Never the Same

Chapter 1: The beginning

He stood there, staring straight ahead.

There stood his wife, daughter, and youngest son, gone for years now, but standing right there before him.

He didn't know what to do, what to say, how to even react. How was this happening? He spent many nights with dreams about them before, but none of them came close to this level of reality.

The past years' grief and torment came back in waves as he had to face the trauma yet again, he flashed back to the night of their deaths.

***Flashback***

They had just gotten home after one of Michael's weekly baseball games. William was always the one to go and watch them, he loved seeing his son having fun and he also enjoyed baseball, but also due to his wife taking care of his daughter Elizabeth, and youngest son.

As they pulled up in the driveway, he noticed something was wrong, very wrong. The door to the house was wide open and the glass on the door was broken. "Michael, I need you to go next door and tell them to call the police. Can you do that for me, bud?" His father asked, trying to be as calm as possible. Michael did as he was told and ran over to the neighbors house.

He approached the house slowly, "Honey? Elizabeth?" he called out into the open doorway. He stepped in, the glass crunching beneath his shoes. As he maneuvered his way into the dark hallway and toward the light switch, he felt something slick under his foot, almost causing him to slip. He flipped the switch and the scene that appeared before him was akin to a horror movie.

His wife was leaned up against the door, holding onto his youngest son, his daughter Elizabeth lying slumped on the floor at the other end of the hallway. He ran over and knelt down beside her, "LAURA!! What happened, oh my god... There's so much blood. Laura?! Laura! Please wake up! Please...wake up.", he yelled out, desperate for a response.
As he began to cry, he heard a whisper from his wife. "I'm so sorry Will... I couldn't protect them". A tear rolled down her face. "I love you...tell Michael I'm sorry." Will sat there holding his wife's blood soaked hand, was it her's, or his son's who lay silent cradled in her arms? These thoughts filled his head, but he needed to hold it together, for his wife, for himself, and for Michael. "It's ok honey.." he choked back a sob, "You did what you could do, I'm sorry for not getting home sooner." He was talking, but no one was listening, she was already gone.

He looked over to his only daughter, down on the ground. He could see she was missing her eyes, she was gone. Whoever did this, did this out of hatred, no reason other than to cause others grief and pain. That's all Will wanted to do to the person who did this to his family. His head filled with thoughts of seething anger and hate, coupled with sadness and fear.
He yelled, emptying his lungs, all his pain and agony coming out in one big painful sound. He didn't want to get up, he wanted to sit and cry his eyes out, but he had to be strong for Michael, he was all that Will had left, and he didn't want Michael's last image of his Mother and Siblings to be this, so he stood up, even with all the grief holding him down he pushed through and got up.

As he was walking up to the door he heard a familiar voice, "Dad? Dad, are you ok? Where's mom?", said Michael standing in the doorway. "Ms. Lucy called the police and told me to stay but I wanted to see what was happening." Michael said.
"It's all ok, just a little break in, nothing too serious" He said with a painful smile holding back tears, "let's go back over to the neighbors and wait until the police get here. That sound good, bud?". They walked over to Ms. Lucy's to wait for the police to arrive, when they got the door she noticed the blood on his hands and the dark stains on his jeans, because of his expression she began to put two and two together, "Hey Michael, wanna go play some video games, I just got the newest console. Come follow me." She said, Michael following close behind.