The Moons

Chapter 1: Pre-Murder

*January 3, 2031* *11:46 AM*

The heart monitor's flatline sound echoed throughout the hospital room as six-year-old Sawyer Moon lay on the hospital bed unresponsive as a doctor removed the oxygen mask from the child's face. The sound of the flatline finally ended after the doctor unplugged the wires attached to the child's body. Sobs and sniffles can be heard from a slight distance as Sawyer's mother, Elizabeth Moon, and stepfather, Henry Hunt, cry in disbelief and with a broken heart.

*1 Month Earlier*

Sitting on a bean bag chair in front of the television, Sawyer watched his favorite children's show. His mother, Beth, sat on the other side of the living room in front of a table, planning the annual Christmas Reunion Party, where most of the Moon family and close friends gather and celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day. Sawyer's nine-year-old sister, Ella, sat on the couch behind her brother, solving her homework. While doing so, Ella got stuck on the last question of her work; the sounds of her brother's children's show got louder and too distracting, causing her to lose focus many times. Ella attempted to re-read the question and get a better understanding multiple times, but her focus was lost every time. This caused Ella to build the courage to gently ask her brother, who suffered from PTSD, to at least lower the volume for a short while.

"Sawyer" Ella says

"Yeah?" Sawyer responds as he turned his head towards Ella's direction

"Can you lower the volume please? I can't focus" Ella says

Shortly after asking her brother, Ella shifted her attention to her homework while Sawyer sat silently in his bean bag chair. The six-year-old then slowly turned his head back towards the television; he sat silently and stared at the screen for a moment before picking up the remote; he felt angry with himself that he was an inconvenience to his sister. Instead of lowering the volume, Sawyer switched off the television, which was a strange behavior but not a new one. When Ella realized her brother's actions, she became worried he was responding negatively and attempted to quickly finish her work. After sitting in silence, Sawyer stood up and slowly walked towards his sister with his head held low. After reaching the couch, Sawyer sat down next to his sister, leaned in, rested his head on his sister's right shoulder, and wrapped his arms around his sister.

"I'm Sorry" Sawyer says

"It's OK. You didn't have to close it, I just wanted to focus on the last question and the voices were bothering me a little bit. Look, I'm almost done" Ella says as she wraps her arm around her brother

"Sorry" Sawyer says

"OK, Sawyer, we talked about this before...You don't have to say sorry all the time" Ella says as she placed her pencil on the table and held Sawyer's shoulder

"Sor...OK" Sawyer says

"Mom?" Ella says to her mother, trying to get her attention to convince Sawyer to stop apologizing

"Ella, he's just trying to be nice...but seriously, Sawyer, you don't have to say sorry for everything" Beth says

Sawyer had been watching his show for hours, so much so that he forgot that his mother was around; now that he heard her voice, he couldn't take his eyes off her. When the room turned silent as Ella returned to her homework and Beth continued planning the reunion, Sawyer sat in his place, looking at his mother, while an urge was being built inside him; that urge was needing his mother's love. Sawyer wanted to be hugged by his mother, kissed by his mother, his hair to be ruffled by his mother, and have a pep talk. He just wanted his mother. After some time, Sawyer stood up and slowly walked toward his mother. After reaching the table, Sawyer attempted to squeeze himself in and sit on his mother's lap. Beth noticed her son's attempt and granted him access to sit on her lap. Once the child was seated, Beth wrapped her arm around her son's waist and kissed his head while not removing her eyes from the laptop screen.