A tragedy? Or is it?

Feelings

     I woke up early the next morning. It was a Saturday so we could just go to the library without having to worry about school. The hardest part would be getting my parents to let me go alone.

    I walked down the stairs and I am greeted by the sight of booth of them in the kitchen getting ready to make some breakfast. I then put on a fake smile and walk up to them, hopefully if I put them in a good mood, they will let me go out alone. For my whole life they never let me go out alone. They were always paranode that something might happen to me.

   "Hi mom! Hi dad!" I shout in an upbeat and happy tone. I didn't tell them about Mr. Smith yesterday if I did, they would never let me leave alone.

   My dad then looks over at me and his face turns into an uneasy smile "Hi sweetie, are you doing good this morning." the way he says this is as if he is hiding something. I will have to be really careful when asking them or else I will be doomed to stay home. If I stay home, I will never find what is going on, and more innocents are liable to get hurt. I can't mess this up.

  "Ya I'm doing great! How are you and mom doing!"

"Where doing great sweetie we are just worried and tired from last night" my mom says while standing next to my dad. Her face is filled with tiredness suggesting that she was awake a lot of last night. What could be going on?

   "Is something wrong? You two look tired?"

   "Honey why didn't you tell us what happened with your teacher yesterday?" my mom says staring directly at my eyes. The look in her eyes showed concern and worry.

  My face immediately stiffened in alarm and my eyes went wide in surprise. They know. My plan is going to be stopped dead in its tracks. There is no way they will let me go now. This incident will push them over the edge. They may never let me leave the house again since they know there is a murder in town.

   "When did you-" I say trying to force the words out of my mouth, but I couldn't finish before my dad cut me off.

   "When we got home, we watched the news and we saw it. We are scared stiff, when you went to sleep, we keep checking on you to make sure you where there every few minutes to make sure you were still in bed."

"Honey why didn't you tell us we have to know these things." my mom says. The way my mom says this shows hurt and confusion and I can see it on my dad face as well. Finding out this must have almost killed them. They barely survived the stress my eight-year-old birthday party put them through. If I died, then I don't know how they would have survived the grief. I shivered as I thought of this. Just imagining the sleepless nights wondering what happened to me and them having to wake up in the morning without there little girls smile. It would have killed them.

  "I just didn't want you to worry." I say with a little bit of guilt in my voice. I was telling them the truth when I said this. The last thing I want them to do is to worry. I remember all the nights since the incident. For the first year since the incident my parents never left me alone. There was always a hand to hold in the stores while shopping for groceries. Always worried voices telling me I am running to fast. They even didn't leave me alone while I was sleeping. One of them would always sit in a chair next to my bed to keep a 24-hour guard on me. When one of them got to tired they would switch, and the other parent would watch me. I was 12 when I finally talk them into letting me sleep alone.

"Sweetie don't worry about us it is our job to worry about you." my dad says while he puts his arm around my shoulder.

My dad pauses a bit before he starts to cry, and he says, "You're our baby and we just don't want to fail you again." my dad is sitting down next to me with his hands covering his face.

"When that day happened, we felt as if we failed you as parents. We let something happen to you when we should have been watching you. Parents are supposed to protect their kids from the dangers of the world. You just looked so happy with your little pig tails and yellow dress enjoying your party! We couldn't have felt happier. Then that MONSTER! That ANIMAL!" my dad shouts as he says the last words of his sentience. Being barely unable to contain his rage at the mention of the person who dared to try to hurt his little girl.

"That animal showed up and we were shocked to our core. We wanted to protect you and to never let you out of our site. But you keep growing and you kept wanting more freedom. We were slow to adjust to your growing up, but we slowly started to give you more freedom no matter how much it hurt to let go. But no matter how much you grow we will never stop worrying about you. We may be way more overprotective than other parents, but I will go to my grave saying I never regretted doing that. You are my life as well as your mother's and we will never let anyone hurt you again. I will go to my grave protecting you and so will your mother. We will never regret that."

  Hearing my father's care and concern affected me to my core. The care and worry my parents shown for me all this time really sank in. And at this moment I couldn't take the emotion anymore I fell to the floor in tears.

  My parents put their hands around me. They were sitting next to me whispering caring and calming words into my ears. I felt as I was 4 again and I just feel down, and mommy and daddy were trying to comfort me.

  "We love you Cass! We will always protect you!" my mother shouts in an emotional voice.

  "You will always be our baby until the day you die! Even though you are eighteen I can still remember the day you were born, and I held you in my arms! It was one of the best days of my life!" my father shouts in an equally emotional voice.

   "I'm scarred mom! I just feel so scarred! I never stopped being scarred since then!"

  "Baby you have nothing to be scarred of! We are here for you!" my mom shouts.

 In that moment the library could wait. HE could wait. All that mattered right now was this moment. And for the next half hour I felt nothing but the pure love of my family.

The feels! This chapter was one of the most fun to write. One of my favorite feelings in fanfiction is the warmth of these family moments and this is what I wanted to express in this chapter. I am having an absolute blast writing this. I couldn't thank you all enough for the support you have been giving me. All I want to do is put out the best stories I possibly can. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you return soon. The rewrite for chapter one is coming soon! I can't say exactly when it will be out, but I will try for the weekend.