Nowhere Left To Run

Chapter One

I stare at the ceiling. I can't sleep. I roll over a few times to get comfortable, but it doesn't work. I close my eyes, but I still here the distracting noises of the night. Crickets, wind blowing branches against the window, and the thunder of the small storm. I open my eyes and decide its going to be a while before I actually sleep.

I turn to look at my clock. It's 1:27am. I sit up. Now I'm staring at the wall. I look into the hallway lit up by candles in case the electricity goes off. I stare into the hallway until I hear a small creaking noise. A door? Maybe Mom or Dad is going to the bathroom. Maybe Paige is going downstairs to get a midnight snack.

Think to yourself Meredith, don't be paranoid. It's just Paige, Mom, Dad, or Wyatt. You're okay.

I decide to get up because I just want to check to see if my paranoia is correct this time. I walk into my twin brother Wyatt's room to see if he's in there or not. I pull the covers down off of his head. He's asleep, he's okay.

I then go into my older sister Paige's room. I pull down the covers to see she's not there. Maybe she is just laying on the other end of the bed. I remove the comforter from the entire bed to discover she is not there. I stand there, my mouth agape. She is always fast asleep at 1:30. Where could she be?

I silently walk down the staircase to see if she in the kitchen getting a snack or is watching television in the living room. I turn around the corner to find Paige tied to a chair with her mouth ducktaped shut. I can tell she is trying to scream. I want to yell her name but I don't want to wake anyone. I yell anyways.

"PAIGE!" I scream. She is mumbling from what I hear but I can't understand what she is trying to say. I run up to her and try to pull the ducktape off her mouth. I hear Wyatt running down here.

"Paige! What happened, Mer?"

"I don't know! Come help me get her out of this chair!"

Wyatt runs towards her and tries to untie her legs from the chair. Once I have the ducktape off of her mouth, I look up and see something shining above Paige's head.

"NO!!!" Wyatt screams and jumps behind Paige's chair. The shining object turned out to be a knife. I step back away slowly from Paige. The knife is lunged into her skull. It's too late. I stand there with no words. Wyatt breaks down and cries. Mom and Dad finally come running down.

"What's going-" Mom gets cut off when she sees her daughter's deceased body. She screams and runs to hug Paige's dead body. Dad starts crying and so does Mom.

I just watched my sister die. I don't know what to say. I can't shed a tear. I stand still and just stare at everyone crying and hovering over Paige's unliving body. Yet I stand away and don't say a word or let a single tear run down my face. But Paige wouldn't want me to cry over her, she'd want me to remember her from the best moments, not the worst. Yet I stare at her body and don't move.

After standing for nearly 5 minutes, a few words finally fall out my mouth.

"Paige.... I love you...."