𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 & 𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒕 ⇁𝒔.𝒓𝒆𝒊𝒅

Prologue

April, 1999

"I don't know why you made me do this," I yelled over the music to my friend, watching her laugh and bring the red solo cup to her lips. "I'm not even supposed to look at the clock past midnight, let alone be out of bed at three in the morning!"

I had been drinking. I was having so much fun, but I knew we would have to leave soon; it was too late in the night to be out, and I was pushing my luck at this point.

Michelle threw her head back and laughed, "So what! Just have fun."

I looked down at my phone and saw I had three missed calls from home. Shit.

"Michelle, I have to go! My parents are calling me," I called over the music. Her eyes widened, and she nodded her head, grabbing her jacket and her keys off of the table. The fun was over.

We both dashed out of the front door to Michelle's car. "Ugh, I can't believe they knew I wasn't there! The one time I sneak out, they decide to check my room?" I said, having listened to the voicemail of my mom scolding me for sneaking out. "They literally never would have known," I muttered, sinking farther into the passenger seat of Michelle's beat-up white Toyota Corolla.

It took about twenty minutes to get home from Jim Barret's house, and I sat in the car for an extra ten, trying to muster up the courage to go inside and face my parents and their punishment.

"What's the worst they're going to do, Brina? Kill you?" Michelle snorted, and I rolled my eyes.

"No. The worst they're going to do is ground me for life," I sighed, unbuckling my seatbelt. I unlocked the door to get out and bent down to look at Michelle one last time while I held the door open. "Wish me luck... see you tomorrow."

"If your parents don't kill you first." She joked. I rolled my eyes and slammed the door shut, groaning as I walked up the three steps to the porch.

I pulled out my house key to unlock the door, but the front door was already cracked open an inch. I furrowed my eyebrows as I pushed the door open further, feeling uneasy. My parents never left the door unlocked, as my mother was paranoid about the possibility of anyone and anything entering the house unwarranted.

I took a step inside, my right hand closing the door behind me, my left hand flipping on the light switch. Nothing turned on.

I locked the door, eyes still looking over the living room. "Mom? Dad?" I called as I slowly walked to the staircase. "Sorry I was out so late, I know I shouldn't have snuck out, but you know Shell and her crazy ideas..."I trailed off, looking around the darkroom. I couldn't see anything but the outlines of the furniture. I pulled my boots off, leaving only my socks on in case they had fallen back asleep. I headed up the stairs to my parent's bedroom, taking a quick peek inside to see if they had gone back to sleep. Their bed was messy and slept in, and the covers pulled all over the mattress. Definitely weren't sleeping.

"Mom?" I called again, this time, my heart picking up in speed, my hands became sweaty, and it soon became a struggle to swallow as I looked in each bedroom, all empty.

"Hello?" I yelled, my voice wavering as I fumbled with all of the light switches to try and see my way around the familiar house.

Once I realized the power must be out, I went back downstairs to the kitchen, where we had a drawer full of batteries and flashlights. I quickly grabbed one and switched it on, running the light around the walls in front of me. I called again, "Hello! Is anyone here?"

The flashlight trembled in my hand as I ambled towards the living area. The couch faced away from me and towards the adjacent wall, where the TV hung. When I moved the light over the couch, I caught a glimpse of blonde hair lying across the couch cushion.

"Sam?" I whispered, calling to my sister. "Sam, are you asleep?"

When she didn't answer, I walked further into the living room, my eyes landing on her figure lying across the couch, asleep. Before I could lean down to wake her, I felt my socks become wet, and my feet became cold with liquid. I flashed the light down to my foot to see a puddle of red I had stepped into.

"What the-" I moved the light a little further on the ground and saw exactly where the blood was spouting from—my parents.

I screamed so loud, and for so long that I felt my throat had become non-existent. I scrambled to the floor, grabbing my mom by the shoulders, trying to shake her awake.

"Mom!" I cried, reaching back over to my dad to do the same. "Dad!"

When I couldn't wake them up, my eyes immediately landed on my sister; her body hadn't moved an inch since I spotted her.

"Sam, no," I moaned, stepping through the blood on the floor, my bloody hands grabbing my sister and shaking her the same way I had my parents. "Sam, wake up," I tried, my whole body going numb. "Sam!" I was screaming again. "Sam, wake up! This isn't funny!" I wiped my face with my hands, trying to clear the tears from my line of vision. "Please, Sam, I can't..." I couldn't breathe. "I can't do this... You can't leave me alone here! Wake up!" I cried and cried into my sister's shoulder as the realization sunk in that she was not, in fact, sleeping but dead.

I grabbed the house phone placed on the small corner table next to the couch, watching the blood stain the numbers 9 1 1.

I could barely get it out of my mouth, trying to tell the operator what I had found. She understood through my gibberish that someone had died and informed me the police were on the way.

The phone slid out of my fingers, and I didn't bother to pick it back up as I laid with my sister's lifeless body on the couch, tears streaming down my cheeks as I pushed her blonde strands of hair out of her face. "I'm so sorry, Sam," I whispered, a sob escaping my lips.

I didn't know how long it took the police to get there, but when they did, they found me still lying next to my dead sister, blood all over my face and hands.

"Sabrina Woods?" A voice gently touched my shoulder, and I couldn't move. My eyes stared blankly at my sister's face. She had eighteen freckles on her nose, I had determined. Her eyelashes that I had always been so jealous of reach to the tips of her cheekbones, and I kept wishing she would lift them to let me see her beautiful blue eyes, just one more time.

"Sabrina, honey, I need you to come with me," the same voice said. I made no gesture to move; my body was frozen cold, slowly going numb. "She's in shock." I heard him say.

I felt my body lifted away from my sister, and the tears pricked my eyes once again, flooding and billowing down my cheeks.

-

"Annabelle Leah Woods, female, age forty-three, height five foot five, hair color blonde. Status: deceased. Samantha Riley Woods, female, age twenty, height five foot eight, hair color blonde. Status: deceased. Sabrina Anne Woods, female, age seventeen, height five foot seven, hair color red," the medic spoke into his recorder. "Status: living." I looked at him with dead eyes; my heart was hammering against my chest.

"You sure about that?" My voice barely a whisper as I spoke.

He visibly gulped and continued to document the rest of my family. "Riker Marnie Woods, male, age forty-five, height six foot one, hair color brown. Status," he quickly glanced at me and muttered, "deceased."

The medic walked away, pity in his eyes as he stared down at the gravel. This is when the questions came, as well as the FBI.