Zach

Chapter One

This house used to be full of happy, living people. Now there is only me.

It all started at the age of six. That was the last time I felt anything. I remember it vividly. My father was building a wind chime for my mother (it was their anniversary) while Cody, my best friend, and I rolled a ball back and forth across the driveway. My dad was hard at work because my mother had always wanted a homemade wind chime, but could never afford one. He was so deep into his work that he didn't see our ball go down the steep driveway after Cody didn’t roll it far enough and it crossed the road.

Cody decided to go get it from across the street, full of bravery. Neither of us knew what would happen. We could easily predict though, the road was never too busy, only the people who lived in the neighborhood and their guests ever came through.

He didn't even look, he just ran. He leapt from the sidewalk to the pavement just as he had the ball in arms reach, a white truck came rolling by. It was too fast and he didn't see it. All I remember was his face, scrunched in fear, screaming when the vehicle made contact with all of him slowly, as if in a movie where the hero carries the girl away in slow motion, only though it was no hero and there was no girl. The tires made loud crunching noises and blood stuck to the now not so white truck. The driver didn't even stop. He just rolled over his body and left.

I saw him laying there, right next to the ball he never reached, blood and broken bones covered the black tar. I felt nothing. Heard nothing. Was nothing. I couldn't even breathe. I just watched Cody, in the middle of the street. His blonde hair waving in the wind while his blue eyes frantically looked for help. There was no one. His family wasn’t home and my dad had just called 911. His green striped shirt and blue shorts were drenched in blood. That was the end of my best friend. That was the last time I would ever feel...