"But I don't get it." Leala put her hair into a ponytail. "How could a male African American teenager with no weapons be a threat to a police officer who's armed?"
----
Harmony's older brother was found dead, and the cop who killed him wasn't charge...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
⚜
"Can you go any faster, Calvin," Mom yelled at Dad for the thousandth time.
"I would if I didn't have your bossy ass breathing down my neck." Dad hammered the nail into the wall.
Ever since I told them what the note said about me, Mom has been going into overprotective mode. She forced Dad to go to the store and buy small wooden bars to put over all of our windows and installed three more locks to the front and back door. I'm not sure where she came up with all this money, but she sure was using the hell out of it.
Mom gasped. "Oh my God. What if the guys who murdered Calo are tracking your phone?" She reached for my phone, but I dodged it.
"Chill out, Ma." I put my phone in my back pocket. "The killers probably already know where I live just like all the other people who are angry about the protests." Just the mention of Calo made my heart clench. I quickly tucked my feelings away so my parents wouldn't see me vulnerable during a stressful time like this. One of us has got to be the strong one here.
"We need to move then." Mom began bitting her nails while pacing the small living room.
"Um. . . how about no."
"Honey, I'm 100 percent supporting you, but I don't like you having your life threatened. If these killers know where you live, they can easily break in and kill you as you sleep regardless of how many wooden bars we have over the windows and the number of locks on the front door."
"How are we gonna get the money to move?" Dad hammered the final nail.
Mom shrugged then snapped once she got an idea. "My sister, Natalie has three extra rooms since her triplets went to college. I could ask her if we could stay for a while."
"And how would that make me look? Going here to protest in the morning, then fleeing to the suburbs at night. I'd be looked at as pathetic or scared, and I'm neither of those." Okay, maybe I'm a little scared, but that didn't matter right now.
"Harmony's right, Babe," Dad agreed. "If you want, you can go to Natalie's house and I'll stay here with Harmony until it's all over."
Mom sighed. "I guess I'll stay with my—"
Dad stood up. "What's that smell?"
I sniffed. "Smells like something burning. . ." I quickly scanned the living room. "Fire!"
"Where's the extinguisher?" Mom rushed to open all of the cabinets.
"The smoke is starting to get into my lungs." I covered my mouth with my hoodie.
Why did we barricade the house? I knew this was a bad idea. In order for us to get out of here, we have to take down all the barricades on the front door and unlock all five locks. How the hell are we gonna do all that shit before we burn to death?
"Mom! It would be nice to use the extinguisher today please!" I ran to help Dad pry the wood off of the door.
"I can't find it through all this junk!" Mom got on the other side of me and pulled the wooden bar.
I guess whoever wrote that note wasn't wasting any time. We might end up having to live with Auntie Nat for some time after this.
I looked behind me and the fire was quickly making its way towards us. With one last pull we got the wood off and Dad's shaky fingers unlocked the locks on the front door and we all ran out while gasping for air. I pulled out my phone to call 911 when I heard a gunshot.
I looked to my left and seen Dad on the ground. "Run," he whispered. He motioned with his index and middle fingers a zig-zag motion.
I nodded my head and began running in a zig-zags. I heard loud gunshots that rang in my ears and the haunting sound of a gun cocking. I was certain those two sounds would traumatize me until the day I died; hopefully, it won't be today.
I was almost to the corner of the house when I bullet went into my thigh. "Ow." I fell to the ground, injuring my head and my back. I could feel the bullet navigating through my body. I knew better than to move around because then they'll shoot me again.
After one last gun shot, I heard my mom scream and followed by a thump. I thought the note said they were just coming after me. Why the fuck did they come after my entire family? To make it hurt more? So they can see all of us suffer?
The last thing I remember about that day was hearing the loud sirens of an ambulance.
