Mania

Chapter 4

Before

     "Claire! Wake up!" Rose whimpers and it tears me from my sleep. I rip my earbuds out of my ears and I try to rub the sleepiness away. This was a normal occurrence. Rose usually woke me up because she was too scared to sleep in her own room and it's gotten worse since Mom died.
     "What's wrong?" I ask and stop Beethoven playing on my MP3. It's amazing how long they go without being plugged in.
     "I can't find Daddy," She whispers and hugs her doll to her chest. Being fully awake, I jump out of bed and I command Rose to stay in my room and hide in my closet.
     Not even sparing the time to put on a bra, I jog down the stairs with the wood creaking underneath my weight and I go into our kitchen. Nothing looked out of the ordinary in our small kitchen with our burgundy walls but I notice the door to our garage was slightly open. With my heart in my throat, I reach on to the kitchen table and grab a small handgun.
     The table used to be for our family but now all it does now is hold our guns.
      I go into our dark garage and I disengage the safety in the gun. I used to hunt with my father so I'm used to being around guns but it's the killing people part isn't what I'm used to. I sniff around and I take in a whiff of gas. I gag almost instantly at the scent of blood- I have a very weak stomach. My fingers begin to shake and the gun wobbles in my hand. My thigh bumps against the cold metal of our useless car and my hands brush into something warm and sticky. Blood.
     This time, I actually do throw up.
     I recollect myself and I stumble to the other side of our car and I step in more blood. I whimper as my feet touch a head and I kneel on the ground next to him. My hands move along his face as if it was a map and the landscapes was a scruffy beard that mom despises and glasses.
     "Daddy," I sob as if I was a child and I cradle his head next to my chest. He was shot in the head but his body was still warm to the touch. "Dad, wake up." I croak and my body is thrown through a wave of tears. "I-I need you. You can't leave me to do this by myself!" I weep. I take off his wedding ring and I slip it into my pocket and I begin to stand up. The door behind me slams shut so I race to it and I find it locked. But that's not the worst thing to happen.
     Our town's sirens go off.

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     I'm a living hyperbole.
     In the summer of my first grade, I was tested positive for ADHD so my parents put me in a karate class to release some energy and I guess it worked out well. I'm a level two black belt and I can break a cinder block with my hand. It's pretty impressive for a girl who can barely clear five feet.
      Then, during that very same year but it was in the winter, I sat down in front of our old piano and I tinkered around on different keys. It was as if the piano latched itself on to my chubby six year old fingers from that moment on. Later that month, Mom scheduled lessons with a broke college student and the it piled on after that.       
     I'm a pianist with ADHD that does karate. You can almost taste the irony.
     Now my many years of karate, I hope to break down our flimsy door just by kicking it. I position myself and I take a deep breath. I leap into the air and I whip my leg out and my foot strikes the door. The door doesn't budge but I think I broke my heel. I try again and I get the same results. I nearly scream out of frustration but I still manage to get a hold of myself.
     I prep myself and I jump one more time. With a big hi-yah my foot hits the door near its handle. It bursts open and I waste no time to get back into my house.
     "Rose!" I call out as I race up the stairs. Without any notice, a sonic boom rocks me off of my feet and I tumble down our stairs. A split second later, an almost blinding light floods through our house and our windows shatter. We're being bombed. But why us? When the Mania usually bombs, it's usually one of the bigger cities like New York not a random town in Montana.
     Aside from the ringing, a voice sticks out loud and clear. "Claire!" Rose screams and I force myself to stand.
     Boom.
     Another explosion rocks through the house. I reach my room with fury and rage tearing me apart.
     Boom.
     The third bomb.
     My eyes scan around my room and I don't see Rose. They took her away from me. I smell something smokey and I look down our hallway.
     Now they're setting my house on fire.
     Boom.
     I grab a bag and I stuff whatever I can in it that was in my room; a few socks, tampons, a thin blanket, Rose's doll, a piano book, and Dad's favorite book that was sitting on my table.
     Ba-boom.
     I don't know if that was a bomb or my heart beating in my chest.
     I go to my window as the flames reach my room and push it open. I take one last look at my house that was being swallowed by flames and I jump.

_______________________________________________________You should like this one! I put this before homework!