Kevin took care of his grandma ever since he could remember. His brothers were taking over most of the duty now, since Kevin had to tour most of the time. In some ways that was a blessing.

Kevin didn’t like to talk about his grandma very often. He never mentioned her in interviews, and as far as he was concerned, she only lived in his nightmares.

His grandmother was born with an irregularly shaped spinal cord which left her hunched and troll-ish. As she got older, that spine of hers kept her bedridden. Back in the day, there were no back braces.

Her face was the work of many years of wear and tear. It was now twisted and inhuman, wrinkles over wrinkles and so thin that you could practically see the skull poking out from underneath. She looked like she was dressed for Halloween everyday of her life.

Kevin never had the chance to get to know her, or to start to love her. Even when he was little he hated her. She scared him badly with the things she used to tell him and with what she did to him. When the house was empty with just him and her in it, he would go downstairs and sit by the door, waiting for his mom to come back.

His grandma mostly slept, so he could get away with not taking care of her while his parents were gone. But when she was awake, she rang her bell, whether she needed something or not. The doctors told them that it was absolutely mandatory for her to have one if she were to stay at home instead of at the hospital.

She rang so much that Kevin would hear it in his sleep. He would sometimes go to her in the middle of the night because he thought he heard her ringing. It usually turned out to be just him. Or maybe she was just pretending to fall asleep, he never found that out.

Kevin’s brothers knew to stay away as much as possible. Ever since their father had died, they always got the duty. Part of Kevin’s decision to go into the business was based on the fact that he wouldn’t have to see his grandma as much.

They never introduced her to visitors. Kevin made sure to lock her up in her room and take her bell away if they did. Brian didn’t even know that she was in there. In fact, Brian’s mom told him that she wasn’t alive because she knew how he would react if he saw her.

In Kevin’s opinion, they should have locked her up in the attic and kept her there for the rest of her life. She never seemed to die in the room that she was in now and the attic was much more scenaric.

Now that Kevin was back home from touring, he regretted it. He knew that he would be here a while and he also knew that his mother was going on a lengthy long-anticipated vacation. She didn’t know that Kevin was coming back, and she wanted to cancel it. But Kevin wouldn’t let her. Which for him would mean: Gerry Duty. That’s what he and his brothers called it. The name wasn’t as harsh as the punishment though.

The next day, his mom left. She already gave Grandma Gerry her breakfast and the pills to go with that breakfast, because she knew that Kevin wouldn’t wake up in time. But she left Gerry that damn bell and she was ringing it merrily all morning. Naturally, Kevin couldn’t sleep.

At ten Kevin just couldn’t take that noise anymore. He went up the stairs in his pajamas and proceeded to go to her room. And there she was, sitting up with the help of her bed, grinning merrily at him. She wasn’t expecting him to come up, and he could have sworn that he saw her grin widening. Somehow she already knew that Kevin was in the house, either his mom told her or she could hear his voice.

For some reason, she never rang the bell exceedingly around Kevin’s mom. She just thought that they were being irresponsible when they said that they didn’t want to take care of her or that they had to do something else. Mrs. Richardson would then give them a speech about how she’s worried that they won’t take care of her if she gets old. Then naturally someone is stuck with Gerry Duty out of pure bad conscience. And that someone was usually Kevin.

Now Kevin was stuck at the house and he had a difficult task ahead of him. Prying that damn bell out of her claws. They really were claws. In fact, they were like talons with a deadly grip. Sometimes Kevin would wonder how she didn’t break the bell when she clutched it in her talons like that.

Kevin reached out with both hands, trying to relieve her grip on it. Big mistake that was. Since she was holding the bell in only one hand, she was able to grab a hold of Kevin’s shirt while he was leaning over to get the bell. She clawed at him, tearing the bottom half of his shirt to shreds and piercing the skin.

Kevin yelped and jumped back, breathing hard. He then ran out of the room to grab some old football gear. That was the only article of clothing he had that she couldn’t penetrate.

When he came back, she was still ringing the bell. Kevin grabbed for it once more and pulled roughly. He almost had it when she discovered some skin showing on his arms. She clawed at his neck, face and arms until he was forced to let go. He would just have to wear earplugs.

By the time Kevin was done disinfecting his arms, it was lunchtime. His grandma had fallen asleep awhile ago, but she would wake up hungry and angry with Kevin, like she almost always was. He thought that she was jealous of his youth and his boyish good looks, and that’s why she hated him so much. Well it didn’t matter because he hated her too.

Kevin cooked up the grossest mush he could find and waited for the sound of the bell. This would be his life for the next week. Thanks to her, he would have to stay at home for most of his break. And he wouldn’t dare invite anyone over. They were all busy with recording their own songs anyway, so he didn’t really have to worry about any unannounced visitors.

Kevin got fed up with waiting and began making his own lunch. Just as he was about to take a bite of it, he heard the bell ringing. She always did this to him. She played games with him as if he were some sort of child, but then she really meant to hurt him with the things she did.

When or if she died, Kevin was worried that they might put her body in the family cemetery. It was right near their house and Kevin liked to visit his dad whenever he got the chance. But he was convinced that his grandma was evil and that once she was buried she would come back to haunt him and he would never get rid of her.

As long as he’d known her, she never functioned on her own. After Kevin’s mom told her that she was pregnant with Kevin, her doctors realized the problem with her back and told her that she may never walk again. For all those years, she held that grudge against Kevin; even so he was kind to her whenever he could be.

It was hard for him to imagine that she was once a nice, young attractive woman who was kind and charitable to everyone. Now they had some kind of sibling rivalry ever since Kevin was born. She had once asked to hold Kevin as a baby, but dropped him “accidentally” back into his crib. Of course, she blamed it on her back and all was forgiven, but Kevin knew that she had meant to harm him.

Whenever he tried to tell his mom about what grandma did, she thought he was joking. She would think that he loved his grandma, so she wouldn’t punish him because she never thought he was serious. Then came the lies.

Kevin had to lie about certain scars Grandma Gerry drew upon his skin. “It was a school fight,” he would say and get punished. Or, “I did it in football practice,” and she would make him wear his helmet. Kevin hated his helmet. It was purple and old and all of his friends thought it was queer. But he couldn’t bear to tell the truth. What kind of football player gets beat up by his own grandma?

Eventually his mom gave up on the helmet, especially when she went to the practice and saw the team tease him. It made her wonder how Kevin could keep everything all bottled up inside like that. Afterwards she made him promise to tell her everything, but of course he never did.

Despite the fact that the bell was giving him a headache, Kevin devoured his lunch before proceeding back up the stairs. He really wasn’t looking forward to seeing her again, but the sense of responsibility was constantly nagging at the back of his mind.

He grabbed the mush from the table and jammed a spoon into its center. Kevin climbed the stairs as slowly as possible and proceeded to open the door.

Part 2
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