How My Brother Died

January 11, 2008

Dear Diary,

Another boring day of school! The 5th grade is halfway over, and nothing has changed since last year! I ride the same old bus to the same old school to see the same old people, practice with the same old cross-country team, and come home to my same old parents and my stupid same old big brother watching TV on that square, outdated ’90s TV. My life is so boring!

And while I got another C on my test, Phil skipped class AGAIN! I don’t get how he does it! All he does is sit and watch TV, and somehow he gets good grades while not even being there. Plus, he is always singing the same stupid tune over and over again from that “Forbidden Road” song! Soooooooooooooo annoying!

All he does is stream all day and show off his ’90s collectibles! He wasn’t even born in the ’90s! The only thing he ever changes is the channel! It’s so unfair! He gets voice acting lessons, but when I ask for a puppy, I get yelled at! He’s going to graduate from high school this year, and he wants to run off somewhere and do silly voices for TV. That’s such a stupid job! He should want to become a doctor and make us rich so we can move out of this stupid apartment! He’s so selfish!

Anyway, I have to go to family movie night. It’s Phil’s turn, and I just know it’s gonna be an anime! YUCK!

Till next time,
Ava!

May 12, 2013
Dear Diary,

It’s been four years since my brother disappeared. I still have that old TV of his.

Today is his birthday. I try to focus on my Krav Maga. My therapist says it’s good for me. She says I should stop putting my entries into this handheld electronic diary. Says the way I write, it sounds like I’m writing a letter to someone. Says that’s odd. But what does she know?

Like every year, I dusted and cleaned the object he loved so much. That stupid TV. I think I’ll even polish the remote that goes with it later.

It’s weird. I know he’s gone, but I feel like if I keep his TV clean, he’ll come back. What happened just wasn’t physically possible, but I refuse to believe he’s dead!

I still have that nightmare. And it’s a perfect reenactment every time. So perfect that I wonder if it’s really a dream—like instead of dreaming, my mind is just replaying the memory, trying to make sense of it all. Walking into his room. Seeing that stray beam of light coming in from the window. And seeing that ridiculous, lifeless hunk of garbage suck in my brother like a black hole!

The only object of his sweet affection was his ultimate and untimely undoing. And I remember being frozen in fear and shock. Maybe if I would have done something. If I would have reacted fast enough and unplugged it. I don’t know. I doubt I could have done anything. I was just a kid.

And Mom and Dad would have never believed me if Phil’s webcam wasn’t on. The internet got to see my brother get taken away from me right before their eyes.

Of course, no one believed us at first. They thought it was just a ruse. I mean, it does seem far-fetched. But when he stopped showing up to school and stopped responding to college letters, the police took us seriously. And of course, their investigation was unsuccessful.

We’ve had everyone—from scientists and detectives to psychics and preachers—take a look at that TV, and to this day, we have nothing. It’s just a regular old 1995 TV.

But I know what I saw, and so does everyone else! It just can’t be a regular TV!

And I don’t care if it is! It has my brother! I just know it!

And I’ve used it to watch that flippin’ anime more times than I can count, but I don’t get any clues to what happened to him or why! I’m so mad and upset!!

What am I doing wrong? How did my life end up like this?! Why did it end up like this?

I was always so jealous of him, but honestly, I just want my brother back! There is so much I should have said to him! So much we could have done. I’d do anything—literally anything—to just hear his voice one more time. Just once more. Is that too much to ask?

I’m crying too much again and getting my papers wet, so I guess I’ll stop writing and go polish the damn remote.

Ava Jackson

Dear Diary,

It’s been a while. My last entry was a month ago, but I’ve been VERY preoccupied with everything since my brother’s birthday. I remember having so many emotions that day.

About a month ago, on my brother’s birthday, a true miracle happened.

I was crying while I was polishing the remote. My tears were falling so much that I could barely see. The remote was basically soaked in them, and frustrated, I threw it as hard as I could at the TV. It busted through the screen and made a huge hole in it.

For a moment, I stopped crying, realizing what I had done. And then I started crying even harder because I broke my brother’s TV. The only possible link I had to him was now destroyed.

Suddenly, light poured out of the TV—the same light that came through the window the night he was sucked in. The screen rebuilt itself, with the remote inside it, and the TV started floating in the air, creating a powerful circle of wind around the room.

It floated so high that it unplugged itself from the wall and then started to shake. And what happened next was only the beginning of a string of weird occurrences. The TV started to leak weird blinking colored squares out of the bottom of it. They looked like little pixels! It was like the TV was leaking a virus into real life! And the pixels started to form the shape of a human body.

And the whole time, the windstorm was getting stronger and stronger!

Oh, and if you were imagining me lying down paralyzed in fear, shielding my eyes with my hand, you’re wrong. This isn’t the movies. I was screaming and flailing my arms in the air, tears streaming down my face, desperately trying to pry my door open, but it was pinned shut by the crazy storm in my room.

My parents rushed up the stairs and were banging on my door, trying to break it down. Then—BOOM!—the storm exploded! And on top of my bed was an odd figure, surrounded by my burnt sheets and smoldering mattress.

It looked like… well, the TV, but now it had a human body. Its long electric cord had turned into a tail. It was like that scene from that really old movie where the guy was a cyborg from the future! What was that called again?

Anyway, the figure slowly stood up. It looked down at its hands and just stared at them for a bit.

Then my parents finally busted down the door, and I jumped into my dad’s arms. The sound scared the TV-thing, and it jumped back. But as soon as it saw us, it came sprinting toward us with its arms wide.

In fear, we took off sprinting down the hall.

I tripped and fell in the middle of the hallway. It came running toward me, and right before it got to me—it stopped.

It slowly backed up and looked at itself in the hallway mirror. It walked closer and placed its hand on the glass. Then, frantically, it tried to rip its TV head off. It started banging its head against the wall, trying to break it, with no relief. Then it slid against the wall and curled up into a ball.

It seemed… really sad.

I got up and slowly walked over to it. There was something about its slim figure and dark shade that felt so familiar.

I reached out to touch it, but it slapped my hand away.

Then it stood up, ran back up the hallway, and kicked in the door to the room across from mine.

“Hey, that’s my brother’s room!” I cried. “Get out of there!”

My dad came rushing up with a bat, yelling, and we both ran into the room.

We froze.

The thing was standing there, staring into my brother’s mirror, holding a picture of Phil and his friends. It kept looking back and forth—between its naked body in the mirror and the picture.

Its chest rose and fell faster and faster.

Then, suddenly, all its muscles tensed up, and its body started to pixelate into those weird colorful squares from before. And then—just like that—it was wearing the clothes my brother had on in the picture!

It relaxed for only a moment before flexing again.

But this time, nothing happened.

Again and again, it tried.

It sat on the ground, staring at the picture, looking like it had given up.

Then—it knocked a familiar "Forbidden Song" tune on its head.

And instantly, I knew who it was.

I couldn’t believe it.

My brother was back!

But he had a TV for a head.

I jumped on top of him, crying tears of joy.

He hugged me back, and we just sat there together.

I don’t know how I did it, but I convinced my dad to give him a chance to prove he was Phil. Dad made him write down a bunch of stuff, but as soon as Mom saw his body, she was convinced.

It was a miracle!

There was just one major problem, though.

He couldn’t talk. At all.

And even weirder—he wrote that the last thing he remembered was the day before he disappeared.

Super weird.

Anyway, my hands are getting tired, so I’ll finish this story later.

Until next time,
Ava