the house smelling of cheap liquor and vomit.

"Daddy-daddy's home!"

He walks up the stairs, clutching a hacksaw in his right hand and a plastic shopping bag in his left. He continues walking all the way to his dead son's decomposing corpse. Claude kneels over and positions the blade against the throat of the corpse.

GRR-GRR-GRR-GRR

The saw moves back and forth against the flesh and bone of the neck. The vibration from the bone rattles and travels up Claude's arm, each stroke feeling like a step closer to peace as Claude stairs into the eyes of his dead son until finally

BELCH

The head hits the floor and rolls toward the drain in the shower. Claude just stares at it before picking it up by the hair and throwing it into the shopping bag he had with him.

"I got something special in mind for you..."

Claude pulls down the attic stairs and walks up to the attic, taking the head with him.

He holds the head up to his face and wispers:

"You see the geyser in the corner? Thats where you will be spending the rest of your death."

He pulls on a latch against the geyser and a trapdoor opens, steam erupting into the air. He takes the head out of the bag by the hair and throws it into the geyser. Claude stands there for a few minutes, taking in the smell of his dead son's boiling head, a tear rolls down his cheek.

"You'll be with me till my days run out."

[5 Years Later]

"Daddy's home!" Claude yells while walking through the front door. Elijah comes running up to him

"Daddy! Did you see my new toys mom got me?"

Claude catches him and says, "Not yet! You better show me once we finish dinner."

Claude gives Marie a kiss on the back of her neck and sits down at the table in the middle of the kitchen. Marie comes around and sets down a massive pot of leak soup right in the centre of the table.

"You need to do something about that geyser, it's way too hot. Elijah burnt himself this morning when he tried to draw himself a bath. Can't you turn down the thermostat on it or something?"

Claude looks at Marie

"Elijah shouldn't be drawing his own baths. He's only 4 years old. Besides, geysers need to be hot so germs and bacteria dies before reaching the showers and baths and food and shit..."

Marie sits down and uses a soup spoon to pour them all servings from the soup

"I know, I know. I was just getting him a towel... I understand what you're saying but I swear the water comes out boiling"

Claude sighs... "Fine, let me just finish dinner." Claude finishes his bowl of soup and stands up

"Are you gonna come and see my new toys?" Elijah asks excitedly

"Just hold on a bit son, got some things I need to do first"

Claude walks out the kitchen, down the hallway and pulls down the attic stairs and goes up the attic. When he gets to the top of the stairs he freezes and stairs blankly at the geyser in the corner of the room. He approaches it slowly and rests his hand on the latch and opens the door. Steam and odor shoots out and fills the entire attic.

"Fuck, the smell"

Claude grabs his face with his hand and covers his mouth and nose with his sleeve. He takes his torch and shines a light into the geyser, barely anything is visible through all the steam.

"I can't see shit"

He closes the geyser latch and quickly adjusts the thermostat to 50 degrees celcuis. Still hot, not boiling though.

"Ewwwwww! Whats that smell?" Elijah suddenly asked standing at the top of the attic stairs.

"Elijah! What the fuck are you doing up here!? Get out!"

Elijah almost jumps and just stares at Claude, tears start quietly running down Elijah's face.

"Get yourself together, I don't raise pussies."