Trust No One

Part One: The Bad Things

Lilli Halloway

"Lilli?! Come on this isn't funny! We need to get back!" My older brother, Rhemy, called.

I had gotten bored while Rhemy was searching for supplies and went off to explore the town. There was still plenty of daylight left and we had no where to "get back" to, so I didn't really understand what his hurry was.

"Rhemy, I don't know what you are talking about." I called back as I leaned out one of the many third floor windows in this building and looked down at my brother, who was standing on the street outside with his arms crossed looking very unhappy.

"We have what we need! Let's just go!" He complained. Rhemy didn't like to do anything that might be dangerous. He was always a stickler for the safe way in life. He never did anything spontaneous, and that always bothered me.

"Oh, come on Rhemy! This is cool! I can see so much, and I'm only on the third floor!" I said enthusiastically. My brother and I were polar opposites. I loved climbing and exploring and goofing off, but Rhemy always wanted to stay in the little two room apartment that we found when all this craziness started four years ago.

"I'm going to leave you here!" He warned uncrossing his arms and pointing up at me. "I mean it this time!"

"Yeah, sure you do!" I walked away from the window and looked around the room some more.

I had found myself in an office building, possibly a law firm. There were many desks and chairs in the large room. Many chairs were flipped over as if their owner had gotten up in a panic and never came back. The desks were in a similar state. Drawers left open, coffee cups knocked over, there were even a few picture frames left on some of the desks.

The photos made me smile in a sad way. Many of them showed moms and dads hugging and smiling with their beautiful children. Some was just the spouse or just the kids. There was so many pictures of nice, happy people, and it made me sad because Rhemy and I had that once.

We were a very happy family. It was our parents and us two kids. Rhemy had just graduated high school, and I was just about to start seventh grade. Then the world got turned upside down.

I was at school, it was just like every other day. Then an alarm went off and school was let out. Everyone was in a panic, and I didn't understand what was going on. I got home to find Rhemy on the phone crying. He refused to tell me what was wrong, and he wouldn't let me go upstairs. I found out later that day that my parents had been killed.

I sighed sadly and began laying the pictures down. Moments later Rhemy came into the room looking angrier than ever.

"Come on Lilli! It's getting dark and you know it's not safe at night." Rhemy took my arm and began to lead me out of the building.

After about five steps I pulled my arm away. "I can walk by myself!" 

Rhemy nodded sarcastically. "Then come on!" 

We walked the rest of the way down to the street in silence. Once we were outside and on our way home Rhemy relaxed.

"So did you find anything interesting in there?" He asked with a smile. Rhemy was a good guy, he could be a little over protective at times, but that's what brothers are supposed to do.

"No, just a bunch of overturned furniture and some pictures of happy families."

Rhemy put his arm around my shoulder and smiled. "You seem upset."

"They reminded me a little of our parents. Happy, smiling, enjoying the time with their kids."

Rhemy was quiet for a while. He normally only got this way when he was thinking about something really important. He stayed quiet and I didn't want to speak so, we continued walking in the cool silence of the falling evening.