Sad Birthday

Everyone loves a good birthday party, the special cake, the gifts and celebrations that come with it are all so fun, especially for the birthday boy or girl. Sure, a loud expensive party isn't everyone's cup of tea, but most people love a good feast and drink to celebrate the occasion. It is very rare for someone to have a bad birthday, it can happen if maybe they're at work that day and have a tough shift, perhaps they fall ill during the occasion and spend their birthday in bed alone. Life can be cruel like that, sometimes it can be downright despicable and unfair. You've likely had a bad birthday at some point, maybe you're getting a little too old and don't like being reminded of your eventual demise? It could be that you're so introverted, you actually don't like people loudly singing and laughing, as it makes you anxious. No matter how awful a birthday you think you've had, I guarantee it wasn't anywhere near as bad as Frank's birthday party, which unfortunately for him, was more accurately his Deathday!

You see, Frank was given a mysterious present on his 21st birthday. It was delivered to his house in a plain cardboard box that only had his address and name written on it. There was no return address either, not even a note to say who this gift was from. Inside the box, was the biggest, most delicious looking birthday cake he had ever seen in his life. Frank still lived with his parents and they too; were completely bewildered by this unusual present. They hadn't ordered him this cake and they hadn't the slightest clue, who would. It really was a surprise, one that everyone loved. The cake was soon taken out of its box and displayed in the kitchen, it almost looked like a white wedding cake. It was a tall cake with three bases, the fattest at the bottom and thinnest at the top. 21 beautiful candles were already stuck around the cake, the top base had the numbers 21 written neatly in blue icing. After admiring the cake for a few good minutes, Frank put the cake in the fridge to keep cool, he'd share it with his whole family and friends later that night.

At 5pm, everyone he invited had arrived at his house party. The parents rounded everyone up into the living room to sing happy birthday. It was a beautiful moment, all of Frank's loved ones were there. His Grandfather, Grandmother, Little brothers and sisters, his uncles, aunts and cousins were all there. His best friends were smiling gleefully, so happy for Frank on his very special 21st birthday. His father disappeared into the kitchen and returned with the mysterious birthday cake, now all the candles were lit, giving the dark living room a pretty orange glow. Frank's father placed the cake upon the living room's coffee table and Frank sat down on the sofa facing it, before leaning over and blowing out the candles. Everyone cheered, "hurray!" They clapped and parted him on the back. Frank felt truly special, the luckiest young man on planet earth to be surrounded by all his loved ones. What a wonderful event his birthday was, at least so far. Eventually Frank's father began to cut up the cake and share it around the house, by 5:30pm everyone had at least one slice of this truly delicious cake. However, his grandparents soon began to choke and puke up the cake. They were the first, then his little brothers and sisters also vomited and cried. The most vulnerable of people at the party were the first to faint and some puked so badly, they were coughing up blood! Eventually Frank himself was in immense stomach pain, alongside his very best friends and cousins. Everyone cried out in agony, as this once cosy little birthday party had become a horrifying blood bath!

Everyone had already died by the time police found out about the mass murder, they sampled the cake and found it was laced with a lethal amount rat poison! An investigation was soon looked into, the packaging contained no fingerprints except for the delivery guy and Frank's family who handled the box. The delivery man was looked into, it was soon proved that he had not tampered with the cake while it was in his care, as surveillance footage from his van proved he hadn't opened the box upon receiving it himself. So whoever had sent it originally was the true poisoner. The boxed cake was sent from a local post office in Frodsham, Cheshire. When police called in to look at the footage of this mysterious sender, they saw that it was a young man around the same age as Frank. It was soon discovered that Frank was a bit of a bully back in secondary school and that a boy named Mike, who looked an awful lot like the sender from the footage, was very often picked on and in some cases beaten up. They tracked down this man and after several interrogations he admitted to poisoning Frank's birthday cake, as he had a lust for revenge. He didn't wish to poison everyone else at the party, some of whom were even friends of his own. Mike only wanted to kill Frank. Ultimately he was still charged with mass murder, as the idea that only Frank would eat such a huge birthday cake by himself was ridiculous. The courts believed Mike had every intention of hurting as many people related to Frank as possible. Mike still serves a life sentence in jail, with no sign of parole.

It's such a shame really, how Frank's once great party had gone from a happy birthday to a sad birthday.