All I could do was stare in terror, in horror, in shock. I couldn't scream, and I definitely couldn't move. Who was that man and why did he do that?
I heard the front door slam shut, so I poked my head out of the closet that I was hiding in, making sure that the man wasn't still in our house. When I saw that everything was clear, I slipped out and ran up to my mom and dad, screaming their names as loudly as I could, not caring that no one could hear me.
"Mommy, Daddy! Y- You ca- can't be dead. I- I love you too much. I need you. El needs you!" I ran over to my mom, the one that he had shot second, and looked her in the eyes. There was a sound like a sigh, then I saw my mom's chest fall, and I knew that was the last breath my mom would ever take.
Yelling their names again, I knew that wasn't expecting them to say anything in return, but I was still frustrated when all I got was dead silence. Dead silence. How amusing, considering the fact that I was talking to dead people. Dead silence from dead people.
I stood up on shaky legs, making it feel like there as an earthquake happening, but I was the only one affected. As I tried to take a step, I just fell onto the floor because I was trembling so badly. After trying a few more times and failing each time, I decided to just crawl to the kitchen.
That was a bad idea. By the time I got to the kitchen, I'd crawled through the pool of blood left behind from my parents, so I ended covered in blood from head to toe. It was disgusting, and I felt like I was the one who killed them, even though I wasn't.
I snatched the phone off of the counter, then dialed 911, my brain was on autopilot mode, and I wasn't even feeling anything.
"911, what's your emergency?" The voice on the other end of the line was old and nasally, and she sounded like she didn't want to be doing her job.
"I- I don't know. A guy just killed my parents!" I blurted, then started sobbing to the point that my body was violently shaking. I thought that I was going to throw up, that happened sometimes I got upset.
"Okay. Where are you?" The woman's voice got my interested. Is this what makes you interested in your job? A girl freaking out because her parents just got killed?
"I- I can't tell you! What if you're one of them?" I knew that it wasn't rational, but I didn't care. My parents were just killed, and I didn't want to be dead. At least, as far as I knew.
The annoying old lady on the other end of the line sounded annoyed. Or irritated. Or both. "Sweetheart, I can assure you that I'm not a killer, I want to help you. So can you please tell me where you are?"
"I'm at 26 Rosewood Avenue. Is- Is someone coming to help?"
"Yes. Please, stay on the line until they get there, the police should be arriving in approximately," The lady paused for a moment, probably checking the time. "Two minutes."
Suddenly, I heard the doorbell ring. "Police, can you please open up?"
I crawled over to the door, still not trusting my legs to support me. I reached up for the handle, and when I saw a man standing there, my breath hitched in my throat. It wasn't because the man was a police officer, it was the fact that he was a man. And he looked like the man who killed my parents.
What was happening? Why couldn't I breathe? Was I dying? My mind was racing a mile a minute, and my cheeks were growing flushed.
"Kid, where are your parents?" The man asked, but I was frozen, glued to the spot.
"D- Dead." Was all I could manage to get out, even after a few long minutes.
The police officer sighed and bent down to look me in the eye. Even though I was fairly tall, he was probably a foot taller. "Kiddo, I know that they're dead, I need you to tell me where they are. Can you do that?" His tone was soft and caring, nothing like the man's voice. I lifted a shaky hand, and pointed in the direction of the living room.
The officer's walkie-talkie crackled, then a lady's voice started talking. "Okay, I've located an aunt, that's the girl's only living relative." Was she talking about me? I only had an aunt as a living relative, and I'm a girl.
"Did you hear that? You don't have to go to foster care, you get to live with your aunt, isn't that nice?"
I just shrugged, I suppose it's better than going into foster care, but I'd prefer to be with my parents. Even if it did mean that I was dead.
As soon as I shrugged, I heard the front door open and close, and almost immediately I tensed up again.
"Lauren?" The man called out, probably seeing if the person who came in was someone named Lauren.
"Yeah, what?" So clearly the person who'd come in was this Lauren person, I turned around to look at the door, and I saw that she wasn't how I imagined her at all. Instead of a brown haired, blue eyed, skinny woman, she was a black haired, brown eyed, curvy woman. I wasn't saying that she was overweight, but more that she was real. Not super skinny like all of the celebrities these days.
"Mind taking this kid to the station? We need to hear what happened from her."
Suddenly, I remembered something. My sister. "Wait! Elena! We need to get my sister, she's at school!"
The police officers exchanged confused glances, then both looked at me. "Sweetheart, Elena is right here." Lauren said, gesturing behind her to where Elena was, in fact, standing.
"Whoops." I said, I felt embarrassed, and I'm sure that it showed, because my cheeks were on fire.
The male police officer chuckled, which made my cheeks go even hotter. "Kiddo, I can't even start with how many times something like that has happened, it's a natural reaction to trauma. Now, let's get you off to your aunt's house. She's waiting for you."
"Yay! We get to go on a vacation to Auntie Katherine's house!" Dammit, why do ten-year-olds have to be so freaking stupid? Like honestly, is it not obvious that our parents were killed?
Lauren clearly saw my confusion, so she pulled me into the kitchen to talk. "What's your name?"
"Liz." I mumbled.
"Okay, Liz. Elena's reaction is normal. Her brain is purposely blocking everything out, causing her to think that nothing is wrong. But that'll go away in a few hours, so beware, 'kay?"
"M'kay."
"Good girl. Now, how about you go with Officer Timothy to your aunt's house, yeah?"
"Mhm."
I wandered back into the entryway of the house, purposely taking my time. When I got back into the room, I saw that Elena and Timothy were waiting for me, and Elena was bawling her eyes out. I immediately ran over to her, and held her close. "What's wrong, baby?"
"M- Mom and dad. They're dead."
"I know, sweetheart. I know. And it sucks, doesn't it?"
"Yeah. Liz?"
"Yes, Elena?"
"Promise me that you'll never leave me?"
I sighed. I couldn't promise her that, what if I got killed? It obviously happens, I just watched it happen to my parents. "I promise."
"Pinkie promise?" Elena held out her pinkie, so I locked mine with hers.
"Pinkie promise."
Officer Timothy gestured for us to follow him into his car, so I grabbed Elena's hand, and walked into the car with my head held high.
"I- I can't go in there." Elena was on the verge of a panic attack. Everything had to be perfectly clean for her, and I had a feeling that it wasn't quite clean enough for her.
"Sweetheart, it's clean."
"N- No. I can see the dirt." It was true, the backseat of the car was so dirty that I could see the dirt stains.
I sighed. "You can sit on my jacket, okay?"
"But- Okay."
"Thanks, Elena." I said, then saw that her breathing was getting even faster, so I just started rubbing circles absentmindedly into her back.
When we got into the car, Elena kept scooting closer and closer to me, not completely aware that she was doing so, and by the time we got to our aunt's house, she was practically on top of me.
"Elena, Liz, we're here." Officer Timothy called to us from outside of the car. He'd gotten out, but Elena and I were to scared to do anything. Office Timothy opened the door and scooped Elena up in his arms, and gesturing for me to follow him. Elena may have been small, but she was ten, meaning that Officer Timothy was strong.
"Liz! I don't wanna go!" Elena was screaming at the top of her lungs and her face was red from the tears.
"I know, El. But we have to. Do you want to be homeless?" Living in Toronto, we'd seen lots of homeless people.
"No." She mumbled. "But I want mom and dad!"
"I know you do, kiddo, but this is our home now, okay?"
"Fine." Elena huffed.
"Good girl. Now, let's go in and see Auntie Katherine, okay? Maybe she has cookies! Aren't her cookies awesome?" I was trying to distract El from the fact that we were walking into our aunt's house. I knew she didn't have cookies, she only ever makes them when she knows that we're coming over. And she didn't know that we were coming over. Did she?
Elena burst into tears once again. "M- Mommy!" She wailed, her voice shaky and cracking. "I want mommy!"
I pulled my little sister into a hug, so she just clung onto me for dear life. "Shh, baby, it's okay."
Auntie Katherine came running out of the house; she was only wearing a tee-shirt and pyjama bottoms. "Girls, let's come inside, yeah? We can get you two set up in the guest bedroom for now, then later on we can clear out the office so that you two have your own rooms."
"Mom! Dad!" El was still caught up on our parents dying, so Officer Timothy scooped her up and carried her inside, placing her gently on the couch. "I want mom and dad."
I could see Auntie Katherine rolling her eyes at Elena. Why was she doing that? It's not like El's reaction was all that odd. In fact, it was almost exactly my reaction, only externally instead of internally.
"Anyways, we're going to get going, but we'll be back tomorrow for Liz to give her statement to us, that sound good?" I didn't want Officer Timothy and Lauren to leave, they were the ones that rescued me.
"No." My voice was shaky, yet confident at the same time. "You can't go."
Auntie Katherine sighed. "Elizabeth, you have to let the officers go. They can't stay here forever."
At that point, I couldn't hold it the tears anymore. I darted up the stairs and into the guest bedroom, I knew how to get there all too well. Slamming the door shut, I locked it and slid down the wall so that I was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall.
"Liz?" I heard a small voice calling to me from the other side of the door. "Can I come in?"
"Not now, El." It took everything I had not to snap at my sister, I knew that I couldn't do that when she was all that I had left.
"Whatever." Elena was clearly trying to hide the disappointment in her voice from my rejection.
"El, I need some time to myself."
"Yeah, well I need my sister."
That just caused me to cry even harder, I was the only one Elena had left. Sobbing, I curled into a ball, bringing my knees up to my chest and laying on the floor so that I was curled up into a tiny ball. I started humming softly to myself, a habit that I picked up from my mom. For as long as I could remember, whenever she was upset, she would start humming to herself.
The next thing I knew, I was hearing pounding on the door, and my cheek felt funny, like there was something imprinted on it. "Please just go away."
"Liz, it's me." I heard Elena whispering. "Can I come in now?"
I frowned. Why did she want to come into my room? "Yeah." And why was she whispering?
I reached up to the door handle to unlock it and open the door, and when I did, I saw that El had a large bruise on her cheek. It was a million shades of purple, blue and black, and it covered her entire left cheek, it had even spread up to her eye. What the hell happened!?
"Holy shit. What happened, El?"
"I fell down the stairs and woke Auntie up, so she slapped me."
I started pacing back and forth in our room, staring at the blue carpet as I tried to figure out what to do. "El, what are we going to do?"
"Run away?"
"We can't do that, we'll die." Although I knew it was wrong, the aspect of dying kind of appealed to me. "We need to tell someone."
"Who?"
"I don't know," I sighed. "I just thought that would be a good idea."
"Maybe it'll just be a one time thing?" Elena seemed hopeful, but I wasn't. I knew that it wouldn't be a one time thing, or even a rare occurrence.
I sighed, not knowing how to tell El what I thought. "I don't think it will, El." I know that it won't.
I opened my arms for Elena to snuggle into them, which she did. Her dark blonde hair was in my face, smelling like her favorite shampoo, strawberries and cream. Also our mom's favorite.
"I love you, Liz."
"I love you too, El."
"Promise me that you'll never ever leave me?"
"You just asked me that like an hour ago. But of course El, of course." If you don't say that you promise, does it really count?
"What time is it?"
"It's five thirty-seven. Why?" Because it's dinner time.
"I'm hungry." El whined, to be honest, I was getting hungry too. But at the same time I wasn't, knowing that getting something to eat would mean talking to Auntie Katherine. And talking to Auntie Katherine meant the possibility of getting hurt, and I did not want to get hurt.
"I know kiddo, I know." This was going to be a long night.430Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd70nIZ5bKi
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