Heartless People

NINE

Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

LAUREN

By the time we got to the school, it was absolute chaos. Ambulances, police, reporters, sobbing parents swarmed around the gates of the Pennington Academy. The car didn't even get a chance to stop before I rushed out the door.

Pushing my way past the other parents around me, I made my way up to the yellow police tape where three officers were standing guard.

"Oh my God!" A middle-aged woman screamed no more than a foot from my ears. Following her eyes, I watched as tiny body after tiny body was hastily pushed into ambulances, blood coating their small jackets, their hands but that sight was better than the ones who were covered up.

Nine.

Nine dead.

Looking away, I moved up to the gates toward a fresh-faced officer who stood head up, chin out, solemn, and serious. The moment his brown eyes met mine, he put his hands out as if he could really stop me with only a pair of hands.

"Ma'am, you need to stand back until—"

"Move." My voice was low but hard, ready to add to the death count if need be. Every second I was out there was a second I was away from my children. My heart pounded painfully against my chest just at the thought of it.

"Ma'am, until—"

"Let her through." It was none other than Chief Defective Beau Brooks, aka Camila's favorite police dog.

"But ma'am?" The baby officer faced him, forcing a glare from the dog. No other words were needed for him to step aside.

Waiting for no one, I moved through the side door with Brooks two steps behind me. The first thing I noticed when I stepped into the hall lined with deep blue short lockers was the lunchboxes, dozens of them all across the tile floor.

Sandwiches all smashed from tiny footprints, a half-eaten apple tucked into the corner. All the doors to the classrooms were closed, and the glass panels that
allowed you to look in were covered with some sort of gray sheet.

"Mrs. Jauregui?"

"Where are my kids?" I asked him, unable to rip my eyes away.

"The principal separated them from the rest of the kids when they were brought back in. They are waiting in the office with guards and two of my
officers. They were in the yard when the shots started. Im sure they watched few of their friends go down. We haven't caught the sniper yet." He talked as we walked up the stairs; I would have run but I needed a second to compose myself before I saw them. The rage flooding my veins made my hands twitch. Wherever my kids were was off limits. Whoever had done this I wouldn't just kill, Id fucking skin them alive. This is it.

I stared at the door, taking a deep breath before he opened it for me.

"Momma!" A ball of black hair brushed my legs, wrapping her hands around my ankles.

"Elisa!"I said with the same excitement, reaching down to pick her up and throwing her into the air before hugging her to my chest. Like a monkey, she
wrapped her arms and legs around me, burying her face into my neck as I brushed the back of her hair. She sniffled and I swallowed, trying to ignore the warm tears dripping onto me. "Its okay princess."

Lucas and Ethan stood on opposite sides of the office, Lucas by the window and Ethan by the bookshelf, neither of them even looking at each other. The one thing about Lucas was that he clearly wore his anger on his face. He was so angry his tiny hand was balled into a fist and his face was red. Ethan, on the other hand, ignored him and came up to me.