Blood in the water

Flashback

"Oh my god, Everett!" gasped Sabrina. She found Everett leaning against the sink, his arm covered in blood. She rushed to him before noticing the pocket knife laying at the basin of the sink.

Everett had seen this reaction of shock once before, when he was in middle school. He had just gotten home from school. He heard his mom on the phone yelling at his dad. He quickly turned to go upstairs to his room to get away from it.

"Everett! Get down here!" his mom yelled.

He stopped dead in his tracks and grudgingly came back down.

"Your dad can't take you this weekend."

"What? Why?" Everett demanded

"I need you to work around the house while i'm gone."

This made Everett's blood boil. He couldn't say anything in fear of being yelled at or worse hit.

"When are you leaving?" Everett asked obediently

"In half an hour, and I want this place spotless by the time I get back." She demanded

"Yes ma'am."

Everett went back up to his room and hid until his mom left. He felt alone. He had no one besides his dad. Everett needed to leave the house. He looked around and grabbed his hoodie and left. He headed to the creek path behind a neighborhood close by and sat on the opposite bank.

"Why does she keep me around? I might as well be dead to her." Everett thought to himself. He reached into his hoodie and grabbed a pocket knife from an inside pocket.Everett lifted up his left sleeve and sliced his lower arm. He felt the blood rush down his arm as the edge of the blade cut into his flesh. He did this three times before he heard the crunch of leaves behind him and a gasp.

He tried to hide what he was doing but it was too late. He looked to see two girls standing a few feet away from him. One had brown hair and a bomber jacket and the other had curly red hair and a red flannel. The brown haired girl edged forward. Everett pointed his knife at her in fear."It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm Sabrina." she said.Everett's eyes darted from Sabrina to the red headed girl. "Who are you?" Everett asked her.

"My name is Anna." She said back in a shaky voice. Everett's eyes darted back and forth for any sign of hostility from Sabrina and Anna. He dropped the knife.

"Let's get you cleaned up." Anna said. Everett nodded and walked toward them.

"What's your name?" asked Sabrina.

"Everett, Everett Ryder. I've seen you at school."

The three of them walked to Sabrina's house to clean Everett's arm. Along the way, Sabrina and Anna started talking to him. It was the first time anyone had been interested in Everett's life.

Sabrina grabbed the knife out of the basin of the sink and began to wash away the blood from Everett's arm. "I'm sorry, Sabrina." Everrett said

"For what?" asked Sabrina

"For this. I promised I would never hurt myself again. Things spiraled out of control after my dad was murdered, my mom leaves the house, and there hasn't been any word on what the hell happened."

Sabrina scrambled through the medicine cabinet for the first aid kit. She quickly pulled out some bandages as well as neosporin. "I'm not mad E. I told you I would be here for you no matter what." Sabrina hung around to keep Everett company. He didn't object, he didn't want to be alone. They decided to go for a walk. They ended up walking for an hour exploring the neighborhood as well as going to the creek. Pretty soon the temperature dropped so they decided to head home and make cocoa. Before they knew it they were home.

Everett grabbed the mail as they entered the house. An envelope caught his eye, It was from the coroner's office. "Finally" Everett exclaimed. He opened the envelope and read the report. It showed evidence of trauma by a blunt object in the back of the head. "Oh my god." Sabrina gasped. Everett thought about his father getting struck in the back of the skull and left in an alley. "I think I know who did it." Everett said. He looked up at Sabrina. Seeing confusion in her eyes, Everett looked towards his mothers room. Sabrina stood there puzzled. Everett ran to his mother's bedroom and dug around her closet and found the baseball bat and the trash bag.

Sabrina walked in after him. "Everett what the hell?" Everett started to dig in the trash bag. To his bewilderment he saw clothes: bloody clothes.

"Sabrina, look!" Everett said as he pulled her down to see what he was looking at.

"Oh my god" Sabrina gasped as she connected the dots.

Everett pulled out his phone and called the sheriff's office. 20 minutes later, Sheriff Baker and his team arrived to look at the evidence.

"Well it looks like this gives us a lead on this case... A rather twisted case I'll admit." Sheriff Baker said with a grimace.

"Where's your mom, Everett?"

"She went out of town."

"Any idea where?" Baker asked.

"Lakewood, I think."

"What kind of car does she drive?"

"Brown subaru."

Sheriff Baker pulled out a pen and paper and wrote something down. "I'll call Lakewood's police department to see if they can help out. In the mean time, If you need anything give me a call. Sheriff Baker and his team wrapped up soon after and left the house.It didn't take long before Everett's mother was taken into custody and escorted to the police station.